A lot of this is due to the fact that Saints have been so bad this year that I can't type and listen to the commentary at the same time, or if I did it might read something like this "Tina and I have just finished GET SOMEONE ON THE NEAR POST FOR F SAKE" .
Anyway, I will start with an account of our Summer Holiday this year.
We have both been fans of Radiohead for a while, but had never had the chance to see them live as tickets in the UK were almost impossible to get hold of, given the anorak wearing reputation of their fans. With the new album out, we new that they would be touring, and kept an anxious eye on the web to see if they would come to France. We hoped that they might come to Angouleme, as it was a fairly Eco friendly Festival, but the closest that they came to us was Arras, up near the Belgian border. We looked into hotels near the site, no tents for us, and found that special trains had been laid on from Lille for only €5 return. My brother and Tina's sister were also able to come over for the weekend, on a ridiculously cheap Eurostar deal.
As Lille was such a long way from our house, we stopped for a night in the Champagne area to break the journey. We had a nice hotel, in a small village outside Epernay, but is must have been the only village in the region without it's own Champagne house, so we couldn't nip out for a tasting, although they did have a good choice of Champagnes in the hotel bar.
The next day we took the scenic route through the spectacular hills and vineyards of the Champagne, some of which were so steep that they would be mountains in the UK.
We arrived in Lille around lunchtime, parked up at a Park and Ride at the edge of the city and caught the metro into the centre, none of that city driving for us country folk. We had a good hotel, in the historic centre of Lille, close to lots of bars, shops and restaurants. Tina and I had a couple of hours to find our way around before Terry and Helen arrived, and we found one quiet street that was full of all sorts of bistro's and restaurants.
That evening, the four of us went for a few drinks before we headed of for something to eat. The quiet street had changed completely. The pavements were now covered in tables, and there were tow trucks hauling cars away so that more tables could be set up in the road. The bistro that we had our eye was overflowing by 7:30 but we managed to get into another one for some typical Flemish cuisine, beouf carbonade etc. The food was great, not expensive and that atmosphere in the street was so busy. I can't think of many countries where they shut down a road every evening just to eat.
The next morning, we had time for a bit of sight seeing, before getting the train to Arras. Lille is very Flemish in it's architecture, as you can see in the picture above, with cobbled streets and grand squares and is definitely worth a weekend trip.
The 'Main Square Festival' as the name suggests is in the main square of Arras. It is good spot for an urban festival, as the square is long and slopping, so that you can see the stage from anywhere. All around the square were galleried walkways with bars and cafes that had set up counter serving food and drink. The only beer on offer was Heineken ( much better than Carling in the UK) but we couldn't see any wine for sale anywhere. In the end I asked at one of the bars, and they went inside and got Tina a nice glass of rose for €2.50. As the evening wore on, the measures got bigger and she was getting a full half pint! We could see lots of people thinking, where did she get that from, which just goes to show, if you don't ask you don't get.
Anyone that lived on the square seemed to have have security bracelets on, so that they could sit in their windows and watch the bands for free. Not so good the night before when Mika was the headline act.
On the minus side, there weren't nearly enough loos, and no hedges for us blokes. Also, all the alleyways around were guarded by bouncers, so you couldn't nip off for a wee. In the end, all of the men were weeing on the walls of the toilet block leaving a river of wee flowing past the portaloos. Added to that, everyone seemed to get hungry at the same time, and so we ended up in a long panicky queue for burgers for about an hour, only to find out that our favorite bar was still serving merguez baguettes late into the night.
Onto the music.
The first band up were New York indie kids Vampire Weekend followed by Wombats, from Liverpool, as you can probably tell from the lead singers perm.
Wombats were very lively, and the drummer had taken the effort to learn some French so that he could engage the crowd, only to run out of steam mid sentence "Bonjour, nous sommes Wombats et nous sommes de Liverpool. Le prochaine, er , ah .... oh bollocks". Tina and I enjoyed both bands, but I think they found a Radiohead audience hard to warm up.
A French ,The Do's, were next up, and they were OK, better than most stuff on French radio, then it was on to the main acts.
We hadn't really heard of Sigur Ros before we booked the tickets. They're from Iceland, and are a bit unique musically, a four piece but with a string and brass section as well. You might know the music from BBC's Blue Planet series. They started their set of quietly but then, like a lot of their songs, the sound builds up into a crescendo. We were all just stood there with our mouths open, what an incredible sound/row.
We couldn't understand a word of it, as it was all in Icelandic, and some of it was in a language the lead singer has made up, but it was brilliant.
The link has a recording on someones phone, that gives you a bit of an idea, but it is much better with your own ears.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qCD4P8A7JS8
When Radiohead came onstage the crowd suddenly seemed to get taller, and we had to move further back to be able to see.
They had an amazing light show, with these long tubes full of little lights that seemed to move in time to the music. A few of those tubes would look great in our barn, if they have finished with them now.
They did a full 2 hour set, with the whole of In Rainbows and lots of old favorites, but not Creep (sorry Helen).
The link below has a high quality video of one of the songs, from the French TV.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=h0bhQaPU08U
At 12:00 it was a mad dash back to the train station to get the indie-kid special back to Lille and a well earned rest.
It was a long trip back home for all of us the next day, but we all agreed that it had been worth it, to see such a great chin rubbing double bill.
