Super Saturday Night Part. II

The Kills, Alison "VV" Mosshart and Kate Moss' new man, Jamie Hince, are causing much speculation what with Pete being here too but one, we are not in an episode of High School Musical and two, this is FIB, feel the love! All is quickly forgotten once they strike up the first chord, and Miss Moss is far from everybody's minds as their energetic set gets the crowd hyped up to the sounds of No Wow, Love Is A Deserter and more from th. After Mika's all-out colour fest and musical finale-style set, and the five in the front row setup for The Brian Jonestown Massacre, it was bizarre to see just the two of The Kills playing on the main stage side by side, only coming closer together on rare occasions, and sans backdrops, clever lights and colourful tricks up their sleeves. Benicassim is a mere stop-off on their tour of the world's Summer festivals and VV was the antithesis to this years' 'Fibers' with all their neon, insy-bitsy-bikini tops and cropped hair - very rock-chic in skinny jeans, scarf and patterned shirt and her long black hair. Amazing.
If only to get me to stop singing Steady As She Goes, which proves to be The sing-along-song in their set later, PJ is dying to keep me distracted before The Raconteurs, and we 'kill' time, excuse the pun, eat some dinner from the food areas - kebab for him, jacket potato for me - and have a proper dance at the superb electro-house duo Booka Shade. The bass is pumping so hard I have to desert PJ in the photo pit, and I feel my chest may burst open. Some of the most outrageous and spectacular clubber outfits are here, making some serious shapes in the FiberFIB tent in silver body suits, neon eyelashes and slouchy boots.
I am first in the front row for The Raconteurs, their set a moody backdrop of wintry tree silhouettes and elaborately dramatic theatre curtains crowned by their signature 'R', and Jack White, breaking with his usual black white and red when playing with his sister Meg, looks exceedingly dapper in a brown suit embellished with sparkly rib cage on the front and spine on the back. He moved from guitar to piano and back and hit the crowd hard with songs from both Broken Boy Soldiers and the new, Consolers of the Lonely, yet Level and Steady definitely stole the show.
With a little time slot between Mr White and co. we rushed to catch a bit of our good pal Johann Wald who we'd had a bit of a boogie with on Friday at Hot Chip (Over and Over and Over and Over and Over, like a monkey with a miniature cymbal!), DJing with Calcetines at la Pista Pop for some indie and good-old guitar-based rock. Wicked. PJ was in his element.
Gnarls Barkley ran on stage dressed as public schoolboys. Navy shorts, white shirts and sleeveless jumpers, with Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse in matching mustard jackets and checked trousers, were the uniform of the evening as they injected the audience with their infectious mix of rap, soul, dance and hip-hop. Cee-Lo may be short but his presence is more than powerful, and the band hopped and jumped with their guitars and on the organs and all over the stage as they played hit after hit from their album St. Elswhere. Crazy was as expected, a rip-roaring success with the huge crowd, and the only disappointment was the lack of face make-up, replaced by dark sunglasses that would have been fun indeed. My new Amy Winehouse wannabee friends more than made up for it though with get-up that would have made Lolita Devine, my usual FIB side-kick and party loving pal, proud. I especially admired the roller in the fringe with the headscarf, I never thought I would be a fan of the Pat Butcher look.
Quite exhausted after all the rock, pop and dance, we flitted around from tent to tent flinging ourselves around to some hard techno, electro beats and drum'n'bass rhythms, finishing the night with my girlfriends from The Bank at John Acquaviva, before deciding that if we had to put our sunglasses on, it was probably time to call it a night. And much energy is needed for tonight - Vive La Fete, Morrissey, Justice and Death Cab will be closing the festival with a bang.
A.Darling
xxx

Fib Friday Night 18 july

Last night Friday 18 June - First real night of the festival the Line up was as follows - expect reports and pics later
17:30Vincent Vincent & The Villains Escenario Fiberfib.com
17:30 Gentle Music Men Vodafone FIB Club
18:40 The Rumble Strips Escenario Fiberfib.com
19:00 El Columpio Asesino Vodafone FIB Club
20:00 South San Gabriel Escenario Fiberfib.com
20:30 Metronomy Vodafone FIB Club
21:00 Babyshambles Escenario Verde
21:30 El Guincho Escenario Fiberfib.com
22:00 Fujiya & Miyagi Vodafone FIB Club
22:20 New York Dolls Escenario Verde
23:00 Hot Chip Escenario Fiberfib.com
23:00 Tomás Fdo. Flores Samsung Pista Pop
23:30 Spiritualized Vodafone FIB Club
23:50 My Bloody Valentine Escenario Verde
00:30 Danton Eeprom Escenario Fiberfib.com
00:30 Sir Lawrence Samsung Pista Pop
01:00 La Casa Azul Vodafone FIB Club
01:30 Róisín Murphy Escenario Verde
02:00 Erol Alkan Escenario Fiberfib.com
02:15 I Was There Samsung Pista Pop
02:30 Chromatics (live) Vodafone FIB Club
03:00 Mika Escenario Verde
03:45 Robert Babicz Vodafone FIB Club
04:00 The Glimmers Escenario Fiberfib.com
04:00 DerWinzige Samsung Pista Pop
05:30 Tobi Neumann Vodafone FIB Club
05:45 Toxicosmos Dj Samsung Pista Pop
06:00 Josh Wink Escenario Fiberfib.com

Fib starts today - we'll be there from tomorrow

Fib, Benicassim's wonderful festival, gets under way today with FIBSTART and features:
Thursday
FIBSTART
20:00 Aldo Linares
20:30 Krakovia
21:40 Nada Surf
22:00 Single
Vodafone FIB Club
22:00 Dj Mamarracha
Samsung Pista Pop
22:50 Sigur Rós
FIBstart
23:00 Frankie & Annette
Samsung Pista Pop
23:40 Lightspeed Champion
Vodafone FIB Club
00:45 Two PIAS DJs
Samsung Pista Pop
00:50
Mates Of State
FIBstart
01:20 Facto Delafé y Las Flores Azules
Vodafone FIB Club
02:10 Black Lips
FIBstart
02:30 Dj Skywalker
Samsung Pista Pop
03:00 Battles
Vodafone FIB Club
03:30 These New Puritans
FIBstart
04:15 Pin & Pon Dj’s
Samsung Pista Pop
04:30 Dj Supermarkt

We'll be there from tomorrow and you can expect great stories and photes from our very own Anita Darling, who this year is accompanied by PJ.

Sunday. Last day of FIB.

Last day of FIB! Oh no! Its always a sad day for us, we always arrive slightly tired and slightly down...And this year, slightly angry. Having overslept, and then realising we had no food, and Mr.M and Ralph had dissapeared down to the beach without waking us up, slightly hungover from the crazy night before, and then realising we had missed The Pipettes, one of the bands, i Lolita, had been deseperate to see, we got on our bikes, looking quite amazing for the last day, I have to say and got there just in time to catch the end of Calexico, in the Fiberfib.com tent and join the crowds for Amy Winehouse. There was a rumour she wasn't going to turn up, which would have been a bummer seeing as Muse had arrived early to catch her set and most of the English fibers we had spoken to, were more than excited about seeing her.On she walked, with her beehive hair, mini-mini shorts, and about a million band members, and broke into song. Singing most of our favorites, the crowd warmed up when she started to sing Sun goes down, and everyone went mad when she sang Rehab. It goes without saying that she has an amazing voice, but it wasn't the most exciting concert, if she hadn't of had her two amazing black backing singers that danced in sequence during the whole hour, and her 6+ band members that lit up the stage, being so minute, and so shy, Im not sure what the concert would have been like. She closed with Valerie by The Zutons, doing a fantastic cover, whispered BYE! into the microphone and then fled off stage. Not to be seen again. Bizarre. We then ran to catch a bit of Patrick Wolf, who Ralph had overly eager to see. A crazy ginger man, wearing scottish shorts and a strange red strap with tassles round himself. Energetic crazy punk rock was what he and his violinist and cellist (who didn't stop laughing at Patrick during the whole time} offered us, and the crowd loved him.
Suddenly realising we were quite hungry, the boys went off to get some kebabs and beers, and we perched in the Red bull chill out area, to watch Matthew Dear - Big hands LIVE on the Fiberfib.com screens outside the tent whilst we munched on our first and last FIB kebabs! Mr.M being the man he is, decided that after dinner we should have a quick boogie in the Silent disco, so that we did. Putting on our headphones and tuning in to one of the two dj's on at that time, we danced like crazy people, untill a group of girls and boys walked in with t-shirts and carboards cut outs of a monkey.A monkey? Why? ''Simian!!!'' They all screamed, insisting they had their photos taking with each one of us, and then a group pic. And then making us promise that we wouldn't miss Simians set, and kissing and monkey hugging us all. We ran to the Fiberfib.com tent to catch the beguinning of Simian, stars of last summers big hit 'We are your friends' with Justice, great electro-house with a fantastic crowd and vibe. We danced a bit, tried dragging Mr. M away from there to try and get a good place for Muse who Anita and I were super excited to see! But being the electro king he is, he decided to stay with the lovely boys that had given us our neon bracelets last year, boogying. Fair enough. Back at the green stage, we pushed and shoved our ways through to the front, Ralph being careful, after having got into quite a nasty fight at the Artic monkeys, with a nasty nasty little girl who had decided she needed 6metres of space, just for her. The Muse crowd were slightly nicer, letting us through once seeing our Press Passes, its amazing what a little photo id card can do, and found ourselves a nice place at the front. And what an AMAZING concert. Well worth the pushing and shoving. They sang songs from the previous and newer albums, but the highlight was Starlight, not once person in the crowd, wasn't jumping up and down and singing. And when they did their encore, they released huge white balloons full of red confetti that flew through the air to then be popped by lighters, and fill the air with red and white confetti snow! What an end to an amazing concert.
We then ran to catch Armand Van Helden, who was quite a hotty. And spent an hour or more, we lost track of time, dancing with some VIPS that had huge cardboard ears that they would hold up everytime they were impressed by Armand. We didn't catch his famous My My My, much to our disgust, but we didnt catch jump around jump around jump up jump up and get doooown! Probably the best DJ in the whole universe, we would have stayed all week. And such a sweetie, smiling and dancing to his own music. Being 4am by this point, we decided it was time to make tracks homewards. Holding back the tears we did one more round of the FIB, catching a bit of Scream, in the Vueling tent, who had us screaming as he played every good old skool pop song that youv'e ever loved, and then took ourselves down to catch a bit of UNKLE LIVE on the green stage. Pretty amazing, multiple men, Djs, guitars, drums, vocals. A strange but fabby mix of electro, rock, indie...All in one. We stayed a bit, decided we would have loved to have catched it all, but we cant do everything. And walked through the press tent once more. Through the press doors. Onto our bikes. And down the dirt tracks, past the slightly smelly fibers for the last time until next year.
FIB is over. And it's been the best ever.
Thankyou.

L and A.
xxx

day 1, 2 and 3. Some amazing photos!

 
 
 
 

Best Audience Ever?

Saturday night fever was running high as we got to the festival yesterday.
We had spent the morning enjoying the annual Artists v. Press football match at the Sports Centre in Benicassim and a nice plate of Paella to go with it and found ourselves asking, Who is Gorka?, as the crowds went mad for him. He turned out to be press, of course! No offence, but the Artists tend to be pretty rubbish when it comes to football, having spent the entire day drinking by the pool in the renowned backstage area. Reknowned for its utter luxury and amazing atmosphere. Each yearwe tend to sneak in at the end of the weekend so we´ll keep you posted on that one.
On arrival we saw Cansei de Ser Sexy, the crazy brazilians, and got to the Vodafone FIB club tent to whistle along to the excellent "Young Folks" with Peter, Bjorn & John with an overflowing crowd, caught some happy vibes and ran back to the Green Stage to not miss a single moment of The Magic Numbers. Not the most elegant, good-looking or trendy band at the Festival but without a doubt the highlight of the weekend so far. Opening with Take A Chance, the die-hard Numbers fans at the front must have all lost their voices as they sang along at the top of their voices. We danced and jiggled the whole set through with our gorgeous friends Ralph and Mr M. who had driven up for the night and found their sweet vocals to be the perfect start to the evening, making us forget poor Albert Hammond Jr.'s bad luck with the power cut at the end of his set that plunged the whole recinto into darkness for just a little while.
The B-52s put on a fun show for all the over 50s in the audience, and we noticed people trying to have a bit of a dance but trying just a little bit too hard. It was time to see our idol Najwa Nimri and her band Najwajean. The artist/singer/actress memerized the crowd in a skin tight Chinese-style dress and as I climbed up on a speaker you could feel the emotion in her voice. Stamping her foot like a mad thing the people sang along with Ms Nimri, filling the Vodafone Fib Club with love and song.
Oops! Ralph had lost his shoe for a minute, but all was well and a lovely boy from Huddersfield with a black eye gave it back to us, along with a fistful of neon bracelets. Yay! We were eyeing them up the whole set and it was finally time for us to wave our wrists in the air and have them glow in the dark. You know, in case we had another power cut.
Over on the Green Stage, the Arctic Monkeys were starting up and pump it up tey did. Cool as anything, they sauntered out onto the stage as if it was their front room and struck up View From The Afternoon. We couldn´t have asked for a more appropiate song than Dancing Shoes as we jumped around in the crowd. As much as we could, of course, there was a delightful girl in white who insisted on putting her bum in our faces the whole time. Not to worry, nothing a bit of dancing with our elbows out wouldn't fix.
Desperate to hear Mardy Bum, we were more than happy with Fake Tales Of San Francisco and as they closed with Certain Romance it was a perfect end to the set. Turner and his boys, still prepubescent and spotty but soooo cute, left the stage proclaiming the audience was fantastic.
We spent a good while dancing to the indie and rock set of DJ Rojiblanco, another New Generation Artist brought to FIB by Vueling and spent the rest of the night before heading home to bed at dawn between the truly amazing Ellen Alien and the electric and energetic Lo-Fi-Fnk.
Still no sign of Hedi Slimane though he is still supposed to be around, maybe he'll be more visible tomorrow when Amy Winehouse and her huge as huge beehive grace the Fiberfib stage.

Ciao Ciao, Baby!

It is early Friday afternoon as we sit and look back on a brilliant first night of Spain's best summer festie, FIB.
As we predicted, Iggy Pop did it again and invited the audience of Thursday night's FibStart to storm the Heineken Green Stage for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dance sing and jump around with the long-haired rocker himself. The security guards were apprehensive but, we are sure, more than prepared after Glastonbury and after Iggy yelled, Let them up, Asshole!, couldn't really do anything but let the Fibers climb the barriers and jump up with the Stooges. Getting them down again was another story as both girls and boys tried to snog Iggy's face off on the way down to the pit, much to the disgust of their (we thought) rather aggressive bodyguard. But then we are talking about Iggy Pop. The screens either side of the stage showed one excited fan taking a photo of himself with a grinning Iggy and then one girl shoved her tongue right down his throat. Nice. We both agreed that had we been closer we couldn't dream of a better way than starting the weekend than getting up there and joining in on the fun. It was just a little too far from the press stand...
Aldo Linares, Jonston and Mando Diao had welcomed the first FIB evening in with a mix of rock pop and indie tunes and the crowd were more than warmed up for the headlining act of the night. Iggy and the Stooges did a brilliant live set, as ever, their energetic, frenetic rock and brilliant jumping all over the place.
Being the fans of MTV's Johann Wald that we are, there was no way we were going to miss his FIB debut as a DJ in the Vueling Pista Pop tent, so we ran over to catch the end, just in time to boogie to a bit of Bloc Party with the MTV staff.
Vacaciones Diyeis took over with their happy 60s pop and we danced like mad things before heading off to talk to some of the crowd. We met some bananas (literally), a group in hawaiian skirts and some lovely people from Ireland (who wanted Lolita's digits as his girlfriend looked on unamused) and were hustled for "weed/pills/charlie?!!!" several times on the way round.
Saying that, the vibe in Benicassim this year is better than ever, the nicest people from all over Europe have come together to just have a good time and party, and seeing everyone lazing on the grass, chatting away, sitting in little groups or in huge possies of pals just makes you smile.
Dancing as we went, we headed back to the Green Stage for Bright Eyes and Los Planetas, but were really looking forward to the not-so-Brazilian Brazilian Girls. I swear Jesse Murphy was checking me out in the Photo Pit. Sabina Sciubba came out in a gold body suit and a wing-like costume, opening with Lazy Lover and filling the crowd with her beautiful voice.
We danced to Londoner DJ babe Jojo Le Freq on our own on the Press Stand before heading back home on our bikes to rest up for today.
We shall love you and leave you now, Antony and the Johnsons, The Rapture, Ok Go and the Klaxons await! More tomorrow
xxx
A&L

we're here!

Yes, you read right. We are finally here, back in Benicassim, one more year.
And so far, it's better than ever.
We've settled into our little house, had a swim in the pool, been to the beach, been slightly sunburnt from riding our bikes - rented from the ayuntamiento and now we are getting ready for action.
People are arriving by the busload, laden with rucksacks, tents, camper gas stoves and plenty of alcohol, supermarkets are over flowing and have already sold out of most tinned goods, hundreds of different languages are being spoken on every corner and the vibe in the air is electric.
We couldn't be more excited.
If you're here check out the infomation stand on Benicassim high street and in the train station for everything you need to know about the week ahead - the line-up, timetables, bus routes, etc...
More from us tomorrow, keep checking in for photos and interviews with our dear fellow Fibers.
Lots of fibbing love

L & A
x

Get to FIB - for free!

Getting to and from the festival site is as easy as pie.
If you're flying into Valencia airport from Monday 16th all you have to do is pop downstairs to the FIB stand and sign up to FIBERclub when you arrive and you can ride a free bus to Benicassim and make friends with a load of other festival-goers on the way up! There are buses departing the airport FIB-ward pretty much all day right into the evening from Monday morning up until 6.30pm on Friday. On Monday and Tuesday they'll even drop you right at the campsite, whereas the rest of the week the stop in Beni town is at the train station. You can also join FIBERClub in the train station at the festie's information booth, and once a member, you'll also be entitled to ride all the FIB-run buses you like within Benicassim to and from the campsites.
Oh, and on Monday and Tuesday the following week, they'll even run you back to Valencia airport for free. Now how's that for a festival, hey?
Wicked!
you can take a look at the bus timetables right here

What Will Iggy Do?

Did Iggy Pop set the precedent at Glastonbury for all his future summer festival behaviour?

In a moment of madness, and, I'm sure, much to the irritation of the security staff on shift at the time, Iggy Pop and the Stooges invited fans onto the stage during their set at the infamous Devonshire festie for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to boogie, live, with the band themself. For about a song-and-a-half, muddy Glasto-goers jumped around all over the stage, sung with Iggy into the mike and did just he said - "Come on! Take over!" He introduced the stage-invaders at the end of the song asking for a round of applause for the World-famous Glastonbury Dancers. Looks like sheer mayhem to me, but cannot wait to see if they've been warned off such behaviour for FIB or whether the whole thing is to be repeated in just under two weeks.

Check out the video below!

FIB FIB FIB - it's all we can think about!

Lolita and I are like schoolgirls before the end of term disco.
Just. So. Excited.
Tomorrow we head up to Benicassim to check out the accommodation and to enjoy a morning in Benicassim in all its beach-town glory. (Though it's back to work in the afternoon though, boo hoo.) With my week off just around the corner I can barely concentrate as I sit at the computer and stare into space dreaming of FIB nights. It feels like it was months since I last had a holiday - oh wait, it was!
At home we have made a pile of CDs to be played before the festival to get us into the groove - we have a new flatmate moving in this week and she won't know what hit her! Starting with The B-52s Love Shack through to Iggy's I Wanna Be Your Dog to The Hives' Walk Idiot Walk back to Amy Winehouse's You Know I'm No Good, we're looking forward to an exciting, varied and fabulous lineup.
Lolita and I have bets on who of the groups will venture most out into the crowds - sharing a kebab last year with Queens of Noize was definitely one of the highlights! Spotting the performers with their A for Artists passes has us in giggles as we try and guess what band they might be from - they usually turn out to be the drummer from one of the Proyecto Demo winners and we feel better about not having recognised them straightaway!

FIB has a myspace!

Myspace has revolutionised the whole music scene, making bands infamous before even being signed. So, what better place for FIB to be but on myspace themselves with nearly all the groups to be gracing the festival's stages having one.
Here's a few of our favourites, listen to new releases and exclusive covers (amy winehouse does a a great one of The Zutons' Valerie), watch videos and interviews and read their blogs:
here
here
here
here

Fib Benicassim starts on 19 July!

Yes, it's that time again!
Spain's answer to Glastonbury, without the rain and the mud, the wonderful Heineken Fib Music Festival at the seaside resort of Benicassim. Bigger than ever, with yet another stage, Sponsored by Vueling, the new budget airline, this year's Fib promises to be the best ever!
I am Anita Darling and I'll be there from start to finish, with my good friend Lolita Devine (it's my fifth Fib and Lolita's third already!) to bring you all the news, reviews, gossip, interviews, photos and a podcast or two!
It will all be here and on thisisvalencia.com
Fib officially starts on 20th July but get there early, on the 19th and you'll catch Fibstart - a great bill headlined by the legendary Iggy and the Stooges, and featuring, amongst a host of others, Bright Eyes, Los Planetas, Mando Deao.
The rest of the fest has great names almost too numerous to mention but here's a few for you Devo, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, the B52's, Antony and the Johnsons, Kings of Leon, Amy Winehouse, Rufus Wainwright- well just take a look at the poster, you'll get our drift.
So if you can't be there, be there with Anita and Lolita, you can be assured of a great time and quite a few surprises...