Favourite Oxegen Moments
Some of Ireland's leading musicians tell Hot Press their golden Oxegen memories
, 08 Jul 2009
The Mighty Stef
"It was the time one of my favourite bands played: The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster. They’re from Brighton in the UK. I’d met them at a previous gig of theirs and they put me on the guestlist for Oxegen. They were all mad into Buddhism, and before the gig they were doing their Buddhist chants and all that kinda craic. By the end of the night, they were on the campsite with us hitting the gargle. Then they started eating ham sandwiches – and they were all supposed to be vegetarians! We saw them going from being really professional about what they do to becoming crazy party animals. They were running around the campsite singing Billy Joel songs. It was mental — plus their performance was unbelievable. That Oxegen was my favourite, but some other ones have stuck out."
The Mighty Stef plays the IMRO New Sounds Stage on Friday July 10
Conor, Villagers
"Back when it was still called Witnness, I wandered into a tent and saw And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead... I had never previously heard of them. I remember thinking they were the coolest band I had ever seen and wanting to buy all of their records straight away. Dave Fanning actually recorded their performance. I heard it on his programme a couple of months later. You could see there was a sort of belief in the songs they had written."
Villagers play the IMRO New Sounds Stage on Sunday July 12
Michael, Director
“This is maybe slightly sad but the first time we did Oxegen, Snoop Doggy Dogg was playing and it was pretty amazing. Later backstage, I saw him walking around surrounded by four massive heavies and I got up the courage to say ‘Good show, Snoop’ and he looked at me – the fact that Snoop Dogg looked at me and gave me a nod made my entire weekend! It was a great experience. We were in a small tent and we were afraid that nobody would turn up. We were still pretty young and this was a big step up for us. Fear was probably the overriding emotion that day. We started playing and the tent was completely empty and we could hear the sound bouncing back at us from back. But it gradually filled, and in the end we got quite a good crowd. We had never played a festival before, so it was really cool to get backstage and see all the bands.”
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