Over the last few years the Wireless events sponsored by some small telecommunications company have quietly crept into the festival calendar and become well established. This year saw venues in London and Leeds play host to a 3 day bash, boasting pretty eclectic line ups. Our involvement was the Friday at Harewood House in Leeds to see a rocky looking line up headlined by the White Stripes. As it is a new festival location to us and quite a few others this review, as well as rating the bands, will attempt to rate the festival in several key categories. First up though something we don’t have very much control over, the bloody weather.

2007 is shaping up to be the year of the mud. More specifically May and June is. After enduring a cold wet and muddy Glastonbudget a couple of weeks earlier and then not getting Download or Isle of Wight tickets and watching the punters scorch, we were in desperate need of some sun on our backs. No such luck. In the 48 hours leading up to the event it hammered, nay, arsed it down on West Yorkshire and indeed the journey to the venue which should have taken 45 minutes took over 2 hours, and involved some Colin Mc Rae (r.i.p) style driving through large areas of flooding and some liquid mud. This leads nicely to the first festival rating.

Getting in and parking. Could not be easier, provided that is you take the secret back door into the event from the Harrogate – Otley road. The only other vehicle we saw was a farmer’s tractor, and we had the bonus of seeing 5 male deer in the park. Parking too was a doddle despite the mud, you could park anywhere in the large field, and we simply put it on a patch of dry grass near the exit door and no one seemed to mind. Entry into the actual arena was efficient too with minimal searching and no queues. We passed by the camping area with unenvious looks, it was a swamp and very under crowded. 10/10. Once inside the reason for our smooth entry became clear. There was no c**t there, despite it already being 3.30 pm.

Anyway its time to rate the Festival Layout. First thing to say is the whole site is dominated by the spectacular frontage of Harewood House on one side and lush woodland on the other. This gives the site something of an intimate theme. To add to the unusual ambiance there is the chance of spotting both red deer and red kites around the site. The main stage is open air and there is a second tented stage towards the rear of the site. Dotted in between are the usual food stalls and a few fairground rides. It takes only a few minutes to walk right across the site, even with poor conditions underfoot thanks to the wonderful summer weather. Overall then a nice festival site. 8/10.

Refreshments were going to be rated as well but they offer nothing radically different from most other festivals. Bars were plentiful and queues small. Food was average with prices to match, so how about an average mark of 6/10. Toilets were also much of the usual but points are lost by putting most of them well off to the periphery, down an increasingly muddy slope. Oh well at least they didn’t put them uphill or upwind of the site. A bog (sorry) standard 6/10 here too.

On to what we really came for of course and The Bands. Early doors there are the usual small acts watched by 2 men and a dog or so we thought. Therefore it comes as a bit of a surprise to wander into the tent to find it pretty busy for Dredg. These Americans go in for concept albums in a big way and are compared to Deftones. They play some intense stuff far far removed from usual metal subjects like sex and er sex. Metal fans amongst you may like to check them out, the rest of you probably won’t be converted easily. Over on the main stage Sweden’s The Sounds try hard, but really struggle for songs and their wanabee No Doubt/Blondie stuff grates after a few tunes.So its back to the tent to see The Bees. I first came across this lot 3 or so years ago with the excellent ‘Wash in the Rain’ single, and it’s this song which played second song in today, gets the crowd going. Mixing in some new songs with the best of the ‘Free the Bees’ album they go down a storm with their quirky pop tunes, and ‘Chicken Payback’ gets everyone dancing. An excellent set.

By way of contrast the legendary Only Ones treat the main stage to late 70’s post punk tunes, but in reality everyone is only here for one song. Played towards the end of the set, ‘Another Girl, Another Planet’ still sounds awesome 30 years on, and vocalist Peter Perrett still has that distinctive edge to his singing. Its testimony to a decent set that the audience doesn’t drift away after the hit and stays to the end. And finally here a great fact for you. Perrett’s 2 sons were once both in Babyshambles.

Mostly so far it has been about smaller warm up bands plying their trade in front of less than full crowds. From here on in though the big guns are coming to the fore. Though not a huge name yet as a band name, Satellite Party contain some big hitters, none more so than band leader Perry Farrell, late of Jane’s Addiction and Porno for Pyros. Any rumours they were going to be a tad self indulgent are banished when he bounds on and gets straight into Jane’s ‘Stop’. The crowd masses in from the back on hearing a familiar classic tune. They go on to play ‘Been caught Stealing’ and ‘Mountain Song’. The tunes from new album ‘Ultra Payload’ are also pretty good the pick being ‘Wish upon a dog Star’ and ‘Hard life Easy’. There are clearly a lot of things going on in the band musically and a glance at the special guests (Nuno Bettencourt, Peter Hook, Fergie – Black eyed Peas, not the teacup throwing Man Utd boss, and Flea) suggest an eclectic mix. Only Bettencourt of the guests plays tonight and he adds an edge of flair to the musicianship on stage. Also adding something are the blond female bassist and keyboard player. All in all an entertaining hour. Now I was really looking forward to seeing Queens of the Stone Age, but something didn’t quite happen tonight. Sure they were musically tight and pretty loud and grungy but the band themselves seemed a bit sulky and Josh Homme was pretty uncommunicative. Perhaps it doesn’t help that the rest of the band are really hired hands and a return to the glory days of Nick Oliveri and Mark Lanegan (at least live) would spice things up a bit. Without Oliveri they don’t play the thrash metal stuff like ‘You think I ain ‘t worth a Dollar’ and ‘Quick and to the pointless’. Lanegan less they miss out the sublime ‘Hanging Tree’. Still you gotta move on I suppose and some of the new songs are excellent and very heavy. No ‘Burn the Witch’ or ‘Insane’ either. They rally towards the end with ‘Lost art…’ and ‘No one knows’ and ‘Go with the flow is deliciously appropriate given the fact the heavens opened half way through. Overall though its an average day at the office, albeit a wet one.

Throughout the day the crowd has steadily grown and its really healthy when the White Stripes make their entrance. What can you say about this lot after all this time. That is to say apart from they give us a really entertaining hour and a half. The stage really looks the part with everything in red including some giant curtains onto which Jack and Meg’s huge shadows fall throughout the show. The road crew look the part too all dressed in red and black suits, they are nothing if not elegant this lot. The set list is ace too, much better than London the previous night. We get ‘Doorbell’, ‘Black Math’ and the Meg led ‘In the cold cold night’. The last album hit ‘Blue Orchid’ is also trotted out. Jack’s stage banter is also pretty good too and he appears to be really enjoying himself. New songs are kept to the current single the Zep ish ‘Icky Thump’ and the quirky ‘I’m slowly turning into you’. Jack is still an absolute demon on guitar but often appears on piano too. All too soon its over but not until a beautiful ‘I just don’t know what to do’ and mega hit ‘Seven Nation Army’ sends everyone home happy. Overall then musically its 7/10.

Just the final chapter then Getting Out. Despite the car park not being lit very well it is not quite dark yet though the weather makes it feel like it is. Some clever parking well away from the main throng means it is a simple case of going out the way we came in through the grounds with not a queue or angry red deer in sight. The quiet back roads get us back to Leeds and we are on our way. Couldn’t be easier. 10/10. So overall an enjoyable festival, a solid 7/10, maybe even an 8/10. Good value for money, and with a decent line up I will be tempted back for at least one day in 2008 if its on again. See you there.