The annual Lovebox weekender at Victoria Park came to sunny close last Sunday with solid sets by Kelis and headliners Goldfrapp.
First, the downers; Due to ‘reduced capacity’ the organisers had to cut the site in half, meaning the ‘Terrazza’ stage was now the main sage. Though this wasn’t really a problem in the end. Next, 2 days of hipping and a hopping had reduced many areas of the festival to a dust cloud, you were going home with a thin film of orange, get used to it. Finally Lil Kim didn’t play, apparently she was late for her slot. Poor show Miss Kim.
Anyway: Kelis!
Not content with re-treading past hits, Kelis’s set was a mix of new material, old songs re-invented, mashed up and segued into brief cover versions.
Constantly keeping the crowd on their toes, and ably back by keyboards, live drums, DJ, horn duo and backing singers she winded her own musical path for a solid 45 minutes. ‘Milkshake’ gets mixed up with Madonna’s ‘Holiday’ and Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Girls just want to have fun’, ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’ even gets a look in. Finishing with ‘Acapella’ She wailed, crooned, spun and yelled and somehow it all came together into the best disco fabulous garden party ever.
So while Lil Kim was supposedly backstage giving out about the wrong kind of MnM’s on her rider, it left time to go explore some of the other areas. The energy levels seemed to flow like weather patterns between tents – some would be in a full on tornado of pumping ‘YES’! whilst others would be slightly more laid back. Something for everyone in other words.
Here’s some pictures:
Goldfrapp finished the night off with their trademark theatricality and pulsing hypnotic grooves. Alison Goldfrapp may sometimes vocally channel Stevie Nicks or a bit of Kate Bush, but she is entirely her own work of style and glamour.
Opening the set with a fair amount of new material is a dangerous game, but the consistency of their sound and song craft holds it together. However it’s not till ‘Ooh La La’ that things really take off. It’s a pure Marc Bolanesque Glam electro classic and the crowd lap it up.
‘Ride a White Horse’ and ‘Caravan Girl’ are further highlights, the latter sounding like it was written purely for the sun kissed Summer festival experience. By the time we get to the dirty insistent grooves of ‘Train’ and ‘Strict Machine’ it’s back into Goldfrapp’s dark club of sleazy bass lines, which is fine as we’re all filthy by this point anyway.
So a great weekend overall, a couple of hiccups to the Sunday but that’s life. Here’s to another round of loveboxing and more filthy grooves next year.
all photos: http://www.markwilliamsphotography.com/
More photos: Here
