O2 Wireless Festival - The Strokes (22 June 2006)

We won free tickets for the O2 Wireless Festival last Tuesday in Hyde Park. (Yeah, we always seem to win stuff. We're just so lucky. Just the other day, I found out I'd won a free voucher for a haircut and massage at some pŌsh salon plus 2 cases of beer! Sweet as!)

The festival ran from Tuesday till Sunday and featured loads of cool bands and people such as The Strokes, David Gray, Massive Attack, The Who (at the one held in Leeds), The Flaming Lips, DJ Shadow, Zero 7, Goldfrapp, Violent Femmes, James Blunt (bleurgh) and Aussies: Missy Higgins and Ben Lee. Just to name a few. Celebrities reported as attending included Paris "I Can Sing too" Hilton, Kelly "I'm Famous cos of my Daddy" Osbourne and "Cocaine" Kate Moss. We didn't see them, but the tabloids assured us they did appear.

We left work early on Tuesday for the opening day which had The Strokes headlining. It was a nice and hot day for an outdoor concert. There was an OK turn out of early birds, but everybody else seemed to have been content to leave work on-time to get here for the more established acts. Some people came in full business suit attire with standard issue briefcase.

This is Gogol Bordello, a Gypsy punk band. They showed that you can put on a cabaret-style show (similar to MGF) and play the accordion and violin and still be punk rock and entertaining.




We then decided to stretch our legs and explore the rest of the Festival's offerings. We caught a few minutes of The Sounds, who were really going off in the Fender tent.


They even had all sorts of alternative market stalls. Places where you could buy jewellery, scarves, inflatable furniture, cowboy hats, jelly shots, and even an O2 bar (where you attach some tubes up your nose and they pump up pure oxygen!).


Cool!


We then returned to the Main Stage for some Dirty Pretty Things.


We then continued our exploration and encountered these guys in bright aqua and obviously thought what the hell? Then we noticed the third guy shaping up for a running jump.










By the way, Glen, I gave them your number and email address. I told them we had a friend who was good at this sort of stuff... Like, way better than them. They were really interested and said they'd be keen on a foursome.


Then, back again to the Main Stage to experience The Raconteurs. Fans of The White Stripes (or those of you who follow Renee Zellweger's personal life in the tabloids) will recognise the incredibly talented Jack White.




Then we were treated to some Belle and Sebastian to calm things down a little...




...before The Strokes came out to rock us.


They played a tight set and pleased the now-large crowd. There didn't seem to be much moshing or anything from the rather subdued crowd. Maybe it was the sun staying up till 10pm and the way they kept plying themselves with beer and also the wacky cigarettes they were rolling...

Mary, we came to visit but you weren't home...

After seeing as much of Malmö as we could in a day, we caught the early train the Sunday morning to København (Copenhagen), Denmark. Two countries in one weekend. However, they do say that the cosmopolitan Malmö leans more towards Copenhagen than to Stockholm (it did used to be occupied by Danish Vikings). So although it's technically two countries, some guide books say it's not really Sweden.



Having only a day and a half in Copenhagen, we dropped our bags off at our hotel near the central station and set off to follow a "Lonely Planet" self-guided walk.

This is down the Strøget, which is the main street (actually made up of a few streets together) and the longest pedestrian shopping area in the world.


The Caritas Fountain (Fountain of Charity)


Further down the Strøget


The Stork Fountain


Checking out the tallest man in the world outside the Guinness World of Records Museum. Man, he's tall.


The trendy Nyhavn


Further up towards the Amalienborg Slot (Palace)... That's the Opera House across the water.


No sign of our Mary, her Frederik, or the "Kingaroo"... Hmmm... we've just realised that this is actually the winter home of the Danish Royal Family. They're probably staying at Marselisborg Slot in Århus right now. Darnit.


And we made it just in time for the daily at noon "Changing of the Guard". They have lines on the ground marking out the route that the guards take and where you need to stand clear of. That's why this shot is devoid of people. If you aren't clear or if you get too close they will push and shove you out of the way. They're not like the ones in England that don't flinch.


Waiting for the new guards to arrive from their march from the barracks.


Synchronised formation marching


They stood like this for about 10 minutes. Who knows what's going on.


Some of them probably can't even see...


I was too afraid to get too close. Tam kept telling me to get closer, but I didn't want to get pushed (or shot). At the time, it felt like I was right next to him.


Yup, that's Michelangelo's "David"


Dragons!


King Neptune I presume


The Gefion Fountain is the largest monument in Copenhagen and depicts the ancient legend telling how the Goddess Gefion turned her four sons into oxen and ploughed the earth to create Zealand, the island where Copenhagen is. Apparently, this is supposed to be the equivalent of the Fontana di Trevi in Rome (which we both fell in love with). Of this one, I think Shania Twain put it best when she said "that don't impress me much".


Den Lille Havfrue (The Little Mermaid) - The National Symbol of Denmark, and where our Lonely Planet tour ended.


A Valkyrie!


Curiously, this is almost the same shot as the photo in the weblink


The onion-domed St Aleksander Nevsky Church


The Frederiks Kirke (popularly known as the Marmorkirken - the Marble Church)


Back again to the Nyhavn


Hans Christian Andersen at the Kongens Have (the Kings Garden) near Rosenborg Slot (Rosenborg Castle). Like, what seems like most of Europe, people go sunbathing in their undies at the park


The Rosenborg Slot, where we checked out the Crown Jewels (which weren't all that) and inside the Castle, which is pretty much a storage room for excess bling, furniture, paintings, clocks and anything else.


We then set off in search of a pub to watch Australia take on Brazil in the World Cup. We ended up at The Dubliner, an Irish pub full of Aussies and a smattering of Brazilians, where we had some chicken wings and drank beers costing about $10 Aussie!! Everything is very expensive in Copenhagen.

At the end of the match we had to go for a walk and we saw the intertwined dragon-tailed spire of the Børsen (Stock) Exchange


We headed back over again to the Nyhavn. I wasn't very happy. You can imagine how we're feeling now that ITALY CHEATED and knocked us out. That was such a bad dive. The referees should totally have watched this video first. Shame Italy. Shame.


Aren't those colourful buildings pretty? Why don't we have anything cool like that in Sydney?


The Rådhus (City Hall)


A building with cool ads near the Rådhuspladsen (City Hall Square) - Check out the slogan for Carlsberg! - Probably the best beer in town.


Visiting the famous Tivoli Gardens


The Tivoli Gardens is an amusement park in the centre of town right next to the Rådhuspladsen. In fact, this is the inspiration for Walt Disney's version. And yes, the admission is fairly pricey, even at 9:30pm-ish. Yes, this is night-time! It didn't get fully dark until about 11:30pm!!


It's very Disney-like inside. So nice and clean and easy on the eyes.


They have restaurants and rides of all kinds (including the world's highest carousel - no way I was getting on that!) and bands and shows and other fun things.


Besides the jazz band they had playing Gershwin's "Summertime", you had to pay for most everything else.


One of the rollercoasters and a small Chinatown section


A carousel with chickens and giraffes and other assorted animals


We did "enjoy" the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale puppet show, imaginatively titled "A Tivoli Fairytale", which is a panto-flavoured (huge) puppet show held almost nightly. Those appear to be sails... And that is one giant book.


The aforementioned highest carousel in the world, Himmelskibet. It's 80 metres above the ground, fool!


The show finally starts. With their hyperactive enthusiasm and permanent cheesy grins, these plucky young things could definitely have qualified as Mouseketeers. All cynicism aside, it was a good show which we enjoyed.It was bizarre though how it's held almost every night at 11pm. Makes you think that the show is actually for the adults. One other possibility is that kids stay up late in Denmark. But then again, maybe they're trying to help us recapture our childhood and make a statement about how crazy the world has gone.


Thumbelina


The Tinder-box


A scary witch!


The Ugly Duckling emerges as a Beautiful Swan amidst fireworks


The next day we decided to visit the Vor Frelser Kirke (Our Saviour’s Church) in Christianshavn in the city's south to climb up the top for the panoramic views of Copenhagen. This is what the top looks like.


On the way, we passed the dragons of the Børsen once again. How cool are they? The Danes do have a fantastic imagination don't they? Hmmm... it kinda resembles the previous photo, hey?


A Carlsberg truck!


Pretty canal in Christianshavn


Realising that we'd get to the church before it opened, we decided to take a detour and visit Christiania. It's sort of supposed to be a hippie commune separate from Copenhagen (yet physically within Copenhagen).


It used to be the place to go if you were looking for anything illegal, normally drugs. Now its not the same as it used to be. I think they still allow drugs, but only "soft" drugs (whatever that means).


There was a police presence around when we were there though (left of photo). Which we didn't mind, as it felt like we were walking into Little Eveleigh Street in Redfern. I took a few snaps before Tam noticed the "No Photos" sign and that people were looking at us as if we didn't belong.




And back to civilisation. Back to the good ol' EU.


And then we climbed the 400 steps up to the top of the Vor Frelser Kirke for these views






You can probably tell its very windy. I'm not good with heights and I was holding on for sweet dear life.


Back on solid ground (thank God) inside the Church




And the Church again


We then caught a bus back and did some last minute sightseeing/shopping before flying back to London. We didn't get to see Mary or Freddie or little whatshisname, but we still had some fun.