V Festival - Stafford Saturday, August 20th, Weston Park, Stafford by neko: After last night at Lowlands festival (after the Prodigy show Liz took me to the drum n bass tents until 3am) I'm a little knackered, but travel is still easy enough and I catch a 30 euro flight from Amsterdam directly to Birmingham where I meet up once more with Katie and Yuki. We have a nice pub lunch and relax a little (I need it!) and then head to the festival later in the evening. We catch a train to Wolverhampton and from tehre share a cab with two mad Australians to the festival. They tell us their story. Apparently they travelled from London to Southend to meet their friends who had bought them tickets to V. Which they did. But not the Chelmsford V, but instead the Stafford one. So they spent all day travelling from Essex up to Stafford here. At the time they claim it's the worst thing that can happen to you at a festival, having tickets for the wrong one. This probably isn't true. What happened to my mate Nina the next day is worse. But more about that later ... So we chat a bit about Prodigy. "I hope they play some of their old stuff as well", says one of them. "yeah, they probably play Out of Space", I show off my knowledge. "hmm, I don't know that one, but what about 'breathe the pressure?". ah. The line up of V festival on the Prodigy day unfortunately isn't all too exciting (the other day would have looked pretty cool though - Bravery, Kaiser Chiefs, Chemical Brothers ...). But finally tonight I can have my vodka tonic. Lovely. no more driving, ha! The only bands I get to see are like 2 tracks of the Hives (not bad) and then of course Prodigy. It's crowded as hell, but we just go to the front. Really mad show, but I really enjoy it, kind of need this now. This is the setlist: encore: But for more, check out the guest review ...
Me and eddy are just walking around drinking
loads off cider as theres not a great lot off kool bands to see tday
at v -festival,we seen dizy rascal for about 5 minutes but got board
off that to many chavs in there trying to look hard lol..Before we
know it the hives are on wished i could of watched these propley,but
there was no chance off that the amount of cider i had during the
day had taken control! We both pushed our way to the front we no
difficulty,INTRO i loved this really got the hairs on the back off
my neck standing on end preferd it to the usual waaaake up....waaake
up.THEIR LAW always has been and always will be a crowd pleaser it
dont seem it was made 11 years ago wicked. WAKE THE FUCK UP JAM well
what can i say,liam should do something with this and release it,its
amazing..got a bit of a fuel my fire feel to it i
think.By
this time the crowd cant stand up everyone is falling over
everywhere near me...come on!!! HOT RIDE this new version is awsome
and by the look on keiths face hes loveing this track just like the
rest of us. BREATHE keith and maxim shouldnt need mics for this
track everybody and i mean everybody was singing this load and
proud,i couldt really hear maxim and flinty cause of the
crowd..proper. SPITFIRE this track gets stronger everytime its
dropped,seeing keith coming right up to the front barrier
pointing to his head saying im fucking nuts im fucking nuts really
maked me laugh.BACK TO SKOOL first time i heard this track i couldnt
get my head round it for some reason,but now im really starting to
like it,i smiled when i saw keith doin a little old skool dance like
he used to back in the old days...fairplay.FIRESTARTER a classic
made even harder, by now theres blood on people around me one blokes
got a really fat lip lol...i love it!!. ACTION RADOR FILL a little
actions all i need....a little actions all i need...we defentley got
a little action...im fucked by now!! WARNING strong remix got a bit
of a drum and base feel to it..its real raw dis one.CLIMBATIZE LINK
what a suprise...maxim said something about dedicating this to
someone who passed away i think...with maxim saying this made me
thinking of my friend who died i a car crash,i looked up in the sky
and hoped he was watching the gig from above,you can imagen how i
felt doin this when climbatize was being played..what a heart racing
momment.VOODOO PEOPLE glad V Festival - Chelmsford by neko: Sunday, August 21st, Hylands Park, Chelmsford I only get about three hours of sleep before having to catch some train back to London and now I am properly knackered. I guess the last couple of weeks are finally taking it's toll. About time as well. I'm home for like 3 hours and I almost don't want to leave again. But hey it's V, so off to Liverpool Street station and a 40 min train ride later we're back at V. The weather is nice and there's a couple of people around I know, so it's pretty cool. The award for worst festival experience possible has to go to my mate Nina though. She manages to drop her mobile phone into a portaloo. She gets it out again, just so can get in touch with me to meet up. Now if that isn't true friendship. Once more I watch none of the bands (it's again Athlete, Embrace and the likes) but unfortunately miss Leeroy's DJ set he had played earlier that afternoon. I catch him later at the bar over a drink though and he tells me all about his new project he's going to play live with as a guest singer in early October, so watch this space for more info. And as for Prodigy, check out the guest review ... Guest Review by Dezmond: THE PRODIGY LIVE AT V FESTIVAL CHELMSFORD 2005 Back again, at another festival. I try to go once a year, camping or not depending on the bands/situation but this time I was making sure it was a camping experience. Saturday blew over nice and quickly, despite not doing anything whatsoever and before I knew it, the big day was here. I had not seen Prodigy live at a festival for 3 years now which was at Reading in 2002 which also happened to be my first Prodigy live experience so my expectations were high as a floating cow. The Hives had just made a humourous effort to stay on stage by 'impersonating' The Prodigy... albeit very badly but soon they had left and the half hour was upon us. People started to flood the channel 4 field, I wasn't totally sure if that was because the Scissor Sisters were on or The Prodigy are still as popular as they ever were. People wondering past looking at me saying hello just because I have a prodigy t-shirt felt quite exhilirating and respectful but that just added to the anticipation. A girl and her friends were playing with these glow sticks on strings making all sorts of lovely psychadelic lights and after watching many people walk into them I decided to ask her what they were. Soon after we got on to the topic of The Prodigy, she had not heard much about them since Fat Of The Land was released and she was here to relive some old memories of her listening to Mindfields in her subbed-out mini which I thought was quite amusing and charming at the same time. The music calms down, people pay close attention and they were on, unfortunately I wasn't too close to the front, but i've been to a fair few gigs this last years that I wasn't toally bothered about being dripped on by Kieths sweating armpits this time around. The intro kicks in and the first thing I noticed was that Wake Up Call was dropped and they moved straight into Their Law. Quite dissapointing I thought at first but then soon realised that they're catering for a festival crowd which was probably a good idea after all. Again Their Law was rocking, it's such a good injection of energy for the crowd, maybe a bit too much energy as people are looking quite tired already and it's only just begun. Maxim has a word with the crowd "This is my back garden" "Gonna wake up some of my neighbours" which obviously is linked to the fact they're back home and proud to show it. "This isn't time for fuckin' food! This is food!!!" Shouts maxim at the ousiders of the crowd grabbing a quick snack during their performance. This next tune is one of my favourites as of late, it's an excellent new twist on Wake Up Call and sounded even better thanks to LH not blasting out Wake Up Call right before it. The sound was fresh and exciting, the crowd didn't really know what to expect but once those drum beats kick in everyone adored it. It's straight to the point and gets the crowd moving still. Hotride comes on but only for a brief blast, bit dissapointing from the crowd and their reaction but soon enough Breathe kicks in and the smiles are back, the strobe lights are on and the crowd go wild with excitement. It doesn't matter how many times I witness breathe live there are no words to do it justice, that strobe lightning is genious and perfect for that part of the tune. Everyone is pretty up for it now but yet quite calm after breathe finishes soon enough the spitfire noise blast out, the crowd cheer with excitement. The usual 05 edit blasts out except this time the crowd surrounding me weren't as energetic was they once were. Was it the tune? or just plain tiredness from their part, whatever they were doing I was still jumping and grooving. I was pretty sure they had made a change or two in back 2 school but maybe I was just hearing things, the tune is still rocking as ever and I think it's a pretty important song from The Prodigy. I would be gutted if it didn't get more attention as it's rivalling the top tunes as one of my favourites. The way maxim teases you when the tune softens up for a few seconds with lines like "it's gonna hit ya" it's totally unexpected when the massive drums kick back in but when it does the crowd erupt. An awesome tune and definitely deserves more love from everyone. The next tune is a tricky one, people used to love it back in the day, people wanted it and expected it but not so soon? The intro kicks in and yet again a cheer erupts although this time it's alot louder then before any other tunes played. People were looking forward to this immensely but suddenly it changes and i've noticed it many times before people can't adjust to it. Personally I love the fact we're not getting the same old Firestarter, I much prefer this new take and its minty freshness the way Kieth links to Action Radar is cleverly done changing "i'm the firestarter" to "A Little action!!!" is perfect for settung up the Action Radar link. This is where I wanted to hear the Action Radar/Memphis Bells remix again, but sadly(?) it moved onto something else too quick for my tastes, I previously attended the delayed Brixton gig on August 7th and to hear something totally new was amazing, it was done really well but soon after the link was ending the incredible Warning! was back for my listening pleasures. I've only heard this new version of Warning! live twice and it's absolutely insane, chopping up the lyrics and swapping them around is a great way to break up the usual method of singing a chorus and so on. It feels very rock now, with Kieth providing some excellent vocals and surprising screaming and the way the noises have been changed, the crowd reaction is positive and this has serious potential for a new single for the new album, it's hard hitting straight to the point and puts Kieth back in the public eye for Mr Joe Average to point at. Climbatize slowly links to Voodoo People and it goes down a storm, this is another Prodigy anthem and it sounds better than ever. The 05 Edit on mp3 doesn't sound half as good as this despite it being pretty much the same, his sound system and Voodoo People were meant to be played live for the crowd it's superb, it has changed a tiny bit with chopping up some sounds adding some extra noises during the beats and generally making it sound like Voodoo People has had a wash and got some new clothes on. But to my dissapointment after it had ended they had gone off stage, this felt premature and left us gutted. Sad faces round me wanted more, so we chanted for more and back they came to play the favourites people expected, Poison and Smack my bitch up. Maxim got the crowd once again chanting P-O-I-S-O-N but maybe it was just me but it didn't feel as strong as it did two weeks ago in Brixton but then it was probably down to the fact they couldn't spell poison despite having people chant it around them. This is what most of the people were here for, the ultimate Prodigy anthem and is always an amazing way to end the gig, I couldnt hear much different apart from the usual change of words from "Smack my bitch up" to some thing less noticable but it's good that he's not messing with Smack My Bitch Up it's perfect and doesn't need tweaking one tiny bit. The final push from Smack My Bitch Up gets everyone jumping about, still so strong for all those years but it soon ends and people are assuming it's the end, after all they have played their best tune so people start looking around expecting to find an easy way out but why aren't people moving? They wanted more and slowly but surely the disco ball is lowered and the new Out of Space drums are in place and ready to launch the crowd into outer space. The flagship noise from Out of Space kicks in at the start and people are shocked that this tune is on people climb down off of shoulders because they want to dance to the original tunes they onced danced to all those years ago. The typical chanting of the song is crazy, everyone loves this even people who didnt know this was a Prodigy tune loves this and it feels like a great big "good bye!!" from us the crowd to the Prodigy. It doesn't last as long as I would like it as it sounds amazing an even greater ending to the unexpected crowd than they though. People were happy and fulfilled and not budging anywhere despite the actual tune finished 2 minutes ago, people wanted more! Talk of the evening was The Prodigy from alot of people, probably helped by the fact there was nothing else decent on at the time apart from the sci-- wait no, there was nothing else decent on at the same time as The Prodigy. The heaving field emptied slowly and we all wombled off to our tent... exhausted and injured. A Classic to remember. Guest Review by Dezmond back to prodigy live [go home] (If you copy this, please link back to this URL) www.nekosite.co.uk - copyright © 1998-2005 by neko - all rights reserved |
