So – country in recession? Check. A sense of misery and impending doom? Check. Crap weather? Double check. Ladies and gentlemen, THE SPECIALS. Little could they have realised when they planned this 30th Anniversary jaunt that they would return to such a familiar landscape. And watching them here today it really is like the last 26 years have melted away. They may be older for sure, but seeing Neville Staples sprint around the stage and Lynval Golding skanking away is still a pure joy. Terry Hall is as gloriously deadpan as ever and you wonder how these six men lasted so long not being in the same band together, so clear is their enjoyment of the whole thing. Yes it’s a nostalgia show but when the first five numbers feature ‘Too Much Too Young’, ‘Gangsters’ and ‘Rat Race’ there aren’t many better than this. By loading the hits so early in the set there is a chance that the feared audience disinterest might set in but the kids at the front keep going alongside those of a more mature vintage (State included) right until they close with ‘Ghost Town’, a song that could have been written yesterday. Worth every second of the wait.

The prospect of seeing JANE’S ADDICTION had us equally concerned but for very different reasons. Never really a fan of them the first time round, the prospect of them giving it a go for the third time was hardly a thrilling one. As we round the corner to the O2 Stage Dave Navarro is in mid-solo. By the time we battle our way through the now heavy mud to the front he is still going. Yet far from confirming our worst fears, Jane’s turn out to be one of the best acts we see all weekend. Their (not at all) secret weapon is Perry Farrell, who somehow seems to have turned into the funniest / campest man alive – even getting away with the worst Irish accent known to man. The music backing him is so fantastically muscular too that we begin to wonder if we have spent years missing out on what could have been one our favourite bands or just that, unlike most, Jane’s Addiction have actually got better with age.

From where State is standing we can see the crowd gathering for FLORENCE & THE MACHINE. There were plenty of grumbles about her playing on one of the smallest stages on site but these are missing the point. Festivals need gigs like this, where actually seeing a band needs a degree of effort rather than simply hanging about eating overpriced chips. Besides, we’ve grown rather fond of the Red Bull stage over the weekend, the sound has been great and the open sides mean that most can catch some view of the band – even if they are playing in the dark. Expectation is as high as for any band over the weekend and, after a slightly wobbly start, they don’t let us down. Such is the atmosphere that it would have covered a multitude of sins but F&TM are on fire. Not since The Arcade Fire came our way has a band created such a chest rattling, heart swelling, inspirational noise. The roar that greets ‘Dog Days’ is such a sheer outpouring of joy that the singer herself is forced to take a step back. A year ago, State saw Florence Welch play to a small crowd at a festival in London, seemingly just too left field to ever appeal to a mass audience. That she has got to this point (the only non-Michael Jackson album in the Irish top 5) without sacrificing any of her uniqueness makes us feel good about the music world. It’s also the kind of moment that Oxegen needs more of if it is going to avoid going down the route of just another corporate, mainstream festival. That debate will have to wait though, for now she most certainly has got the love of us all.

Charged with setting the ambience for Swedish goth-pop outfit Fever Ray, NIALLER9′s set (Declaration of Interest: Nialler is an editor for this site) was suitably dark and atmospheric without being overtly ominous. A mix of dubstep, techno, alt-pop, even throwing in some dancehall the gathering numbers were treated to some of this year’s freshest tunes and remixes. Thusly the tone is set.

As part of the brilliantly innovative and consistently aloof electronic duo The Knife, Karin Dreijer Andersson and her brother Olof Dreijer barely played a dozen shows. State was lucky enough to catch them when they played London in 2006 which proved to be one of the most exhilarating live shows ever witnessed and pretty much ‘like nothing I’ve never seen before’. Which is exactly how Simon Roche reported on Fever Ray from Roskilde; indeed the entire tour has been met spectacular reviews. So for many Fever Ray’s visit to Ireland was one of the most anticipated gigs of the year never mind the weekend.

FEVER RAY open with -If I Had a Heart’ which is primal, pulsating and immediately hypnotic. The light show is such that is nearly impossible to make out what is happening. Scanning around to take it all in the stage resembles the nightmarish scenes in -Eyes Wide Shut’. The keyboardist is a cross between a demented priest and an exclamation point, there’s also skeletal figures and various masked characters. It’s like a Matthew Barney film brought to life. Altogether it’s an unsettling experience, which is exactly the point.

At the centre of it all we have the notoriously enigmatic Karen, well it could be anybody, or anything for that matter. Cloaked and hooded Karen can rest assured that her animosity is 100% in tact. From beneath a giant buffalo head / Native American rainmaker costume unearthly incorporeal vocals flow out, almost anxiously. -When I Grow Up’ is sharp and lively, the flickering lamps give glimpses of activity however our central character remains still.

Fever Ray tour with an intricate laser show, which is the main reason they are playing Oxegen’s Dance hangar. It’s an impressive display but the vastness of the arena means that some of the intended disorientation is lost. In fact, it feels like some of the shows intended claustrophobia is also lost. Though it pains State to admit this, this leaves us feeling ever so slightly, only slightly mind, underwhelmed or at least unsatisfied. This is absolutely no fault of the band or audience just the old argument of wrong slot, wrong stage, wrong festival.

In saying that, the show had a certain apprehensive atmosphere. -Concrete Walls’ was frighteningly suffocating. By contrast, the confessional -Seven’ brought an electro pop element. Also there were a couple of new songs, or b-sides maybe, that were icy, intense and enveloping.

Karen replaces the head piece to the alien sounds of -Coconut’, which creates a dramatic and shrilling soundscape before closing with the murky and perturbed -Keep The Streets Empty For Me’. With that Karen shuffles from the stage shrouded in mystique. It could be argued that the show was faceless and un-human but the experience was so utterly affecting it was also the embodiment of some elemental emotions.

Photos by Fionn Kidney – Can’t Leave Now.

The award for weirdest set of the weekend goes, unsurprisingly, to Kevin Barnes and his bizarre crew OF MONTREAL, who bring the usual parade of extras dressed as snakes, moustachioed men in neon leotards, glitter, interpretive dance routines featuring people in gas masks and pig costumes to the Red Bull Music Academy. What does it all mean? Who knows for sure, but it breaks the bonkers-o-meter and then some. Their most recent album Skeletal Lamping was a fractured but ultimately rewarding affair, telling the story of Barnes’s alter ego, the transsexual Georgie Fruit. Barnes surely must be trying to communicate something profound in the freakish onstage circus which swirls around his increasingly disco-influenced take on psychedelic rock, but the songs themselves are getting lost amid the visual overload. The human retina can physically only take in so much information, and Of Montreal appear to be doing their darndness to make their audiences’ eyeballs explode in bloody protest. Still, it was worth it for the terrified looks on the faces of the few lads in Dublin jerseys who clearly did not know the band and quickly left the tent for dust.

THE KILLERS have a big job to pull off tonight. By this stage, the main arena looks and feels like the Somme, punters are probably developing trench-foot and the unpredictable, crazy-eyed booze casualties who tend to make day three of a festival their own have altered the atmosphere. On top of this, they are a band whose live reputation is shaky to say the least. In the past, their sets have been functional, dull affairs and Brandon Flowers isn’t exactly Freddie Mercury when it comes to wowing crowds. Yet, somehow in spite of the odds, they manage to pull the hat out of the bag and deliver a sing-along set worthy of the main stage. Part of their success might be down to Flowers being remarkably relaxed, throwing out bits of banter such as a long story (something to do with an old car he owned) explaining the genesis of ‘Mr Brightside’. “Are we human/ or are we dancer?” he sings in one of the most famously grammatically questionable songs of recent years. Well, tonight he’s human and the crowd love him for it. Later, the visuals behind the band turn into a beautifully crimson sky during a heart-felt reading of ‘All These Things That I Have Done’ and as the crowd holler along joyously it feels like one of the most cathartic and redemptive moments of a weekend that was both hard going and often inspirational.

It’s not that great a leap of the imagination to realise that, if they’d been around as a new band now, THAT PETROL EMOTION would be enjoying similar status. They did, after all, perfect the art of the scuzzed up, alternative pop song. As it is, you wish that more than a few hundred had turned up to see them give the reunion shuffle a second bash. They are still a fiery proposition live but this feels a bit anti-climatic after last year’s Electric Picnic show. Although Steve Mac’s apparent announcement of a forthcoming Dublin gig does whet the appetite.

Becoming a pop star, alternative or otherwise, is probably not on the agenda for R.S.A.G. anytime soon. After a frustrating delay of nearly half an hour, he emerges to a respectable crowd for early on a Sunday afternoon. If those gathered at the Red Bull Academy are expecting something in keeping with the stage’s overall dance feel they have another thing coming. Blessed with the stage’s excellent sound system, the bottom end hits you in the gut rather than the feet. Although the one man band set-up really does make sense here this is still a tough listen, like early New Model Army meets the Cramps meets classic rock n’ roll. The news that Jeremy Hickey has already started work on a follow up to Organic Sampler is encouraging, as you feel this is very much the start of something rather than the finished article.

Photos by Fionn Kidney – CantLeaveNow.com.

The same could be said for chums FOALS (drummer Jack Bevan joins Friendly Fires on stage for a part of their set), already hugely popular live and rightly so. Their brand of technical rock has both the chops and the ability to move. As with most other Foals sets, they open with ‘The French Open’ after a slightly indulgent wall of noise before ‘Olympic Airways’ and ‘Cassius’ offer up their rare treat of the audience singing riffs back at the band. The Oxford band play a new song which is slower and epic-sounding. Could the song be the first math-rock sweeping ballad?

The best festival moments have an element of surprise to them and BROKEN RECORDS are Sunday’s delightful accident. The rain during THE SPECIALS herald us towards the epic lush of the Edinburgh band. With a sound as sweeping as Arcade Fire and with a clear Springsteen influence to boot, the band’s orchestral sound makes an immediate impression. We make a note to check out their Until The Earth Begins to Part album despite our cohort’s jab that they sounded like they were about to launch into ‘Come on Eileen’.

We’d rather bite our own hands off then go witness THE KILLERS close out the main stage, so NINE INCH NAILS are the perfect antidote. Most impressive is the sound at this outdoor stage. Reznor must have some sound engineer. You can hear every instrument in pristine quality, it is probably the best sound State has ever heard at an open-air event, particularly as NIN’s brand of awesome heavy rock has some nuanced electronic flourishes. It might be his last tour for a long, long time but he’s not letting up. ‘March of the Pigs’, ‘The Hand That Feeds’, ‘Head Like A Hole’ are superb and when they finish the set with ‘Hurt’ with the crowd singing along, it reminds us that Johnny Cash doesn’t own this song just yet.

One of the surprises of the day is the extremely large crowd who turn out for CAROSEL. It appears that this continental-sounding Irish pop band have been quietly developing a following. Helped out by backing musicians and their friend Liam McDermot of Funzo, the core members, guitarist Pete McGrane and singer Michelle Phelan play a set of breezy, delicate pop. Michelle – dressed like a French mime artist – has a smooth, jazzy way of singing and her voice is the best thing they have going for them. The set is chilled and well-received, and songs like ‘Sun is Shining’ and ‘Easy as it Flows’ make the sort of easy-going sounds that suit a festival afternoon.

Nerdy American synth-poppers PASSION PIT come to Oxegen trailing oodles of hype and a lauded debut album in Manners. By the time they emerge onto the New Bands stage, the main festival arena has been turned into an apocalyptic mudscape by the freezing horizontal rain and wind. In this weather, the tents really are where it’s at and the capacity crowd who come to see the lads have lucked out. They play a blinder, delivering their upbeat, pulsing songs with a gutsy verve that keeps everyone on their toes. The delirious response their best known song -Sleepyhead’ draws from the crowd makes for an explosive moment, and although some of their material can be a little samey, there is no denying it has an infectious quality live that irons out any weaknesses that may be more apparent on headphones.

Although Kings Of Leon are a predictably massive draw on the main stage, for a certain type of punter the PET SHOP BOYS, playing in the Heineken Green Spheres tent are one of the big draws of the weekend. With a back catalogue of consistently excellent pop stretching over decades they have an embarrassment of riches to bring to any festival. They play a wonderfully, outrageously flamboyant show with a screen showing the most out-there visuals of the weekend (think dancing Soviet youth and psychedelic Rubiks Cubes). The sense of euphoria that greets the likes of -Go West’ and -West End Girls’ is palpable. It is thrilling stuff, and a great alternative for those who might find the main event tonight a slightly dour proposition.

KATY PERRY on the other hand is an absolute blast. Less pretentious than Gaga (you sense she knows the inherent ridiculousness of her songs) and as playful as hell, she wins over the crowd instantly with her cute pink leopard-skin looks and silly props which include plastic flamingos and inflatable fruit. Running backwards and forwards, hopping around and sometimes picking up a guitar you sense is also a prop, she gives the kids a sugary overdose of her chart straddling hits. A few cheeky girls in the audience take the lyrics to ‘I Kissed A Girl’ at face-value, much to the bug-eyed delight of the teenage lads nearby. Final score? Katy Perry one, Lady Gaga nil.

Over on the O2 Stage, THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM are attempting a similar feat from a very different starting point. A more punked up, heavily tattooed version of the Hold Steady’s take on Bruce Springsteen, they succeed today by whit of sheer passion, energy and belief, as well as a handful of good songs. ‘The ’59 Sound’ is their one truly great moment so far and, even without a hoped for Springsteen guest spot (he is just down the road after all), it still sets them out from the punk pop crowd.

Up at the Red Bull Music Academy Stage, a nice little – almost club like – vibe is developing. It’s helped enormously by the endeavors of MESSIAH J & THE EXPERT. Fired up on a mixture of booze and energy drinks, the crowd are after something upbeat and they certainly deliver, proving what a fine live proposition they’ve become. The sound is clear and kicking and J leads proceedings with authority, commitment and humour. With that buffoon The Game pulling out of the festival at the last minute, hip-hop has got short change at Oxegen this year but MJEX provided the very best example.

Despite these glowing moments, the day can’t help but drag. The tents become full but the smaller bands are still often playing to a harder audience of disinterested, sheltering punters. Once ELBOW walk on stage in matching plastic ponchos, however, you know that everything is going to be alright. In our pre-festival imagination, this band were going to play as the sun descended on a golden evening and it would have been a triumph. It turns out, however, that there is little better company on a wet, utterly miserable day than Elbow. From that opening moment of camaraderie onwards it is indeed a triumph. Guy Garvey is the audience’s favourite uncle, constantly inquiring as to their welfare and even apologising before a heart stopping rendition of ‘Weather To Fly’. There have been times over the past year when we have wondered whether Elbow’s late acclaim had been down to some kind of sympathy vote. After today we hang our head in shame at the thought for this was truly magical.

The brutal weather affects State’s ability to get a look at HOCKEY, LITTLE BOOTS and TV ON THE RADIO as people are sheltering from the rain. Same story over at the IMRO tent where another NY girl Annie Clark aka ST. VINCENT is treating dampened revellers to songs from her most recent album Actor. Boistered by trumpet, violin, clarinet and a microphone that adds effects to her elegant voice, it’s a ear-warming setlist particularly when the trumpet player steps out from his domain to play his instrument or when Clark beats the hell out of her guitar with her fist as if she was trying to make it bleed. She may look like a Raggedy Ann doll with curly black hair and wide eyes but the girl, and the band know how to create a on-edge performance.

So too do BLOC PARTY thankfully who have been known to let their moods (particularly Kele) dominate proceedings. No such problems here today. The band are enthusiastic and Kele is talkative, flatteringly telling the crowd, yes you guessed it, that Irish crowds are the best around – it never gets old that one. ‘Hunting for Witches’, ‘The Prayer’ and ‘Banquet’ sounded superb amongst the newer songs like current single ‘One More Chance’ giving the crowd ample opportunity to singalong.

The Prayer (Live at Oxegen ’09)

The rest of the night is spent wandering with notably only DOVES and BOYS NOIZE making an impression but for two very different reasons. Manchester’s Doves are, on paper, surely one of the most boring bands in the UK at the moment. While they have some nice songs which are played from the O2 Stage on the night like ‘Pounding’ and ‘Black and White Town’, there’s dull and grey bits within their set which doesn’t make you want to stay much longer than you have to. One person’s epic is another person’s bland.

Berlin’s Boys Noize however could not be described as boring; repetitive maybe but that’s the nature of his dance beat. Uncomprising scattered beats over 4/4 ones produce weird connotations on set segueways, returning to the more regular sound of electro to shouts of “WHOOMP There it is!”. State wonders how many times the Dance Arena has heard that over the weekend?

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Even NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS feel the pinch. Approaching the O2 stage from across the site the turn out looks woeful, especially given the fast expanse that houses them. Cave is far from deterred and gives it the usual high drama. He is very much an acquired taste and – like a few of the acts this weekend – perhaps in not quite the right place but there’s still something magical about the old boy. He even wheels Shane McGowan out at the end much to everyone’s delight and McGowan’s apparent bemusement.

The KOL effect is even more noticeable at AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR, who let rip to a smaller crowd then they’d normally play to in Belfast. Which is a real shame, because we would love to have seen them reach a new audience. They are, of course, fantastic and give every note more effort than most of the bigger bands here put into their entire sets. Rory’s guitar packs up at the death so he chooses to dive head first over the barrier. Epic.

Passing through the Heineken Green Spheres tent were there seem to be more people in JERRY FISH & THE MUDBUG than the audience, it’s over to the New Bands stage for THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT. They surprise us on a number of levels. Having heard a couple of songs on the radio we were expecting a standard US indie guitar outfit (the name doesn’t help) but, resplendent in suits and with added violin, they prove a lot more interesting than that. The songs are tight, the delivery interesting and we make a note to explore more in future, which is surely what a New Bands stage is all about.

KINGS OF LEON are no doubt oblivious to this audience black hole they have created but it should ring a bell. When they made their debut at this festival in 2004, they came up against The Frames and faced a similar sort of crowd to many others tonight. They were, however, a completely thrilling experience – gradually filling their small tent as people streamed across the site. In short, it was one of those great festival moments. How things have changed. Oxegen has proved a barometer for their career, seeing them make the graduation to afternoon main stage and then headliners – both of which found them out of their depth.

So would 2009 be the year that they proved themselves worthy of their exalted status. Well yes….and no. They certainly seem more comfortable in the role now, perhaps thanks to their new found success at home, perhaps simply down to experience. The stage show that accompanies the twenty song setlist is state of the art and no-one could accuse them of not giving value for money. Why, then, is it all so unengaging? The truth is that, as their albums have become bigger commercial successes, so has the music become less interesting. ‘Be Somebody’, ‘Sex On Fire’, ‘On Call’ et all are fine as they go but we can’t help longing for more of the spark that they showed (and still show tonight) on ‘Molly’s Chambers’ and ‘The Bucket’. What you can’t argue with is that – right here, right now, tonight – it works. Whereas Blur were a great band on the wrong place (see our review here), Kings Of Leon are on OK band in the perfect place. And if that means that they bring people in and allow the festival to indulge more interesting acts elsewhere, even if they end up playing to the faithful few. So for this year, they did their job but please next year can someone ring the changes?

Monaghan charmers THE FLAWS fare better on the IMRO New Music stage, lashing out their solidly-crafted, jangly pop to an enthusiastic bunch of fans who clearly know their Achieving Vagueness album inside out. They banter merrily to the crowd and the gig has an intimate chummy feel, like a night out in a small venue rather than a big music festival. They do a lovely, stirring rendition of Echo and the Bunnymen’s -The Killing Moon’ and raise the roof with their single -16′. It was a classy and cheerful little set.

We catch some of MOGWAI and it is as intense and ferocious as you might expect, except again the crowd is far from capacity. Starting with -Glasgow Mega-Snake’ and working toward a huge, rolling -Mogwai Fear Satan’, their set is a trawl through one of the most noisy back catalogues in contemporary music. Mogwai work best when they are as loud as possible, and although they sounded pretty thunderous from up near the front, a few vexed looks the band throw to the sound engineers suggest they might want to be louder still.

Ending the night in the dance arena is the enigmatic Canadian producer DEADMAU5, whose snaking, trippy house music is a refreshingly left-field alternative to the ubiquitous blog-flavoured electronica that stuffs the schedule. His mesmerising, progressive beats, peppered with disorientating samples, build a head of steam and thrill a hedonistic crowd getting their first fix of dance this weekend. It’s an energetic ending to a strangely subdued first day.

This time last year, FIGHT LIKE APES were on the New Bands Stage, about to release ‘Something Global’ and head off on their great adventure. They’ve been on tour pretty much ever since and – at times – the weariness has been evident. Thankfully not today though, as they attack their Heineken Green Spheres set with gusto. Smashing chairs, climbing the staging structure, that sort of thing. We’ve seen their tricks a lot over the past year but they are still effective – May Kay is an icon in the making – and the ever growing crowd respond accordingly, suddenly it feels like we have a festival on our hands. It’s not all perfect; Jamie is tucked away to the side and has an altercation with security that seems to upset him, while if at times they appear to be coasting it’s understandable after two years plus of playing the same songs. They debut two new tracks and the effect on the band is palpable, their energy cranking up a couple of gears. The good news too is that they are both fine things, the second one especially. They sprint for home with ‘Jake Summers’ and leave us in a whirl of chaos, noise and flying instruments. Then they are gone and perversely we hope that it’ll be for a while.

Talking of icons, the arrival of Brody Dall on site seems to have caused huge ripples of excitement, especially amongst the female contingent. Her musical status doesn’t quite seem match her personal one. The Distillers had their moments but never broke out of the US pop punk world and, although SPINNERETTE are attracting positive reviews they find themselves playing to a small crowd on the New Bands Stage. Excitement does not fill the air when State joins them for their final songs. Dall, once a mohican topped ball of energy seems strangely subdued and the band draw out their spot with a fairly tuneless dirge. Given the wind up signal by the stage manager they seem to have misjudged things but still there’s a general feeling of disappointment. Which kind of suits the mood of the day.

Photos courtesy of Heinekenmusic.ie.

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In the same IMRO New Sounds Stage later on that evening, Deansgrange twins Louise and Ellie McNamara aka HEATHERS and their exuberant crowd are injecting the tent with some youthful enthusiasm. Their songs may be brittle for a festival and the cavernous sound does little for their two voices, a guitar and nothing else aesthetic but we know talent when we see it. Here Not There is their superb debut but State would certainly like to see how they would cope with more instrumentation. Having produced the superior ‘Comets’ with Super Extra Bonus Party on these terms already, we know they have the chops. Heathers are a band we will continue to watch over the next year..

Over at the Bacardi B-Live tent, BEARDYMAN is doing for beatboxing what Grandmaster Flash did for hip-hop. The acclaimed beatboxer is pioneering a new art of performance where beatbox loops, A Kaos pad and decks combine into one exhilarating speed-techno/pop mashup. Over the course of fifteen minutes he lays down the bassline of ‘Seven Nation Army’ provoking a singalong hands in the air – ‘Der Der Der Der Der Der Derrrr’, quickly followed by a nod to today’s headliners Blur with a frenzied loop-assisted version of ‘Song 2′ with ‘Blue Monday’ and ‘I Feel Love’ given the proper festival treatment. That man’s got talent.

Though the surprise factor that made PENDULUM’s set last year such a riotous occasion has long since past, no one does a heavy metal riffage/drum and bass hybrid better than this lot. Someone remarks that what this Aussie lot have done is take the best of the Prodigy’s beats (sure they do cover ‘Voodoo People’) and stretch it out into a 90 minute set but that’s the cynical version. From a punter’s point of view, Pendulum are a non-stop party machine where drum and bass breaks collide with shredding guitars with at least 160 beats per minute. Pendulum have progressed from their DJ days to the point now where they are playing a their DJ set but live such is the nature of their booming set tonight. The outdoor stage, the strobe lights, the non-stop pounding of low-end, a sometimes annoying but necessary hypeman MC – drum and bass has reached a new plateau and in the mariachi-assisted ‘Propane Nightmares‘ also a new anthem for a younger generation.

GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT find themselves on the Heineken Green Sphere Stage the vast tent that will play host to the likes of Pet Shop Boys and Manic Street Preachers. For an early slot the Wicklow three-piece draw an impressive crowd. All Is Violent, All Is Bright and Far From Refuge are epic post-rock guitar albums with swarming keyboards. Last year’s eponymous album had less ethereal noises and was more hard-hitting, which seems to be the direction they are taking – more hard-rock than post-rock. The only accompanied on stage is an extra percussionist. -Shining Through’ and -No Return’ are deafening and energetic, but the boys are better suited to a later slot on a smaller stage.

A late addition to the line-up, JAPE was slotted in as a special guest on the Red Bull Academy Stage, which may account for the relatively low numbers – considering he has won a Meteor and sold out Vicar Street and The Button Factory. Richie remains in flying form and is friendly as ever, running through souped up versions of -Christopher and Anthony’ and -I Was A Man’, complete with extra samples and programmed beats. Expectedly -Floating’ raises the roof and then he’s gone.

No such problems for SNOW PATROL however, who are almost part of the Oxegen furniture by now, working their way through the ranks from their days of playing tiny stages at Witnness. If this had been any other year, Lightbody’s crew would have probably been headliners and more than equal to the task. They have the high tech stage show, they have a frontman with the common touch to communicate to thousands of people, they have the tricks (pulling audience members out to sing on ‘Set The Fire To The Third Bar’ was a masterstroke) and most importantly they have the songs. There may be far more cutting edge, dare we say interesting, events happening to fall smaller crowds on other stages but this feels right.

It certainly sets the stage for BLUR. Ever since their epic Glastonbury headliner was broadcast over the airwaves, the expectation that this was going to be THE set of the weekend was high, this year’s Rage Against The Machine. State too was ready and raring to go. As it seems, are the band – with Coxon and Albarn both throwing themselves around the place. So it all LOOKS marvellous. But as a rather leaden ‘She’s So High’ opens proceedings the old worries start to creep in – namely will the whole thing be scuppered by sound problems. Well, they certainly don’t help but something else is not quite right.

Gigs on this scale are often reliant just as much on the audience as the band to create a sense of event and tonight Oxegen just doesn’t seem to be up for the challenge. It feels like the third night of the festival rather than a first night celebration. Which means that over two hours there are a lot of dips. Where State is standing the crowd go from drunken jumping to confused swaying to lying in a heap. They raise themselves on four occasions, dispersed evenly throughout the set – ‘Girls And Boys’, ‘Parklife’, ‘Country House’ and ‘Song 2′. The problem is the most interesting moments occur in between. ‘Out Of Time’ and ‘Badhead’ are gorgeous and they really hit their stride on the comparatively unfamiliar ‘Oily Water’.

It all comes together on a frustratingly few occasions. ‘Tender’ is fantastic, a fittingly grand version of one of their most striking moments but the ending combination of ‘To The End’ and ‘This Is A Low’ inexplicably fails to match it, bringing the set to a low-key close. It hardly leads to a massed call for either of the two encores, although they do yield a couple of big hitters in the shape of ‘Song 2′ (which, when viewed from the back of the field, looks and – at last – sounds immense) and a stirring ‘The Universal’, dedicated to Joe Dolan. It concludes a night that should have set a challenge to all that was to follow over the weekend but was as much miss as it was hit. Not a low but a long way from being a high.

Photo courtesy of Heineken Music.

1. AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR (IMRO New Sound Stage, Saturday)

Yes we know we’ve spent a good proportion of the last six months banging on about this band but they really are the most exciting prospect to emerge from this island in a long time. They wowed us again in the tiny confines of Tower Records the other week, the thought of them on this scale is almost too much to bear. If you only see one band over the weekend, make it this one.

2. FRIENDLY FIRES (Heineken Green Spheres, Sunday)

Hailing from the distinctly un-rock n’ roll environment of St Albans (State should know, one of us went to school there), FRIENDLY FIRES have proved themselves to be one of the live attractions of the summer, a band who thrive on the big stage rather than be intimidated by it.

3. JAPE (Red Bull Music Academy, Friday)

A surprisingly low-key slot for the Irish man of the year but you wouldn’t be against this turning into a massive celebration. With The Redneck Manifesto back in action soon, make the most of it.

4. ELBOW (Main Stage, Saturday)

ELBOW’s year and a bit of living happily is surely coming to end soon, with thoughts turning to a new album, but who could deny them their last moments in the sun. Proof that good things do happen to good people.

5. R.S.A.G. (Red Bull Music Academy, Sunday)

Biggest gig to date for the enigmatic R.S.A.G. and time for him to prove that this unique concept really can work on the bigger stage. With work already underway on the second album he should be brimming with ideas. His time is now.

R.S.A.G. – RSAG – Other Voices on MUZU.

With some rotating members, James remain a seven-piece band. Among them there is Andy Diagram, wandering the stage playing trumpet while multi-instrumentalist Larry Gott plays guitar, violin and keyboard.
Then we have Tim Booth. Tim Booth is wired. Like a puppet on a string his spastic dance moves defy gravity. Plunging to the floor and rising again breathlessly, he’s a commanding force of energy. If you haven’t seen Booth for a few years, you shouldn’t expect the floppy haired rogue of the Strip-mine era. These days he more resembles a slimmed down Bronson, shiny head with a moustache, his look is softened by baggy tartan troos and a flancey shirt.

Tonight James split the show between timeless anthems and their walloping newer material off last years’ Hey Ma album. Though these tunes are equally persuasive in concert there’s a definite shift in response for hits such as -Ring The Bells’ and -Getting Away With It’, -She’s a Star’ and -Tomorrow’ are rousingly affirmative classics. As -Sit Down’ kicks off Tim is holding his head. Maybe he too finds their biggest hit irritating. For many this song may conjure images of gate-crashing 21st’s and sitting on dirty pub floors. Loving it, the crowd take the first verse themselves before Tim joins in.

But it’s the set closer that is a true representation of the band, -Laid’ with its galloping rhythms and chiming major chords it sets the room on fire. As the lights go up the band leave to rapturous applause and roars of delight. Always optimistic and uptempo, James make some charming festival music. James were at their peak in the early 90′s so the fan base may not be a reflection what they should expect when they play Oxegen this weekend. Tonight’s punters don’t look like the welly-wearing type but for anyone making the trip to Punchestown an hour with these guys would a fine way to kick off the festivities.

James are playing Oxegen’s Main Stage on Friday at 16.35pm.

1. PENDULUM - O2, Stage Friday
If you haven’t got on the Pendulum juggernaut by now, now is your time. Perhaps one of the best live shows State has collectively ever seen, these London-based Aussies are the first band to fuse bone-crunching metal riffs with drum and bass so successfully and so thrillingly. Last year at Oxegen, the tent was rammed and this year the open air O2 stage will do the bands loads of favours . Expect people to be singing Pendulum riffs come Friday night.

2. BLUR – Main Stage Sunday
With a triumphant Glastonbury headline slot behind them – Damon was choking back tears for god’s sake – and a double whammy of Hyde Park shows last week being hailed as some of the best gigs this year, it’s not hard to imagine why Irish audiences will be clamouring to see the band re-united. It’s gonna be singalong-tastic.

3. FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE – Red Bull Music Academy – Sunday
It’s Florence Welch’s week. With her debut album Lungs looking likely to go #1 in the UK and Top 5 here, she may be in a celebratory mood. Having caught her live show in London during the week, State can attest that Florence is a rare talent and will hopefully be around for quite a while.

4. FEVER RAY – Dance Arena, Sunday
Simon Roche’s first review back from Fever Ray’s show at Roskilde last week used the words “like nothing I’ve ever seen before”. Taking place in the Dance Arena in pitch darkness, the stage will be illuminated by lasers and lamps with Karin Dreijer Andersson dressed up in hooded costumes singing her black soul out. Also, would it be remiss to mention that I will be DJing before her set at 3.20pm…

5. NINE INCH NAILS – 02 Stage, Sunday
This show as part of the Wave Goodbye Tour is touted to be the last time you’ll ever get to see Trent Reznor and co. for a very, very long time. So if you’ve ever listened to The Downward Spiral or anything from NIN’s extensive back catalogue, this might be your last chance to offer up a mosh or a headbang to a hard rock legend. See Hilary A. White’s review of the show in Berlin last week for a taster.

1. CRYSTAL CASTLES – Red Bull Arena, Saturday
Forget the fact that they’re one of the bands you’re supposed to like, Crystal Castles are absofuckinglutely awful live. There: we’ve said it and we feel much better now, thank you very much. While some of their recorded output is worthy of your attention, Alice Glass’ mob have got nowhere near mastering the live arena, unless there have been some step-changes since their last visit to these shores.

2. KATY PERRY – The O2 stage, Sunday
State’s vote for the most irritating success story of 2009, Perry is the Californian pastors’ daughter who was described on this very site as a ‘heavily marketed role model for disaffected teens’, whose music stinks of the essence of heavily manufactured cartoon punk.

3. LADYHAWKE – Red Bull Arena, Friday
Perfect for the club, but less successful on a stage, New Zealand’s Pip Brown has thus far failed to translate the shimmering pop of -Paris Is Burning’, -Another Runway’ or -Back Of The Van’ into the live arena. You have been warned.

4. THE SCRIPT – Main Stage, Friday
-We Cry’ and -The Man Who Can’t Be Moved’ may have been massive hits, but singles aside, The Script are decidedly dull, as anyone who saw them support Take That will testify to.

5. RAZORLIGHT – Main Stage, Sunday
Once they were one of the most promising acts in Britain, with starry-eyed indie-pop gems like -Golden Touch’ and -Stumble And Fall’, but now Johnny Borrell & Co. have descended into purveyors of the kind of vapid, insipid faux-rock this side of Dave Matthews. Shudder. They aren’t called Razorshite for nothing..

2. KINGS OF LEON, Main Stage, Saturday
Oxegen just wouldn’t be Oxegen without the Followill family. Just don’t expect lots of leaping around and audience interaction: this is no-nonsense, heads-down southern rawk, which should turn an entire field into a mosh pit.

3. SNOW PATROL, Main Stage, Friday
Gary Lightbody & Co. return to the scene of some of their greatest triumphs for what promises to be one of the finest homecomings since Podge & Rodge’s glorious return to Ballydung Manor. Anthems a go-go.

4. OCEAN COLOUR SCENE, Main Stage, Sunday
Regular visitors to these shores, OCS begin proceedings on Sunday’s Main Stage in what should prove to be a perfect pick-me-up for the festival’s final day. With crackers in their canon like -Riverboat Song’, -Huckleberry Grove’ and -The Day We Caught The Train’, they should be the perfect way to restart the party.

5. FUN LOVIN’ CRIMINALS, O2 Stage, Friday
Once as familiar as sight in Dublin as Goths at the Central Bank or the woman waving the crucifix on O’Connell Street, Huey Morgan’s mob have been quiet of late. That should all be put right, however, when they bring their own brand of cartoon funk rock to the O2 Stage on Friday.

Some of this rationale applies to That Petrol Emotion, who sprang from the ashes of The Undertones, drafting in a dreadlocked singer from Seattle who’d never been in a band before. The Undertones, so beloved of John Peel, were one of the first alternative Irish bands to have major chart success in the UK. After they disbanded, John O’Neill, one of the song-writing lynchpins, met Reamann O’Gormain who played in a band called Bam Bam and The Calling. Along with drummer Ciarán McLaughlin, they upped sticks to London in the early -80s. After hooking up with John’s brother Damien, another ex-Undertone, they began the hunt for a singer. Steve Mack was a post-college kid from Seattle working in a pizza restaurant.

‘A colleague was going out with a guy from Derry, and one day casually asked: -Does anyone know someone who wants to be a singer?’. I of course replied, -yep, me’. It was only later on, she mentioned that some of the guys had been in The Undertones,’ Mack smiles. ‘I couldn’t believe it, as I was fan and had bought their records.’ Up -til that point, Mack’s musical collaborations had consisted of basement jams with friends. Little did he know that a one-year sabbatical in London would turn into an 11-year music career. According to Reamann O’Gormain, Steve had his work cut out for him, in more ways than one. ‘God love him, he had to put up with us constantly talking about Ireland so he had to swot up a lot on history,’ O’Gormain laughs. ‘In retrospect, I felt bad for him.’

Despite The Undertones’ past fame, it didn’t do the band a lot of favours in getting That Petrol Emotion off the ground. Steve admits that while they weren’t starting from scratch, a huge amount of graft was required to get noticed. ‘For the first six to nine months of the band, I was still working in the restaurant,’ he remembers. ‘The guys would drop me off after gigs and I’d work cleaning floors as the night janitor. The Undertones name meant that pubs would book us, but then we still had to play a lot of pubs. It was hard work and everybody was still on the dole too.’

Reamann agrees that there were no PR or media leg-ups: ‘The Undertones didn’t really open any doors for us. Alan McGee in Creation was interested but they were only starting out and broke, so were focusing on The Jesus and Mary Chain. We had to go with another label and in a way it kick-started a chain of us jumping from label to label.’ The band played every weekend and eventually started getting offered decent support slots. In the early days, John and Reamann had written the bulk of the Petrol’s songs back in Derry, but with Steve on board, more of the writing was worked out in the rehearsal room.

‘I wasn’t involved in writing the lyrics, as much as people would think,’ says Mack. ‘A lot of the lyrics had a political undercurrent to them, which was a conscious decision made by the band. People used to ask me -how can you sing this stuff when you’re not even Irish?’, and I’d always reply that the things we were singing about were universal themes.’ Ex-NME Editor Stuart Bailie feels that like My Bloody Valentine, ‘the Petrols were completely beyond Irish music. They were looking for some universal challenge out there.’

1.FIGHT LIKE APES, Friday

Last year FIGHT LIKE APES cam to Oxegen as a band on the brink of something. This time round they’ve established themselves and the some, even getting to the point of re-releasing their debut album. Absence will certainly have made the heart grow fonder but as another round of touring keeps them on the road till Christmas, we hope they’ve still got the energy to rise to what should be a fantastic occasion.

2. GLASVEGAS, Sunday

The second of GLASVEGAS’ three Irish trips this summer, the late night (and crucially dark) atmosphere of the Green Spheres tent should suit them better than their Oasis / U2 support slots. It won’t hurt either that they have channeled the anthemic, mass singalong songwriting of those two bands into something all the more edgy and, dare we say, exciting.

3. TV ON THE RADIO , Saturday

The TV ON THE RADIO live experience has always been a bit hit and miss, but with the confidence of last year’s superb Dear Science behind them hopes will be high that this could be one of the gigs of the weekend. Just don’t come complaining to us if it doesn’t quite work out.

4. 2 MANY DJs, Friday

Because sometimes all you want to do is dance. The Oxegen Dance Arena is generally unknown territory to your average festival goer so this will be the next best thing – rock music with a beat. Get those hands in the air.

5. DREADZONE, Friday

Something of an Oxegen curve ball, but DREADZONE were a staple at the kind of festivals that some of State used to frequent in the early nineties. Formed from the ashes of Big Audio Dynamite, they fuse techno, rock and dub (vocalist Earl Sixteen was part of the Leftfield gang) into something quite brilliant. Take a chance on us.

One of the surprise packages of the year thus far, the band’s second album – Primary Colours – has been absolutely drenched in praise since its release and is deserving of every bit of it. Having been pretty much written off as a one-note pop punk band after their debut release Strange House, their latest offering finds them keeping some of their garage rock instincts but melding them into warped krautrock mixed with My Bloody Valentine levels of sonic ambition. With tracks produced by Portishead brainbox Geoff Barrow and acclaimed video director Chris Cunningham, Primary Colours is a cinematic, idea-filled, addictive record that you should already own.

Primary Colours is quite different to the first record, was there anything you wanted to get away from?

Not get away from anything as such but yeah completely it’s a shift from the first record’¦ there was a point when’¦ well when we were writing it we were never really thinking too much about anything but writing and having fun doing it. We went off into our own little world a bit, it wasn’t until the whole thing complete that suddenly we remembered that no one else had heard this and no one’s gonna quite expect it’¦ but, then again, who knows what they’re going to expect because it’s two years since our last record.

Did you ever think the Horrors faithful may be put off by the new sound?

There’s always a little bit of that but, a lot of things happened for us in the last year or so, working and writing, doing things differently basically’¦ and yeah, suddenly it was -shit what will our fans think’ but we played one gig in London before we went away on tour (in the USA with The Kills) and I think that was the most difficult one, difficult in that it was the first time we’d played the new material live and the album hadn’t come out. The first single (-Sea Within a Sea’) came out a few days beforehand but what we heard back was really positive and it’s stayed that way since.

Was recording the album the first time the band has had a chance to stop and take things in considering how fast things happened with Strange House?

Yeah and it was needed. I mean, we weren’t a band who were touring for three years before the first single or anything so we’re a bit off the beaten track anyway. A lot of bands have two years of playing live, doing the groundwork and then getting the chance to bring that to a label. With us, firstly we weren’t interested in deals or anything it was just getting a band together to play, that’s all we were concerned about. But, before we knew about it we had a single out, and recording the first single was just about us being a band and in our first year together, it was really a reflection of our live shows, the energy and excitement we had, and wanting to communicate with an audience, everything else to do with being in a band is boring as hell to be honest. Strange House was a primitive form of punk but a lot of our favourite bands, a lot of our favourite records are that kind of thing. I think two years later, it makes perfects sense to’¦ to, I dunno, I mean some people seem to be telling us they can’t believe this massive change in direction, thinking it must’ve been so considered, to me it makes perfect sense that two years into a band’s career they can organically grow and change their sound to give more depth to what they’re doing. It’s a simple story. Evolution.

How did you get Chris Cunningham come on board?

The thing with Chris is that he’s been a really close friend of the band since our first single (-Sheena Is A Parasite’) which he did the video for. He felt that what we were doing musically was very much a reflection of the intensity of the way that he likes to work and we were very much into the whole garage and -60s punk thing but there was always this kind of driving rhythm that we were interested in which is almost like psychotic dance music. We were just kind of tweaking around with sounds, trying to get to that point but he could really hear that, he’s one of these people who could recognise it.

He was one of the guys who, while we were writing we’d play stuff to, we kind of felt that we had similar inspirations and ways of working, he’s obviously worked with visuals and we liked the idea of visual communication in music and that kind of visceral attack is something that he’¦ well for us it was just us working with a friend and someone who completely understood what we wanted to do sonically.

Geoff Barrow of Portishead is also listed as a producer, so that’s dark, brooding influence number two then.

(Laughing) Yeah, that’s fair. The thing with wanting Geoff to come on board was that we started to work and record a lot of the stuff ourselves and we found that we were starting to mess around with things like mixing and putting tracks together in quite a crude way and we didn’t want to work with a producer who every single day did the same job on the same desk pulling the same tricks and using the same gear, we wanted to work with someone who thought about things differently and a more -let’s try anything’ punk approach in production. With Geoff, all the projects he works in he doesn’t really think about what’s right or wrong or what technique people use, it’s what sounds good, so for us that was a reason to work together. It was a similar mindset, musically we’re quite different yeah, but we have a lot of similar interests and it worked well together, that’s the best thing about it.

Is Spider & The Flies (Rhys’ side project with Horrors bass player Tom Cowan) a good outlet for experimentation?

For us it’s just another part of the band moving forward and taking steps in different directions, I wanted to work on that project to explore and play on different instruments. It was really just a complete freak out. At the same time we were exploring with synths, drum machines and things like that and the more you play the more it seeps into The Horrors. Experimentation was definitely a part of it and this time round in the studio that world was open for us to use and I think continuing it is going to become more important as well.

A lot of Primary Colours sounds like it was the result of jams more than traditional songwriting methods that were evident on Strange House, what was the general songwriting ethos for this record?

Well, and I know I’m going completely away from the question here but stick with me, we found that we were working in the summer on the album and we hadn’t been playing live for a while, we’d just been writing and for us what usually happens is that we set up a studio and we have it for as long as we want with 24-hour access to it, it’s only a small place about 10 minutes up the road from where we all live. It was just a really good working environment and it’s just a great time of the year and living in London, it was an inspiring place. Basically it was just the first time we’d got to play and write in our own space, what’ll usually happen is that someone will start with an idea and we’ll play through it.

What we found with the record is that what we wanted people to feel with the record the same way we felt when we were recording. That’s what we were trying to communicate and we’d be playing all night, just having such a great time doing it, experimenting with different sounds and then putting the songs together so we definitely work better together rather than writing songs in different rooms and bringing them in complete’¦ Jamming is a reasonable idea of what happened yeah, so many things happen within that studio space, the ideas tend to flow when we’re working as a group.

While touring Strange House you often produced fanzines to hand out at gigs, including mix CDs, guides to dancing the -beat step’, making skinny jeans and more. Is that possible nowadays?

We really wanted to carry on doing that, connecting and talking about things that we like, that’s one of the reasons we were in a band in the first place. We haven’t had a chance to do that for a while though, and the plan is that whereas we used to print out hard copies and give them out at gigs, basically now we want to turn our site into our own working fanzine, uploading mixes, talking about things we’re doing, constantly updating as we go along’¦ we want it to be a lot more than just a blog, we’ll see how it develops but it’s something we love bringing to fans.

Is it easy walking around Southend looking like -A Horror’?

Hmmm’¦ I dunno, well, I haven’t lived in Southend in a few years but when I did live there I looked pretty much exactly the same as I do now. I think it’s like any big town, there’s always arseholes and always people who see things differently. The best thing about there was a club night I used to do down there called the Junk Club and it used to attract every freak in a 30-mile radius which was amazing. I love doing those nights though, we do a club night called the Cave Club in London, we try to do one every month and that’s a continuing thing with some live bands as well. Freaks everywhere, it’s great.

The Horrors play O2 Stage on Sunday

1. LILY ALLEN – Main Stage, Friday
TV presenter, media personality, chat show host, tabloid fodder? Forget it, LILY ALLEN is all about the music, as her second album, It’s Not Me, It’s You proved on its February release. Preceded by cracking single, -The Fear’, the album was a statement of intent: Lily’s intent to create some of the most interesting, listenable and downright addictive pop music of the year. She’s been doing the rounds at the festivals, with appearances at Glasto, Roskilde and Werchter, so expect the girl Allen & band to be in fine fettle.

2. LADY GAGA – Main Stage, Sunday
Bat-shit crazy or just plain genius, one thing she’s not is boring. LADY GAGA is being heralded as the new queen of pop, and the worldwide success of -Poker Face’ certainly suggests there’s more to this Lady than mere hype. Love her or hate her, she is probably the pop phenomenon of 2009.

3. PET SHOP BOYS – Heineken Green Spheres Stage, Saturday
They may look like out-of-work accountants but Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have been quietly creating some of the biggest synth pop hits ever for a quarter of a century, including -It’s A Sin’, -Rent’ and their camper-than-a-field-of-tents version of -Always On My Mind’. Take it from us, one of the enduring memories of Oxegen ’09 will be a tent full of people singing along to -West End Girls’.

4. THE TING TINGS – 02 Stage, Sunday
That THE TING TINGS drew such a large crowd at last year’s festival, barely months after playing The Village, was no surprise. That they were so damn effective as a live unit was more unexpected. Two people, one behind a drum kit at that, shouldn’t have been able to hold a large crowd so rapt but they pulled it off. Their (not so) secret weapon was a set of songs that went straight for the pop jugular and never let go.

5. KEANE – O2 Stage, Friday
It’s lighters in the air time as KEANE’s soaring melodies finish off the first night of Oxegen at the O2 Stage, with Tom Chaplin’s dulcet tones leading the masses through their wealth of pop anthems.

From the off, this decision proves to be at the expense of lovers of fine live rock music. Reznor hangs off the mic like Beth Gibbons, but is all over the stage at the same time, jumping from mic stand to sequencer to piano to guitar rack. His muscular voice and arms, and sleeveless vest give the impression of a hard-rock Bruce Springsteen, someone who has always directly spoken to his audience with nothing but sincerity while still being a consummate entertainer. And every consummate entertainer knows when to retreat to the background and let his band shine. Robin Finck’s bludgeoning riffs, such as -March Of The Pigs’ and David Bowie collaboration -I’m Afraid Of Americans’, are softened by Reznor’s pulses and samples. The sound and strobe lighting snaps about the huge metal beams of the former Eastern Bloc factory. You couldn’t design a more fitting venue. And despite some of the worst heckles I’ve heard – -guitar hero!’ or the incredibly unimaginative -Nine Inch Nails!’ – the Berlin audience scream approval at every interlude. Even ol’ Trent has to crack a smile at one point.

Nine Inch Nails play O2 Stage on Sunday night.