Music festivals tend to be remembered for the weather conditions (good or bad) as much as anything - there was the rain of Glastonbury in '97, the mud baths of Woodstock ... and now the sunshine of the Isle of Wight in 2003.

Saturday morning saw a tide of humanity crossing the Solent - many with the intention of making a weekend of it - over 4,000 pitched their tents at the specially-constructed campsite.

The festival campsite

Having sorted the BBC Southampton tents with the usual festival campsite Global Positioning System coordinates system (five tents across from the drink water and left a bit from the lads with a bar-b-que), it was time to head for the music.


As Seaclose Park baked in the afternoon sunshine, it wasn't really a day for moshing and as The Burn and The Thrills both weren’t 'jump-around' bands, that suited everyone just fine.

The Burn with their harmonica driven, American bluesy acoustic tunes, took us along Route 66 and we headed further west with new-comers The Thrills.

The Thrills

The Irish band were just fantastic and probably deserved to be higher up the bill – their West Coast chilled out, Beach Boys, meets Flaming Lips vibe, picked up from their years hanging out around sunny surf beaches in San Diego, was just perfect for the day.

One Horse Town was the first big recognisable hit of the day, quickly followed by their first single – Santa Cruz You’re Not That Far, on a day like this, it couldn’t be more true.

The Cooper Temple Clause had a lot of a hair and attitude and, with Gallagher-esque swaggers, provided the first big rock sound of the day with new tunes like Promises Promises and a blast of electronica mixed in at the end of their storming set on Panzer Attack.

The intention of this line-up was clearly to get a mix of legendary figures as well as the new talent.

John Squire

And they don't come more legendary than John Squire – the former Stone Roses guitarist who has taken his first foray into lead vocals on his new solo album Time Changes Everything.

Cynics might call him the best Stone Roses tribute band, with a lead singer whose voice isn’t quite the same as Ian Brown’s. But personally I still got that spine tingle during the opening riffs to Fools Gold and other Stone Rose tracks - songs that I’d never expected to hear played live by at least one of the artists behind them.

Lock up your daughters...

Iggy Pop, the grim reaper of rock was truly on form. He subjected us to an hour of constant leaping around, verbal abuse, hurling himself at the crowd, unleashing death stares - and we loved every minute. If the music mattered, Search and Destroy, The Passenger and I Want To Be Your Dog – were all delivered in His Royal Igg-ship's remarkable and scary way – a living legend.

Starsailor were the one survivor from 2002's Jubilee Bank Holiday Isle of Wight Festival - moving up the bill from their mid-afternoon position last year.

Having got through their ‘miserable-ist’ tracks early on, they treated the audience to some of their latest material – produced by Phil Spectre. The American producer's heavy hallmark of epic strings and that extra Spectre dimension consequently went down a storm.

Paul Weller

And so to the main attraction. Paul Weller took us on a romp through his back catalogue - a set that had something for literally everyone - including "the bloke at the back by the Chinese food stand" (He got Sunflower dedicated to him, incase you're wondering.)

Spanning the generations with Jam hits from A Town Called Malice and That’s Entertainment through The Style Council’s You’re the Best Thing and into the solo years with Changing Man, Broken Stones and You do Something to Me. Individual whoops would periodically erupt as each song was at least somebody's favourite - the Modfather certainly didn’t disappointment.

Well sun-warmed and with our heads full of top-tunes, the BBC Southampton team headed back to the campsite - leaving the rest of our media colleagues to their comfy hotel rooms.

Actually as festival campsites go, it was pretty good - well organised, fragrant loos, lukewarm chips available on demand, and all the attractions you expect from the surreal half-world that is a festival campsite by night - bizarre conversations going on late into the night, acoustic sing-along sessions (including a group of Corrs fans - not sure they had the right festival), the ritual calling between tents and all sorts of other shenanigans we don't need to go into here.

All set for Sunday then...

What did you think of the Isle of Wight Festival? - Who were the turkeys and who really rocked? - Have your say on our IOW Festival Message Board.