THE UNDERAGE FESTIVAL

Ok, Ok so it's a week late (sorry, over that) but THE ANTI has had a blogging break and is now going to bring you an Underage review in top form.

On 08/08/08, a funny date, a wonderful thing happened. Kids usually having to blag their way into gigs or be turned away at the door were bought together in a musical celebration of what it is to be young.

To anyone who attended the festival, the picture above should look familiar. The queues stretched right across Victoria park hours before the gates open- not brilliant for impatient teenagers.
The lineup included huge names like the Maccabees, Dizzee Rascal and Gallows- but this wasn't it. The Underage is aimed at the young and music-savvy, so the lineup included everyone from well known on the NME and Converse stages to very new faces on the Music Space stage.


TOPMAN NEW MUSIC STAGE

The best stage by far was the Topman stage- THE ANTI caught a good few bouncy bands there. Nick Harrison- a fairly new comer but a good start to the day- was the first to play there. The tracks on his myspace aren't even a fraction as good as he and his band sound live. They got the day going in perfect style, a person favorite being 'Summer', which is about the summer holidays- perfect for a crowd so young.
Also on this stage were the brilliant Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds- it was great to see them live as there is so much hype around this band. 'I've Grown Quite Fond of You' and 'Slow Kids' were the best songs of their set. If you haven't heard of this jumpy 5some then check them out- they are mood lifting and got the crowd going. Others playing there included Team Waterpolo, the brilliant synth-pop rockers who seem to have sprung from nowhere, along with other new faces like Pull in Emergency, the Rascals and the Rifles. By far the best set on this stage was Florence and the Machine, who packed out the tent and completely blew the crowd away. Mesmerising vocals in Between Two Lungs and Girl With One Eye and matching mind-blowing energy in Kiss With a Fist make Florence a perfect live performer- she's edging in at the top 50 chart right now so if you're planning to see her in her current tour I'd advise grabbing tickets as soon at possible

NME STAGE
Now before you go assuming THE ANTI's opinion of the NME stage may be biased, understand I am trying to be as professional as possible, but it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say this tent had an awful atmosphere. Admittedly, I only saw a bit of this tent but during frYars set there were more walking out of the tent than coming into it. That's not to say frYars is bad- he is an inspirational young artist with a lot of talent- but there were technical difficulties to begin with and the music isn't much to jam to. Although the bill was set to be decent, the atmosphere was dull and hardly anyone danced.
This went on until Foals set, when things got so wild one of the barriers broke and Yannis had to ask the crowd to move back, that things picked up. Foals enegry and jumpy set managed to save the day, although timing did clash with Gallows so they lost audience towards the end.

CONVERSE CENTURY STAGE
Gallows, Dizzee Rascal, The Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle Club... All the big names played this stage. As it was an outside stage, the bigger crowds came here. The Maccabees saw a sea of umbrellas due to rain, and then a sea of hands making heart shapes during 'First Love' when the rain cleared up. Dizzee Rascal was a time for the Indie Limeys (yes I just said that) to bop around and admit to knowing the words to hip-hop songs. Dizzee suprisingly drew a massive crowd dispite being the only r'n'b artist on the bill.
The atmosphere was great at this stage and it surely had the most photography and news coverage. The band who most surely stole the show were the headliners- the of course wonderful Gallows. Frank Carter jumping into the stage and directing the crowd into a circle pit was a huge hilight, but the thing that made this band's preformance so epic was the massive circle pit which lasted two whole songs.
Although video footage captures the size pretty well, it doesn't show the feeling. Down in the crowd was utter madness as everyone sprinted round. The entire thing resembled a P.E. lesson in skinny jeans.

Although it would have been great to have seen newer acts on the Domino and Redbull stages, there simply wasn't enough time. The day all in all was great, everyone there seemed to love it- from the random guy dressed as a hot dog (there's always one...) to Frank Carter himself (who, as the crowd cheered, mocked us and said " 'woo' You sound like you're on Blind Date!'). Underage 2009 is sure to be an even bigger success, so get your early bird tickets as soon as they are announced!

CHEERS, THE ANTI x