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...