Goldenplec

Friday

• God Is An Astronaut: Big crowd, great visuals, perfect way to start festival.

• The Coronas: Were extremely happy to be on Main Stage, crowd seemed to enjoy it, singalongs for San Diego Song and Grace, Don’t Wait

• Sugababes: Caught last 2 songs, Push The Button and Bout You Now, got a far better reception than I was expecting

• dEUS: My surprise of the festival, electric violins, great melodies and catchy tunes, will definitely be checking them out in October

• Ben Folds: Band with no guitarist, he still managed to rock the O2 stage with the help of his bass player, drummer and random tamborine player. Cover of Postal Service - Such Great Heights was great.

• Interpol: Solid set, something about the lead singers voice, never gets tiresome

• Kings Of Leon: Didn’t seem to be very interested in playing, left after 3 songs to check out

• Bell X1:  Tried out some of their new stuff as well as mixing the classics in

• Calvin Harris: Caught the end of his set and (despite a power cut) rocked the Dance Arena helped by a great laser show. Finished with ‘I Get All The Girls’ to send everyone back to their tents content for the first night under the stars.

Saturday:

Decided to catch up on some sleep Saturday morning so the first band i checked out was

• The Ting Tings: Playing in front of a packed Green Room, kept it upbeat until the end and finished, predictably, with the hit of the summer ‘Thats Not My Name

• The Cades: I was told to check this band out by a friend and they didn’t dissapoint, the frontman oozed charisma and every song seemed to have a hook that was impossible to get out of your head for a long time.

• Vampire Weekend: Great set, left everybody leaving with a smile on their face, first time they’ve played in Ireland, definitely won’t be their last.

• Seasick Steve: Complete change of genre to almost everything else at Oxegen, yet he pulled a big crowd who enjoyed every minute of his set (some of which contained a guitar with just one string). A very lucky fan got pulled from the crowd and had a song sung to her by Steve.

• Codes: Their powerful songs were played in front of a crowd of about 20 people due to REM being on the main stage. A shame really, as I think they are a band you’ll be hearing a lot from in the future.

• The Zutons: Most of the crowd were waiting for The Prodigy, but they still played a stellar set, dedicating ‘Valerie’ to Amy Winehouse and wishing her all the best.

• The Prodigy: From where I was, the sound was very poor, but the majority of people I’ve spoken to seemed to have enjoyed it.

Sunday

• Eddy Grant: He started by saying “I brought the sun for you” and he wasn’t wrong. This years final day was the complete opposite to last years washout. Grant provided a perfect start to the last day, playing all the favourites including ‘Electric Avenue’, ‘I Don’t Wanna Dance’ and ‘Gimme Hope Jo’anna’

• Arno Carstens: Don’t know much about this duo but they entertained the IMRO tent with and acoustic guitar and a box drum, including a cover of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’

• We Are Scientists: One of my favourite performances of the weekend, the music was great but the banter with the crowd made it even better. Dedicating songs to the Japanese Noodle Bar and ‘BAR BAR ID REQUIRED’ were nice touches.

• Delorentos: Playing in front of a large crowd (possibly due to the fact MGMT were playing after them), local boys Delorentos put on a fun show for everyone. New song ‘Hallucinations’ sounds promising for the upcoming album.

• Republic Of Loose: Always a fun band to see live, especially so when front man Johnny Pyro seemed to be a little bit worse for wear. The crowd were great, singing and dancing along to all the hits and a random singalong at the end.

• The Pogues: A packed Green Room buzzed with anticipation for The Pogues, and they were treated to a fine show by Shane and the boys. Crowd favourites were ‘Dirty Ol Town’, ‘Sally MacLennane’ and ‘Fiesta’

• Rage Against The Machine: The headliners finally arrived, and not even the sound cutting out a few times in the first half of the set could ruin this performance. Zack bounced around stage like he was the front man of a new, upcoming band. After what seemed like a lifetime wait for an encore, they came back out and finished with Freedom and, of course, Killing in the Name of.