With an already amazing calendar-filled line-up of festivals to occupy us through the official Summer season, extending out to the second month of Autumn with the V Festival hitting South East Queensland (Gold Coast) in back to back fashion from its Sydney debut the day before, was certainly no April fools joke! An absolutely first round stellar line-up associated with one of the biggest commercial identities on Earth, teaming up with one of this country’s high-calibre promoters, located at one of Gold Coasts best kept secret parkland sites, we were in for one hell of an anticipated lead up to what was promised to “introduce a new level to the Australian festival market with an eclectic mix of the hottest International and local acts.”

In a highly cut-throat and competitive marketplace in these times of our Modern World, an instantly recognisable corporate image coupled with savvy marketing and advertising is fundamental for a business in any industry to establish its brand awareness in order to stand out from the rest. Virgin is one such corporate group brand that is synonymous with leading the way in a diverse variety of mutually exclusive industries – travel and tourism (incorporating aviation), finance and money, media and telecommunications, leisure and pleasure including our beloved music, all due to the brainchild of one Sir Richard Branson. In fact so well known on the Planet that when one of the UK’s leading Music Festival was advertised to visit Australia, simply the letter ‘V’ from the easily identifiable logo was adequate in making the connection with everything that represents pioneering first-class excellence!

With Michael Coppel as the V Festival promoter securing the much anticipated and first ever Australian tour by the Pixies, and being able to book them on the same bill as the Pet Shop Boys, then closer near the date Beck, was his greatest booking achievements of the festival! In keeping with “V’s international ethos by bringing together a rich variety of influential bands, many of whom have never toured our shores before”, the Australian line-up which included Pet Shop Boys had me absolutely beside myself with hard-to-contain excitement in the lead up to this magically unique festival experience. A love affair with the duo of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe since their first released single West End Girls back in 1985, this was without doubt the most anticipated music festival of the season for not only myself, but many others of the so-called ‘X’ generation.

Fortunate to have been delivered by private transport directly to the main entry of the festival site, I was really rather surprised at the partitioning along the road and pathways and lack of traffic and pedestrian congestion. The ‘park and ride’ concept, in another first, seemed to be without problem or delay with attendees opting for one of the many temporary ‘stations’ which included local train depots, Pacific Fair, and Carrara Stadium as departure points, transporting them hassle-free to the Merrimac site. Entering through the main entry for those who needed to collect their tickets from the Box Office, or needed to be processed as Media Guests, this area was obviously located out of the way of the main ambulating traffic who were keen to exchange their tickets for festival armbands and enter the enclosure to finally become one with the stunning parkland location. Set on the beautifully lush grounds of the privately owned Avica Resort, the 116 hectares of rolling lawns skirting the tranquility of the still waters of Lake Avica, provided the perfect spot to accommodate the massive This, That, and the Other Stages that were not only well-located by clearly distinct signage, but comfortably spread out over the place, which for the day became a temporary mini musical city.

On such a day where for me ‘dancing’ wasn’t the main agenda for partaking in this festival, with the weather a little ominous I ensured I was adequately prepared for cooler weather, packing a bag with additional warm clothing, as I wanted to stay comfortable whilst trying to enjoy all the day had to offer, given the recent erratic nature of our local climate. Not wanting to overload my backpack with wet-weather gear, I made the choice of not packing anything that resembled a raincoat, well actually I couldn’t locate my emergency poncho, so I decided to chance that I wouldn’t get wet if it rained. Not long after grabbing a quick snack at one of the food areas just inside the main entry, as I was trying to familiarise myself with which stages were which, at about 1:30pm the skies opened and the rain relentlessly teamed down. Much to my amazement I was already heading in the direction of the distinct and prime location of the ‘Red Hook Up‘, where at this moment V Festival staff ‘Angels’ were rapidly giving out free-of-charge brand new full length Virgin mobile branded orange and red hooded raincoats, along with drawstring knapsack type bags. An ingenious idea not only protecting my own bag, this doubled up as the raincoat store when the rain ceased about 25 minutes later.

Given the delays on commencing the proceedings of That Stage where The Sea Bellies, Temper Trap, Nouvelle Vague, Gnarls Barkley, Groove Armada, and Pet Shop Boys were to perform, I was having difficulty orienting myself to which stage was actually ‘This’ or ‘That’, and locating the unmarked backstage hospitality V Bar area to which I had the privilege of frequenting. For whatever reason the schedule of That Stage was held-up, I was grateful because I was able to catch the newly discovered Newcastle band that no longer have to jam in their garage. The Sea Bellies a young 6-piece outfit beat 433 national competitors winning this year’s Garage to V competition, earning them the slot that was to kick-start the V Festival. So uniquely incredible in their sound, I had 80’s flashbacks of many different types of bands that their style was a fusion of, but so enmeshed could not isolate any one influence. With two lead vocalists (including the female), and all of them being amazingly diverse in their musical instrument talent, they all swapped instruments a few times throughout their extended set. With a heavy drum and percussion influence, included in their repertoire looked to be some ‘toy-like’ musical instruments I played with as a child (not to be mistaken with ‘played’), such as a xylophone, and a baby piano that had air blown into via a plastic tube to produce sound. I really enjoyed the sound and performance of The Sea Bellies, no doubt with their additional prize of $10K worth of studio time, we’ll be hearing and seeing a lot more of this band.

Now that I was certain of where That Stage was, it was time to remove the raincoat and familiarise myself with the rest of the grounds. Well spread out with everything in sight, at the midpoint apex of the grounds was the Red Hook Up area, not only a great vantage point for meeting up with friends, here you could – Get Charged (Plug your phone in here) if you had an Ericsson or Nokia mobile, Ask an Angel (Ask us anything about V Fest), Blue Zone (Get free V Fest INFO via Bluetooth), or Text the Fest (Use the free sms phone) to text your message to the big screen. Within the vicinity was the market stalls, no doubt the most extensive I’ve even seen at a festival, all the usual suspects were there, and then some; thank goodness I had budgeted enough for food and beverages and left all other spending temptation at home! Tucked around the back of the market area, while there wasn’t a water truck in sight, free flowing drinkable tap water was readily available and rather easy to acquire without the usual lines and slushy grounds often experienced at these types of events. Down the hill from here was an abundance of clean portable toilet cubicles, where one didn’t have to que for lengthy periods waiting to relieve oneself. This may have had something to do with the city of portaloos that were located a lot further down the hill adjacent to This Stage at the far perimeter of the festival grounds.

Also in this area, though in contrast to the toilet queues, the drink ticket booth lines as well as the actual segregated bar area line-ups appeared to be never ending, so much so that many made this area their permanent stay since security ensured alcoholic beverages didn’t venture out into the general grounds, given the 16+ aged event. Though the beverage selection was more diverse than usual with festival partnerships from Smirnoff, Coopers Brewery and Jagermeister, I for one chose not to partake in consumption of alcohol since with the sizeable crowd and having to pre-plan and line up twice to obtain a beverage, I just couldn’t be bothered with the time wasting hassle. As it turns out with post-event reports this method of attaining alcoholic refreshment was met with much angst and disapproval from a few punters for a number of reasons. Though at times a little inconvenient given the lack of spontaneity and decisions that have to be made when one feels the desire for a drink with this system, a little observation and forward planning which often we’d prefer not to consider, but rather just go with the flow of these types of events, can be a bit perturbing.

Wandering aimlessly around the area of This Stage, actually from the converted Jagermeister mobile bar while waiting for friends to arrive, looking from the far left to the massive stage, I realised the enormity of the area which V Festival occupied. The size of This and That Stages adorned with huge visual screens allowed you to not only hear the crisp quality sound belting out the amazing sound system, but if you didn’t recognise the music, just catching a distance glimpse of who was performing was enough to satisfy. At this early afternoon time, Phoenix consisting of Thomas Mars [vocals], Laurent Brancowitz [guitar], Deck D’Arcy [bass], and Christian Mazzalai [guitar], with their self-proclaimed ‘French-heatwave-stylish-rock’ (indie-rock), was “belting out one great tune after the other”.

Over at the Other Stage having first catching and enjoying them at Parklife I was keen to hear what The Valentinos had to offer on this occasion. Not really getting into them today, though enjoying taking the time out sitting up on the hill next to the Disabled viewing and seating area, which was evident at every main stage location, my hunger distracted me relaxing and taking in their sound. Armed with a feed that was to satisfy me for the rest of the day I took a posse under a tree but in full view and earshot of That Stage catching the last of Temper Trap, but it was the haunting sounds of Nouvelle Vague with the lead vocals of the two dark-haired French belles belting out some beautiful renditions of 80’s, New Orders – Blue Monday, & Paul Young/Joy Divisions – Love Will Tear Us Apart, as one described in “Frente-esque style” that drew me in to enjoy the rest of their performance.

In between setting up That Stage for Gnarls Barkley I wandered down toward This Stage where New York Dolls were playing, with the lead singer warranting a second close-up look, was a not-so aged resemblance of Mick Jagger strutting around on stage. Not knowing any of their tunes, the lead singer was obviously having a ball and that in itself was very entertaining.

Not wanting to miss the start of Gnarls Barkley who I actually thought was one man, but had an inkling might’ve been two, I was surprised when Cee-Lo (Thomas Callaway) the diverse singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer along with Danger Mouse came out with 9 other performers all dressed up in red, grey and white school uniforms. Familiar only with the tune that was responsible for them becoming rich and famous – Crazy, I really got into them from the outset with their apt opening of Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall, before performing their well known productions of On & On, St Elsewhere, Gone Daddy Gone, then the ever popular Crazy. A true entertainer was Cee-Lo; he really thrived on audience interaction, which as a punter really heightened my literal big band Gnarls Barkley Virgin experience.

Meeting up with a bunch of friends in between setting That Stage for Groove Armada we were found due to the possession of alcohol we were encaged in the boundary next to the stage, though thought given the raised ground would’ve been a better vantage point for their entire performance, so that’s where we stayed. Not being able to get near the boiler room at BDO 2003 after being in there all day, this opportunity of seeing and hearing them live for the first time, was enthralling. The lighting on stage wasn’t that brilliant from where I was standing, so couldn’t actually ‘see’ them, but the big screen visuals were truly spectacular. Their performance described as “a funk-fuelled rave party on a grand scale” was a perfect way depiction of the atmosphere Groove Armada created as they belted out many of their classic tracks which included Easy, Madder, My Friends, By the River. Towards the end, when they performed their well-known Superstylin’, everywhere you looked there was an entire sea of people freestyle dancing in their own space; it was truly an awesome sight to behold, and a great end to their set.

But the most anticipated performance for me was to witness for my first time, the most successful disco electronic pop act in history, the Pet Shop Boys. With the ground area clear of punters, I moved toward the front right centre of stage, while the stage crew prepared for the last time the set and backdrop for the timeless pop icons in Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe. With their entire collection of every one of their albums in Cassette, CD, and Video formats, without doubt the Pet Shop Boys are my all-time favourite EDM artists. Ready to sing along with whatever they were going to deliver; it was something else watching the construction and props of the stage show being put together. The entire show put together by Theatre designer Es Devlin revolved around projectors and amazing fluoro and neon lighting with Neil singing and Chris on keyboards, with all their music computer-generated. With three backing singers including the amazing Sylvia Mason-James, and two contrasting male dancers, they wore a different costume every second or third song and with 18 songs in 75 minutes that’s a lot of outfit changes. Having seen many a film clip and stage and theatrical representations of the Pet Shop Boy’s songs, you could almost expect anything and everything with their costume changes, though while Neil at 46 years of age changed a few times, Chris whose fingers magically danced the keyboards stayed in his fluoro yellow polar fleece jumper for the entire performance. For all the trainspotters, of which I have never been so diligent, only a small selection of their discography could be performed in the very short pleasurable time we had with them: Left To My Own Devices, Suburbia, Can You Forgive Her, Rent, Heartbeat, Opportunities (let’s make lots of money), Integral, Paninaro, Se a vida é, Discoteca, Domino Dancing, Always on My Mind, Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You), West End Girls, The Sodom and Gomorrah Show, So Hard, It’s A Sin, Go West, Shopping.

Of course there are so many other of the major Headline acts that I didn’t get to see, so can’t report on (refer to Sydney & Brisbane forums for these), but there’s one common theme that no matter who the drawcard or festival highlight act was, that this first V Festival to SEQld impressed many. The logistics of transport, traffic, festival lay-out, organisation, food and beverage, and market stalls, but more importantly the sound and lighting, and all the added but unexpected extras were second to none. Presenting some of the greatest bands in the World, in the greatest location SEQld has to offer, the lush green fields with amazing backdrops and even better music, the V Festival certainly introduced a new level to the Australian festival market with an eclectic mix of the hottest International and local acts; the V Festival experience was truly unique! Bring on V Festival 2008!!!