Reviews

They were the bullies from the Shane Meadows film, Dead Man’s Shoes, clips from which were relayed on the big screen during breaks between each band, the meaning lost on these 30- and 40-something lads. With the football terraces still shut, maybe these men needed to exercise their flabby pre-season masculinity.

Supergrass (pic: Shirlaine Forrest)

Not that the Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner helped much - his query about who was from which Northern town provoked various football chants, something which the non-knuckleheads really could have done without. The question lingered; did anyone realise this was actually supposed to be a music event?

Unsurprisingly, young indie music types and real music fans who buy more than one CD a year kept a very low profile as the best of British eyeballed and snarled their way through the day.

Arctic Monkeys (pic: Shirlaine Forrest)

Each musical high matched by a volley of cups, plastic bottles and even, in an unusual turn of events, a tampon, but nothing compared to an incident during the Monkeys set, when in the space of two minutes, two fights were being picked on my left and my right.

Unsurprisingly, my attention wandered badly as I wondered whether I really had mistakenly rocked up to a football match.

As a result, Arctic Monkeys, Supergrass et al were never going to match the edge and aggression of the worst elements of this crowd. Maybe I just stood in the wrong place and these macho men were in a minority, but you couldn’t help noticing that they were winning the day by a very big margin.

Today, my team lost badly; sadly, it means I’ll be an armchair supporter from here on in.