Day 3 - Sunday - T in the Park 2009,REM,Kings of Leon,Amy Winehouse,Bowling for Soup Live Review @ Balado Airfield (Kinross)

T in the Park

Live Review

Sunday saw the final day of the Scottish festival. With R.E.M, Kings Of Leon and Amy Winehouse all on the mainstage during the evening, the event was sure to go out with a bang.

The Good

Bowling for Soup opened the day at noon to a surprisingly large crowd. The band were of top form mixing their colourful hits with crude witty banter much to the crowd delight. Shed Seven were equally fantastic, following on Bowling For Soup they played a set consisting of tracks from critically acclaimed ‘A Maximum High’ album. Closing with ‘Going For Gold’, both they and Bowling For Soup were real surprises as they delivered performances near headline worthy.

Amy Winehouse was in top form as she dropped all her antics and played a scorching set. The troubled star played hits from her now double platinum album including ‘You Know I’m No good’ and ‘Rehab’, before engaging in a bit of banter with the audience. She closed her set with crowd favourite ‘Valerie’ and is rumoured to have stayed after to socialise with artists. Sounds like a different Amy to me but oh well.

Kings of Leon were also formidable with their performance. In a solid set, the band never quite hit the high of Glastonbury but showed they’re class throughout.

The Bad

Such was The Ting Tings attraction that King Tut’s tent was turning away fans. While this is by no means anything shocking, T could’ve moved ‘em main stage or put up a screen for the hundreds of fans who were left outside. Seems to me like Ting Tings would’ve been of more interest than Amy Macdonald.

The Ugly

Imagine, you’re a band loved by the majority of people. You’ve made fifteen albums and had thirty or so major hits. Now you’re playing a festival for the first time in god knows how long packed with both adoring fans and music lovers alike. Surely you wouldn’t go and blow it by playing new songs? R.E.M did. In their 23 song set, the band successfully discarded of their mind blowing back catalogue and played near exclusively from new release ‘Accelerate’. R.E.M’s set did include a few classics though. They finished with ‘Man On The Moon’ but after an hour of egotistical garbage it left a bitter taste. The band’s new album has bombed massively and selfish stunts like these won’t do them any favours. Bowling For Soup would’ve been a better headliner. Also, toilets continued their pursuit of worldwide nasal domination.

What was arguably the best day of the festival was tainted by R.E.M’s pathetic set. Still, every other band on the day was fantastic and all deserve their plaudits. Roll on next year.

Tom Crowther