SUPPORTING ACTS Niki Boyle rounds up the best of the alternative entertainments on offer at this year’s T in the Park
want to be pampered, head to the Refresh Tent. For only £3 a pop – or £20 for a weekend pass – you can have your hair washed by The Matrix team (the hairdressers, not the computer hackers) before receiving an immaculate coiffure in front of showbiz- style mirrors. Finish off your face with cosmetic samples from Smujj, or have one of their make-up artists doll you up. All of which frippery brings us onto Fancy Dress Friday. Last year’s winners paid tribute to Blur by posing as the milk cartons from the ‘Coffee and TV’ video. The organisers have announced that this year’s theme is ‘The Madder Hatters T Party’; nothing to do with Alice but rather all to do with pimpin’ headgear. As an added twist, if you turn up on Friday in dress inspired by the new ‘Madman’s Dream’ Tennent’s TV advert
(think top hat and
waxed ‘tache) you’ll give yourself the chance to win VIP tickets for T 2011. Lastly, the Healthy T arena
will be back again this year, offering the campsite a wholesome alternative to all that bare-arsed hedonism. Aside from healthy and scrumptious vegetarian food options, the Hurly Burly concession will also be serving up clowns, fairies, masked magicians, string quartets and B-movie tragic love songs. In the main arena, Healthy T has its own wee corner under some leafy foliage, where you can relax on picnic benches and watch Scottish b-boy crew The Flyin’ Jalapenos pop, lock and flip around for your entertainment, followed by a
few poorly coordinated copycats no doubt.
There’s a lot of great live music at T in the Park . . . but if you didn’t know that already then perhaps you should have a think about moving out of that cave you live in. Right here, however, is the guide to the non-musical treats on offer at the festival. Your first port of call should
be the Residence, T in the Park’s boutique camping arena. Of the various accommodation on offer, including nomadic yurts, old-school tipis and cosy wooden ‘Kocoons’, we’d probably splash out on the ultra-luxurious Log Kabin, featuring a double bed, a fridge, a flat-screen TV, lights, speakers, soundproof walls and underfloor heating.
Sure, it costs a rather pricey £2500 for two, but it does give you access to the Residence’s other facilities, including the Yurtel Café (selling wood-fired- oven pizzas and fresh coffee over the course of the weekend) and the Residence Recovery Spa, offering a range of face and body art, hair styling and relaxing massages. A final upside is that, if you’ve got the money, not all residence accommodation is sold out – chances are you could still get tickets.
For those unwilling to pay Residence prices but who still
L E V A R T
BUS With services running from over 30 locations across Scotland, the fastest way to get to T this year is by bus. Citylink has services from both Glasgow and Edinburgh leaving every 30 minutes direct to the campsite. All tickets must be bought in advance from www.citylink.co.uk or 0871 266 33 33 before travel. Return ticket: £26 from Glasgow Buchanan bus station; £22 from Edinburgh St Andrew Square. CAR Beat the traffic and get access to detailed travel updates from Traffic Scotland’s Twitter feed (twitter.com/ trafficscotland), which will post up-to- the-minute news on routes to the campsite. The same information is also available from travel information kiosks at both Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Queen Street stations. If you’re taking a car, car park tickets must be bought in advance from www.ticketmaster.co.uk
ON THE UP
Want to know who’s worth keeping an eye on at the T Break stage? DJ Hobbes, (above) promoter of Limbo at Edinburgh’s Voodoo Rooms, the live music night once described as ‘the barometer of pop in Scotland’, picks his five acts to watch
NIGHT NOISE TEAM This Edinburgh quartet have played Limbo three times now and get better every time. Current killer ‘You Won’ sounds like Chic being fronted by Morrissey but that’s only half the story, as Parisian groove machine Fabien Pinardon and Belfast songwriter Sean Ormsby (the core duo) have more tricks still falling from their well-tailored sleeves.
THREE BLIND WOLVES When Three Blind Wolves last played Limbo in February (they appeared once before as Ross Clark & The Scarfs Go Missing), they brought the room to fever pitch with a very postmodern mix of 60s rockabilly, 70s rock (gods) and Ross’ distinctive, 50s-style tremolo. These wolves howl strong.
BE LIKE PABLO I’ve not seen them before but Forres quintet Be Like Pablo would definitely get a gig at Limbo. They appeal to the poppier end of our taste (The Beach Boys via Teenage Fanclub), they seem to have a good sense of humour and recent single ‘Julianne’ has catchy hooks, great melodies and sounds like a massive hit.
KOBI ONYAME I’d never heard of Ghanaian/Glaswegian hip hop/rap/soul artist Kobi Onyame but he clearly has massive pop potential. ‘Nobody Fault But Mine’ mines a familiar seam but sounds good, with a slow flow over a vintage Nina Simone sample, while ‘He Said She Said’ (with award-winning rapper Sway) is even more like daytime radio material. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this guy goes all the way.
MITCHELL MUSEUM Mitchell Museum have played Limbo twice and are one of our favourite bands in Scotland. They don’t take themselves at all seriously and really know how to enjoy themselves on stage – with bad jokes, clowning and unscripted banter, all of which is totally infectious. The music they make is equally riotously fun-loving: a lysergic jaunt down richly orchestrated paths, with jubilant fanfares. If you only see one band at T Break this year, make sure it’s this one. Brilliant, new wave, pop‘n’roll. (Hobbes, DJ/Music Promoter, Limbo, Trouble)
■ black-spring.com/limbo, www.getintotrouble.com All four bands play T Break at this year’s T in the Park.
24 Jun–8 Jul 2010 THE LIST 23