The happiest chappies backstage at Oxegen had to be the Scissor Sisters who’d just been informed that their debut album had gone platinum in Blighty. After scotching rumours that they’ve been getting jiggy with Graham Norton in the States – they’re fans but bodily fluids haven’t been exchanged – they informed us that they’d been looking forward to Punchestown ever since their Dublin Village gig which they rate as one of the best on their European tour. Ah, the flatterers…

Also in celebratory mood were Franz Ferdinand who’ve just flogged the 1.1 millionth copy of their own long-player. Not bad for a band who a year ago were paid just £50 to play Oxegen’s sister festival in Scotland, T In The Park. While obviously their recent hotpress cover was far more fetching, they’re chuffed that they’re about to be splashed all over the front of GQ and Spin…
Justin Hawkins got his own personal make-up artist, darling, when The Darkness did interviews for MTV Brazil and UK in the heavily fortified backstage area…
The Wu-Tang Clan and very large entourage – we counted 15 of ‘em! – limbered up for their appearance with a marathon game of craps for high stakes. Cristal was the champers of choice and they also seemed very interested in the contents of a white plastic shopping bag which, eco-friendly hip hoppers they are, we’re sure they paid 15c for…
What’s this we hear about The Cure having to stump up an extremely tidy sum for overrunning their allotted set time? Panda-eyeing to the masses, Robert Smith apparently coughed up without complaint. Well, not too much of one…
She didn’t call into the hotpress Signing Tent, the spoilsport, but there were numerous sightings of Drew Barrymore, who was there to cosy up to her beau Fabio Moretti who appeared a damn sight healthier than his Strokes bandmate Julian Casablancas. If you’re as bored with the day job as it seems, Jules, there’s lucrative work to be had as a Shane MacGowan lookalike…
Joe Elliott was among the hard rockin’ types who made sure that none of Ricky Warwick’s rider went to waste. As if…
Also making the most of the backstage hospitality was Simon Fowler who spent a very pleasant half-hour ratcheting to The Madchester Experience about Subbuteo and how, as a baby Ocean Colour Scene-ster, he transformed lowly Walsall into mighty Poland with nowt more than a tube of Arrodite and a can of Humbrol paint…
Separated at birth #1. We thought Southampton FC marksman Kevin Phillips had gotten terribly camp all of a sudden until we realised it was Scissor Sister Jake Shears wandering round backstage in an outrageously loud green shirt. If Phillips ever tires of the Premiership, though, a tribute act career as the Scissor Kicks awaits…
It’s good to see local radio stations being industrious! Radio Limerick 95FM rock man Mike Knightson managed to interrogate no fewer than 14 acts on the opening day of Oxegen. As a result, you can hear him rapping to the likes of Scissor Sisters, The Killers, Elbow and BellX1 this Sunday, July 18, from 6pm onwards. Also working hard for their meeja passes were Donna Legge and the Across The Line team, Today FM, Red FM, WLR, Beat FM, 2FM’s Cormac Battle and Jenny Huston and TV3. Given that sizable chunks of Oxegen’s sister festival, T In The Park, were broadcast live this year on BBC3, will we see TV3 and RTE slugging it out next year for the telly rights?…
Separated at birth #2. We were wondering why Paul Nolan was quaffing free Heino backstage rather than doing his review shift until we realised it was in fact that other handsome dark-haired devil, Johnny from Snow Patrol. The boy Nolan really ought to explore the mistaken identity groupie possibilities…
Separated at birth #3. Staying with mistaken identity groupie possibilities, what on earth possessed hotpress Studio Director Graham Keogh to tell an adoring female fan he wasn’t BellX1’s Paul Noonan?
Knobhead of the Weekend goes to the bloke who climbed on top of the sound scaffolding during Basement Jaxx’s closing set and then scrapped with security as they tried to get him down. The plonker in question managed to rip and fall through the tarpaulin roof but wasn’t injured…