WITNNESS Memories

Clemenza

Probably one for the older posters (showing my age at 26 :P), but with Oxegen being last weekend, it got me harking back through rose tinted nostalgic glasses to the early Witnness festivals.

I was fortunate enough to go for the first 3 years of the festivals life (2000,2001 and 2002).

2000 having being particularly memorable, I was 14 at the time, grounded, managed to get my mitts on a weekend camping ticket from a part time lounge boy job I was working, escaped out my bedroom window on the Saturday morning via a series of elaborate shoe laces tied together lowering my tent and bag of supplies to the ground and my Mum chasing me down the street. Good times! Highlights that weekend were JJ72, Beck and Happy Mondays (complete with onstage strippers!).

2001 was all kinds of fun too, with a much stellar line up (Muse in the pouring rain and thunder and lightning ripping their way through the Origin of Symmetry album, Placebo rocking in the sun, Turn killing it in the smallest tent), also anyone who managed to sign up to the mailing list got a pass to the VIP area at the festival, which included free Guinness and small tent sessions with some of the bands!

2002 was less memorable but still decent, Oasis played a stinker but The Cooper Temple Clause on the 2nd stage stood out, as did Jimmy Eat World, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Gomez.

God I miss those days!

Clemenza

Mr.S wrote: »

If anyone has any photos from Witness, please post! Was before my time :pac:

Ditto! Would be awesome!

There's some stuff on youtube, a lot of weekend highlight programmes that aired on RTE back in the day!

bodhrandude

Would've loved to have went to this, I nearly went to the 2001 one at one point as the legend Lee Scratch Perry was playing at it, but changed my mind again. It wasn't till 2005 when I made my way to my first EP which was amazing.

The Nal

I'm 33!! :eek:

I remember 2002 well. Oasis played a shocker yeah. Only beaten by Dave Fanning coming on the screens after and asking us all to sing along to Some Might Say (I think) except with some ****e paddywhackery type lyrics.

Also remember the big mud fight during Greenday.

Toast

I thought 2002 was one of the worst festivals I had been at. Here is the review (edited a little) I put up on boards the day after. Bit cringey rereading something I wrote 11 years ago but funny how a lot of the issues are the same (lol @ Dublin Bus union complaining). Note the festival was in Fairyhouse this year :

I get a bus from Parnell sq. at 10.30. The 20min journey finishes 2 and a half hours later. The need to place the festival near a decent infrastructure obviously never occurred to MCD. Or perhaps admitting that the campsite would be open on Friday night instead of their inexplicable denials which were no doubt to ensure Dublin Bus got maximum money from punters who thought it necessary to leave on the Saturday. Why Dublin bus couldn't run a service on the Friday night I don't know but was probably union/profit related.

Wander aimlessly in search of camping which had one sign post 2 meters from where it actually was whilst wading through mud.
proceed to queue.
and queue.
and queue.
This is not part of the festival experience! I have never had to queue like this to get into a campsite in any of the English festivals. People get very pissed off.

After 3hrs queuing finally get band for campsite try and contact friends. Phone network melts. This actually is part of the festival experience but the continued attempts by all networks to encourage more frivolous mobile phone usage is baffling. Also Vodaphone's habit of sending you to someones voice mail when there phone is on but no cell for them is infuriating. Those calls cost me in time and money.

Get into arena after camping on sea of mud. While woodchips are placed in some places to combat mud they don't seem to be put where they are needed not that it matters as they are useless and usually result in a seemingly solid surface giving away to a shoe sucking mess.

The Hives remind us they are Swedish and they don't care about anyone. Nice reception after 6hrs waiting to get here.

Go see Wilt. Further mud as we encounter the perplexing and totally pointless one way system which randomly changes direction depending on the whim of the security in charge of it. It also randomly closes as theres an ambulance track there. WHY? who arranged this thing? Lets have an emergency system cross through an artificially created bottleneck of people! IDIOTIC!

Walk through field that has been demudified by using straw.... straw once again merely hiding mud underneath. Shoes now consist of mud, woodchips, and straw. Why they couldn't make walk ways out of the plastic covering stuff they used on the entrance to the campsite I cant understand.

Don't let MCD deceive you. Both Reading and Glastonbury which they are trying to imitate so badly have paths made from temp surfaces. Wading through mud to try to get between stages is not part of the festival experience.

Wilt play well enough. Cormac Battle forgets his glasses and squints at the crowd a lot.

Lack of a program and the ability to buy one (i hear they were being sold somewhere at 20 euro a pop. I hope thats a rumour) means I miss sonic youth. Go see GreenDay who were probably the best of the weekend. However set is identical to what they played at Reading last year. Right down to "impromptu" band building. Addition of idiots thinking hurling huge clods of mud into the crowd is funny not really welcome at all.

Foo Fighters play. Dave Grohl takes the piss out of Courtney Love. Two people in the crowd know what hes talking about. The rest throw mud.

Prodigy play. Fail to play out of space. Crowd fall asleep. </sarcasm> . At one stage Maxim actually sits down on the stage and spouts of the same "MCing" hes been doing for the last 5 years. I was a huge fan of these guys but obviously something wrong here. Vocals are very difficult to hear as someone in the sound desk has decide to run the sound through a bass amp a couple of hundred times.

After prodigy.... amazingly poor campsite design requires ages walking through mud to get back. Again lack of temporary surfaces baffling.

Morning brings queues lasting hours for the toilets. the promised 650 portaloos seem to be placed at random intervals miles away from where they are required. Once again these sort of queues rarely last beyond early morning in the English festivals so why they are still going at 2 o'clock here is beyond me.

Stalls take advantage of people to such an extant that I pay 7.50 for a bacon roll. Overcharging to a certain degree is expected but this is crazy. Beer tents are surprisingly cheep in line with pub prices but a selection of two drinks continues to annoy. Also zero shade means most people look like lobsters soon into the morning. Continued lack of a program and ridiculous one way systems piss me off so much that I finally head back to my tent and fall asleep before leaving at 9.30pm.

In conclusion.... I hate to harp on about this but this is so poorly run compared to both Glastonbury and Reading that any attempt to enjoy the bands has to overlook glaringly poor organisation. What a waste. I wont be going in the future and I recommend to anyone who actually thought it was great to try one of the English festivals next year. The difference is amazing.

Clemenza

Toast wrote: »

I thought 2002 was one of the worst festivals I had been at. Here is the review (edited a little) I put up on boards the day after. Bit cringey rereading something I wrote 11 years ago but funny how a lot of the issues are the same (lol @ Dublin Bus union complaining). Note the festival was in Fairyhouse this year :

As I said, 2002 was definitely the least memorable of the 3 I attended.

You could see the scummier element starting to sneak into the crowd due to Oasis and Prodigy headlining, something which would continue into Oxegen in subsequent years

ghostdancer

i still have 2 VHS tapes around my family house somewhere, of the 3-hour broadcasts TV3 did on the Saturday and Sunday nights in 2001. some great stuff on them. this guy in the crowd singing with Embrace being a favourite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpuwdtQ25n4

2001 was my first year to go, Muse at 6pm on the main stage the first act i saw, just before they released OoS. can't really remember seeing much else apart from Frank Black, and the headliners Ash and Stereophonics i think? some highlights on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6lzKfPnA8o

in 2002 i won a competition on the Witnness site to see Foo Fighters and Jimmy Eat World in the Ambassador the night before the festival started. was that they year the 2nd stage was closed for half the first day?

looking at the 2003 lineup, i can't actually remember seeing any of them, apart from The Music on the 2nd stage, who were absolutely brilliant!

Clemenza

ghostdancer wrote: »

i still have 2 VHS tapes around my family house somewhere, of the 3-hour broadcasts TV3 did on the Saturday and Sunday nights in 2001. some great stuff on them. this guy in the crowd singing with Embrace being a favourite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpuwdtQ25n4

2001 was my first year to go, Muse at 6pm on the main stage the first act i saw, just before they released OoS. can't really remember seeing much else apart from Frank Black, and the headliners Ash and Stereophonics i think? some highlights on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6lzKfPnA8o

in 2002 i won a competition on the Witnness site to see Foo Fighters and Jimmy Eat World in the Ambassador the night before the festival started. was that they year the 2nd stage was closed for half the first day?

looking at the 2003 lineup, i can't actually remember seeing any of them, apart from The Music on the 2nd stage, who were absolutely brilliant!

Completely forgot about those 2 playing, great performances!

From what I remember, TV3 got the 2000 highlights, and RTE got 2001 (I'm on there somewhere, walking through the campsite in a blouse and eyeliner )

delbertgrady

I went in 2001. I don't remember that much about it, not due to any stimulants: I just don't think it was that memorable.
I think Brian Molko of Placebo had a hissy fit and did the old "smashing up his guitar" routine at the end of their set.
I have this memory of Huey Morgan's amp acting up, so he spent most of the Fun Lovin' Criminals' set either without his guitar, or struggling to play while remonstrating with his guitar tech. Either way, he wasn't happy.

There was the bizarre situation of Texas being on before Ash, even though, as I recall, Texas were headlining the Sunday night. Having Texas on at all was the equivalent of having Simply Red playing Féile. Wine bar music. What the f*** are they doing here? Within a few years, anything like that would have been vetoed outright. They even did an "encore", 'cos one of their videos at the time had Sharleen in a gold lamé suit (I couldn't be bothered looking up what song it was), so she got changed and came back on and did whatever song it was with the suit on.

Ash came on while people were streaming out of the field, trying to beat the traffic.

I was at the 2002 pre-festival Foo Fighters gig in the Ambassador, which was great.

Clemenza

delbertgrady wrote: »

I went in 2001. I don't remember that much about it, not due to any stimulant: I just don't think it was that memorable. I think Brian Molko of Placebo had a hissy fit and did the old "smashing up his guitar" routine at the end of their set.
I think Huey Morgan's amp was acting up, so he spent most of the Fun Lovin' Criminals' set either without his guitar, or struggling to play while remonstrating with his guitar tech. Either way, he wasn't happy.

There was the bizarre situation of Texas being on before Ash, even though, as I recall, Texas were headlining the Sunday night. Having Texas on at all was the equivalent of having Simply Red playing Féile. Wine bar music. What the f*** are they doing here? Ash came on while people were streaming out of the field.

I was at the 2002 pre-festival Foo Fighters gig in the Ambassador the
night before, which was great.

Ash were supposed to be 4th on the bill behind Texas, Fun Lovin Criminals and Placebo right up until that very weekend, but due to the huge commercial success of Free All Angels, they got bumped up to headliners

delbertgrady

Ah, that would explain it.

melekalikimaka

i loved fairyhouse as a venue, it was my first festival and possibly the most memorable

Clemenza

melekalikimaka wrote: »

i loved fairyhouse as a venue, it was my first festival and possibly the most memorable

Agreed! Much better than Punchestown

Looper007

Clemenza wrote: »

2000 having being particularly memorable, I was 14 at the time, grounded, managed to get my mitts on a weekend camping ticket from a part time lounge boy job I was working, escaped out my bedroom window on the Saturday morning via a series of elaborate shoe laces tied together lowering my tent and bag of supplies to the ground and my Mum chasing me down the street. Good times! Highlights that weekend were JJ72, Beck and Happy Mondays (complete with onstage strippers!).

Was at this, brings me down memory lane was 19 at the time, Very chilled and friendly experience compared to Oxygen. Saw Travis with a fan running on stage singing Britney Spear's Baby On More Time with Fran. Beck stole the show that Weekend for me, what a show. Paul Weller, Embrace and All Saints were also on that day. Met one of my close mates at this as well. So it was all good.

JJ

Oh the memories, I went to the first Witnness but only on the second day. I mainly wanted to see JJ72 but I also saw Embrace and one or two other acts in the VIP tent and Beck. I remember just before JJ72 came on, someone was waving around a Celtic scarf (why I don't know, it wasn't a football match) and two of the security guys showed off their Celtic tattoos, one of them had a giant Celtic tattoo all over his back.

I also got the JJs' autographs in the VIP section afterwards. I thought it was great getting loads of free Guinness that day. I remember Beck saying the Witnness crowd was the craziest crowd he'd ever seen and I imagine he's seen a lot in his time. While Beck was on, some lads tried getting me to help out with what I think is called pyramiding, where you get a bunch of people in some sort of circle and a few people stand on their shoulders or something like that. I didn't really have the shoulder strength for that kind of activity.

I stuck around for a while during Travis' set but they were a let down after Beck. I remember some people were trying to start fires with whatever debris that could be found but staff were going around putting them out. It also started to drizzle after Travis came on (as it always does apparently [Why Does It Always Rain On Me?]). I didn't really know many of the acts on the side stages so I left a little early.

Reservations at Dorsia

JJ wrote: »

Oh the memories, I went to the first Witnness but only on the second day. I mainly wanted to see JJ72 but I also saw Embrace and one or two other acts in the VIP tent and Beck. I remember just before JJ72 came on, someone was waving around a Celtic scarf (why I don't know, it wasn't a football match) and two of the security guys showed off their Celtic tattoos, one of them had a giant Celtic tattoo all over his back.

I also got the JJs' autographs in the VIP section afterwards. I thought it was great getting loads of free Guinness that day. I remember Beck saying the Witnness crowd was the craziest crowd he'd ever seen and I imagine he's seen a lot in his time. While Beck was on, some lads tried getting me to help out with what I think is called pyramiding, where you get a bunch of people in some sort of circle and a few people stand on their shoulders or something like that. I didn't really have the shoulder strength for that kind of activity.

I stuck around for a while during Travis' set but they were a let down after Beck. I remember some people were trying to start fires with whatever debris that could be found but staff were going around putting them out. It also started to drizzle after Travis came on (as it always does apparently [Why Does It Always Rain On Me?]). I didn't really know many of the acts on the side stages so I left a little early.

Good write up.

Brings back memories of a glorious weekend

What I'd give to do it all again

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

2003 was my first, and as it turned out, last Witness. Absolute scorcher I remember. Coldplay headlined, The White Stripes were supposed to but pulled out at the last minute dissapointedly. The Frames were bumped to headliners if I remember correctly.

The Coral were one of the best bands that weekend, I loved them at the time, and even more so when James Skelly came out on stage in full tuxedo and top hat, carrying an iron, just for the sheer randomness of the whole thing.

Coldplay were great, covered Christy Moore and all. The Frames were as well as per usual, they did a White Stripes cover to make up for them pulling out.

I think the Flaming Lips played as well, epic, Wayne Coyne crowdsurfing in that giant inflatable ball as is want.

This was probably the last Witness/Oxygen pre scumbag invastion, I went in 2004 to Oxygen and it was still good but you could tell it had changed slightly, mainly due to the lineup I suppose.

Went in 2006 then, and that was it for me, **** that ****. 2003 was great though. It was my first Irish festival, the sun was out all weekend, camping was easy as a result. The buzz was great. Even the organization was good (bar a few meathead security lads who were riling the crowd throwing water at them during Coldplay for some reason). I thought to myself they would all be like this.

I was gravely incorrect!

Zymurgist

It wasn't the Frames that stood in for the White stripes, it was the Flaming Lips, and they sang some song with the lyric "Thank you Jack White for the fiber optic jesus that you gave me"

was a great gig actually...

wotswattage

Frank Skinner being pissed on stage chanting 'Witness the Fitness!!'

unkymo

I went in 2002 with my 2 brothers. It was our first proper music festival we went too.

We were big Oasis fans (they were ****e!).
I do remember Badly Drawn Boy saying during his gig that "Its great to be back in Dublin again" which was met by a chorus of boo's and people roaring back at him that he was in Co Meath. The mud was ridiculous,the mud fight during Green Day was huge!

Sitting in the sunshine with a nice pint of Guinness watching Black Rebel Motorcycle Club with the 2 brothers was probably my highlight of the weekend.

Thankfully we only camped for the first night as we found a BandB about 20 minutes away and stayed there on the Sunday night. We were covered in mud and the shower and the bed that night was a relief!

I went to Oxegen in 2004 and saw enough there that year to put me off going back there again.

RayCon

Went in 2002 specifically to see The Hives - they were excellent, also watched Beta Band (excellent) , Greenday (excellent - and the giant mud battle was funny) and Foo Fighters (very good) - then went home.

Would have liked to see Spiritualized and Air too ... but clashes prevented it.

Reservations at Dorsia

I think most of us are in agreement that 2002 was probably the worst of the 4 years then!

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

Zymurgist wrote: »

It wasn't the Frames that stood in for the White stripes, it was the Flaming Lips, and they sang some song with the lyric "Thank you Jack White for the fiber optic jesus that you gave me"

was a great gig actually...

Oh yeah that's correct, The Frames did cover a White Stripes song as well though. The White Stripes would have topped it all off for me.

melekalikimaka

Reservations at Dorsia wrote: »

I think most of us are in agreement that 2002 was probably the worst of the 4 years then!

The only one i went to and by far the best festival i have been to in ireland, so the others must have been magnificent. 2002 has some line up

The Prodigy Oasis
Foo Fighters
Primal Scream
Greenday
Gomez
The Frames
No Doubt
The Hives
Starsailor
Jimmy Eat World
The Revs
The Bluetones
Maria Doyle Kennedy
Beverly Knight
The Polyphonic Spree
David Kitt
Basement Jaxx
Chemical Brothers
Dandy Warhols
Ian Brown
BRMC
Wilt
Less Than Jake
Gemma Hayes
A
Hundred Reasons
Cooper Temple Clause
Electric Soft Parade
Rival Schools
The Parkinsons
Hoobastank
Desert Hearts
Haven
Berkeley
Turn
Air
Idlewild
Mercury Rev
Melaton
Sonic Youth
Badly Drawn Boy
Beta Band
Damien Rice
Sandra Bernhard
The Devlins
Cornelius
Mundy
Decal Redneck Manifesto
Gonzales
The Libertines
Peaches
Archive
The Jimmy Cake
Nina Hynes

and thats only 3 stages of 5

wotswattage

wotswattage wrote: »

Frank Skinner being pissed on stage chanting 'Witness the Fitness!!'

Actually he was chanting:

"WITN-NESS
IS IN THIS
FOR ONE MORE PINT OF
GUIN-NESS"

And it was Mike Skinner (the streets) not Frank skinner jesus im some dope :p

Reservations at Dorsia

melekalikimaka wrote: »

The only one i went to and by far the best festival i have been to in ireland, so the others must have been magnificent. 2002 has some line up

The Prodigy Oasis
Foo Fighters
Primal Scream
Greenday
Gomez
The Frames
No Doubt
The Hives
Starsailor
Jimmy Eat World
The Revs
The Bluetones
Maria Doyle Kennedy
Beverly Knight
The Polyphonic Spree
David Kitt
Basement Jaxx
Chemical Brothers
Dandy Warhols
Ian Brown
BRMC
Wilt
Less Than Jake
Gemma Hayes
A
Hundred Reasons
Cooper Temple Clause
Electric Soft Parade
Rival Schools
The Parkinsons
Hoobastank
Desert Hearts
Haven
Berkeley
Turn
Air
Idlewild
Mercury Rev
Melaton
Sonic Youth
Badly Drawn Boy
Beta Band
Damien Rice
Sandra Bernhard
The Devlins
Cornelius
Mundy
Decal Redneck Manifesto
Gonzales
The Libertines
Peaches
Archive
The Jimmy Cake
Nina Hynes

and thats only 3 stages of 5

Completely forgot about them

Great band!

corm500

melekalikimaka wrote: »

The only one i went to and by far the best festival i have been to in ireland, so the others must have been magnificent. 2002 has some line up

The Prodigy Oasis
Foo Fighters
Primal Scream
Greenday
Gomez
The Frames
No Doubt
The Hives
Starsailor
Jimmy Eat World
The Revs
The Bluetones
Maria Doyle Kennedy
Beverly Knight
The Polyphonic Spree
David Kitt
Basement Jaxx
Chemical Brothers
Dandy Warhols
Ian Brown
BRMC
Wilt
Less Than Jake
Gemma Hayes
A
Hundred Reasons
Cooper Temple Clause
Electric Soft Parade
Rival Schools
The Parkinsons
Hoobastank
Desert Hearts
Haven
Berkeley
Turn
Air
Idlewild
Mercury Rev
Melaton
Sonic Youth
Badly Drawn Boy
Beta Band
Damien Rice
Sandra Bernhard
The Devlins
Cornelius
Mundy
Decal Redneck Manifesto
Gonzales
The Libertines
Peaches
Archive
The Jimmy Cake
Nina Hynes

and thats only 3 stages of 5

thats some line up when you think of it. the line up of this years Oxegen or even Electric Picnic is embarrassing compared to it. the quality of music festivals in this country has become shocking :eek:

grindle

corm500 wrote: »

thats some line up when you think of it. the line up of this years Oxegen or even Electric Picnic is embarrassing compared to it. the quality of music festivals in this country has become shocking :eek:

The price of acts has multiplied outrageously since then to make up for the whole downloading-everything-for-free thing.

kryogen

I may be looking at it through rose tinted glasses now, but I was at 3 Witnnesses and 4 Oxygens, and for me Oxygen never matched it, there were some great moments during the later festivals but overall I just had more of a blast at the early ones.

The crowd began to get scummier as the years went by sadly and the picnic began to overtake Oxygen as my favourite summer festival, jesus just look at the line up from this years Oxygen (which I did not attend) load of ****, can no longer be taken seriously as a live music festival

kryogen

Suppose Ill share a memory actually, not glorifying anything here, but one of the lads that came with us decided the Friday night we arrived to go off at about 2 or 3 in the morning with some other lads we knew in the campsite and took ecstasy for the first time in his life, he was out till about 10 or 11 the next morning, came back to the tent, crashed out for the day, missed everything that day, came round sometime shortly after midnight.

Tried to have a few drinks but didn't feel the best, he didn't eat, or more accurately he couldn't keep anything down, stayed in the tent most of Sunday puking his ring up I think it was the year The Darkness headlined? Cant be certain, remember seeing Paddy Casey, The Libertines, spending wayyyyy too long in the dance tent, Ocean Colour Scene in the Heineken tent I think? (Which was ****ing amazing!) The Stone Roses Experience were great too actually

Cant for the life of me remember who else I saw that year!

I sw more then my mate who decided to experiment with class A's for the first time though!

Reservations at Dorsia

One of my abiding memories of Witnness 2000 was the Cashels Cider on draught for £3 Irish Pounds a pint, supping it during Ocean Colour Scene