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Festival season is here dear readers, and although my favourite festival of all time -each year- is the Roskilde festival in Denmark, the V (Virgin) -not for long, tee hee- Festival is better than a kick in the nuts. A lot of things have changed at the V. There are less 'celebrities' invited, -or paid to go, as its normally the case- and the media has been restricted more than usual from photographing these 'celebrities'. "It's all about the music maaan" as the PR's will tell us. Yes quite, but pictures of live bands don't make much money and some bands are awful and totally boring. Apart from The Specials, the whole lot was a big bore for me.
The Specials
The Specials
Katy Perry
The fun bit was doing our own thing, and yes, it was a lot of fun and shenanigans. The biggest shocker on Sunday at Highlands Park was that Oasis pulled out of the festival. The most probable thing was that the Gallagher brothers had yet another bust up. So the punters that paid a lot of money to see them had to make do with relative minnows Snow Patrol. OK so the V festival organizers got stuck with the uber short notice they had with the Oasis fiasco, but Snow Patrol??!! Headlining act??
Snow Patrol
Lady Gaga 1
Pixie Lott
Lady Gaga
I don't think so! They are a one trick pony band, that song about cars or something. Don't get me wrong, they had a go, they gave it everything even singing Oasis' Wonderwall as an acoustic -dull- solo. It's just that they are sooooooooo BORING! Organizers really need to sort out their plan B as far as cancellations go.
The much trumpeted LADY GAGA had a great outfit as always, but we were struck by the most ridiculous photo regulations ever! We were asked to shoot her just for 45 seconds after each song! How pathetic. Of course I ignored this totally. Visually she's great, apart from looking a bit worn to be honest. Pretty she ain't. OK I was only 4 feet away from her, perhaps that's why.
Noisettes
Lily Allen
Ting Tings
Ting Tings
Predictably, she mimed the whole thing! To pay to go and see her sing and then see her MIME is ludicrous. Good job I didn't pay. PIXIE LOTT didn't fare much better. She's OK, but that's it. The best performance for the girls came from NOISETTES and KATY PERRY. They were both very visual, stylish, good voice and went all over the stage, but Katy won the day in my opinion. The festival was fairly well run, apart from the monkey men mistakenly known as security. The security folk are always there, on the whole, to make your life pointlessly unpleasant. Still, I did have a laugh, thanks in part for the free beers, my friends and colleagues.
Baby with earphones
Festival goers in VIP area
Melanie Brown was in London recently to launch a new lingerie range for Ultimo. The bra manufacturer was also celebrating their tenth anniversary. How time flies! -I did their launch all that time ago- Still, former Spice Girls Mel B popped out of a badly made plywood? and plastic 'birthday 'cake' to celebrate the anniversary. I soon found out Mel can't model for toffee. She just couldn't do it despite shouting instructions at her. Meh! The outfit looked good on her at least, and for once she wasn't riddled with acne. Cheers all round.
Mel B in cake
Next month I will bring you the cool Toronto Film Festival with all the glamour and the goss as always!
Over and out,
See ya next month.
JOE ALVAREZ
joealvarez@verycool.co.uk
Website: www.myspace.com/redcarpetspecialist
WORDS AND ALL PICTURES COPYRIGHT JOE ALVAREZ 2009. |
