V Festival

Organisers of the V festival have never been ones to hide their more mainstream lights under a bushel. A quick scan of the line-up this year showed pop princesses Katy Perry, Lily Allen, Alesha Dixon and Lady Gaga, holding their own against more traditional festival bands.

That said there was a fair share of indie guitar-driven rock acts, including the Wombats, Razorlight and Snow Patrol - as well as what many people are talking about could be the final swan-song of Oasis.

To hear our exclusive backstage interviews by our reporter Kathryn Stanczyszyn click below:

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"Call Me!" Katy Perry at V2009

Saturday

Saturday kicked off with the cloned Abba guys - Bjorn Again - who started the poppy proceedings with a cracking set. They kept the crowd in the palm of their hand, singing along to hits like ‘Mama Mia’ and ‘Money, Money, Money’. Not to be shy I got involved myself included, churning out some of those Abba oldies. Great stuff!

The pop theme continued with Katy Perry who took to the stage wearing a crop top adorned in Strawberries, to a rapturous response. She played tracks off her debut album, really hitting her stride, and getting the audience jumping with ‘Hot and Cold’ and smash hit ‘I kissed a girl’.

The ladies were threatening to steal the show – what with Alesha Dixon shimmying and high kicking her way through her set, and Ladyhawke’s hooky guitar riffs winning her more friends in the Arena.

Lady Gaga could do with taking notice. She was greeted by a resounding chorus of boos, after turning up 15 minutes late for her set. Not that it bothered her much. She soon had the crowd dancing to her pop anthems that were as sparkly as the mask she was wearing.

Biffy Clyro - a furious 40 minutes

Battle of the Sexes

The boys were not to be outdone. We may have seen it all before with Ocean Colour Scene, but they still delivered with a greatest hits set. The tattooed lads from bonny Scotland, Biffy Clyro, rocking the main stage to it’s foundations. They kicked off a furious 40 minutes with brand new single ‘That Golden Rule’ which unleashed the crowd surfers for the first time that day.

Bands who did it for me Saturday included The Enemy, who’ve blossomed in the last 18 months into a band capable of engaging a whole stadium. Their 3 minute pop blasts including ‘Away from Here’ really resonated. Also, Athlete who treated us to tracks off their new album out on Monday, called Black Swan. Bit of a freebie plug? Yup, but they deserve it.

Other notable mentions were the award winners Elbow, Snow Patrol and of course the headliners, the Brothers Grim AKA Oasis, who later pulled out of their date at sister site Chelmsford, (oh dear what a shame!). Not that Essex missed much – the general consensus from the crowd was it was a lackluster performance by a band going through the motions. If this is to be the final death throes of Oasis, it seems they're going with a whimper rather than a bang.

Lily Allen sends temperatures rising

Sunday

Not to be outdone by the ladies the day before, Lily Allen got temperatures rising with an impromptu strip tease – her modesty only protected by 2 bits of black cloth. She bowled the crowd over with a greatest hits set, and kept looking to the wings for updates from the Ashes cricket at the Oval. 

Other main stagers included Irishmen The Script, who brought a bit of a Peter André look (quiffs and muscle tops?!?!). Johnny Borrell and Razorlight seemed to be going through the motions, although crowd reaction was good. The same couldn’t be said for Dizzee Rascal who got the crowd moving the instant he kicked off with Jus’ a Rascal, finishing up with Bonkers – the title of the song was exactly what the crowd went.

A band that took many by surprise at V were the Specials. A bit of silver hair may be creeping in on some of the guys, but they still have the moves of their younger days. The sent some quite barbed messages out to Gordon Brown about the state of the country, and got people skanking away to the likes of ‘Message to You, Rudy’ and ‘Ghost Town’.

Block Rocking Beats - Pendulum at V2009

Buzzing ears

Pendulum must have been by far the loudest of the whole weekend (ouch) getting ears buzzing with their block rocking drum and bass. The ultimate festival crowd pleasers got plenty hands in the air with ‘Propane Nightmares’ and ‘Slam’.

The Killers finished off the weekend on the main stage, with their usual assured swagger, but over on the 4 stage was the place to be. Fatboy Slim was mixing and mashing-up everything from ‘Bird of Prey’ to the Rolling Stones and the Artic Monkeys. Accompanied by the most amazing light show ever seen at Weston Park – it really was a tripping way to end the weekend.

To top it off the whole of the weekend was a warm and dry. The rest of the summer  can now rain all it likes, I’m already looking forward to next year.

*additional reporting by Matt Lee.