Virgin

The wait is over! Today Canada’s hottest summer music festival announced that legendary alt-rockers Pearl Jam and Juno Award-winning Canadian rockers Billy Talent will headline Virgin Festival Alberta this year.  It will all go down at WinSport Canada’s Canada Olympic Park on August 8 & 9, 2009 to an expected throng of 35,000 hard-core music fans.

Other acts joining Pearl Jam on day one are Canadian hip hop artist K-OS, electronic music duo Thunderheist, Hamilton rockers Arkells, indie rockers Mother Mother, and Toronto trio The Cliks.  Joining Billy Talent on day two are new wave indie rockers Metric, Juno award nominees Tokyo Police Club, Brit rockers White Lies and Edmonton natives Shout Out Out Out Out.  More hot talent will be announced in the coming weeks.

“Calgary, we are back! I’m thrilled to announce that Pearl Jam and Billy Talent will headline the second Virgin Festival Alberta on August 8 & 9 at Canada Olympic Park,” announced Richard Branson, chairman of the Virgin Group. “Last year, Virgin Festival Alberta was the buzz of the town, rocking 35,000 fans, and ever since Calgarians have been crying out for us to come back.  I’m delighted that we’re doing it all over again and promise that Virgin Festival will deliver another unforgettable weekend of music and experiences.”

General ticket sales for two-day and VIP Weekend tickets begin Saturday, July 4th at 10 a.m. in person at all Ticketmaster outlets, select Future Shop locations, online at www.ticketmaster.ca, or www.futureshop.ca and by calling (403) 777-0000. Ticket information is also available at www.virginfestival.ca.  Two-day tickets are $132.00 plus $4 facility fee and a $2 donation to Virgin Unite (includes all sales taxes).

As always, when you’re with Virgin Mobile Canada you move to the front of the line. Virgin Mobile Canada customers can get their hands on Early Bird tickets before anyone else.

Keep an eye on www.virginfestival.ca for more line-up announcements. Fans can also keep up to date with Virgin Festival on Twitter at www.twitter.com/virginmobilecan and on the Virgin Festival Canada Facebook® fan page.

Metric, The Roots, Broken Social Scene, Carly Rae Jepsen, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes and Chris Velan have been added to the lineup for the Virgin Festival to be held at Deer Lake Park, BC, Canada on July 25 & 26. They join Sonic Youth, Ben Harper & Relentless7, Our Lady Peace, Mutemath, Spinnerette, Jarvis Cocker, De La Soul and K-OS on the bill. Tickets are now available at virginfestival.ca/bc/.

Following on from this month’s Montreal V Festival, British Columbia are set to get in on the act for the first time come July. Taking place in Deer Lake Park on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th, the weekender boasts the stereotypically electic sonic spectrum for which V Festivals across the globe have become renowned. Saturday sees homegrown headliners Our Lady Peace top the bill, backed by fellow Canadian anthemists-in-waiting Plants and Animals, the reverberating experimentalism of Mute Math and the inspirationally insipid shrieks of Brody Dalle’s Spinnerette. Elsewhere, the Sunday sees a welcome return from Ben Harper and his Relentless7, whilst Brit alt. poppers Jarvis Cocker and Gomez thrive lower down the bill. And as for that unrivalled musical diversity? De La Soul and Sonic Youth fly the stars-spangled banner.

The full line up announced so far is as follows:

Saturday July 25

Our Lady Peace

K-OS

Mute Math

Spinnerette

Plants and Animals

Sunday July 26

Ben Harper & Relentless7

Sonic Youth

Jarvis Cocker

De La Soul

Gomez

Future of the Left

Awesome Color

• More info can be found at the British Columbian V Festival site

It has been revealed that Virgin Festival Montréal will be the first festival of the year! Virgin Festival Montréal will deliver the music festival event of the year to an expected 30,000 music lovers at Parc Jean-Drapeau – Île Ste-Hélène on Friday, June 19 and Saturday, June 20, 2009.

Headlining day one will be the Grammy Award-winning Black Eyed Peas, the MMVA and Juno Award-winning Simple Plan, Canadian rockers Hedley, synth-pop specialists The New Cities and soul infusionist Eva Avila. Headlining day two will be legendary pop group New Kids On The Block, multi-platinum pop soul singer Akon, alt-rock legends Live, up-and-coming electro singer/songwriter Lights and R&B songstress Divine Brown. More stellar talent will be announced in the coming weeks.

General ticket sales for two-day, one-day, and VIP Weekend tickets begin Saturday, May 9th at 10 a.m. in person at The Bell Centre Box Office, select Future Shop locations, online at www.geg.ca, or www.futureshop.ca, and by calling (514) 790-2525, or 1-877-668-8269. Ticket information is also available at www.virginfestival.ca. Two-day tickets are $133.50 and one-day tickets are $75.

HALIFAX (NOVA SCOTIA) MAY 12, 2009 – Virgin Festival, Canada’s hottest summer music festival, announced today that it’s taking over Halifax’s Citadel Hill on Saturday, July 4, 2009 to an expected throng of 15,000 plus music fans! At a media event today the excitement kicked off with the announcement that the iconic Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip will headline the festival, and will be joined by punk rock legends The Offspring!

Other exciting acts joining The Tragically Hip and The Offspring will be new wave indie specialists Metric, alt rockers Dinosaur Jr., Montréal-based indie favourites Plants and Animals, Hamilton rockers ARKELLS and Newfoundland’s own indie rockers Hey Rosetta! More hot talent will be announced in the coming weeks.

Keep an eye on www.virginfestival.ca/novascotia for the latest breaking news and line-up announcements for Virgin Festival Nova Scotia. Fans can also keep up to date with Virgin Festival on Twitter at www.twitter.com/virginmobilecan and on the Virgin Festival Canada Facebook® fan page.

General ticket sales for one-day and VIP tickets begin Saturday, May 16th at 9 a.m. in person at The Halifax Metro Centre Box Office, Atlantic Superstore and Future Shop (208 Chain Lake Drive), online at www.ticketatlantic.com or www.futureshop.ca and by calling (902) 451-1221. Ticket information is also available at www.virginfestival.ca.

One-day tickets are $75.50 (including all sales taxes, $9.50 Service Charge and a $1 donation to Virgin Unite Canada).

Razorlight have been added to the V Festival Australia lineup. Johnny Borrell and the boys will now join The Killers, Snow Patrol, Kaiser Chiefs, Elbow and Duffy on the four dates across Australia: Sydney (28 March), Gold Coast (29 March), Melbourne (4 April) and Perth (5 April).

Razorlight are heading to their first ever shows in Australia next week where their Sydney and Melbourne gigs quickly sold out. But as a treat for Virgin Mobile customers in Oz who didn’t manage to get their hands on the sought after tickets, Virgin Mobile has grabbed the last 40 tickets to each show and is giving them away free!

To get your hands on a double pass, all you have to do is line up @ Virgin Mobile Pitt Street in Sydney tomorrow (Wednesday January 28), or Swanston Street in Melbourne on Thursday (January 29) before 1pm. It’s first in best dressed so get there early…

Razorlight play the Metro in Sydney on Thursday January 29, and The Hi Fi Bar in Melbourne on Saturday January 31.

The last 40 tickets will be given away from 1pm:

SYDNEY - Virgin Mobile Store at Westfield Centrepoint, Pitt St Mall, City on Wednesday Jan 28 (from 1pm).

MELBOURNE - Virgin Mobile Store, 133 Swanston St, City on Thursday Jan 29 (from 1pm).

For all you eager Aussie beavers quivering with anticipation over the forthcoming Australia V Festivals - here’s a flashback to this year’s awesome V Festivals in Sydney, Gold Coast, Melbourne and Perth. Watch Queens Of The Stone Age rule the stage with Make It Wit Chu.

If you missed it before, here’s the interview with QOTSA backstage at the Melbourne V Festival: watch the QOTSA interview

The Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, Snow Patrol, Elbow, Duffy, Louis XIV, Tame Impala, The Do, The Temper Trap and The Canyons are already on the V Festival lineup for 2009 and tickets are on sale now. Check out vfestival.com.au for more details…

Tame Impala are one of the awesome acts already confirmed on the V Festival Australia lineup for March & April ‘09. Check out the video for Half Full Glass Of Wine - one of the corking tracks on their brilliant debut EP which will be available to download here in the UK on 1 December. You can preorder the EP from their official website: tameimpala.com

Currently touring Australia, the lads from Perth are set to release their debut album in the UK in Spring ‘09 and are promising a bunch of live dates - so keep your surfing eyes peeled for more info as we get it.

Tame Impala join The Killers, Snow Patrol, Kaiser Chiefs, Duffy, Elbow, Louis XIV, The Do, The Temper Trap and Canyons on the V Festival Australia bill - with more acts to be announced soon. Tickets are now on sale at Tickemaster - so what are you waiting for!?

V Festival Australia is on for 2009 and The Killers, Snow Patrol and the Kaiser Chiefs will be headlining. Virgin Mobile’s third V Festival whirlwind is to hit Sydney on 28 March, Gold Coast on 29 March, Melbourne on 4 April and Perth on 5 April next year. Elbow, Duffy, Louis XIV, The Do, Tame Impala, The Temper Trap and Canyons beef up the already awesome lineup with more acts to be announced soon. Tickets will be on sale Friday 28 November but if you’re a lucky lucky Virgin Mobile Australia customer then you can get your hands on pre-sale tickets from this Wednesday 19 November. Check out vfestival.com.au for more details…

“Changes have been made to Virgin Festival by Virgin Mobile in order to ensure an even hotter line-up, and one that will make South Africans proud,” announced Peter Boyd, CEO of Virgin Mobile.

The festival has been postponed to early 2009 in order to secure the international line-up that is more in line with what Virgin Festival stands for throughout the different countries.  “Our criteria for a successful Virgin Festival are a great Greenfield venue, an impressive and eclectic international line-up, a huge local line-up, the Road to V bringing local unsigned bands into the mix, and some quirky brand activations for the crowd from Virgin.  Four out of five of these are on track, but we’re not entirely satisfied with the international line-up,” said Boyd. “Some of the bands that South Africans kept asking for were simply not available at that time of the year.”

He went on to say that Virgin Mobile and Big Concerts will work hard together to achieve a line-up that will show South Africans what a festival of this nature is all about, and one that will make South Africans proud.

As a platform for the Road to V winning band, three concerts presented by Virgin Mobile will still be taking place. On the 13th December in Johannesburg at Coca-Cola Dome, 14th December at Durban’s ICC and on the 17th in Cape Town at Grand Arena at Grandwest. Maroon 5, One Republic, The Parlotones and Goldfish will be lighting up the stage together with Road to V’s winning bands. The grand winner will still open the Virgin Festival by Virgin Mobile when it goes live.

“International acts Maroon 5 and One Republic will still be coming to South Africa, therefore existing ticket sales will still be honoured, only now the concert will be a curtain raiser for Virgin Festival 2009. Unlike the festival it will be indoors, but the dance arena will still be included,” explains Attie Van Wyk, CEO of Big Concerts.

For those who’ve already bought tickets, there’s no need to worry. Current ticket holders have three options:
1.    Hold onto tickets for next year’s Virgin Festival, as they will still be valid;
2.    Get a full refund from Computicket;
3.    Or attend the Virgin Mobile pre-show instead, which will be cheaper, so you will also be entitled to a partial refund of your original ticket price.
“We are confident we have arrived at the best solution for music fans, and it will be worth the wait for Virgin and South Africa.” concluded Boyd.

Those bonny Sugababes girls are all set for South Africa in December to play the first ever Virgin Festivals there in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Having done a darn fine job at this year’s UK V Festivals in Chelmsford and Stafford, the pop threesome will now get the chance to keep those South African lads gawping and fixated as they take to the stage.

Cape Town spunks Goldfish have also been confirmed. The nu-jazz/electronica duo join fellow South Africans Dirty Skirts, fresh from their UK tour, on the growing lineup. The Parlotones, Jozi and Zebra & Giraffe are already on the bill along with One Republic, Maroon 5 and Snoop Dogg.

More lineup news coming soon!Check out p_c_w’s Flickr photostream for more Sugababes photos

And Oasis. Though the band have certainly had their share of notorious gigs (or pre-gigs or post-gigs) over the years, this is definitely one that will live in infamy. It should have been memorable, but for different reasons. Early tastes of their new record “Dig Out Your Soul” had people saying it was their best work since their glory days of the mid-‘90s. The media circus that followed the Gallagher brothers for years seemed to have subsided and while they certainly still gave good quote, people seemed much more inclined to actually talk about the music. And no matter what the haters said, the fact was that their songs had not only persisted through the years, but become undeniable classics. Oasis may well be as good as they’ve always said they were. In other words, the perfect headliners for V Fest.

And things started out well enough. Taking the stage to a recording of “F**king In The Bushes” and huge, HUGE roars of approval, the band kicked off appropriately with “Rock’N’Roll Star” and burned through a set heavy with the hits. They’re no fools, they know the fans will abide a smattering of new material – and to be fair, the new songs stood up quite well – but unsurprisingly, the biggest cheers were for the likes of “The Masterplan”, “Cigarettes And Alcohol” and “Slide Away”. And “Morning Glory”. Since “Morning Glory” is one of my favourite Oasis songs, I think I had my eyes closed or was perhaps watching the giant video screen. Whatever I was doing, it wasn’t watching the stage at the precise moment that the music abruptly stopped and when I did finally focus on the action, a certain interloper was already being restrained by security and Liam Gallagher was backpedaling away from him. Noel was nowhere to be seen, which made sense since he was doubled over the stage monitor in front of him. So no, while I was there, I didn’t actually see the attack on the elder Gallagher though thanks to the wonder of YouTube, I’ve seen thousands of shaky, blurry clips of the incident.By rights, the band could have called it quits right there. The tens of thousands of fans in attendance certainly seemed to expect as much, their collective breaths held as the stage sat vacant. But after a few minutes, a festival rep came onstage and announced the gig would resume in a five and again, huge roars of approval. And it was the assailed, Noel Gallagher, who would return first to perform solo readings of “The Importance Of Being Idle” and “Wonderwall” before being rejoined by the band for the remainder of the set, finishing up with the signature closing cover of The Beatles’ “I Am The Walrus”.

Considering how serious Gallagher’s injuries have now been revealed to be, it’s remarkable that he came back to close things out even if the momentum had largely been lost and the set abbreviated (a “Champagne Supernova” collaboration with Paul Weller was sadly scratched). Of course, the on-stage bodycheck has turned out to be the gift that keeps on giving with all subsequent North American dates and a handful of European appearances cancelled while Gallagher recovers from his injuries. But for those of us who continue to be the last ones to have seen Oasis perform, it was a gig and a festival to remember, for good and for ill.

Liam Fray from The Courteeners says they’ll headline the UK V Festival next year, probably. Okay - so, while backstage at this year’s Chelmsford V Festival, I kind of pushed him in to making that statement and I immediately felt soiled and dirty like some gutter-dwelling tabloid hack but hey, all’s fair in love, rock’n'roll and trying to get that exclusive backstage scoop. I had a lined up a whole series of guffaw-inducing, oh-so-clever and highly original either/or questions for the mighty Liam Courteener (as you can see from our other V Festival clips)… until he said he was pissed off coz the previous interviewer had asked him a load of really crap either/or questions. Oh. So here I am clenching my butt cheeks and gritting my teeth under a fixed grin trying make polite conversation with a burgeoning rock legend who thinks I’m a bit of a dick for not asking decent, probing and intelligent questions. This job is quite hard sometimes you know.

Check out The Courteeners’ new Stephen Street-produced single, That Kiss, it’s really very good.

On the day’s schedule set up in the media tent, the final three performers on the main stage at the Toronto Virgin Festival were cheekily circled with the extra note declaring that “The British Invasion” began there. And correct it was – while a healthy amount of performers from the UK had already performed that weekend, the veteran acts closing things out – Stereophonics, Paul Weller and Oasis – were like a dream trifecta for many of the Anglophiles who had come out for the fest.

When last I checked in with Stereophonics, the Welsh trio were, well, still a trio. Granted, that was some ten years ago and now they were here as a quartet and with a different drummer and frontman Kelly Jones looking surprisingly ageless. Also ageless – or at least of a distinctly classic style – was their arena rock sound, heavy on working class anthemicism and somewhat overwrought for my tastes. Seeing as how they had a best-of album out soon as well as a collection of new songs, they were sure to roll out all the old hits including “A Thousand Trees”, the only song I really remembered from the debut, “Word Gets Around”. It still sounded good.

But while Stereophonics were marking a decade as a band – no mean feat to be sure – they had nothing on the next man on stage, the Modfather, Paul Weller. The living legend was barely fifty years old and yet had been inspiring generations of Brit-rockers over three decades and through three artistic incarnations – as a solo artist, in The Style Council and of course, with The Jam. And so it’s kind of ironic that the man who cast such a huge shadow over so many who’ve emerged from the United Kingdom should play such a Brit-centric festival and yet be mostly unrecognized by the gathered thousands.

Not that he cared. He was backed up by an absolutely cracking band that included disciple Steve Craddock of Ocean Colour Scene and though you couldn’t say he didn’t look his age, performed with an energy and intensity that put acts decades his junior to shame. It was an absolute clinic in English rock and even if you didn’t know the material drawn mainly from his solo years, which most of the crowd didn’t, you had to respect it. And when he did pull out something a little more crowd-friendly as in Jam classics “Town Called Malice” and “Eton Rifles”, everyone went nuts. And rightly so. All hail.

One thing that struck me during the first day of the Toronto Virgin Festival was just how utterly testosterone-saturated the lineup was. While past years offered some sense of balance between the “boys with guitars” acts and female-fronted performers, this year’s roster was resolutely bloke-heavy. One notable exception was Scotland’s Sons & Daughters, who were the only act with enough appeal to get me over to the second stage on this Sunday. Released at the start of the year, their latest album, “This Gift”, is a blisteringly good record that injects a solid dose of glam into their previous gothic rockabilly-punk recipe, and having already seen them twice this year I knew they’d put on a great show.

Regular bassist Alidh Lennon was absent from this tour, having stayed behind in Scotland preparing to drop a son or daughter of her own. This left singer Adele Bethel to carry the “daughters” part of the band on her own, a task she and her wonderfully garish neon pink stockings were more than up for. As always, Bethel was a fierce frontwoman – equal parts alluring and fearsome, unapologetically confrontational and absolutely mesmerizing. As she prowled the stage, wielding her tambourine like a deadly weapon, her pompadoured guitarist, co-vocalist and foil Scott Paterson fired off lines of twang and fuzz from his Burns guitar. Compared to the decidedly polished performances of most of the other performers of the weekend, the band were a bracingly abrasive change of pace.

The assembled crowd was modest, seemingly a mix of the converted and the curious, but whichever camp you fell into, the band didn’t care. If you were within earshot, your ass was fair game and they were going to kick it. Mixing up the rawer material from their first two albums “Love The Cup” and “The Repulsion Box” with that from the relatively more polished – but still prickly – “This Gift”, it’s hard to imagine that anyone caught in their musical line of fire wasn’t completely won over, but I say that as one who was already a fan.

Apparently someone really liked seeing the reunited Smashing Pumpkins close out last year’s Virgin Festival in Toronto, because for this year’s edition they did the next best thing to bring Corgan and company back – they got the Silversun Pickups. Though some bands might bristle at being tarred with the “sounds just like” brush, it’s fairly evident that the Los Angeles quartet have no problem with the comparisons. After all, one could do far worse than to pick up where an enormously successful band left off, even if said band has recently returned from inactivity and is attempting to do the same.

One has to wonder if head Pickup Brian Aubert is fully conscious of how much Corgan he channels. Everything from his guitar tone (Fender run through banks of Big Muff fuzz, thank you very much), his vocals (high and nasal, natch) to his body language (tall, lanky and just so slouchy) are simply Corgan. He should simply shave his head and be done with it.

But what he hasn’t quite mastered is the art of writing songs like Corgan. Though “Zeitgeist” is best forgotten, whether you like them or not it’s hard to argue that the first incarnation of the Pumpkins wrote some stone cold classic songs that were the perfect blend of pop, metal and psychedelia. The Pickups’ debut “Carnavas” manages to emulate the Pumpkins style but not the substance and as such, most of their material just comes off sounding samey.

But that doesn’t mean that the band is without their charms. In addition to Aubert’s guitar heroics, Christopher Guanlao is an unbelievably enthusiastic drummer, hair whipping all over as he pounded his kit into submission like a young Matt Chamberlain and bassist Nikki Monninger, frequently bouncing up and down and almost always with a grin on her face, certainly seemed to be having a better time onstage than, say, D’Arcy Wretzky ever did. Keyboardist Joe Lester, with his fedora, beard and checked shirt, just looked out of place.

So while the Silversun Pickups don’t necessarily do much for me – I was over the Smashing Pumpkins by 1995 – from the roars of approval they got from the audience, there’s obviously a grunge revival on the way. Or maybe it’s already here.

While I appreciate that North American music festivals aspire to match up with their much larger, storied counterparts in Europe, the one characteristic that I’d be just as happy to not emulate is the weather, and in particular the great seas of mud that result when the skies inevitably open up. So waking up to a strong, steady rain the morning of day two of the Toronto Virgin Festival was not a happy thing. But as luck would have it, the skies began to clear just as the ferry reached the islands dock and by the time The Weakerthans hit the stage, there were actually blue skies overhead.

Along with The Constantines the day before, Winnipeg’s Weakerthans – currently riding the success of their Polaris Prize-nominated “Reunion Tour” album – represented some of the best Canadian talent not only on the V Fest lineup, but in the country as a whole. On day one, the Cons brought the bare-knuckle, blue-collar, loud as hell rock that had more than a few out-of-towners, previously unfamiliar with the band despite their tenure on SubPop, saying “who are these guys?” and “I gotta get some of their records”. And though The Weakerthans have a less immediate visceral impact – with songs about Bigfoot, Antarctic expeditions and bus drivers, they’re a touch more cerebral – they also would have impressed anyone who took the time to pay attention to the words.

But even if they just tuned into the melodies and music, they might very well have been won over. That’s the unique appeal of the Weakerthans – the way they marry John K Samson’s frequently odd but always evocative and affecting lyricism with powerful and anthemic guitar rock, courtesy of Samson’s bandmates. They’re always entertaining to see them live, with Samson standing up front like a slightly sheepish grad student while guitarist Stephen Carroll executes Townshend-ian windmills and strikes dueling guitar poses with bassist Greg Smith. And come on - any band that can get thousands of people jumping and singing along with a song about a cat talking to its owner has got to be something special.

Back at the main stage of the Toronto Virgin Festival, sandwiched between the decidedly American sounds of Floridian politi-punks Against Me! and arena rock fist-pumping day one headliners Foo Fighters were Bloc Party. They’re one of those bands that thrive in a festival context, with banter and stage moves that might come off overly cheesy in a smaller setting but seem perfectly in place on a huge outdoor stage. Of course, I’ve only ever seen them at festivals but that’s beside the point.

When they were initially announced as part of the V Fest lineup, it seemed a bit of curious timing as they’d already toured through a couple times in support of “A Weekend In The City” and a third go-around, while certainly not unwelcome, seemed to be entering the realm of diminishing returns on the willingness of fans to come out and see the same songs played yet again. Of course, this was well before they sneak-released their new record “Intimacy” at the end of August, and with that it all made sense – there was a whole batch of new material to showcase.

Or at least it would have made sense if they’d actually played much from the new record. Only one song from “Intimacy” – “Halo” – actually got played, though according to a set list snatched from the stage, two more were actually cut from the set, presumably due to ongoing technical difficulties throughout their performance. Kele Okereke was ever the genial frontman in apologizing as the techs struggled in vain to sort things out, but the band was surely frustrated by it all. And it’s a shame because it would have been interesting to hear how the more electronic-oriented songs from “Intimacy” would have translated into the live setting, where the Bloc Party are very much a guitar rock band.

For the fans, however, less of the new stuff from the new record meant more of the old and the result was a set heavy on the old favourites, if somewhat truncated in length. They started with the shimmering “So Here We Are” before going into the full-bore rock with “Halo” and “Hunting For Witches” and the highlight of the set personal favourite “The Modern Love”. The show may not have gone exactly as the band had intended but it was still a triumph. Bloc Party can play any festival I ever attend, new record or not.

Kids these days and their music. Two of the more popular up-and-coming British bands to grace the second stage on day one of the Toronto Virgin Festival were, to my ears and eyes, pretty much interchangeable. There were The Fratellis, who drew a sizeable crowd to their afternoon slot, and The Kooks, who drew a fairly massive crowd to their stage-closing finale. Collectively the two acts, both led by ridiculously curly-haired frontmen, have sold tonnes of records but I’d never really taken the time to get to know either band.

No time like the present, eh?

Though their songs had a lot of the sort of post-Libertines energy and scrappiness that remains a ticket to print money in the UK, the trio of Scottish siblings in the Fratellis failed to put on a live show that measured up to what one might have expected to accompany them. Singer John Fratelli was moderately animated in delivering their pub-rock, singalong anthems but his compatriots seemed mostly disinterested. Not that their fans cared, they were too busy singing along. The Kooks, on the other hand, were up to the task of making the gathered masses not regret missing the Foo Fighters to catch them instead.

Running some forty minutes late thanks to a day’s worth of collective delays, The Kooks finally took the stage as their fans’ chanting of “We want The Kooks” turned into shrieks of who knows what. Assisted by an impressive lightshow, frontman Luke Pritchard was a catalog of rock star preening and poses, all carefully choreographed for maximum rock’n’roll effect.

Though musically, they’re not all that far off in spirit from their Caledonian counterparts in The Fratellis – it’s hard to go too wrong delivering simple, catchy rock to the masses – they dressed it up properly with the sort of charismatic performance that confirms existing fans and maybe wins over new ones. Not me specifically – I found them reasonably pleasant but not all that distinctive – but I’m sure there were some.

And so with the ferry dock just a short stagger away, I elected to head back to the mainland and a night’s rest rather than fight my way back through the hordes to try and catch a glimpse of the Foo Fighters. After all, this was just the first day. Much more was still to come.

Here’s a look behind the scenes at 5FM (does radio have scenes to get behind?) in South Africa when none other Richard Branson rocked up to tell the world about the new South Africa Virgin Festival. He also has a nice chat about Virgin’s history in music, in case you weren’t aware. So South Africa, you lucky lucky nation - how chuffed are you to be playing host to Snoop Dogg, Maroon 5, One Republic and all in December? Even better than that - Sir Richard might be spending Christmas there with you…

Tickets for the Johannesburg and Cape Town Virgin Festivals on the 13 and 16 December are on sale now. Check out virginfestival.co.za for full lineup and ticket information.