August 31st, 2009

Saturday

Vampire Weekend brought out the late afternoon sun on Saturday with a typically cheerful, breezy performance. It’s perfect for the time of day, and the now established favourites from their eponymous debut album fully deliver the goods and are met with the same amount of enthusiasm that the band continues to deliver them with. The group also manage to keep the crowd entertained and engaged while playing a selection of new songs – something other acts have failed to do so far. Overall it’s yet another accomplished performance from a band who are fast becoming one of the most reliable festival acts on the circuit. It’s hard to imagine a time when ‘A-Punk’ won’t put smiles on the faces of all who go to see them.

Later, Yeah Yeah Yeahs confirm a stronger afternoon/evening than the day before with a powerful performance of their rock-disco tunes. Despite not acknowledging the crowd until the closing stages, frontwoman Karen O, decked out in an outfit straight out of 1970s wrestling, shows why she is one of the most engaging singers on the planet, working the crowd effortlessly. Her boundless enthusiasm is impossible to resist and the band show their versatility when things are slowed down for an acoustic rendition of ‘Maps’ which is even more haunting and passionate in it’s stripped down form. Songs from their under-rated new album ‘It’s Blitz!‘ sit well with the established hits such as ‘Gold Lion’ and set closer ‘Date With The Night’, and the performance shows them up as one of the stronger live acts on show at this year’s festival.

As the sun rose on the first day of the 2009 Leeds Festival, expectations were high on site with an impressive afternoon/evening Main Stage line-up. However, by the end of the night, it was hard to shake off an over-riding feeling of disappointment.

Manchester band The Courteeners took to the stage in the late afternoon to a very respectable crowd on the Main Stage. The band have forged a devoted following in the north of England and everything looked to be in place for a strong set. “This festival starts now!” declared the ever modest frontman Liam Fray, but the crowd weren’t ready to follow his lead. Ultimately the performance fell flat, songs from 2008 debut ‘St. Jude‘ now seem overly familiar, and the band and fans seem to have grown tired of the songs which were delivered with real power and passion 18 months ago. Any casual fans or critics were unlikely to be bowled over by what was a 5/10 performance at best.

Amidst this weekend’s whirlwind of events over in the Oasis camp there is still business to be done in the world of fashion . Our friends and frequent contributors at stopcryingyourheartout.com were invited to an exclusive preview of the new Autumn Winter 09 collection from Liam Gallagher’s Pretty Green clothing label. For the past 4 weeks, the industry’s top retailers have been viewing the range and along with 20 ‘Premium members’ of the brand, SCYHO were given access to the new range and we were sent their exclusive report:

Developments over the past 48 hours have brought new interest into Noel and Liam’s extra curricular activities and over the coming weeks, Pretty Green will be under the spotlight more than ever before. It seems that if ever there was a time to launch properly into the fashion community beyond simply being ‘Liam’s side project’ then this is the time. And to say fans won’t be disappointed is an understatement.