We took advantage of the free public transport that was included with the V Festival ticket and caught the train to the Claremont Showgrounds, arriving just after 2pm. There were transport police present on the platform as we disembarked and also moving about the subway entrance to the showgrounds. It was hard to miss the brightly coloured and clearly labeled drug disposal bins located in the subway. It occurred to me that if somebody did want to use the bins, there would be little opportunity to be discrete about it because of the number of people moving past. Getting inside the venue itself was a quick procedure, even with a bag to be checked. There was a line of police waiting just inside the gates but no sniffer dogs.

We grabbed a beer and made our way down to the “That” stage to check out the Villains of Willhelm. The Villains weren’t really doing much for me, and only grabbed my attention when the lead singer swung the mike around, smacked himself in the face in it and informed the audience that he’d just chipped a tooth. We were under the impression that he may have been slightly intoxicated. Good on him for keeping the rock and roll tradition alive!

At such an early hour there was only a small crowd, with some people sitting on the grass and others standing around watching. There were plenty of bars, so we grabbed another drink and wandered back to the “This” stage to catch the Howling Bells. They were quite impressive for a band that I didn’t really know much about, although the song Low Happening was familiar to me. Lead singer Juanita Stein was taking self promotion to a new level and apparently wearing a t-shirt with her own face on it. Treasure Hunt from their second album Radio Wars was well received by the crowd.

We moved over to the “Other” stage to check out The Dø (pronounced “dough”). A few technical issues delayed the start of the set but it gave us a chance to check out the strange percussion set up of pans, oven trays and wrenches hanging above the drum kit. Band member Dan Levy was at times playing the glockenspiel, certainly not an instrument you see a lot of outside your primary school music class. With the inventive and unusual instrument choices and the charismatic lead singer Olivia Merilahti chirping away in heavily accented English, they attracted quite a crowd. It was really quite an exciting performance and not just because Olivia effortlessly did the splits at the end of one song.

Heading back around to the “That” stage to catch the rest of Duffy’s set we were startled to see a massive crowd had materialised during the past hour. Dressed in short shorts and a red halter necked top, I was struck by how pale Duffy was and it reminded me for a moment of seeing Shirley Manson from Garbage many years ago. It is still hard not to make musical comparisons to Dusty Springfield and Amy Winehouse because of her powerful voice and the retro song styles. I had been looking forward to seeing her perform but found on the day that the “wow” factor was missing for me. She lacked a certain edginess and the something extra that I had been hoping for in a live performance. I felt as though I may as well have been sitting at home listening to Rockferry. Despite my personal misgivings, there was a huge crowd reaction when she finished up her set with Mercy.

I had hoped at this point to make a quick trip to the portaloos and get back to see Elbow. I underestimated the length of the queues, or to be more correct, the promoters underestimated the demand for facilities. It was particularly frustrating knowing that there were permanent toilet blocks just on the other side of the internal fences that had been erected for the day’s event. I missed the entire set waiting in line and I really hate it when that happens.

Finally it was time for the band that were the primary reason for myself and a lot of my friends attending today, Madness. With one band member twirling a giant red sunshade and Suggs wearing a bright pink suit, they launched into One Step Beyond and the crowd went wild. I was singing along during Embarrassment and My Girl while my friends were all strutting around and flicking the braces they had worn especially for this set. Everywhere I looked it seemed that people were just having a huge amount of fun, with massive crowd responses for House of Fun, Baggy Trousers and Our House. I almost squealed in delight when I heard the familiar piano introduction to It Must be Love, and I was prepared to forgive whoever had ruined the song for me by licensing it for use in a nappy commercial. It was a surreal experience to see one my favourite bands from my teenage years performing live and I loved every moment of it.

Kaiser Chiefs were next on the lineup and they elicited the same “oh I didn’t realise they sang this” response from my friends as I had when I first saw them perform. It was another feel good, fun set with everyone in the crowd singing along to Every Day I love You Less and Less, Ruby, and Modern Way. Singer Ricky Wilson climbed some of the stage scaffolding during I Predict A Riot, and then seemed to take offense at one of the security staff, letting forth a stream of abuse and then leaping off the stage at the guy’s head. It may well have just been a mock fight because he reappeared on stage moments later, but it isn’t every day you see those kind of antics and it was highly entertaining. It seemed an appropriate lead in to The Angry Mob before Ricky turned the mike around to face the audience and everybody joined in to sing Oh My God.

Once again what was intended to be a quick trip to use the facilities and then grab a bite to eat was thwarted by long lines of people all with the same idea. It seemed that the food vendors were completely overwhelmed by the number of people, with some stalls starting to run out of food. It’s not much fun to see the “sold out” sign go up after you’ve just spend 10 minutes in a queue waiting to place your order, knowing that you now face a similar wait in another queue. I hope the promoters can address this next year because for the second time during the day we missed an entire set, this time Snow Patrol.

Fortunately the food stalls were located next to the “other” stage as that was where The Human League were about to perform. All week I had been excited at the prospect of finally getting to see them playing Dare live. This was such a ground breaking album when it was released, being one of the first albums to be recorded using synthesizers and without any traditional instruments. Hearing it performed some 28 years later, it still stands up as a great album. Although some of the songs on the album have a fairly slow pace, the band really had the audience enthralled and by the time they got to Seconds and Love Action (I Believe In Love), there was a huge air of anticipation. Everybody went wild for Don’t You Want Me and there is no way you can listen to that song and not join in the chorus. It was good to see a few younger faces in the crowd as well. After a short instrumental song break featuring a massive keytar solo, the remaining original members Phil Oakey, Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall came back on stage for an encore. A hugely enthusiastic audience were treated to some great pop songs including Mirror Man, Fascination and also the more politically charged The Lebanon. Finally they finished up with what has become their theme song, Giorgio Moroder’s Together In Electric Dreams.

I didn’t want the set to end and when it did I had such a buzz. We looked out at the sea of people jumping around in front of The Killers and decided that it was best to leave now before the public transport was overwhelmed. I know there has been some criticism on Inthemix for the lack of dance acts, but this really was one of the most fun festivals I’ve been to. It seemed that nobody came with any aggro or attitude, everyone was just out to enjoy themselves and have a great time, we had glorious weather and some great performances. I’m really looking forward to see what the V Festival has to offer next year!