Xfm's Isle Of Wight 2008 Picks
Take your sea-sickness tablets and get ready for the hovercraft, because it's time again to cross the Solent and set up camp at the Isle Of Wight festival. Xfm tells you what you shouldn't miss and what you should avoid...
Well, looking out of the window here at the luxurious Xfm office, the weather might be a bit unsettled across the Solent, but let’s not let this dampen one of the biggest festivals of the summer – the Isle Of Wight, no less.
A whole smorgasbord of acts both old and new are lined up for your delectation, so once you’ve fallen out of the hovercraft/ferry/Fast Cat and negotiated the shuttle buses, what should you be setting your sights on.
Out of the headliners, the Kaiser Chiefs always give good festival, plus it’s worth seeing the Sex Pistols and The Police, just to tick ‘em off the list, although there have been reports of Mr Sting and his old colleagues “reinterpreting old classics”. And is there a phrase in the English language more terrifying than that? It just conjures up images of "Jazz Odyssey".
You can rely on both Iggy And The Stooges and The Wombats to be well-drilled and hilarious in equal measures. The Zutons will be your best bet for boozed-up festy anthems (drink responsibly, kids), while it’d be nice to see James encouraging the audience to sit down during, well, “Sit Down” in the time-honoured style. As long as it’s not raining, of course.
Away from the main stage, there’s an excellent triple-bill of The Music, New Young Pony Club and Feeder, which means you can probably hole up in the Big Top for most of Sunday. Don’t miss Ida Maria in the ‘Top on Saturday, though – she played Xfm’s show at the Camden Crawl a couple of months back and was stunning.
On the minus side, if you're in the queue for burritos and Ian Brown hits the stage, don't rush back to the crowd as hit legendarily flat vocals have often scuppered a potentially great performance.
And who knows, the spirit of Jimi Hendrix may visit us all over the weekend. Maybe he’ll tell us if that sex tape thing was real or not. Amazing.