Jade's Music Blog

The first Knowsley Hall Music Festival kicked off with queues for drinks, toilets and entry counted in hours, and ended under a foot of mud.
“We can only apologise to people for the weather and the queues – a lot of lessons have been learnt,” said Gill Nightingale, the festival's Press and PR Manager. “We had 50,000 people on site over the weekend, and while improvements will need to be made next year, overall it has been a success.”
But, the assembled crowd of music lovers were determined to enjoy the music.
“Yes, it’s rainy, yes it’s muddy, but people are here to have a good time, and that’s what they’ll do,” said Thrills' frontman Conor Deasy.
“The crowd are great, but then they always are in Liverpool. That’s one of the reasons we came.
“We’ve been having a wander round, looking at the MySpace stage, seeing some of the newer bands.
“That’s one of the best things about a festival like this – you get to see the big bands like The Who, but also new bands coming through. The Coral are great – we’ve seen them play quite a few times, and they’re always fantastic.”
Madness’ Suggs hit the nail on the head when he addressed the crowd as “Ladies, gentlemen, mudlovers…”
His tailored navy, pinstripe suit was a mile away from the assembled hordes below, dancing exuberantly in the foot-deep quagmire.
Over on the MySpace stage, the bands played in front of a two-foot deep swamp of mud yesterday.
Chris Kearney, singer with The Aeroplanes said: “People are making the best of things. No-one wants it to rain or to have to stand in the mud, but people are just getting on with it and enjoying the music. There are kids out there with carrier bags on their feet having a great time.”
“It’s about time people in Liverpool had something like this,” said Nick Ellis, singer with the Maybes?. “This was billed as the Glastonbury alternative, and that’s great that people who like music can have this on their doorstep.”

Meanwhile Keane must have been quaking in their boots when the Zutons came off stage.
The almighty fivesome, fresh from recording Good Morning Good Morning for the new Sgt. Pepper anniversary album, owned the stage, and it would take something very special to follow them.
From the first note of Why Don’t You Give Me Your Love, they held their home crowd in the palms of their hands.
As he belted out the opening line to Valerie, Dave McCabe clearly loved every minute – he couldn’t keep the smile off his face.
The crowd returned his joy, with a sea of arms reaching to the heavens, clapping, hugging and raising camera phones in the air. Surely this is what festivals are all about.
Closing with the sensational Zuton Fever, they demonstrated yet again what a sensational act they are live. The only pity is that they weren’t on longer.
The other crowd favourite was ska legends, Madness.
Dressed in the sharpest of pinstripe suits, Graham ‘Suggs’ McPherson was on fine form, enchanting the crowd with a superb catalogue of hits, getting even the muddiest and most miserable up and dancing, showcasing their uninhibited (and in many cases rather unorthadox) moves.
Surprisingly Joss Stone didn’t look at all at home in the mud. Far from jumping headlong into the sludge-pit or strolling barefoot, she instead politely thanked the crowd for watching in the pouring rain. “I want to thank you so much for turning out in the mud,” she gushed, the odd transatlantic accent clearly having shrunk in the wash.
By the time headliners Keane took to the stage, the numbers had thinned dramatically.
And yes, Tom Chaplin still hits those trademark big notes and the pained expression on his face is still there, but there was nothing the east Sussex guitarless three-piece could do to top local heroes The Zutons.
Again, the MySpace stage played host to some of the hottest young bands around, as the crowds scurried, slid and squelched between the two performance spaces to catch sets from Huyton four-piece The Aeroplanes and headliners Cracatilla.

Did you go to the festival? What did you think? Post your comments below or email them to letters@liverpoolecho.co.uk