A strange day it was, first ever gig and first time ever seeing the band to me. Mari and I decided to go all the way and spend all three days at the festival: there were good bands here and there and also some obviously crap ones (although I'm sure Mari will disagree with me on Gary Numan and the world music Spinal Tap that is Rachid Taha 
).
Sometime near the end of the Super Furries' set we got a SMS from CuanaD speaking about the Order arriving to the Hotpress tent. We had had no idea of the whole thing, hadn't been on the net since Friday morning. We had to wait for The Frames and their fans to get the fuck out of the tent so we could get to the front. Which we did, but NO were late about 40 minutes or so; "delayed by Dave Fanning" according to the guy who did most of the interview. So there we just sat nervously; two Vikings took the piss out of us because we didn't feel like drinking. It was all in good spirits though, even the joke about doing a Mexican wave just when NO would come out. I'm sure CuanaD must have been sitting to the right in his green NOOL shirt and camera, but we didn't even have the guts to go and say hello to him, bugger! We were just so nervous about seeing the band so close.
The interview was hilarious, I couldn't stop laughing for most of it. I can't remember that much about it anymore so I hope Spotnick or someone will help CuanaD in putting that interview file up for everyone! I'll just write down what I remember.
Have to agree with Angel (in the other thread) that the interviewer did a decent job, he seemed to have read most of the latest news from NOOL at least. Hooky cracked me up by trying to look all shocked when people started clapping during the entrance of the Order. Phil arrived a bit late and as usual he and Steve said the least. There was talk about Steve doing the soundtrack for Cracker (which is a mini-series, just three weeks or so in October), The Best Of Electronic (which Barney didn't comment much on because he obviously has fuck all to do with it!), Hooky's bookwriting (and he said the same as in a recent interview: "I've just bored everyone I know with stories about the Hacienda so I just might write a book about it"). He said he's written about three words for it so far which would be the title (which caused Barney to start counting the words: "How To Run...").
The promised quick follow-up to WFTSC was given a NO (big surprise) from the band because they haven't apparently recorded anything in addition to the seven leftover songs; the interviewer asked if it was going to come out in 2008 and didn't get anything definite out of them. About Control: they said that they had recorded (or will record) about 1,5 minutes of music for the entire soundtrack (because there's Bowie and Iggy and such on it already). Then they talked about their past photosessions with Corbijn and so on.
There was usual talk about Barney's favourite tracks that he's done (nothing that we didn't know already, NO: Temptation, JD: Atmosphere) and they were also taking the piss out of Gary Numan (apparently there was a fan of his in the tent), Courtney Love and Gang Of Four (who were the next to be interviewed). Also some talking about the first gigs they ever went to, Hooky jokingly claiming that for him it was the Sex Pistols, Barney taking it a step further by saying it was The Velvet Underground and Steve admitting that for him it was Status Quo when he was eight years old and he had taken his mum and dad with him. Go Steve!
Best moment for me was when they started to reminisce about the Irish gigs they'd done: Kilkenny 1983 obviously came up. The Order said that the atmosphere on that one was close to a fucking wedding reception and supposedly there was a guy near the front of the stage with his mouth open all the time, expecting the band to pour wine into it! Explains most of the immortal Barney quips during that gig.
The question about the small amount of touring was quickly handed over to Barney by Hooky; Barney mostly went on about being sick last night, having vomited all over and then joking about NO's floorfillers. :p
The audience asking questions at the end was pretty much the usual stuff: the Cliff Richard question was followed up by Steve commenting on it being appropriate because other obscure rock geniuses like Arthur Lee and Syd Barrett had died this year. The guy asking about Neil Tennant didn't seem to have any idea of the difference between NO and Electronic! Then they were asked about the current bands and who they would like to work with, blah blah. Someone asked about the drum intro to BM: "a happy accident or a stroke of genius", to which Steve said: "happy genius".
Speaking of which, I got the Happy Genius' autograph before they all went to prepare for the gig. It made the long trip and the nights slept at the tent all worth it for me, especially since it's likely I won't be seeing them for a long time again. You bastard Steve, thank you.
The gig itself: it didn't matter a fuck to me how the band performed, they certainly didn't seem all that tight and were making mistakes all the way. And the setlist didn't matter to me either; AOC or Procession in the middle of all of that would've been perfect but obviously too much to ask for. I just sang along out of tune during the entire gig and moshed and jumped around although I was still nowhere near true Viking behaviour. I did see the inflatable skeleton and Al Jarvis (unmissable, obviously!) standing at Hooky's side. Alex got a greeting from Hooky right at the beginning, other notable banter by him included Kelly Osbourne's marriage ("your mum and dad's gonna kill you!") and "the Sugababes" (the girls who were dancing backstage at the beginning of Temptation). At the beginning of BLT he cracked me up by stepping around like a disco diva. As usual, he and Phil liked playing the most, jamming at the end of BM a bit when Steve and Barney had left. Phil pretended trying to knock over the keyboards during Temptation. The fondest memory though, is Hooky's big, warm smile during the gig. He enjoyed it, the big bastard!
Thought the crowd was good myself; everytime someone tripped over in the front people around quickly lifted him/her up. The kids enjoyed LWTUA and BM the most, as usual. Temptation and PK were the highlights to me; I was chuffed about hearing the latter even as a torso because it's my favourite NO track. The hard synth bit during Hooky's syndrum bit wasn't very audible in the audience but seems to be intact on the webcast. Barney tried a wimpy solo at the end. Here's hoping that they'll restore it to its full length and/or play some of the other old favourites in October!
Ok, over and out for me. Thanks to CuanaD for the Hotpress alert (and sorry for not meeting you!), Shug and Tock for the broadcast they both recorded, and to Mari who was a proper silent nerd just like me. We've deserved our Steve's Quiet Life badges. 
Maybe we'll get back to the British Isles for the Order again one day.
)
I'm really pissed off that you didnt come over & introduce yourselves - I was looking forward to meeting you both. Did get to meet Snoopy & sean o'ceallaigh there anyway, so I would have felt like some minor celebrity if anyone else had come over to shake my hand! :D
