0 basic 32 0 1 0 512 0 17 ruby 12 0 5 0881021346201313 2 512 1 33 pearl 8 0 1 0 512 0 58 pearl 8 0 1 0 512 0 82 pearl 8 0 1 0 512 0 106 pearl 8 0 3 0 512 0 129 pearl 8 0 1 0 512 0 154 pearl 8 0 1 22805118 1 512 0 *!EOM 158 3224Y00F05basic32Y00C3Y00J1NV96 Warrington Report 1518Y00F04ruby15Y00C4NPART 1 OF 3 1218Y00F04ruby12Y00C5NJude/Panda 1201N 0824Y00F05pearl08Y00C1Y00J0NIt's summer time. No college. Nice weather. Nothing much to do... and so 0801Nwas created the open air music festival. This year I and Uncle Jack (he's 0801Nthat fella in the sports gear who wrote us some articles - some of which were 0801Nokay) visited Warrington, Victoria Park on Sunday 18th August for V96, part 0801N2. This was only the one day festival and I kinda wished we'd gone down to 0801NChelmsford to see Paul Weller etc. for 2 days. I'm not moaning too much 0801Ncause it was a decent day trip (just half an hours drive, meandering down) 0801Nand the line-up was damn fine. Well, read it for yourself: 0801N 1523Y00F04ruby15Y00C3Y00J1NMain Stage 1213Y00F04ruby12N 1206Y00C5NPulp 1201NSupergrass 1201NCast 1201NGary Numan 1201NStereolab 1201NJonathan Richman 1201NLongpigs 1201N 1518Y00F04ruby15Y00C3NSecond Stage 1213Y00F04ruby12N 1206Y00C5NElastica 1201NHeavy Stereo 1201NFluffy 1201NSuper Furry Animals 1201NDenim 1201NGorky's Zygotic Mynci 1201NTiger 1201N 0824Y00F05pearl08Y00C1Y00J0NUJ and myself arrived at about 11:30 am ready for the gates to open at miday. 0801NIt was so fucking hot and sunny- an absolutely gorgeous day where you felt 0801Nyou just wanted to laze around in the heat and thousands of people were doing 0801Njust that outside the entrance. Picture the scene; loads of kids in indie 0801NT-shirts dozing on the grass in a kind of que.. thing. Anyday, we bought are 0801Nprogrammes from some bloke and got some ices and just sorta joined in. 0801N 0801NWe finally get in after 12:00 with 2 hours to go before the first act starts. 0801NIt's the usual festival thing. The toilets. The prices. Well you know the 0801Nscore, you've heard it all before, I'm sure and I don't mean to bore, 0801Nalthough it's always been my flaw, so don't feel too sore. Quite. They 0801Nwouldn't let us take glass bottles in (fair enough I guess), plastic bottles 0801N(buggers) or cans (no-good fuckin' tools) so you either take little cartons 0801Nof `Mr Cheap Tasting Cola' and pierce them with a straw, sucking them as you 0801Njump about in the crowd, or you buy their drinks of water at £1 a time. Well 0801NI bought their stuff, but I think now that I would have preffered to look 0801Nlike `a bit of a tit' with the cola. 2 fucking quid a pint - and in a 0801Ncardboard cup. Still think of all those southeners who thought the beer was 0801Na bargin. 0801N 0801NWe decided that we'd stop at the main stage for the whole day cause the line 0801Nup was better. I wouldn't have minded seeing Elastica or Super Furry 0801NAnimals, but they clashed with Pulp and Cast, respectively, so they didn't 0801Nstand a chance. I wish I'd seen Gorky's Zygotic Mynci in retrospect. Have 0801Nyou heard `Patio Song' - Johnny Vaughn might say "FANTASTIC!" and boy, oh boy 0801Nhe'd be right. The Myncis are certainly an up and coming `thing.' 0801N 1523Y00F04ruby15Y00C6Y00J1NNevertheless... 0819Y00F05pearl08Y00C1N 0806Y00J0NSorry now to all those people who wanted to read about the second stage acts, 0801Nbut I really have very little to say about them, and now it's all been said. 0801NOh well. 0801N 0801NI'll finally get down to the major bit of this article - telling you about 0801Nthe acts. As I have said, first up we saw The Longpigs. They were a great 0801Nband to open with. Although their not so big, yet, the crowd seemed to get a 0801Ngood vibe off them. They played great, doing their songs real justice live. 0801NThey played loud stuff (I was fair near the left speaker and I could actually 0801Nfeel my internal organs being shaken about by the decibels) and in cheery 0801Nspirit which was just what we all needed to liven things up. Their set was 0801Nfairly varied and they played recent singles `On & On' and `She Said', which 0801Nwere both exceptionaly well recieved. 0801N 0801NBy the third song into The Longpigs act the audience had started to surf the 0801Ncrowd (not the whole audience you understand - that would be impossible - 0801Nmerely a select handfull) and we were treated to that all too common, but 0801Nstill none-the-less surreal sight of limp bodies being passed along the top 0801Nof the crowd, to the front. 0801NI've often wondered why most of these people who surf etc. at these sorta 0801Nevents are usually men (particualy in their early twenties) - someone should 0801Nresearch this phenomina, but... well... perhaps chaps are just more 0801Nexcitable at that age. All I can really say on the subject is that when The 0801NLongpigs launched into their concluding song, `She Said' people were dropping 0801Nat a rate so ridiculous it could have only been make believe. I just clapped 0801Nmy hands a bit. Clap. Clap. Clap. Lucky I didn't surf my way to the front 0801Nor I'd have only lost my view and this article would be alot shorter. 0801N 0801NJonathon Richman. This was the next person due on the stage, but not for a 0801Nwhile so we were treated to the videoscreens trying to brainwash us with ads 0801Nfor Virgin Coke, Eurostar, HMV and 501s. It must have worked too, cause as I 0801Nhave just demonstrated they are all too fresh in my mind. Creepy, no? 0801NWhatever happened to the hippie concept of free music for all? It's all gone 0801Ntoo commercial. Sponsership is just a sign of the times. The days of peace 0801Nand love at Woodstock are gone my friends. Never again will the Isle of 0801NWhite festival organisers give orders to take the barriers down and let the 0801Nworld in. 0801N 0801NJonathon Richman. Deja-vu. Jonathon Richman - on he comes with his little 0801Nguitar. 0806Y00C3N"Why! Uncle Jack, who is this fellow?" 0806Y00C5N"Search me for clues." 0806Y00C3N"This is no time for time-consuming jestures." 0806Y00C5N"No time like the present..." 0806Y00C3N"Jonathon... Rich- Richman? Er... who is he." 2319Y00F05goghb23Y00C4N"Yawn." 0819Y00F05pearl08Y00C1NOkay, I'm getting no sense out of Jack, lucky I bought that programme. So I 0801Nlook up the entry on the elusive Mr Richman: 0801N 0806Y00C5N`Jonathon Richman first made the move to New York from Boston to be near to 0801NAndy Warhol's Factory and all that was associated with it: "Yeah, well I was 0801Neighteen and I wanted to be near the Velvet Underground.' 0806Y00C1N 0801NWarhol; Velvet Underground; sounds good to me, so we stay to listen to 0801NJohnny, we just can't be arsed getting up offa-the ground and neither can a 0801Nlot of other people. We can hear, though (although for some reason they/he 0801Nturned the volume way down) and quite frankly I'm not incrediably impressed. 0801NBit shit this. A bit Dylanesque, but not as good a voice! And the material 0801Nis just cringeworthy. Can't remember any song names, but there was one about 0801Na Fender Stratocaster (10 to 1 that was the songs name) and the lyrics went 0806Y29C4Nsomething along the lines of `Fender Stratocaster sounds real tough; Fender, 0801NFender, Fender; Fender Stratocaster made to take it tough; Fender, Fender, 0806Y09C1NFender.' Jesus. Perhaps I'm showing my ignorance at not having heard of a 0801Nman who, to quote the programme has been `doing 150 shows a year for the past 0801N10 or 15 years,' but I'm afraid that Richman was the shitest thing I heard 0801Nall day and judging by the 10 or so people bothering to clap him most other 0801Npeople agreed. The only people remoatly intreasted were a few hardcore fans 0801Nand the people on stage with him, who he kept telling to turn the bass down, 0801Nevery few minutes. It was too quiet, anyhow, so he should have turned it up, 0801Nor better still turned off altogether. Now, I think I've been provokative 0801Nenough for any Jonathon fans out there to write an article and defend him. Go 0801Non, I dare you. I DOUBLE dare you and you can't get out of a double dare. 0801N 0801NA few more adverts blasted at us and then on comes Stereolab. Stereolab's 0801Nmusic has always been a bit hard to classify, a bit indie (whatever indie 0801Nactually sounds like) and a bit dance and a bit of casio pocket organ. I 0801Nhave an organ in my pocket and it's pleased to see you, but that's another 0801Nstory. Later. (Much later.) What I was basicaly leading upto before my 0801Nmind started to wander was that I quite like Stereolab's stuff, but only 0801Nquite. I'm a bit luke warm about this sort of thing, so some of it I quite 0801Nliked and some I barely noticed. Basicaly they played fairly inoffensive 0801Nstuff. I don't want to damn them with faint praise, cause they provided 0801Nquite a relaxing background sound as UJ and I wandered about the grounds. I 0801Nsay wandered but we could barely move through the crowds of people and by the 0801Ntime we'd reached the food and merchandise stands we couldn't be arsed 0801Nstanding in more ques to get ripped off by explotative dealers. I was 0801Ndesperate for fluid, burning-up quick in the sun. All the water was sold out 0801Nso I payed a quid for the world's smallest coke lolly, most of which melted 0801Nstraight onto the floor. It is no exaggeration to say that I got more of a 0801Ntan that afternoon than during the entirity of my 2 week summer excursion to 0801NPortugal. I probaly spend more too. Fuck me, as if you care about my 0801Ncurrent health and financial standing... unless your trying to flog me life 0801Ninsurance, eh? 0801N 0811Y37C3Y46C1NThe days events are continued in the 2nd part of this mysterious tale........ *!EOF