Zoo Thousand: The Good Points

I feel that it is my duty to give you the reader, the real picture behind zoo8, as it has not been too good so far. What people are forgetting is that it was not about facilities or queuing, it was about good live music. That’s it. Ask yourself this question. Why did you go to zoo8? You did not go for nice toilets, or for short queues. You went for music. Granted a lot of people cancelled (most of my favourite bands cancelled, but it didn’t stop me enjoying myself), but the music you heard was mostly of a good quality. Here are some of my highlights and I hope you find them helpful for reminiscing on a great festival for music.

1) The Rumble Strips
Ok, not one of my favourite bands before zoo, but they were great. Their set was amazing and they all looked like they were enjoying themselves which was brilliant too.

Best moment: Motorcycle was outstanding so YouTube it!

2) Operahouse
Very good band, but stuck on a tiny stage with about 15 people watching. Played some brilliant songs and were suffocated by a rogue smoke machine which was pretty funny.

Best moment: Born a boy played to perfection.

3) Hadouken!
Played brilliantly and despite the hour or so delay before their set managed to keep a crowd of about 5000 people. Not bad.

Best moment: the rant about how shit the festival was being run. Their not going to be back for zoo9 with that!

4) Joe Shepherd
No one in their right mind would take opened drinks from a stranger but Joe managed it, and created the funniest hour of the weekend with his aggressiveness and reluctance to pick up his feet when walking.

Best moment: running away from ‘The Ladies’ into the wilderness. Brilliant.

5) Nick Harrison
This guy is a legend. Playing his little acoustic guitar through the barrage of bottles and egging people on to keep trying.

Best moment: all his songs were brilliant and his personality made the bottles feel like a game.

6) The Teenagers
Very fun to watch and the accents were brilliant. Good music too which is always a bonus.

Best moment: when they walked on stage and said ‘we are the teen ay gers. Very funny and sparked a flurry of mimicking back at our tent.

7) The BBC introducing tent
Probably the best bit of the weekend was seeing all of these local bands playing great music and promoting themselves. Mostly the bands were great, but the honourable mentions here go to Paisley Grammar, Eben, Motion Picture Soundtrack, Freshman, Floors and Walls, Tom Williams and the Boat and Seven Story Down.

Best moment: meeting Seven Story Down who have been one of my favourite bands since I heard of them in January.

Other honourable mentions of the weekend:
Flogging Molly, Slaves to Gravity, The Young Knives, Underground Heroes, The Holloways, The Hives, Marner Brown, Little Man Tate, Clacket Lane and Delays.

See, that’s a lot of reasons for why the festival was a success. If you need fancy toilets to have a good time then party away to Buckingham Palace, but me, I’m staying right here for Zoo9 woo!