Middlesbrough Music Live 2008

It rained. However, this didn't stop it being a good day overall.
As soon as the gates opened I made my way to the burger vans. After making my choice of food (chips and a cheese savoury fishcake), I made my way to the main stage for the first band, eating as I waited for them to come and perform. First up was The Anomalies, an indie/hip hop band. The songs weren't that great but they made up for it with their performance. The freestyling part of the set involved 3 subjects, given to the band by the audience: Beach, Superheroes and Sexually Transmitted Diseases. This part of the set was complete hilarity and I laughed lots. After this, the rain started to get heavy so I decided to venture to the Town Hall stage where I'd be warm and dry. I caught the end of Kinevil, shame I hadn't seen their full set as they were crazily amazing, electro, electro, I think I love it!! I'd been looking forward to the next band as I had read what I wanted to read about a band. Parka was that band, and I danced so much. The songs were really fast and they even brough a saxophone!! Top band. The Joy Formidable weren't all that good. I think you should be able to learn to play guitar and sing at the same time if that's what you are gonna do in your band. The Hosts were better but they reminded me of a not very good Mando Diao covers band or something. The last band I watched inside was Ipso Facto, a kind of girl version of The Horrors, even hailing from Southend-On-Sea themselves! They had little to say lyrics-wise but the tunes were there.
Time to return to the main stage (and outside, NO RAIN!) where Wildcats Of Kilkenny were just finishing off their set of cover versions of excellent family sing-along songs, using a violin and a double-bass. I took the oppurtunity to push my way to the front of the crowd when two NEDs decided to be very clever and do what NEDs do best: start a fight. Newcomer Jack McManus made his debut on the main stage next, the crowd kept shouting for 'Bang On The Piano' which he closed with. Not too shabby at all! Delayed due to being stuck in Dublin becuase of a late flight, Infadels' set was unfortunately cut short but not without incident as the keyboardist, along the lines of Alex Pennie, ex-Automatic keyboardist, decided to jump off the stage and stand on the barrier, he pulled away, started walking further along by the stage and tripped up, staining his white jeans in the mud. haha. Musically, they were great.
What a mickey take but the next band's name was Delays. And they were probably in my top 3 bands of the day. Their music just made me want to jump up and down like an idiot, I had an amazing time watching Delays.
One Night Only, a band that apparently 'stole the show' on the Ten Feet Tall Stage last year. Erm, no. I didn't think they were anything special then and didn't think them coming back this year with a top ten album made them any better. I found them to be a load of over rated hype and I know bands 10 times better that aren't getting half the recognition that these are and who deserve this sort of recognition a lot more.
Finally, the final band, the one I'd been waiting for all day, well, actually, I'd been waiting since the line-up got announced to see these guys. Ash have played alongside the likes of The Hives and will be opening for The Cribs who are headlining the second day of this years Zoo Thousand festival. The choice of songs at MML was excellent but I was a bit disappointed that Starcrossed hadn't been included in the set list as it is one of my favourites of theirs. However, the inclusion of You Can't Have It All and closer Polaris made up for it. Ok, I was very squashed down the front and I hardly had a voice afterwards from screaming and not drinking (I had last drank liquids while in Newcastle the day before), but it was well worth it. Ash were amazing, so good I got to the point where I was comparing them to The Hives, they weren't as good as The Hives I figured but still almost there.
Final words. Middlesbrough Music Live 2008 is over and I am looking forward to next years festival.
Best Band - Ash
Worst Band - One Night Only (over rated hype)

See you at The Cribs.
Good bye and good night.