V Festival 2008
Travis performed a live Zoo Session at the Virgin Mobile V Festival 2008
Live on stage review
We had The Stereophonics yesterday and today it's time for another one of the past decade's most influential bands. Ok, they're not Welsh but Scottish but the we're equally exited at seeing them here again and if The Stereophonics rock fest is anything to go by, Travis will also add one to the 'Classic performances at V' category today.
We take a leisurely walk over to the JJB Arena, basically a massive circus tent past the 4 Music stage, and it is actually not as busy as we'd like. That might have something to do with the organisers moving stages around this year and this tent drawing the short straw - it really is a long trek.
Not before long, the charming Scots led by ueber-charming singer Fran Healey come on to bring us some joy with a cherry-picked set featuring tracks from nearly all six albums including tracks from 1997's debut Good Feeling through to next month's release Ode To J. Smith.
Naturally, the probably most smiliest band ever win over the crowd most with favourites such as Turn where Fran let's the crowd do the hard work.
Flowers in the Window gets the acoustic tretment with Fran on guitar flanked by the other band members cheerfully singing along and then the music stops mid-song. The reason? Fran suddenly exclaims that he has lost his wedding ring just now. They find it eventually but until it's back on his finger, Dougie helps out by strumming Fran's guitar which is still around his neck and his hands in the air. Now, that's what we call teamwork.
As many times before, Travis finish off with festival anthem 'Why Does It Always Rain On Me' and ask te crowd to participate in 2008's biggest pogo for the final chorus. We gladly oblige and there are even a few open umbrellas pogoing away. Keep them open, by the looks of the clouds outside you'll be needing them soon.
Live VIP tent review
Sunday is always a bit of a chilled affair in the VIP area. Pimms seems to be the drink of choice and since the weather's been terribly kind to us today, it seems like a very pleasant way of spending a Sunday afternoon, watching or listening to some great live music.
Travis kicked off procedings with a set with plenty of hits including, of course, Turn. Fran asked the audience who they were looking forward to seeing. "Travis" came the, perhaps obvious, answer. Or Girls Aloud. I think they probably meant Kings of Leon, or Verve.
But it's not for me to put words into our guests' mouths. As Geoff mentioned on-air earlier, it's actually a hard decision to make going to see a live band on one of the big stages this evening, or watching your colleagues or guests playing RockBand after all the live sessions have finished.
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