Oxstock, Cutteslowe Park, Oxford UK) 14/1/1999

From : Emma Short
Date : 26/7/1998
Suject : (UT) oxstock 98 - the aftermath

hey everyone,
well, here is my full report of the magic that was oxstock 98..
it started off well, even though we arrived at 2:15, thus missing crackout, which i was a bit disappointed about. i met owen, chris haynes, and the other chris..and i can't remember his surname at the moment (sorry!), who are all very nice people. didn't manage to catch sight of anyone else apart from emily, though.
first band i saw were dustball, who were, as always, excellent. tarrant *started* with his shirt off, instead of waiting until halfway through, which caused just about all of the females there to swoon, grin and giggle uncontrollably..they played the same set as they had the night before at the point, 'talk back back', 'senor nachos' and 'flusher' being the highlights. i ordered owen to watch their entire set..afterwards he risked getting beaten up by everyone their by announcing loudly how crap he thought they were - which is not a sensible thing to say when you are in oxford. he and chris shall henceforth be known as 'the dustball haters'....all i can say is they have no taste (apart from UT, of course).
after dustball, i wandered round and spotted andy and jason having a picnic with their girlfriends - nigel was also wandering about aimlessly, in his v.lovely hat, avec sam. i eventually managed (after about half an hour of sitting opposite him) to get up the guts to give andy a copy of my UT fanzine. i got a bit of a wierd response..i gave it to him, and he looked at me like i'd just placed something incredibly strange in his hands. so i thought i'd add "it's for you", just in case he didn't realise, to which he replied "haven't i seen this before?". so i told him no, because i only just finished it - but he didn't seem to believe me.."are you sure?". "yes.". then he gave me another one of those 'raised eyebrow because this person is insane so i must be very careful looks' and said "oh. ok, well, thanks a lot". and then i ran away. ahem.
i then went and gave my fanzine to jason, accompanied by my friend layla, whose dad taught jason the guitar when he was younger. i managed to give him my zine and say, "here you go jason - this is layla..she says her dad used to teach you the guitar" before him, layla, and jason's girlfriend launched into a conversation about guitar lessons and building blocks.
then i caught sight of nigel again, and gave *him* a copy of the zine, and he immediately said "£1 is it?" and started rummaging around in his pockets for money. so i frantically said that of course he didn't have to pay, because if it weren't for him then the zine wouldn't exist. he then did a very amusing impression of andy's "raised eyebrow" look, after i told him about andy's reaction to the zine. a lovely man indeed.
i went in to see the candyskins for a while, but they weren't particularly exciting, and were playing all new stuff that i didn't know, and so i quickly left again.
and then it was time for unbelievable truth to take the stage. i rushed in as soon as the candyskins had finished, to get a place near the front, and i managed to get about two rows back, right in front of andy. they took a while to set up, but eventually arrived onstage and started with 'forget about me'..this is very good, but i haven't been to one gig where they haven't opened with that song. it doesn't really matter, though. i can't remember the exact order of the songs, but they did play:
settle down
same mistakes
higher than reason
tyre tracks
who's to know
shed your skin
finest little space
building
stone
solved
'settle down' was amazing, as per usual, and got everyone singing along. other higlights of the set were 'tyre tracks', because it's one of my favourite UT songs and they always play it brilliantly, and 'shed your skin'. i'd never heard this before, but i actually stopped breathing in the second chorus when nigel came in with the harmony - i don't know *how* they do it, but UT's songs are getting more and more beautifull. the piano part played by nigel was also increbible, and andy's vocals were, as always, wonderful.
after the first few bars of 'finest little space', the sound cut out and everything went dark. andy tried in vain to continue singing without the aid of the microphone, but quickly gave up. while the technicians tried to sort out the problem, a request was made for a drum solo from nigel. he initially refused, but then, after much cheering, clapping, and chants of "nigel, nigel" he gave us a quick 'boom boom boom ting'. or something. then the power returned, and andy came back to the microphone and said "let's start from the top, shall we?".
'building' and 'stone' also had the audience singing along, as did the last song they played, 'solved'. then they left the stage, nigel with his arm round andy's shoulders, which was a very sweet sight to see.. :)
erm, oh. well, i shoudn't really say this, but i will anyway - colin of greenwood and mr ed (o'brien) were also there to watch UT (and a bit of hurricane #1). i talked to colin, who has to be one of the nicest people alive, along with nigel of course..oh, and i gave colin a copy of my UT fanzine too, which he seemed very pleased about.
and then we went home on the bus with andy tbtg and dave newton, who are both also very nice. in fact, everyone was lovely, and a great time was had by all....
anyway, i'm off to get some food now..
au revoir
*bug*

From : Nataly
Date : 17/8/1998
Suject : (UT) Oxstock review

Hello dear UTers,

Here (finaly) my review of Oxstock. I hope it won't be too boring, anyway, i'm sure you click the delete button...;0)

First, you have to know that this day in Oxford was my first day in UK, as you can understand the excited mood in which i was.
Unfortunately, there was no Eurostar early enought to allow us to arrive at time for the football game. We arrived at 9:09 at the Waterloo station, and i was the first to get down the train, and so to put my feet on the english ground ;0)
A friend of us who is working for the summer in London was here to welcome us and come with us to Oxford. She helped us a lot during the whole week-end, because we were very embarassed to talk in english...;0)
We took the subway to paddington station and then a train for Oxford. We arrived at Oxford at about 11:30 am which was too late to see the football game, and i was really disapointed because that something i really wanted to see. But the beauty of Oxford made me forget my deception. I hope i will come back soon to Oxford to visit it longer.
We took a bus for Cuttlelowe park and arrived at nearly 1pm. First i was surprised by the size of the festival. I was expecting a bigger place and i was happy to find this nice little place not too crowded.
We sat under the main marquee at the left of the soundboard and rested a bit before to go and look for food. (i won't make any comment about english food here...;0)
We stayed all the day at our place near the soundboard and watch all the bands. We saw Nigel walking with his girlfriend, and later, Andy and Jason having a picnic with their girlfriends. That was really nice to them walking quietly around, talking with everybody, smiling. They really seemed to have a good day.
At a moment, Nigel came to the soundboard, he was preparing for the next show. Just before, he was on stage as a bass roadie ;0)
It was the band of his girlfriend. We asked Nigel the name of the band, it is Pica (sorry if i mispell it). They were great and very energic. That was the first band which attracted our attention and made us shake our body ;0)
Jason and David were standing just behind us. Jason nicely smiled back to us. He is really great. Very friendly.
The day was strangely passing really slowly, and that was really great.
A sunny day. Maybe it was the time difference which gave us one more hour.
I met Chris Haynes there who was with Owen and his friend chris. It was my first meeting with someone i met on internet. (Well i met david before). I met Stuart later, just before the UT show. I was really impressed and happy to meet all those nice guys, but i wasn't talkative...Sorry guys, i'm a stupid french girl ;0) I'll try to do better next time.
Then, time of UT show arrived and we got closer to the stage. The warm-up song began and UT entered on stage.
I know that the most important part of a gig review is supposed to begin here, but that's when i can't remember anything. I couldn't tell you which songs they did, what happened,...I'm somewhere else, in another dimension. I'm only listening. I think i'm not enought clever to do both at the same time : listen and memorizing ;0)
Well, let me concentrate...hmmm. Ok i remember the power cut. As we were waiting for the power to come back, i was thinking that the only one we could hear would be Nigel, so i suggested to my friends to ask Nigel for a drum solo and then one of my friend shouted that request ;0) Nigel smiled and refused.
I remember too the general atmosphere. The guys were in a very good mood, smiling and joking. Andy was especially talkative. I like to see him smiling :0)
I brought my camera for the first time at a gig, and i took some pics. I don't know why i did that. I don't like that. I feel like a insane curious girl, and i feel that Andy doesn't like that a lot. Anyway, i took some of the band and some of the festival place, they are not very good, but i will maybe put them on a web site if some of you are interested.
Well, that's all, i have to write my review of la route du rock now.

Nataly

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