Saturday begins with Terris, who, despite their "indie-by-numbers" sound, put in a good performance for an opening band.  The afternoon brought the disjointed sounds of Lift To Experience, an American band who make a drawn-out guitar based sound which wouldn't be out of place accompanying a hard-to-comprehend nightmare.  After hearing them in session on John Peel's show, I'm still not quite sure what to make of them.  Elbow's lyrics are meant to deal with Joy Division-esque problems and episodes, but I couldn't pay too much attention to the words (as is normal at gigs and festivals), and probably only heard three or four songs before moving back to the main stage for Feeder.  They struggle in that middle ground between Nu-metal and indie, usually satisfying neither camps, but I found them much better live than on record, with a very full on sound for a simple three-piece outfit.  Just don't force me to buy the records, thanks!

I was gutted to only be present for two songs of Supergrass , but as I'd seen them do an excellent support slot at the Radiohead all-dayer in Oxford, I missed 'em to get to the front for the fabulous My Vitriol - a band with obvious 90's Seattle influences, and a dash of The Boo Radleys and Mansun about them.  Though not sounding particularly modern, they have an enviable sense of structure and melody, and have one of the strongest debut albums ever under their belt with this years' 'Finelines'.

Knowing only two songs by the Fun Lovin' Criminals could have been a disadvantage, and I like to be surprised by bands I know little of.  Surprise they did, with probably the next best set to PJ Harvey's during the weekend.  A lounge-music soundtrack to the sun set, with Huey's charisma warming the whole crowd, and some great musicianship on stage.  Just cut out the naff one-liners, eh Huey?

Rounding off the day's entertainment was the Manic Street Preachers , who thankfully on the whole avoided the AOR travesty of the last two albums, and opted for a greatest hits set including 'Motorcycle Emptiness', 'The Masses Against The Classes' (a great sing-a-long number for us all) and the fantastic 'A Design For Life'.  Never seen this lot before, but I was well impressed by James Dean Bradfield's skill on guitar.

Review: Andrew Morrison
Sunday's Review
Friday's Review
(This review appeared as a two page feature in the October 2001 edition of the University Of Portsmouth's Student Union Magazine Pugwash.)