Electric Picnic 2014

Each time I go I tell myself: this is it, my LAST Electric Picnic. This year was no different.  41,000 punters (biggest crowd ever) made for a lot of queuing - a very unpopular activity. Mindfield, for the second year in a row was without the usual packed line-up of novelists and poets. Two things that should be enough to keep me away. 

Still, Debbie Harry (Blondie) chatted to us in the Hot Press tent.

Kevin Godley of seminal 70's band 10cc, told us about his music production app www.wholeworldband.com - free to download, which allows anyone produce their own music online.

In the comedy tent, David McSavage was as frightening as ever, his mimicry of Gerry Adams, in particular, raising the roof.

A selection of bands from my formative years kept me in the front row of the Main Stage.

Seventies punk-rock band, The Stranglers, thrilled with classics such as 'No More Heroes' and 'Golden Brown' and particularly wonderful was their billing slot - 2pm - allowing this punter to enjoy them at a respectably early time!

Sinead O Connor was in fine form, belting out 'Emperor's New Clothes' and 'Take me to Church' but sadly for me, no "Nothing Compares." Still, she had her lovely daughter Roisin on stage and they sang a fabulous ballad together - surreal moment.

Simple Minds took me back years and good old Jim Kerr (although his voice is not as strong as it used to be but at 55 years of age he has to be forgiven) belted out his anthems: 'Don't you forget about me' and appropriately titled for all of us still giving it a lash: 'Alive and Kicking'.


I dropped in to see the anarchic Rubberbandits whose madcap set had a sort of unnerving aura - their song 'Spoiling Ivan' made me a tad uncomfortable - the desired affect, I suppose.

And a great sounding Cambridge electronic band, recommended by the teenagers in my house, Clean Bandit, whose catchy song 'Nowhere I'd Rather Be' was an anthem for the weekend.

As always, just being at EP is fun in itself:

especially when you spot a lampshade in a colour you were looking out for in ages,

or two Gardai whizz past you on bikes

or the sign over Body & Soul

or a legend puts his trademark stamp on it all.





The tickets for 2015 go on sale today.

As they say where I come from: 'No Comment'.