30 replies to this topic

[Joe.]

Interesting blog from Andy Kato, one half of Groove Armada, after V festival.

Over in the artist area there was already a queue for the washrooms. Having no shower gel with me, I made the most of the waiting time by decanting some of the toilet hand soap into an empty water bottle. But the waiting went on for a long while due to a faulty water supply. Every few minutes there were the cries of people stuck with shampoo in their eyes while the plumber pulled and pushed pipes round the back

Then I noticed the empty shower block just the other side of some temporary fencing

A couple of us found a gap in the barrier. Out of nowhere came a very large man. "Reserved for the Kings of Leon" he said, "and so is this half of the artist toilets". It's hard to believe that someone actually phoned their agent and said "listen I know that Paul Weller, Kasabian, Florence, Stereophonics, Groove Armada + co are all sharing the artist village and facilities, but we require that you put a fence down the middle of the toilets and showers and put a large man there to keep them just for us." But somebody did.

Eventually I got scolded all over for a couple of minutes, though I was pleased with the success of the decanted hand soap.

Backstage again, we were outside the catering tent, about to cross the path back to the dressing rooms when loads of massive blokes in suits and shades came out of nowhere shouting "don't move, don't move, DO NOT move" whilst pushing people back to the sides of the track. Was it Obama?

Tom explained that he was just crossing over to the dressing room to start getting ready.

"No you're not" said a big man.

"Yes I am" said tom.

Out came the enormous hand.

The conversation between tom and the big man got more heated. Then 4 blacked out range rovers came round the corner. One for each King of Leon. As it became clear what all this presidential fuss was about, tom gave the worldwide one fingered sign of dislike as the cars went past. The last one stopped. The drummer got out making "come on then" type gestures. "Come on then" tom gestured back. Instead, the drummer went back behind his bodyguards, and, pointing towards Tom, Paul Weller, and the various other musicians who were pinned by the side of the road, said "I want them removed."

"You will be removed" said the big man.

"No we won't"

The promoter came over, smoothed it over and apologised. Bearing in mind this was all happening backstage in the area shared by all the bands, it's hard to see what the Kings thought they were protecting themselves from. Was Paul Weller going to hound them for autographs? Was Florence going to wrestle them to the ground? Or maybe Stereophonics were going to ask them to write "your sex is on fire" on an album sleeve?

Nevertheless, the Kings had 4 minutes before going onstage to enjoy all those showers and toilets they'd kept to themselves.

We had a great crowd for our gig. Hat off to Staffordshire. It was the gig of the weekend.

We came off stage into the van that would take us back round to the dressing room. As we weaved through thick woodland, a message came over the radio to the driver to pull off the road, repeat, "Pull Off The Road." Guess who.

The Kings were on their way out.

So we waited, reluctantly, whilst getting pretty annoyed with our driver for stopping. A few of us got out, to give the Kings a fond farewell. We made plans. MAD suggested the next day's headline.

"Crap Band Killed in Wood".

Eventually, a couple of buses for crew and entourage came round the corner, followed by the 4 individual range rovers. What a lonely existence.
Back in the artist area, there was a good vibe around the bar. 3 cases of champagne were sent over to GA HQ as a thanks for telling it straight to the Kings.

What a complete bunch of bellends they've become.

[Ilkeston_Fox]

Interesting blog from Andy Kato, one half of Groove Armada, after V festival.

Over in the artist area there was already a queue for the washrooms. Having no shower gel with me, I made the most of the waiting time by decanting some of the toilet hand soap into an empty water bottle. But the waiting went on for a long while due to a faulty water supply. Every few minutes there were the cries of people stuck with shampoo in their eyes while the plumber pulled and pushed pipes round the back

Then I noticed the empty shower block just the other side of some temporary fencing

A couple of us found a gap in the barrier. Out of nowhere came a very large man. "Reserved for the Kings of Leon" he said, "and so is this half of the artist toilets". It's hard to believe that someone actually phoned their agent and said "listen I know that Paul Weller, Kasabian, Florence, Stereophonics, Groove Armada + co are all sharing the artist village and facilities, but we require that you put a fence down the middle of the toilets and showers and put a large man there to keep them just for us." But somebody did.

Eventually I got scolded all over for a couple of minutes, though I was pleased with the success of the decanted hand soap.

Backstage again, we were outside the catering tent, about to cross the path back to the dressing rooms when loads of massive blokes in suits and shades came out of nowhere shouting "don't move, don't move, DO NOT move" whilst pushing people back to the sides of the track. Was it Obama?

Tom explained that he was just crossing over to the dressing room to start getting ready.

"No you're not" said a big man.

"Yes I am" said tom.

Out came the enormous hand.

The conversation between tom and the big man got more heated. Then 4 blacked out range rovers came round the corner. One for each King of Leon. As it became clear what all this presidential fuss was about, tom gave the worldwide one fingered sign of dislike as the cars went past. The last one stopped. The drummer got out making "come on then" type gestures. "Come on then" tom gestured back. Instead, the drummer went back behind his bodyguards, and, pointing towards Tom, Paul Weller, and the various other musicians who were pinned by the side of the road, said "I want them removed."

"You will be removed" said the big man.

"No we won't"

The promoter came over, smoothed it over and apologised. Bearing in mind this was all happening backstage in the area shared by all the bands, it's hard to see what the Kings thought they were protecting themselves from. Was Paul Weller going to hound them for autographs? Was Florence going to wrestle them to the ground? Or maybe Stereophonics were going to ask them to write "your sex is on fire" on an album sleeve?

Nevertheless, the Kings had 4 minutes before going onstage to enjoy all those showers and toilets they'd kept to themselves.

We had a great crowd for our gig. Hat off to Staffordshire. It was the gig of the weekend.

We came off stage into the van that would take us back round to the dressing room. As we weaved through thick woodland, a message came over the radio to the driver to pull off the road, repeat, "Pull Off The Road." Guess who.

The Kings were on their way out.

So we waited, reluctantly, whilst getting pretty annoyed with our driver for stopping. A few of us got out, to give the Kings a fond farewell. We made plans. MAD suggested the next day's headline.

"Crap Band Killed in Wood".

Eventually, a couple of buses for crew and entourage came round the corner, followed by the 4 individual range rovers. What a lonely existence.
Back in the artist area, there was a good vibe around the bar. 3 cases of champagne were sent over to GA HQ as a thanks for telling it straight to the Kings.

What a complete bunch of bellends they've become.

Facking hell. Guess who's playing on the radio right now? Yup Kings of Leon.

Surely half of the buzz for things like that is interacting with the fans and other bands?? Unless of course you're a group of self-obsessed morons I guess.

[Bellend Sebastian]

I bought the first album and thought that was alright, but since then they've done nothing but bore me senseless.

I can see why you'd want Paul Weller to be kept away but that seems a bit over the top to say the least

[hairy]

KOL cancel show due to bird pooping on bassist

[Bellend Sebastian]

I thought that was supposed to be lucky? Miserable bastards

[Trav Le Bleu]

I'm almost willing to forgive them THAT for THIS though:

KOL Upset Heaton


Heaton slams Kings of Leon over V Festival behaviour

Singer Paul Heaton has publicly slammed the Kings Of Leon for their unfriendly behaviour, insisting they were the only band to not be "nice" to him at this weekend's V Festival.
The former The Beautiful South frontman performed sets before the US rockers at both Saturday's Staffordshire V and Sunday's Essex V - and used his performance on the second day to hammer the Use Somebody hitmakers for their bad attitude from the day before.

Heaton took aim at Caleb and Nathan Followill and their bandmates for having their own compound and for failing to mingle with the other acts.

He told his fans, "I don't like Kings Of Leon; they've got their own compound. We couldn't get in because we didn't have beards... Everyone has been really nice except the Kings."

[Fosse Boy]

Unreal.

[Bellend Sebastian]

I'm almost willing to forgive them THAT for THIS though:

KOL Upset Heaton


Heaton slams Kings of Leon over V Festival behaviour

Singer Paul Heaton has publicly slammed the Kings Of Leon for their unfriendly behaviour, insisting they were the only band to not be "nice" to him at this weekend's V Festival.
The former The Beautiful South frontman performed sets before the US rockers at both Saturday's Staffordshire V and Sunday's Essex V - and used his performance on the second day to hammer the Use Somebody hitmakers for their bad attitude from the day before.

Heaton took aim at Caleb and Nathan Followill and their bandmates for having their own compound and for failing to mingle with the other acts.

He told his fans, "I don't like Kings Of Leon; they've got their own compound. We couldn't get in because we didn't have beards... Everyone has been really nice except the Kings."

KOL probably liked The Housemartins and felt let down by The Beautiful South as well

[The Doctor]

arrogant arseholes.

[Vålerenga]

i'm sorry, but the groove armada guy comes across as almost as big a cock -

namedropping himself in a list of artists who are way more successful and moaning about the shower plumbing, yawn - you're supposed to be a rock star at a festival, not a 12 year old girl on a school trip.

fair play to KOL if they are big enough to get that kind of treatment, then good luck to 'em, sounds like sour grapes to me.

[Joe.]

fair play to KOL if they are big enough to get that kind of treatment, then good luck to 'em, sounds like sour grapes to me.

You are joking, right?

[lildave3]

KOL probably liked The Housemartins and felt let down by The Beautiful South as well

Just what exactly are you implying about The Housemartins!

[Michael The Work Geordie]

We're always a decent, not remarkable band, then they released Only By The Night which had one or two tracks with massive mainstream appeal and now they're brilliant.

Sound like right scrotes.

[Vålerenga]

You are joking, right?

no, not in the least - i'm sure compared to some artists they have fairly pedestrian ego's

the whole business is littered with people whoring for status, awful ego trips like MTV cribs, always has been, always will be.

having the celebrity muscle over some bands that aren't exactly world greats, to the extent that they can have showers reserved for them hardly makes them arses or bellends.

i'm sure if this armada guy had been offered his own private shower, he'd have jumped for joy and would probably be boasting in his blog about it.

i don't care for KOL at all, but it sounds like a lot of fuss over nothing, and if this bloke has nothing better to blog about after a festival, then he's obviously not very rock n roll

edit: furthermore, who says that it was the band that arranged this, it could have been the label or the promoters, by the sounds of it they didn't even use them.

no, sorry, whinging name dropping jealousy from a band that had one decent song (thanks to a sample) and who's last singles romped to 196 & 167 in the charts. they should count themselves lucky they were even playing there

Edited by Vålerenga, 16 September 2010 - 12:52 AM.

[shen]

no, not in the least - i'm sure compared to some artists they have fairly pedestrian ego's

the whole business is littered with people whoring for status, awful ego trips like MTV cribs, always has been, always will be.

having the celebrity muscle over some bands that aren't exactly world greats, to the extent that they can have showers reserved for them hardly makes them arses or bellends.

i'm sure if this armada guy had been offered his own private shower, he'd have jumped for joy and would probably be boasting in his blog about it.

i don't care for KOL at all, but it sounds like a lot of fuss over nothing, and if this bloke has nothing better to blog about after a festival, then he's obviously not very rock n roll

But cancelling a show because the bassist gets shat on by a bird? I'd be pissed off big time if I paid to see that show. How many rock artists haven't done an Ozzy and bitten heads off during their shows?

[James.]

no, sorry, whinging name dropping jealousy from a band that had one decent song (thanks to a sample) and who's last singles romped to 196 & 167 in the charts. they should count themselves lucky they were even playing there

Hmm seems a bit naive to think Groove Armada were jealous. Personally I'm not a big fan of them but they are still very prominent on the festivals and clubbing circuit (DJ sets primarily as opposed to live sets) and I would imagine they make a very nice amount of money from both.

Kings of Leon sound like dicks. It's not so much what they do with their money (fuck it they can do what they want), it's how they appear to conduct themselves. I'm surprised to see you defending them.

[Joe.]

no, not in the least - i'm sure compared to some artists they have fairly pedestrian ego's

the whole business is littered with people whoring for status, awful ego trips like MTV cribs, always has been, always will be.

having the celebrity muscle over some bands that aren't exactly world greats, to the extent that they can have showers reserved for them hardly makes them arses or bellends.

But it's not reserved for them, they demand it. I've read about it other places too. And furthermore they completely ignore other artists at their festivals, even attempt to have them ejected for nothing and generally alienate themselves from everybody else around them. Including the fans, who are now wrapped round their fingers like pathetic performing seals.

I know they don't have much of a hand in this but they're charging £55 for their next tour. That's just obscene. And the sad thing is that they will undoubtedly sell out.

Their first three albums were superb, the fourth too was good, but since this mainstream success they've simply become total wankers.

[purpleronnie]

I bought the first album and thought that was alright, but since then they've done nothing but bore me senseless.

I can see why you'd want Paul Weller to be kept away but that seems a bit over the top to say the least

Agreed the first album was good but after that MOR.

And I don't agree about mr weller, one of only a few artists who are still writing great records in their 50's, a rare breed.

[Trav Le Bleu]

KOL probably liked The Housemartins and felt let down by The Beautiful South as well

Housemartins = likeable pop band with interesting tunes

Beautiful South = Oh listen to our oh so clever lyrics, aren't we rude (snigger), pop-by-numbers blandmeisters.

[Bellend Sebastian]

Agreed the first album was good but after that MOR.

And I don't agree about mr weller, one of only a few artists who are still writing great records in their 50's, a rare breed.

I appreciate Mr Weller has a loyal following that still value him years after others have fallen by the wayside, but I'm just not a fan and never have been. I can even remember not liking 'Going Underground' was number 1, so I've got about 30 years of Weller un-appreciation under me belt