Dream Summer Blog 2006 - O2 Wireless Festival

United Kingdom | by Anna Hyams | 21 June 2006

Day 1 (Wednesday)
Today we saw the likes of Dirty Pretty Things, The Raconteurs, Belle & Sebastian, Cazals (a bit), Super Furry Animals (who were absolutely great ? they had a giant leaping dog on screen for 'Golden Retriever') and The Strokes. As well as all that running around to see bands, we spent money on funny jewellery (beads and the like) and got a free t-shirt from the myspace people too! Oh, and serious thanks to Chris from VF for spending ages walking around to find us because we were losers and couldn?t find out where we were meant to be!

Day 2 (Thursday)
Had such a good day today, the weather was awesome, and we got ourselves some wristbands for the O2 blueroom ? officially the best idea for a festival chillout zone ever. They had nice toilets and really comfy beanbags - yay! Band-wise, we saw Violent Femmes (not really our thing but hey), Ray Lamontagne (who appears to be very emotionally involved with his music ? very good), THE FUN LOVIN CRIMINALS, who were just soooooooooooo good! I fancy Huey anyway, but he was looking particularly fetching in a slick white suit ? and their little God Save The Queen intro made everyone laugh too. They were pitch perfect, they played some absolute classics, including the inevitable 'Scooby Snacks', and we got the sound guy to give me their set list paper afterwards! We saw David Gray later on, who was good but very sweaty.

Day 3 (Friday)
The weather is still absolutely blazing, perfect festival day! Today we saw, Gnarls Barkley (weird), Pharell (Not our music taste at all, but Killa Kela did a cameo and he?s a very talented beatboxer). We also saw one of the greatest stage shows I have ever experienced (its up there with the likes of Alice Cooper and Iron Maiden, for gimmicks) and that was The Flaming Lips! The guy ran on top of the crowd in a giant blow up ball, they also had aliens and a confetti gun, it was fantastic. Then we saw the truly great headliner ? Massive Attack. They were every bit as great as I had hoped, and they played (of course) my favourite track ? 'Teardrop'. We danced. (and we *do not* dance.) Really relaxing and just a magical evening.

Day 4 (Saturday)
The penultimate day of the festival! Today, we were soooo tired (as we visited Soho after the show last night), we missed a few of the early bands and started with a soulful Beth Orton, followed by my pick ? Eels. Man that guy is strange. I was a bit disappointed with the sound, but the killer tracks were played and it was really good! We stayed at the main stage right through, and watched Zero 7 and James Blunt too.

Day 5 (Sunday)
Today was REALLY FANTASTIC! Started off the day with a bit of OkGo (who are truly wonderful), followed by The Fratellis (who I didn?t think I would like, but they were actually pretty good when they started going a bit bluesy), then we mooched around the site (ate a chicken fajhita wrap ? really good even if it did cost a fiver!!!!), popped a few ?wish bubbles? in the pods at the O2 blueroom and got some CD covers made for us too! (seriously good pictures I think, haha). Then we saw Mystery Jets and Goldfrapp (a bit) whilst sitting on the comfy bed-beanbags. THEN, we went right to the front and rocked out to Danko Jones (SOOOOO GOOD), and then we went outside and met him after the show! He had an eyepatch on because he?d detatched his retina by headbanging too much ? how rock?n?roll is that?!?! Then we whirled around a bit whilst listening to Depeche Mode! What a fab way to end the festival, we had the most brilliant time! Thank you Virtual Festivals!!