Dear readers, here we are at the Festival Internacional de Benicassim one year on, and boy are we having an amazing time so far. The sun is shining, the people are smiling, and we are just getting ourselves glammed up for another night on the tarmac/grass/gravel.
Unfortunately I was forced into slave labour at The Bank Friday morning, so we missed Thursday's antics- Nada Surf, Lightspeed Champion and Sigur Ros were just a few who kicked off the festival with what we hear was a huge bang - but PJ and I rocked up into town yesterday afternoon as soon as I could get myself out of that dingy office. With our suitcases in the boot, we went straight into the festival to see what was cooking, pushed past Alaska and her flame-coloured hair and grabbed our press passes, and headed to the house to leave our luggage. We made it back to the festival as fast as we could so as to not miss a single minute more and it was straight over to the FIBClub tent for some seriously trendy electronic punk-rock with the crazy Devon-born Metronomy, the latest group with an enormous myspace fanbase. With touch-sensitive bedside lights taped to their chests, they put on an impressive show and the Spanish "popero" crowd bopped themselves silly to tracks like Holiday and Radio Ladio. But alas, it was time to catch Babyshambles in action. Friday's first band to storm the Heineken green stage, the sad truth is that a sober Pete Doherty does not put on an especially exciting performance, and the crowd looked slightly bored if we are perfectly honest. Personally, I thought it was a lovely and relaxed way to begin the evening, even though we were expecting to be shaken and stirred by the infamous frontman's raucous behaviour.
We met some friends to rock out to the New York Dolls, veteran guitar slinging 1970s glam punk band who reformed in 2004. We grabbed some beers and marvelled at how rock and roll the whole affair was, and wished we could have seen them in New York back in the day when they were just starting out and probably jumped about a bit more. They played Janis Joplin's Take Another Little Piece Of My Heart in tribute to another star of their time, and the whole crowd was singing along, which I love at concerts. I find it quite moving when everyone is swaying together in perfect harmony, screaming the words at the top of their lungs.
Something seemed to be seriously wrong with the sound on My Bloody Valentine, PJ was convinced they weren't singing at all as all you could hear was the music and no vocals whatsoever, which made it hard to enjoy so we bounced over to the FiberFIB stage for some of the incredible Hot Chip. We danced with Johann Wald to Over and Over, and PJ fell in love with a fellow photographer in the pit who was dancing all over the place with absolutely not a care in the world. She was fabulous, all skinny legs and converse and red lipstick, and almost distracted us from the excellent Alexis Taylor and co., who ensured there was not a single person standing still on the whole tent. And who couldn't have fun watching the entire band enjoy themselves so much they looked like they were about to explode? Joe Goddard (see photo) kept PJ highly entertained - almost as much as skinny photographer girl!
She was wearing red geek-glasses but as was predicted by Lolita and myself, this year the Kanye West-style sunnies, coloured plastic grills, are absolutely everywhere, and if you don't own a pair of wayfarers you are nobody.
La Casa Azul in Moby-style played an array of instruments all on his own, and even though we didn't know the words, we felt truly happy as we jumped about to the best feel-good music on the planet. PJ was getting more and more into his photographer role and using it as a bit of a ploy to talk to girls, if you ask me - one even offered him money to put her photo on the web! (He didn't accept, of course).
I left the others getting drinks by the FIBClub tent and couldn't have run faster over to see my most favourite lady, the wonderful Roisin Murphy. I got there just in time for the Moloko track, Forever More. Murphy and her two backing singers danced and jived all over the stage together, and the audience was ecstatic as they felt the emotion in Ruby Blue and gazed at Murphy as she changed outfits once per song.
Mika was up next, and the stage was alive with a fairground backdrop, Maypoles, and fairy lights for a magical set. Opening with Relax, Take it Easy, Mika strode all over the opening his enormous mouth to roar into the mike in sparkly white trousers and plain tee. Two of the girls from the video for his Croydon-filmed Big Girls came out for the track, and that they were- jumping on the stage just as Mika asked the crowd if there were any Big Girls in the house. Confetti, bunny suits and feathers filled the escenario verde for an amazing show in true Mika style- fun fun fun!
Tonight we have my new loves The Ting Tings, Gnarls Barkley, The Raconteurs, The Kills, Lori Meyers and more to show us how the festival will fold out in what tends to be its busiest night.
Check out http://www.thisisvalencia.com for the full gallery of photos and come back tomorrow for a full review of tonight's malarkey!
