Wireless Festival 2009 Sponsored By Barclaycard

It’s just gone 4pm on Saturday afternoon, and it’s official – the weekend has very much landed. The sun is shining, fists are pumping and the ground is shaking. Wireless 2009 has kicked off in incredible style.

It all started on the Main Stage early this afternoon, when the delightful Phenomenal Handclap Band played to the Wireless crowds, delivering their feel-good disco sound, and foot-tapping, hand-clapping tunes to those who had got themselves down to Hyde Park bright and early. They played hit tracks including You’ll Disappear and the sing-along anthem All Of The Above, which had a joyous 70’s vibe, held together with incredible vocals. It’s fair to say that what this band don’t know about 5-part harmonies ain’t worth knowing.



Earlier we bumped into the effortlessly cool Paul Oakenfold a few minutes before he was due to play his epic 80 minute-long DJ set over and the second stage, who told us that he was glad to be back in the UK for a few days (Paul lives in Miami these days, don’t cha know?).

“I hope to see a few family and friends over the next couple of days” said Paul, before telling us about what an incredible year 2009 is turning in to for him. “My highlight so far has been touring with Madonna, and working with Jerry Bruckheimer on his new film”. What a name dropper! Well, when you’re the godfather of dance music, you probably end up rubbing shoulders with a few A listers, right?

When he took to the 2nd stage, the crowd went absolutely ballistic from the very first beat. In a rammed tent, Oakenfold was on complete fire laying down a tenacious beat and slyly mixing in samples from the likes of Universally Speaking, Mr Brightside and Sex On Fire. When he played a pulse-racing version of Satisfaction everyone went crazy, and a quick spin of Josh Wink’s A Higher State of Consciousness was simply off the hook.



Surrounded by various bits of equipment that included decks, effects machines and a couple of synths, Paul was a maestro in the mix. A screen behind him flashed images of girls, the Hollywood Hills and LA skyline, with a huge, ubiquitous Perfecto badge revolving in the background.

The Ibiza spirit had truly come to London Town, and as far as we were all concerned it was 3am in Manumission, not late afternoon in the Capital.

We dragged ourselves away from the chaos of the Second Stage, where we discovered that Oakenfold had managed to establish a one-in-one out policy, with hundreds of fans desperate to get in to see the superstar DJ at work. Wandering over to the Main Stage, we caught the end of Filthy Dukes’ set, who were entertaining everybody with their sound that is a delicious clash of New Order meets Digitalism. “Feel free to come and dance” encouraged lead singer Tim – before getting everyone going with a great rendition of crowd-pleaser This Rhythm.



Next, we headed on down to the Tuborg Stage, where we were lucky enough to catch a bit of Black and White Years, who were busy rocking the tent with tracks including You Are a Dragon and A Wetter Sea. Their unique blend of electro-dance rock was fantastic, and though it wasn’t quite as chaotic as the mayhem going down over with Oakenfold, they pumped out a superb summer sound that got everyone in the mood for more.

Coming up, we’re looking forward to seeing The Streets, Afrika Bambaataa , and of course the sublime Dizzee Rascal. Obviously tonight’s headline set from Basement Jaxx is going to be rather special, if seeing them play this exact stage 4 years ago is anything to go by. We can’t wait.