Friday: Once we'd settled in and exchanged a Martini and lemonade for one without dead flies floating on top we headed down the front for Yo La Tengo. In order to get a good view against the railings and not really prepared for the level of volume that was coming we positioned ourselves directly in front of the right speaker. This meant that I spent the majority of the set with my finger in my right ear, though looking around it was comforting to see I wasn't the only one. It was a loud set. I couldn't really hear any other bands that evening, but it was worth it to witness the unique guitar stylings of Ira up close.

Saturday: Whilst watching Sponge Bob Square Pants on Saturday morning a furtive message announced a Soft Focus interview with Sonic Youth would take place shortly in a nearby lecture hall. After searching for the most probable location along with several others, we pitched our hopes up against a mysterious locked white door to then find we had the responsibility of having formed a queue of maybe two hundred other people hoping to see the interview. Well it turned out we were in the right place and eventually about 50 of us were sitting on the floor in a small room with Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon. Soft Focus interviewer Ian Svenonius is quite an interesting character and got them both talking on subjects from tv chefs to the death of jazz...it was all filmed so keep an eye out for it online. (In the meantime check out his interview with Steve Albini). Along with this, Sonic Youth's set was a highlight of Saturday evening's bands as well as Lightning Bolt for me. I sadly forgot to take my camera along this weekend, but Brian Chippendale was quite a spectacle drumming away like a demented rainbow coloured rabbit. I was a little upset to hear that I'd missed Colin Greenwood wandering around the venue at the start of this gig :(

Sunday: The mornings TV programming was a little dissapointing and so Sunday was a morning for visiting the fruit machines and arcade games, whilst Mum and My Bloody Valentine turned out to be the memorable performances of the last evening. There had been a lot of talk about how loud the MBV set was going to be. They played all three days on centre stage due to noise leakage problems from the bigger Pavilion and ear plugs were handed out as you went into the arena. Sure enough it was a particularly loud set. Learning a lesson from the first night this performance was best enjoyed from a distance. The half hour of solid rumbling noise to end the set seemed to be a decibel too far for most people though. This finale could be heared and felt from the cinema where I ended the festival watching La Haine.