> Reviews > Reviews 2006 > Roskilde

Review by Rob.

Real Estate - You may scoff but this would cost £100000 in parts of London

Denmark is nice. I don't know why really, it just is. I think it is because it retains an air of familiarity of back home, whilst possessing enough quirks to identify it as a foreign country. The language barrier is not one of these however, all Danes seem to speak the Queen's English and most seemed to want to tell us how rubbish Sven Goran Eriksson just in case we didn't already know. Added to this all signs and adverts seem to be in English which helped us in our trek from the capital to the festival site, not that this was too difficult the Danish transport system is excellent and trains are frequent, air conditioned and are roomy. On arrival the festival site seemed like a typical British one but as we ventured in some obvious and not so obvious differences came into being.

Roskilde sells itself or is sold by others as the European Glastonbury. There are certainly elements of Glasto to be found around the site but is it really a valid claim? I will touch on this as we go along, and as we went along the first job was to find somewhere to camp which was not easily done. Roskilde festival regulars treat the event as a kind of national holiday and large crowds of punters wait outside the gates for the camp to open on the Sunday. Consequently by the wednesday its pretty full, in addition everyone seems to have a gazebo which take up precious space, and like Glasto lots of bits are fenced off with tape fences and the like. After a tour of most of the camps which was useful for getting bearings we eventually muscled in on some space in K camp which naturally was the furthest away from everything. The vibe on the campsites was similar to Glasto with much drinking and milling going on. It did seem a bit quieter on the whole though and there were no shouts of 'Timmy' or 'Bollocks' or the Danish equivalent. Some of the campsites are beautifully set up though the highlight for me being the camp with the full size jukebox on wheels. All campsites have agoras where you can chill out in the communal area, cook food and do a bit of fire staring. Beer and other refreshments are available. They have individual features too and ours was storytelling, though on flicking through some of the books it seems that Danish juveniles must have pretty broad minds. One thing that annoyed me a bit was the amount of glass on site, the beer van sold bottles and lots of people seemed to enjoy smashing them into bits. In fact the Danes seem to like smashing lots of things into bits, at the end of the festival rather than taking the stuff home they take hammers axes and metal poles to much of the site. Or perhaps they just don't want to leave anything for the pikeys.

Refreshment options are interesting. As mentioned beers are available from kiosks at all campsites and the choice is pretty good as long as you like Tuborg, though they are the festval's main sponsor so fair enough. Also on camp sites were vendors selling fresh peas from pod, bizarre and opinion was divided on whether it worked. The official reason for selling them is that peas are nice. More conventionally the burgers are of a high standard, mine even had salad in and chips are hard to find but there if you looked. No gravy though. Food and drink prices were pretty damn good, possibly better value than in the UK. We also tracked down Guinness, Murphys and Stella. Unlike Glasto no cider was found, there was a bus selling some apple based products but it was staffed by religious freaks. A contender for food of the year will be the spag bol which was cheap, plentiful and delicious. In the town the bakers we found stocked a great range of tarts and we all know Ivan likes a tart, and something called a 'Napoleon Shat'. Finally on the gastronomic stuff personal thanks are due to the newsagent for helping me rediscover king sized Lion bars.

Anyway onto the arena. Unlike Glasto you have to go into a separate arena to see all the acts, just like V or Leeds. Getting in and out was pretty easy apart from 5pm Thursday when it seemed the whole festival was trying to get into one small gate. This problem was solved by the breaking down of another gate and charging into the arena, the only time I saw any disorder during the entire trip. Anarchy in the DK indeed. The layout inside is reasonably compact, it would take about 20 minutes to get from one side to the other. Apart from the area around the biggest tented arena there was little in the way of congestion, a big plus over Glasto. Some of the walkways are tarmac too lessening the impact of any liquid mud, though this year the weather was glorious so sadly none was on offer. Much of the rest inside is similar to any large festival, there were some Glasto type sculptures, and man sized kennels mostly containing freaks, but only a small market area which was a bit disappointing but at least it meant I didn't spend as much Krone. One thing I would have liked would have been a few more areas just to chill out at and take it all in, the beanbag area was nice though a few more of them would have been a good thing. The highlight for a lot was the silent disco where you can put headphones on and listen to such luminaries as Bros, Aha and of course YMCA. It was almost as much fun trying to guess which song was on when queuing outside. And trying to have a conversation through headphones is crazy. Almost as mad was the large karaoke arena, the undoubted highlight being the version of 'Knocking on Heaven's Door' by one of those crazy Danes. The tragedy of 2000 when 9 people lost their lives is commemorated by a simple arrangement of 9 trees planted to the left of the main arena along with a plaque. One legacy of this is the pen system in front of the stage where you can enter if the lights are green and watch the bands in safety. This area never really fills up so it is a bit surreal but is really good once you get used to it. And they give out lashings of free water too.

Last day campsite - Manic axe wielding Dane just out of shot

Environmental issues. You just can't get away from them nowadays. Roskilde makes a decent stab at doing this however. There are few litter bins inside, certainly no encouragement to recycle waste and we have mentioned the glass problem already. One good thing is that refunds are made on bottles and glasses and 52 glasses will buy you a Guinness. With a bit of work it is possible to be almost self sufficient when it comes to drinking, and it did seem to keep the plastic count down. There were also no qualms about pissing on the fence either you just go straight up and do the business in front of everyone. The blokes of course did this too. There was not much in the way of politics either, though the equivalent of the Leftfield arena was there it was tucked away in one corner and I gather there was some spoken word stuff too.

So the Euro Glasto? No I don't think so. A great festival offering all the usual goodies plus a bit of individualism. Definitely. It is also very friendly and laid back. Except when the tent wrecking takes place.

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Review by Rob.

Trivium - "And on the bass Den Dennis''

Metal. There is a lot of it about at Roskilde. Well the Scandinavians like it as lot judging by the music blasting out from the camp sites. Perhaps its the primitive stirrings of their far ancestors that pulls them towards this genre, yearnings to get away from it all and get back to pillaging, invading, and church burning, or maybe they just like the tight trousers. Anyway it fell to up and coming youngsters Trivium to open musical proceedings in the Arena, the largest of the indoor tents. Our suspicions about the Danes liking their metal were confirmed and a large crowd gathers to see them. They play a very tight set mostly based on the debut album though there is at least one new song plus snippets of 'Master of Puppets' and the Megadeth classic 'Symphony on Destruction'. Whilst appealing to hardened metallers there is little in the way of crossover stuff to bring them a wider audience but they seem the type of band who are happy within their own niche. And the bass player is probably Bad News' Den Dennis, or maybe not. I missed Bullet for my Valentine but am reliably informed they played an impressive set on the main stage warming the crowd up nicely for Guns n Roses, more of which later. The locals also view Placebo as a metal band and its easy to see why. They make quite a din for a 3 piece, though for this tour a second guitar player frees up Brian Molko to rock about a bit more than usual. They play a fans set with not too many of the big hit singles. 'Every me and Every you' is a good choice and 'The bitter end' is awesome. They also play an excellent cover of Kate Bush's 'Running up that hill' and the large crowd seems very happy. It would have been nice to have 'Pure Morning' though. Over at the Odeon, a sort of new bands stage, Wolfmother give a masterclass in sounding like Black Sabbath. 'Woman' rocks the tent down and 'Colossal' is just that. Things reach a climax with the awesome 'Apple tree'. Though retro they sound pretty contemporary and like marmite and cheese sandwiches it shouldn't work but somehow it does.

Quieter things are called for and at the pavilion Martha Wainwright obliges. Just one lady and an acoustic guitar and and hour of sublime and often very personal songs. She plays quite an eclectic set with a couple of new songs, the best of recent eponymous album, a Leonard Cohen cover and one of her dad's songs called 'A pretty good day so far' Like Cerys Matthews she possesses a voice of an angel and the ballads are wonderful in this environment. The deserved encore is of course 'Bloody Motherfucking Asshole' which delights the enormous crowd which not only fills the tent but most of the surrounding field. It is on a bit of a whim that I go to see The Silver Jews. Now I knew little about them except that they have connections with US cult band Pavement. However the Danes obviously have heard of them because the tent is packed. They play country tinged rock a bit like early REM with some Soul Asylum thrown in. Very good stuff and recommended. Sunday morning is sitar morning and who better to provide this than Anoushka Shankar? The daughter of Ravi turns in a virtuoso performance complete with guest vocalists and much soloing a'la the outro to freebird. She clearly is the Jimi Hendrix of the sitar world, (without the choking on vomit bit we hope). The only slight disappointment was that she didn't set the sitar on fire or smash it to bits at the end. Now that would have been a show.

Primal Scream - "This ones for the England team, its called Movin' on out''

New stuff is well represented over the four days. Inevitably the biggest hype surrounds the Arctic Monkeys. A huge crowd packs the arena to see a fairly poor live show though in fairness they are playing having just lost the bass player. Alex seems either pissed or disinterested, and it is only the total quality of the songs which save them. Not that the moshing maniacs in front of us cared one little bit. They are not really a new act strictly speaking but the Raconteurs play it like they are one of the new kids on the block. Jack White clearly revels in his frontman duties and Brendon Benson is happy to take a back seat, occasionally popping forward to sing a little bit. They play most of the debut album to a rapturous audience, the best coming at the end when we see some serious fret wanking from Mr White during 'Blue Veins'. One of the best shows of the festival, don't miss this lot at the Carling Weekend.

England's involvement in the World Cup curtails a large chunk of the Saturday but I miss the inevitable shoot out woes to see Primal Scream play a rocktastic set that includes 'Movin' on up' fantastic new single 'Country Girl' and a crowd pleasing 'Rocks'. Bobby Gillespie drops all the sulking and attitude that marred their Glastonbury show and the band look like they are genuinely having fun. One day earlier at the same time we were treated to a similar type of set from Morrissey, playing the Smiths classics 'Panic', 'Girlfriend in a coma', and 'How soon is now?', combined with the best cuts from his last 2 albums. Top marks to his band too, who came out dressed as the Hives. Oh and there is just about time to mention the Strokes who played a great and cool set, and as usual the songs from the debut sparkled but the new stuff was also great,and they even fitted in 12.51, one of my faves, cheers guys. However, it's 1.00 on the Saturday morning that sees the best show of the festival.With a new album in the can the Scissor Sisters are out to prove the debut was no flash in the pan. Its a good effort to get into the pit at the front as the band open up with 'Take your mama' and we can't wait to get dancing. 'Tits on the radio' keeps the party going and the band play most of the debut mixed in with a large chunk of the new album, most of which sounds terrific and I am shocked at how immediate some of this stuff is. The only problem is that a lot of the locals are reluctant at first to get dancing and seem a little shy, but they are soon encouraged by the Peace and Lovers and by the time the glorious closing couplet of 'Comfortably Numb' and 'Filthy Gorgeous' everyone is having a seriously good time. 24 hours later and Kanye West produces a similar show gloriously over the top featuring an orchestra, samples of 'Sweet Dreams' and some quality tunes, notably opener 'Diamonds are Forever' and the signature anthem 'Golddigga'. Very entertaining and possibly the surprise of the festival.

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Review by Rob.

Axl - Karaoke King

It's so easy (sorry) to have a go at the new incarnation of Guns n Roses. Axl Rose has surrounded himself with Kens and embarked on what effectively is a solo karaoke tour. Fair play to him for getting back in the public eye though and managing to get thrown in jail in Sweden is impressive, but what we really want is Slash and Duff in the band and all writing together again. Slash is one of the great improvising guitarists of the world and there is no one in the current band who can stamp any musical marks on the songs. Tonight we get several new songs none of which sound any good, and if i were Axl I would think seriously about bringing out this Chinese Democracy stuff as it simply is not strong enough. Most of the classic Appetite for Destruction is played and the quality varies. 'Sweet Child' is awful without the trademark Slash Sound and 'Out to get me' is played with no spark. However 'My Michelle' and set closer 'Paradise City' are superb and a reminder of how good this band can be. The worst part of this show however was the filler in between the songs, I mean who wants to hear 'Ziggy Stardust' on keyboards, or an instrumental version of 'Don't Cry'? Certainly not Axl as he fucked off stage for 5 minutes. When they play 'Live and let Die' my mind goes back to Mc Cartney at Glasto 2004 and the way he handled his show which was as much about nostalgia as this one. Perhaps though it was a bad day at the office I am reliably informed they were superb at Hammersmith and I trust that judgment. Sadly though for a headline act at a major festival this was not up to scratch. What next Axl?

Bob Dylan - Guitarless

When it comes to legends there are fewer greater then Bob Dylan. Sadly the legend is associated with shoddy performances as much as great music, and even fans were unsure what version we would get here. Right on time (are you reading this Mr Rose?) the great man makes his entrance, simply shuffling onstage and placing himself behind a keyboard as the familiar intro to 'Maggie's Farm' starts up. Next we get 'The Times they are a Changing' and it looks like we could be in for a classic show. Sadly the next hour or so is pretty self indulgent stuff, though the real fans were happy enough. For me though, only a casual fan I would have liked more familiar stuff, surely this is what festivals are all about. Dylan keeps ambling over to a rack of guitars between songs but never picks one up sadly. In addition the video screens don't work and you suspect this is on Sir Bob's orders but there is little in the way of visual distraction, good or bad, you decide. Towards the end things pick up and we get 'Like a Rolling Stone' albeit heavily reworked and a brilliant 'All Along the Watchtower'. Then he is gone without saying anything, save from introducing the band. So overall not bad, just not enough of the good stuff, though I suspect the true fans will have loved this.

Tool - Never less than intense

Saturday sees the only real contemporary headliners of the weekend in Tool. Whereas the others were content to parade past glories, this lot have a new album to sell. Drawing heavily from this but finding time to touch on most parts of their career, they play for 2 intense hours of heavy rock never once falling into cliche or resorting to filler like some others on show this weekend. The light show is pretty stunning too centring on a video show that apparently tells a story running the length of the show. I have no idea what the theme was as I was frequently caught up in the music, especially the 15 minute version of 'Rosetta Stoned' which blows away most of the audience. Hell, even people who don't really like metal like this show. Towards the end they play 'Opiate' an early classic and the fans are delirious. They finish with the thrashy tones of 'Aenima' and a fine performance ends in a flurry of swearing. Tool really are great "any fucking time, any fucking day" indeed..

So to the climax. It was of course billed that Pink Floyd legend Roger Waters would be performing the classic 'Dark side of the Moon' in its entirety. Of course he would perform so much more too, and earlier in the day the presence of extra banks of speakers around the arena informed us that we would be treated to some quad sound effects too. Again right on the allotted time his band strides onto the stage, a mega piece outfit including a few famous faces, Andy Fairweather Lowe and Snowy White were on Guitar duties, soul legend PP Arnold on backing vocals, and although Nick Mason didn't play on this show he has been making appearances on the tour at selected dates. The set starts quietly with a couple of cuts from the wall, and then its way back for 'Set the controls for the heart of the sun' from the debut album. The Barratt tribute continues with 'Shine on you Crazy Diamond' complete with Syd backdrop. This is the abbreviated version so it only lasts 10 minutes or so. The Wish you Were Here stuff continues with 'Have a Cigar' and then the title track which sparks mass singalongs. The Final Cut is really a Waters solo album and he dips into it to play 'The Fletcher Memorial Home' and then plays a new song, very anti war, and a reminder from these 2 songs that he is still very bitter about what happened to his father in the war. Then we get a real treat as he plays 'Sheep' from the Animals album, and we get the quad sound relaying hundreds of bleats around the field. Good job we aren't in Wales. Of course its Dark Side that is the centrepiece, so after a short break the familiar heartbeat echoes through the quad sound and we are off. The set is perfectly played the sound effects adding to the music, the clocks on 'Time' and the outro to 'Money' being particularly excellent. The highlight for me is Arnold's vocal on 'The Great Gig in the Sky', but its all great stuff. All too quickly it passes (Dark Side is not really a long album in any case) but the band return to play an extended 'Another Brick in the Wall' and close as expected with 'Comfortably Numb' Its been an excellent show and a perfect way to close the festival but please please please can we have the whole band next time?

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