Click here to send us your views on the Festival ORGANISERS of this year’s inaugural Knowsley Hall Music Festival last night apologised to fans hit by lengthy queues and quagmire-like conditions, saying: “We will learn the lessons for next year.” Around 50,000 music fans made their way to Lord Derby’s estate this weekend for a festival organised by Cream and promoters Loud Sound. While the music proved memorable – particularly an astonishing set from The Who amid torrential rain on Saturday, which the band themselves called “one of our best ever” – many festival-goers were left frustrated. Crowds endured two-hour waits for beer, while long toilet queues led many to simply use the nearby fence. Huge rainstorms on both days left many cars stuck, causing long delays as tractors pulled them free. By yesterday, conditions had become particularly bad. Musician Dave Harrison, 38, from Allerton, and electronics engineer Gary Lock were left furious. “We were disgusted by the prices and the conditions,” said Mr Harrison. “There were only two beer tents and people were queuing for over an hour and a half to get tiny bottles of Stella that had been marked up to a staggering amount. “Gary’s a hardened festival goer and he’d never seen anything like it. Once The Who finished it was complete chaos. “There was no-one telling anyone where to go in the pitch black, or how to get back to the car park. “When we finally got there it was a complete swamp. Cars were so deep in mud you knew they had no chance of getting out. It took us three hours and we were lucky.” Hannah Miller, 36, from Allerton, went to Knowsley with her husband and three children, aged between four and 10. She said: “We were appalled they confiscated our children’s snacks as we went in, not least because it took hours to get any food for them. “It seemed very badly- organised and like many people, we decided we would not be coming back for the second day.” Cream spokeswoman Gill Nightingale acknowledged the problems, but urged music-lovers to stick with the festival next year when a camping element should be added. “We certainly apologise for the teething problems. We were taken by surprise by what a beer-drinking crowd it was and we drafted in extra bar staff on Sunday and opened more bars. It was the first day of the first festival and we will learn the lessons for next year. The prices were exactly the same as other festivals. With 30,000 people all trying to leave at one time, delays will happen and some cars could not move, which had a knock-on effect. “When The Who came on, the torrential rain almost made the set as everyone just enjoyed themselves. The band told us it was one of their best-ever shows. “Lord Derby was backstage and he spoke of what an important event it was for Liverpool, so we’ll definitely be back next year. Tickets go on sale on Monday and we’ve already been speaking to agents about acts.” Cream founder James Barton added: “Overall we’re really pleased with how things have gone over the weekend, even though it was at times challenging. “But to see 30,000 fans singing and dancing in the rain to The Who made it all worthwhile.” The inimitable Pete Wylie, who played the main stage and the hospitality tent, said he was delighted with the venue. “You don’t get many better dressing rooms than Knowsley Hall. Liverpool has been crying out for this type of event. We’re meant to be the capital of music. It’s not about hoping, this must become an annual event.” A 26-YEAR-OLD man died after collapsing at the festival on Saturday night. The man, from Blackpool, became ill around 9pm. Attempts were made to resuscitate him but he was later pronounced dead at Whiston hospital. Police are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident. LOG on to www.liverpooldaily post.co.uk for a picture gallery from the festival.
This first rock festival could also be the last, if a few pointers are not observed...
Mike Chapple with a personal view on the lessons Knowsley must learn for next year... QUEUING and rain – two irritants that the British have earned their spurs for in the endurance stakes. But when both are combined to produce a double whammy of misery, even the stiffest of upper lips begin to quiver with impatience and more than a hint of outrage. This was the case in point at the first weekend rock festival to be staged in the picturesque grounds of Lord Derby’s Knowsley Hall estate. Of course nothing can be done about the weather – British festivals are renowned for turning into quagmires given the nature of our summers, which are still as predictably cold, wet and windy, despite what anyone says about global warming. Queues are something else. It is a factor that the organisers should think very hard about as they consider making this an annual affair because if they do stage one next year it’s doubtful if anyone who had to suffer the conditions on Saturday would bother turning up. Given its location, getting there wasn’t that much of a problem with regular bus shuttles. What is unacceptable is the fleecing and general grand larceny of what is literally a captive audience once they are inside the festival compound. No food or drink was allowed to be carried inside the festival field and the unsuspecting were forced to suffer the indignity of wolfing down provisions or throwing them away into the waiting Biffa garbage bins before being given a full arms-up electronic strip search before being allowed in. Is it just me or is this security gone bananas? It would take an ingenious suicide bomber to pack a few pounds of Semtex down their shorts or under a flimsy summer top without looking suspiciously over-endowed. Once inside you were under no circumstances allowed out and back in again. So by mid-afternoon the grim realisation of what these enforced conditions meant began to unfold. Being part of the media, at least we were allowed the cover of the hospitality tent, but we weren’t protected from the average 20-minute bunfight to get served at the bar and an outrageous three quid for a tiny 30cl bottle of lager, which would make buying an ale at the Summer Pops seem like shopping in the One Pound Shop. Pity the thousands, then, who were forced to queue for hours on end to go to the toilet or wait for food and drink at the main bars and stalls. Even a quick ride on the Waltzer was guaranteed to wipe the smile of the face at an astonishing four pounds. Yep, you heard. Speaking to some as the queue snaked around inside what was becoming a swamp, there was a feeling of furious impotence at what they were having to put up with. The only saving grace were the bands and especially what our own local talent had to offer. The Zutons and others/ Knowsley Hall MUD seems as much a part of the festival experience as illustrious performances and endless queues for the beer tent, as yesterday at Knowsley Hall demonstrated in dramatic fashion. The quagmire reached epic proportions last night, but despite the appalling weather, the crowd showed an admirable determination to have a good time and enjoy the music. Last night’s show-stealers had to be the mighty Zutons. From the first note of Why Don’t You Give Me Your Love, Dave McCabe and pals held their home crowd in the palms of their hands. By the time they came around to the anthemic Valerie, the crowd was a sea of arms reaching to the heavens, as they clapped, hugged and hoisted camera phones in the air. Closing with the sensational Zuton Fever, they demonstrated yet again what a sensational act they are live. The other crowd favourite was the nutty boys themselves, Madness. Dressed in the sharpest of pinstripe suits, Graham Suggs McPherson delighted the crowd with a fantastic catalogue of hits, getting even the muddiest and most miserable up and dancing. Suggs hit the nail on the head when he addressed the crowd as "Ladies, gentlemen, mudlovers…" and the assembled hordes below gazed up, before returning to their uninhibited (and in many cases rather unorthodox) dance moves. Joss Stone got back to her hippy roots, although managed to refrain from jumping headlong into the mud-pit. Instead she thanked the crowd for watching in the pouring rain. "I want to thank you so much for turning out in the mud," she gushed, the odd transatlantic accent clearly a distant memory. Headliners Keane came on stage just after 10pm, by which time the rain had abated. Tom Chaplin still hits those trademark big notes and the pained expression on his face is still there, but there was nothing the east Sussex trio could do to top local heroes The Zutons. Again, the MySpace stage played host to some of the hottest young bands around, as the crowds scurried, slid and squelched between the two performance spaces to catch sets from Huyton four- piece The Aeroplanes and headliners Cracatilla.
The Who/ Knowsley Hall
QUESTIONS may be asked about how the punters were treated on the day. But the saving grace, on Saturday at least, was the music itself. On the smaller MySpace stage – when the sound and lighting problems were finally sorted out – The Maybes and The Black Velvets delivered confident, blistering sets. A special mention, too, must be given to Manchester’s The Alones. On the elaborate main stage, Pete Wylie and the Mighty Wah! turned in a great performance, bubbling with enthusiasm and Scouse banter drawing warm applause from those not busy queuing - for such favourites as Better Scream, Come Back, The Story of the Blues and what has become his personal anthem, Heart as Big as Liverpool. Those elusive legends Shack and an accompanying brass quartet, wowed a wider live in-concert audience than possibly they have had before and The Coral’s psychadelic screel mixed with Kinks- style pop observation did the trick. But it was The Who that, bottom line, everyone had come to see. As the opening chords of I Can’t Explain boomed out from Pete Townshend’s guitar, the heavens opened and the crowd erupted in a sort of ecstatic rain dance amid the mud and the growing mountain of rubbish. "I’ve just come from Glastonbury but we know which is the place to be," said Townshend as the crowd finally exorcised their frustrations in a joyous frenzy. There are people who would say that they would have got this reception anywhere. Wrong. At the Summer Pops last year, even those veterans of adulation, vocalist Roger Daltrey and Townshend were overawed by the adulation they received. It could be ventured that this is because The Who is the ultimate lads’ band and their spiritual home, certainly in concert, is Liverpool. So there was no doubt that they were very glad to be back., with no prompting needed to get everybody singing, and roaring word-perfect renditions of rocking soul searchers such as The Seeker and Baba O’Reilly. "Liverpool still has the best singers in England," said Daltrey without a hint of mickey-take. But there was an irony to be had as their main set wound up with a rip- roaring We Won’t Get Fooled Again. Music apart, the reply from those on Saturday at least would almost certainly be, no, we won’t. Get it sorted. | 
