Sunday, July 09, 2006

Roskilde 2006; Holiday In The Sun



So I'm back from another Roskilde. The third party of our traveling group didn't make it, and with the other being far more laid back than me, and being a smoker not a drinker, I was expecting a quite week. However, it still all turned out a memorable time with many lessons learnt.
We got there on the Tuesday, after three flights, and I'd highly recommend an early arrival to anyone attending the festival. First of, its the only way to get a decent site to camp, otherwise you'll end up with 20 mins. walk just to get to the gate. We squeezed into a site adjacent to the railway bridge, known to all campers, but slightly too close to a pissing spot for comfort. Those of you who do get early will benifit from getting to know your neighbours better and not having to camp next to all the English people who arrive on the Wed / Thurs (You're hear to explore new cultures, remember).

Roskilde isn't too expensive, £18 for a crate of festival standard Tuborg (You get £4 back for returning the empties and the crate) and a meal is about £3, but its stillworth picking up supplies in Roskilde town, lots of extra fluids, easy cook food, and of course, Tea making supplies. Hand wipes are also recommended as while the toilets are far better than average, washing facilities are limited. Theres a creat variety of food avliable, Mexican seeming the favourite, which is fine in my books.





Getting there early also gives an excellent oppertunity to check out Christiania, a squaters commune and a self declared free state in Copenhagen. Most people just go there fore drugs it seems, but get past the tacky stores of Bob Marley merchendise and "You'll Never Smoke Alone" scarfs and explore the place in more detail and you should get some appreication of the bigger picture. Always on the brink of closure, check it before its too late.



The actual festival itself was very, very, sunny. I've seen sunny before but this was something else, too hot to stay in a tent past 10 AM, meaning an early start to drinking in the nearest pavillion. The nearest Pavillion to me contained a group of Danes / Germans who loved telling me how they got beer cheaper across the German border (Three crates for a tenner, I think...) and Stevie Wonder jokes. Wheather he had been particularly popular in thier region, or that if he was the only famous blind person they could think of, is beyond me. They shared loads of beer with me and we develope an ingenious system to keep them cool (With the help of St. Pauli Duck):


As for the bands, the headliners could only be desribed as a let down. The Ultilmate Bootleg Guns 'N' Roses Experince came on an hour late and where medicore at best, strained vocals, but November Rain was a tacky lighter swaying highlight. Bob Dylan was a major disappointment, remaining at the keyboard all show and strugling to sing, I do a better Bob Dylan impression than Bob Dylan. . His take on songs where also slow and too instrumental, it was a painful experince, I left during the first song, a strained, delipidated and moribund take on Maggies Farm. It was fitting that so many people said they where only there to see him because they thought he'd be dead soon. His only defense was some first rate harmonica playing, which he seemed to stop as soon as anybody enjoyed.

So with the biggest bands being disappointments, how did the rest fair? Morrissey was amazing, opening with Smiths classic Panic then drawing mainly on his last two albums (Also performing Girlfriend in a Coma). His band where great, the man who put the M in Manchester was in cheery form, and only changed shirts once. After sacking of Dylan I got over to Happy Mondays on the double, shit hot, especially crowded into the dance tent. There was a lot of energy in the tent that night, loved it, wish I'd seen them when they played in Liverpool a few weeks before the festival. Tool where as impressive as one could ever expect, JMK even talking with the audience, and thier sound system was more than capable of killing a man. As always htey had thier impressiove visuals, but some complained that this meant no actual vido of the band playing, no good if your at the back.


One downside this year was not seeing as many bands as '04, where I'd see more bands a day than I did the entire festival this year. This was partly due to the too hot to move weather, but wasn't helped by being practically solo the entire festival. Of the smaller bands that I did see, Hammond Rens, Golgol Bordello, Seeed, Who Made Who, Kiasers Orchestra and Zdob Si Zdub. I'm glad of this, as it makes it easier to talk about bands no one has ever heard of, filling me with music snob smuggness.


The biggest syuprise for me was Roger Waters. I went for the sake of seeing him really but loved his show, starting with Floyd classics like Wish You Where Here, Animals, have a Cigar and Comfortably Numb before goin on the play Dark Side of the Moon in full. His solo material was also well recived while his songs narritives where told over the video screens in comic book format.

In all however there seemed something lacking at the festival. I think this is chifely because I kind of forced myself into going, I'm determind to having a Roskilde where we all make it and I knew it'd be a strain just me and one other friend who I'd drifted away from over the years, but at the same time I refused to not go and miss out. While I felt I was going through the motions of being at a festival, I didn't miss out on 100% of things like I would have had I stayed home. The headliners being a disappointment also failed to help proceedings, but Happy Mondays and Morrissey easily compensated for this, and hey, its not the festival organizers fault thatth e bands fail to deliver.

So now its waiting time till Roskilde '08, as seems to be the fashion. After getting so involved in the atmosphere and uniquness of Europes oldest festival this year however theres a strong urge to be back there right now. I'm hoping the dream of getting a crowd of mates to Roskilde doesn't turn into my personal White Whale, or just tempt fate producing larger hurdles to arriving there, but then, for the chance to get 10 days relaxing in a field, it may just be worth it.

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