Wireless Festival

Massive Attack, DJ Shadow, Clor, Les Incompetents, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, Metric, BlackBud, Midlake, Sway, Pharrell Williams, Gnarls Barkley, and Damian Marley

Lineup: The Flaming Lips, Massive Attack, DJ Shadow, Clor, Les Incompetents, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, Metric, BlackBud, Midlake, Sway, Pharrell Williams, Gnarls Barkley, Damian Marley

Date: 23/06/2006

Price: £37.50 pre booking fees

Info: Gates open at 2pm, first band on at 4pm. Part of a five-night festival

Who was there? (22) / add your name

About the venue

Hyde Park

Tube: Hyde Park Corner (7 mins) Green Park (8 mins) Bond Street (9 mins)

A Massive Park in Central London»

About the artists

The Flaming Lips

From skronky leftfield guitar music to out there psychedelic pop, The Flaming Lips are one of the most consistently innovative bands around today.

The Flaming Lips are...

Wayne Coyne - vocals, guitar
Michael Ivins - bass
Steve Drozd - drums
Jonathan Donahue - guitar (left 1992)
Roland Jones - guitar (left 1998)
Jonathan Ponemann - guitar (left 1998)
Richard English - drums (left 1989)
Nathan Roberts - drums (left 1993)

Massive Attack

Massive Attack are...

Robert Del Naja - vocals
Grant Marshall - keyboards
Andrew Vowles - keyboards (left 1999)

Where did your name come from?
Around 1989-1990 I settled on the name Shadow after having the usual assortment of cheesy DJ names (DJ 24-Karat was one). The name was inspired as a comment about hip-hop producers stepping out trying to be stars in their own right... specifically, Hurby Luv Bug (Kid 'n Play, Salt 'n Pepa) was like the pre-Puffy, always in his groups' videos, etc. I thought that was weak and that a producer's place should be behind the scenes, making the music. So the name Shadow was to try to convey the vibe that it's better to be heard than seen.

Taken from DJ Shadow's official site, here.

Clor

Schizoid electro rock via Brixton: like Beefhart being dragged into a river by Devo. Grrreat. Alas, split in May 2006.

"Come bask in the shadow of the CLOR, stand agog as CLOR beat out the primitive rhythms of the primordial swamp. Relentless, remorseless, and un-restrained."»

Les Incompetents

Billy - Vocals
Fred - Vocals
Shaun - Guitar
Chris - Guitar
Tommy - Bass
Lawrence - Drums

Olli - Bass (retired 2005)

Formed on a diet of early nineties children's comedy and Ribena concentrate, Les Incompetents live on the edge. Of London. The boys got together in order to compete in a school battle of the bands as the rough-diamond six piece that is Les Incompetents. The band released their debut single Re-union/Much Too Much in summer 2005 through White Heat Recordings and can currently be found gigging their 'off-kilter post-bozo blues-garage disco-country' all over London, Southend and Manchester. And the battle of the bands? Second place...

Photo by Sonia Melot»

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, or Sam to his friends, has to be filed under one of BSM's best. Doing something a little bit different to a lot of people around right now, Sam mixes delicate guitar melodies with intelligent lyrics, electronic drum beats and any other noises he can get out of his laptop.

Hailing from Southend, possibly the most unlikely of all rock n roll launch pads, there is definitely a maturity well beyond his years, which is clear from the very first time you listen to one of his Postal Service crossed with Damien Rice-esque masterpieces.

Sam can often be found clutching his guitar and laptop computer on one of the countries many Mega Bus routes. Surely the most punk rock touring transport choice in the world?»

Metric

Metric have always been a band who can adapt to any surroundings, make them their own and produce something brilliant. You might not imagine a bank to be an environment particularly conducive to creativity, but if a couple of months back you had ventured upstairs into the space above a certain financial establishment in Toronto, Canada, you would have come across a group of musicians birthing an incredible record, relishing the freedom they found their newest base to have given them rather than feeling any of the constraints you might expect. That group was Metric, and the record is their second album 'Live it Out'.

"We made the first album (2003's 'Old World Underground, Where are You') in Los Angeles, in the daytime, with a producer, which was kind of weird for us," says singer/synth player/mouthpiece Emily Haines. "But this time, with the space above the bank we had unlimited time and worked by ourselves at night. We did everything exactly the way we wanted and so this record feels much more representative of who we are."

Indeed, that Metric's second album was made in their hometown (with moral support from equally creative locals and childhood friends Broken Social Scene and Stars) certainly shows - 'Live It Out' exudes the unmistakable, natural, confident feel of a band who now know exactly what they're all about, having spent 2004 and 2005 growing together, living in ever-changing environments. One month they’d be sharing a flat in NYC with like-minded souls Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Liars, the next playing sold out residencies in Toronto; Emily would be playing solo piano shows in churches, while the band supported the Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden. Make no mistake, Emily, guitarist (and now sole producer) Jimmy Shaw, bassist Josh Winstead and drummer Joules Scott Key have been together for long enough in enough different environments (including both London and New York) to know when something feels right. And this time it does.

If the LA-birthed 'Old World Underground, Where Are You' was the sound of Metric experimenting and trying to find their feet, 'Live It Out' is their vision fully realised, untainted by outside interference. ("The record company didn't interfere for even one minute," Emily laughs, "we just delivered it to them and that was it!"). So from the ever-evolving, six minute opener 'Empty', through 'Poster Of A Girl''s blend of paranoid, sung-in-French couplets and pulsating electro, the feedback-drenched 'Monster Hospital' (featuring the refrain "I fought the war but the war won") and the new wave fuzz of the climatic title track, 'Live It Out' is an album that takes many disparate influences and fuses them into a brilliantly coherent statement. Recalling at times the anything-goes attitude of Sonic Youth ("We played with them in Paris and they really inspired us as people," notes Emily), its ten tracks are at once thrilling, disturbing and unique. Without question, Metric have made a record with which they can now introduce themselves to the wider world.

"We've been allowed to be ourselves and that really shows," enthuses Emily. "All the bands that have ever inspired us never sounded like anyone else - that's what we were aiming to do this time around. With 'Live It Out' we've definitely achieved that."

ilovemetric.com
myspace.com/metricband

BlackBud

BlackBud is Joe Taylor (guitar and vox), Adam Newton (bass, backing vox) and Sam Nadel (drums, backing vox). They came together as BlackBud in December 2002 and discovered a shared appreciation for such groundbreaking artists as Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, the Buckleys and Radiohead. Since then BlackBud’s performances, both here and abroad, have helped establish them as one of the UK’s most exciting new bands.

2004 saw capacity crowds at two breakthrough performances at Glastonbury festival on both the Avalon and New Stages and the band signed to the UK’s major independent label, Independiente, whose roster includes Travis and Embrace. Touring and festivals are planned throughout the coming year including international dates.

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