V97 was my second festival of the summer. It was the first (and only) time I attended Virgin’s Festival in Chelmsford. I went with one of my best friend of the time, Craig, who sadly passed in 2016. I’m not overly sure why we decided to go to V97 as it seesm to have been very much an Indie festival and neither of us were overly into the Indie scene. Still, we had a great time and enjoyed a lot of the bands over the two days.

Day one saw us catch eight bands over the course of the day, starting with American post-grunge band Radish who I really liked. Next up were Scottish Indie rockers AC Acoustics who weren’t really my cup of tea. They were followed by Silver Sun whom I’d already seen twice in 1997, including at Glastonbury Festival. I’d enjoyed them the first time I saw, wasn’t so impressed at Glastonbury, but they redeemed themselves here and were really good.

Pavement was another band I’d just seen at Glastonbury. I had enjoyed them at Glasto but, whilst they were alright at V97, they didn’t have the same sparkle or power this time round.

When I had originally seen Symposium for the first time back in May I’d been gushing their future fame to some Japanese TV interviewers after the gig, If anything their performance here at V97 just enhanced my opinion of them. They were brilliant and one of the best bands of the festivals (and probably my favourite band on the Saturday).

I’d never seen Dodgy before, although I had some of their singles and an album and had heard them round the Indie clubs for a while. They were good live and glad I caught them.

I’d seen Kula Shaker a couple of times over the last 18 months. Initially supporting the Presidents of the USA and then on the bill at Knebworth when Oasis headlined there in the summer of ’96. I was always pretty fond of Kula Shaker and enjoyed their blend of psychedelic rock and their debut album ‘K’. They were excellent live here too.

Headlining the first night of the festival was a band that I had never seen before, but had listened to fair bit and really enjoyed a bunch of their songs and albums… Blur. They really got the crowd going with hit after hit…. Parklife, Girls & Boys, Charmless Man, Beetlebum, and the brilliant Song 2.