2023 live...Chapter 17: All Together Now – County Waterford, August 4-6 2023
Friday
Trek to campsite. Find bearings. Admire grounds.
Time for Lankum in the tent. Crowd love it. Sound is great but I am largely unmoved. See Chapter 9.
That night the rain. Mud skiing. The Kraken Bar in the woods. Because it had a roof. And rum.
Saturday
The sun comes back out. Still ample mud for thigh workouts.
Glasshouse play Joni Mitchell on the bandstand. Hearing Canada in the sunshine here is one of those perfect festival/life moments. One of the singers is Rachael Lavelle. More on her later in this series.
Ringo Bingo in the kids area. A welcome diversion. Also clean toilets.
Lisa O’Neill on the main stage. I’ve been agnostic but she is great here. Including a rousing cover of Black boys on mopeds by Sinéad O’Connor.
Black Country New Road in the tent. Very interesting chamber/prog pop vibe. Your man right of stage immediately endears himself to me by announcing he’s had Beamish for the first time the day before – at a Guinness-sponsored festival.
Sugababes. Main stage. Surrounded by women in their 30s declaring girl power. Very enjoyable and kind of inspiring.
Billy Bragg in the tent. In sparkling form. Spoke about Sinéad O’Connor’s legacy, trans activism as the new gay activism, and the whole crowd sang along to Power in the union. Stirring stuff.
Caribou. Main stage. Fucking tremendous. Full stop. Dance workouts. Two drumkits. Band breakdowns. Accompanied by a transcendental light show. One of the highlights. Of my life.
Straight afterwards. Daphni in the tent. Another great set from Dan (Snaith) the man.
Sunday
Lunchtime is spent in the company of the wonderful Liam Brady in the interview tent. Legend. Danny Kelly asking the questions. Both excellent value. Including the hilarious story about Trappatoni hooking up his stereo for him when he was at Inter Milan.
Max Richter with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. Powerful. Nymanesque. Grown adults in tears. Perhaps the powers that be could re-direct some of Tubridy’s “salary” to more of this kind of thing.
Iggy Pop after dark. Fantastic if a bit scary. Lust for life. The Passenger. I wanna be your dog. Ageless songs. Limping around the stage topless throwing up the middle finger. What we all aspire to in our retirement years. Among the crack backing band was the superb Sarah Lipstate (Noveller) on guitar/effects/violin bow.
Beak> on the second stage. Another highlight of the weekend/my life. Monstrous krautrock grooves. Plus a cut out of Rishi Sunak’s head on the hi-hat. We’ll have his head off. 😊
James Murphy in the tent. A wonderful disco meets techno set. I hear that you and your band have sold your guitars and bought turntables.
Thank you Waterford and goodnight.
Trek to campsite. Find bearings. Admire grounds.
Time for Lankum in the tent. Crowd love it. Sound is great but I am largely unmoved. See Chapter 9.
That night the rain. Mud skiing. The Kraken Bar in the woods. Because it had a roof. And rum.
Saturday
The sun comes back out. Still ample mud for thigh workouts.
Glasshouse play Joni Mitchell on the bandstand. Hearing Canada in the sunshine here is one of those perfect festival/life moments. One of the singers is Rachael Lavelle. More on her later in this series.
Ringo Bingo in the kids area. A welcome diversion. Also clean toilets.
Lisa O’Neill on the main stage. I’ve been agnostic but she is great here. Including a rousing cover of Black boys on mopeds by Sinéad O’Connor.
Black Country New Road in the tent. Very interesting chamber/prog pop vibe. Your man right of stage immediately endears himself to me by announcing he’s had Beamish for the first time the day before – at a Guinness-sponsored festival.
Sugababes. Main stage. Surrounded by women in their 30s declaring girl power. Very enjoyable and kind of inspiring.
Billy Bragg in the tent. In sparkling form. Spoke about Sinéad O’Connor’s legacy, trans activism as the new gay activism, and the whole crowd sang along to Power in the union. Stirring stuff.
Caribou. Main stage. Fucking tremendous. Full stop. Dance workouts. Two drumkits. Band breakdowns. Accompanied by a transcendental light show. One of the highlights. Of my life.
Straight afterwards. Daphni in the tent. Another great set from Dan (Snaith) the man.
Sunday
Lunchtime is spent in the company of the wonderful Liam Brady in the interview tent. Legend. Danny Kelly asking the questions. Both excellent value. Including the hilarious story about Trappatoni hooking up his stereo for him when he was at Inter Milan.
Max Richter with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. Powerful. Nymanesque. Grown adults in tears. Perhaps the powers that be could re-direct some of Tubridy’s “salary” to more of this kind of thing.
Iggy Pop after dark. Fantastic if a bit scary. Lust for life. The Passenger. I wanna be your dog. Ageless songs. Limping around the stage topless throwing up the middle finger. What we all aspire to in our retirement years. Among the crack backing band was the superb Sarah Lipstate (Noveller) on guitar/effects/violin bow.
Beak> on the second stage. Another highlight of the weekend/my life. Monstrous krautrock grooves. Plus a cut out of Rishi Sunak’s head on the hi-hat. We’ll have his head off. 😊
James Murphy in the tent. A wonderful disco meets techno set. I hear that you and your band have sold your guitars and bought turntables.
Thank you Waterford and goodnight.
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