June 12: British Sea Power and The Manics
We got up, got ready and went down to the restaurant at the Esplanade Hotel, Thornton’s Restaurant, to have our English breakfast included with our room. The breakfast was good and very filling. It consisted of sausages, a fried egg, beans, bacon, fried tomatoes, and fried mushrooms. There were other people eating breakfast who we could tell were here for the festival. They played Virgin Radio over the PA system and it was playing Stereophonics.
We left straight from breakfast to the Shanklin Somerfield to catch the Southern Vectis bus to Newport. The bus wasn’t as crowded as the day before and we sat on the top level. We could see much more than on the lower level and it being daytime we could see much of the countryside and farms. One building we saw had a humorous name, Spithead, indicated by a sign. Rather than get off uphill from Seaclose Park, we got off at the Newport bus station and there we bought a Southern Vectis bus schedule. We walked around the town of Newport a bit and found a camera shop called Jessop where I thought I could have many of my pictures developed the next day. By having them developed before we got on the plane, I wouldn’t have to worry about the x-ray machine harming the film.
We walked from Newport towards the festival and walked past the entrance to the stand that was selling Minghella ice cream. My wife got an ice cream cone with mint chocolate chip flavored ice cream. I wanted to get some sorbet, but they didn’t have any, unfortunately. I had a hot dog for lunch from the stand next to the Minghella stand.
We walked to the entrance and entered the Festival. Security just checked to see if we had our wristbands on and if they were in decent condition. It looked like they were giving new wristbands to people whose wristbands were damaged. On stage there was a guy playing mellow songs on his acoustic guitar. I’m not sure if he was one of the official acts. We walked around a bit looking at all the different places to get food and there were many. They sold Indian food, Middle-Eastern food, seafood, vegetarian healthy foods, baguettes, doughnuts and cookies, even Mexican food.
We went back to the stage and saw a bit of the Leah Wood Group set. Next on was Proud Mary who were OK. Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel were up next. Being an older group that dated back to the 1970’s they were a crowd favorite. The lead singer, Steve Harley talked about going to the Isle of Wight festival in the late 1960’s as a spectator camping near the festival. Between acts the jumbotrons showed advertisements and videos including the Cure’s Lovecats video.
Next up were a band we were looking forward to: British Sea Power. They played several songs from their CD The Decline of British Sea Power with which I was familiar. One of their members wore a WWI style American army helmet and they decorated the stage with plastic birds such as an owl and a crane. One guy was the lead singer for most of the songs, though for one song, a guitarist sang lead. Things got crazy during one of the last songs of their set when presumably a band member or crewmember came on stage wearing this large brown bear costume and wreaked havoc on stage getting into a scuffle with the member with the helmet who jumped onto his back.
After British Sea Power we took a break from watching the concert and took a ride on the Ferris wheel. It gave us a great view of the crowded stage where the group Electric Soft Parade was playing and the festival grounds. We could also see more of Seaclose Park and the River Medina. We exited the Ferris wheel and had dinner. I had a lamb gyro sandwich from the Middle-Eastern place and my wife had a shrimp sandwich from the seafood place.
We returned to watching the main stage and saw The Stands whose lead singer reminded me of Bob Dylan with his big curly hair and harmonica around his neck. Following them was Jet the rock band from Australia who are played frequently on KROQ in L.A. We had actually heard them live before at the KROQ Inland Invasion in September 2003. They played their famous song, Are You Gonna be My Girl, and many others. I head from someone talking on the bus that Jet originally weren’t coming but Pete Townsend of The Who likes them so much he convinced them to come.
After Jet came one of the bands that my wife was most looking forward to: The Manic Street Preachers. They didn’t play any of the songs I had heard by them but they still sounded good. My wife has seen them live a few times before and got to hear some songs that she hadn’t heard live from them before. One of those songs was originally a duet with a female singer. Overall, my wife felt they seemed more like the supporting act that they were that night than a headliner.
We again skipped the evening’s headliner, The Who and left after the Manics’ set ended. Before going back to the bus station we walked around Newport looking at possible places to eat lunch the next day. My wife was looking for a place that served pasties that are like meat-filled empanadas. We saw a few pubs and one coffee shop that served pasties but we weren’t sure what would be open the next day, Sunday. We walked back to the Newport bus station and while waiting for the bus we could hear The Who playing their song Behind Blue Eyes. We rode the bus back to the Shanklin Somerfield and walked back to the Esplanade Hotel.
That evening while looking at a postcard I bought to send I realized that the tower behind our hotel was actually an elevator or lift as the English call it that would take us up to the top of the cliff and allow us to bypass walking up the hill.
We got up, got ready and went down to the restaurant at the Esplanade Hotel, Thornton’s Restaurant, to have our English breakfast included with our room. The breakfast was good and very filling. It consisted of sausages, a fried egg, beans, bacon, fried tomatoes, and fried mushrooms. There were other people eating breakfast who we could tell were here for the festival. They played Virgin Radio over the PA system and it was playing Stereophonics.
We left straight from breakfast to the Shanklin Somerfield to catch the Southern Vectis bus to Newport. The bus wasn’t as crowded as the day before and we sat on the top level. We could see much more than on the lower level and it being daytime we could see much of the countryside and farms. One building we saw had a humorous name, Spithead, indicated by a sign. Rather than get off uphill from Seaclose Park, we got off at the Newport bus station and there we bought a Southern Vectis bus schedule. We walked around the town of Newport a bit and found a camera shop called Jessop where I thought I could have many of my pictures developed the next day. By having them developed before we got on the plane, I wouldn’t have to worry about the x-ray machine harming the film.
We walked from Newport towards the festival and walked past the entrance to the stand that was selling Minghella ice cream. My wife got an ice cream cone with mint chocolate chip flavored ice cream. I wanted to get some sorbet, but they didn’t have any, unfortunately. I had a hot dog for lunch from the stand next to the Minghella stand.
We walked to the entrance and entered the Festival. Security just checked to see if we had our wristbands on and if they were in decent condition. It looked like they were giving new wristbands to people whose wristbands were damaged. On stage there was a guy playing mellow songs on his acoustic guitar. I’m not sure if he was one of the official acts. We walked around a bit looking at all the different places to get food and there were many. They sold Indian food, Middle-Eastern food, seafood, vegetarian healthy foods, baguettes, doughnuts and cookies, even Mexican food.
We went back to the stage and saw a bit of the Leah Wood Group set. Next on was Proud Mary who were OK. Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel were up next. Being an older group that dated back to the 1970’s they were a crowd favorite. The lead singer, Steve Harley talked about going to the Isle of Wight festival in the late 1960’s as a spectator camping near the festival. Between acts the jumbotrons showed advertisements and videos including the Cure’s Lovecats video.
Next up were a band we were looking forward to: British Sea Power. They played several songs from their CD The Decline of British Sea Power with which I was familiar. One of their members wore a WWI style American army helmet and they decorated the stage with plastic birds such as an owl and a crane. One guy was the lead singer for most of the songs, though for one song, a guitarist sang lead. Things got crazy during one of the last songs of their set when presumably a band member or crewmember came on stage wearing this large brown bear costume and wreaked havoc on stage getting into a scuffle with the member with the helmet who jumped onto his back.
After British Sea Power we took a break from watching the concert and took a ride on the Ferris wheel. It gave us a great view of the crowded stage where the group Electric Soft Parade was playing and the festival grounds. We could also see more of Seaclose Park and the River Medina. We exited the Ferris wheel and had dinner. I had a lamb gyro sandwich from the Middle-Eastern place and my wife had a shrimp sandwich from the seafood place.
We returned to watching the main stage and saw The Stands whose lead singer reminded me of Bob Dylan with his big curly hair and harmonica around his neck. Following them was Jet the rock band from Australia who are played frequently on KROQ in L.A. We had actually heard them live before at the KROQ Inland Invasion in September 2003. They played their famous song, Are You Gonna be My Girl, and many others. I head from someone talking on the bus that Jet originally weren’t coming but Pete Townsend of The Who likes them so much he convinced them to come.
After Jet came one of the bands that my wife was most looking forward to: The Manic Street Preachers. They didn’t play any of the songs I had heard by them but they still sounded good. My wife has seen them live a few times before and got to hear some songs that she hadn’t heard live from them before. One of those songs was originally a duet with a female singer. Overall, my wife felt they seemed more like the supporting act that they were that night than a headliner.
We again skipped the evening’s headliner, The Who and left after the Manics’ set ended. Before going back to the bus station we walked around Newport looking at possible places to eat lunch the next day. My wife was looking for a place that served pasties that are like meat-filled empanadas. We saw a few pubs and one coffee shop that served pasties but we weren’t sure what would be open the next day, Sunday. We walked back to the Newport bus station and while waiting for the bus we could hear The Who playing their song Behind Blue Eyes. We rode the bus back to the Shanklin Somerfield and walked back to the Esplanade Hotel.
That evening while looking at a postcard I bought to send I realized that the tower behind our hotel was actually an elevator or lift as the English call it that would take us up to the top of the cliff and allow us to bypass walking up the hill.
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