poppedmusic

Sunday 17th July 2011

Without wishing to sound too harsh it would have been nice had the organisers of this event actually set about some actual organisation. They failed to order any magic or indeed any summer weather, though that much really couldn’t be ordered as such, though it would have been nice. The only element they did deliver on was Live and even that was a little bizarre at times.

Let’s get the gripes out of the way first I think, though really this might be all I have for you with this one. Firstly, although the choice of venue may have seemed perfect and idyllic, it turned out to be that of nightmares. No members of staff were able to give us any decent information and we were told at one point that we were only a 15 minute walk away from the entrance. Perhaps they meant 15 miles because that is what it felt like. So a most ridiculous walk and then we were excited to see what our VIP area would entail. Not much by all accounts. In fact if the smell of the toilets and the queues in this area were anything to go by then I sure felt sorry for every one else. Nothing special about this area at all, least we not forget the surly and uninterested bar staff who weren’t able to get a drinks order correct, even if we were only asking for water and diet coke. We thought we’d grab a bite to eat too seeing as we’d been queuing in traffic for over 4 hours but oh no if we’d have tried to get food we would have missed all the music and “fun”.

Whilst I watched The Lighthouse Family desperately try and whip the soggy crowed into a frenzy, the others went to move the car. The Lighthouse Family were good and I could hear people around me singing along but every time the band tried to jolly along the weather it started to rain harder and harder. Then all the brollies came out and you just couldn’t see anything, especially from the grandstand. I knew far more songs by them than I thought I would so it was quite nice really and I’m sure had the weather been better and had I not have been in such a foul mood, I dare say I might have even enjoyed them a fair bit for a bit of light entertainment on a Sunday evening.

By the time we were all back together again and finally had a beer in hand, Sir Elton John popped up on the stage and the set started. No introduction, no intro music or ceremony or anything that you might expect any old artist to have let alone one of Britain’s most respected and loved. We were all completely baffled by this, as were all the people around me. He started with Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting, which really got the crowed going and I thought to myself, here we go this will be great. I soon noticed though that there was really no atmosphere at all, the rain was falling down quite steadily people were shivering and looking a little miserable, and I can’t blame them. Some of the people we spoke to had paid large amounts of money for a VIP experience and had travelled quite a way and hadn’t even been allocated seats from which to watch from the Grandstand and had also had the same horrific travel and parking experience as us. It was such a shame as it really did put a dampener on it all. Thank goodness there were screens but in all honesty even the filming wasn’t of a great standard, there’s only so many times you want to watch a close up of Elton John’s fingers playing the piano. They should have taken note of how to film live events from those who did such a fantastic job at every other live outdoor event I’ve ever been to (Including the brilliant live screens at The Big Feastival).

Before we left (early) we were treated to some other amazing renditions of some of Elton John’s classic tracks such as Tiny Dancer, I Guess Why They Call It The Blues, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, (a very long version of) Rocket Man. There was still a distinct lack of atmosphere, perhaps it was because we were in the grandstand area, I don’t know. I could see that people toward the front of the stage really were having a great time though but for us it was overall a very disappointing experience, which you can no doubt tell. I think I would love to go and see Elton John play live again, especially as I want to hear I’m Still Standing, which he may or may not have played. But we took note of the car headlights that were behind the stage driving off toward comfort and it was just too much for us to ignore and we soon followed suit, we’re sorry to say. We really hope that the organisers of Magic Summer Live take note of their customer’s comments and should they go ahead again next year make some changes, we’ll forgive them if they can’t order in the sunshine but everything else can be fixed, with a little hard work and maybe even some magic.