EARTH, WIND & FIRE

Philip Doron Bailey (vocals): “It was good today; l like it. It was fun; big audience, good response. Everything sounded right on stage – so I hope it sounded right in the audience. And everyone’s talking about how good the weather is.

“I’ve been learning about Scotland from a friend who lives here. I heard that you guys have a lot of history, and you guys have a lot of religious wars! And that you make history of the wars. But to perfectly honest, as soon as I got here I thought I was in a Harry Potter movie! All the architecture!

“We’ve been touring all summer and it’s been good actually. It’s been good energy. It’s tiring, especially now that we’re in Europe – we’ve been running pretty hard.

“There are 12 of us onstage, and we do have some sycnchronised moves that takes practice – we have a choreographed set, things that we do routinely, and we have to adjust those according to the audience. So we knew that, this type of audience, the regular stage performance that we usually give, wouldn’t go over well. It would have been too structured. So you gotta know how to break out of the structure and keep your eyes open – for basses and guitars that are flying in your direction!

“But we got a great response from the audience.”

What were you doing in 1994?

“I was 13 and I was singing definitely – and probably crying about some girl. I’m a romantic! So I was probably whinging on the phone. Yeah, absolutely – I would have been in junior high in the San Fernando Valley in California, so I would either have been in love with a girl named Edith, or I was infatuated with her best friend named Liza. Kid emotions, you know!”

What do you think of the backstage facilities at T?

“It’s cool. I’m walking around and I’m seeing Frank Ocean’s name and Rita Ora’s name… I’m excited about the people. I’m not gonna get my hair cut, but maybe a goatee trim, I can do that…

“But I might not have time – we get to eat, then we’re back to the hotel, shower, jumping right on the bus and heading to Zurich. It’s like a 24-hour drive.”

STEREOPHONICS

Richard Jones (bass): “This is our eighth T.”

Richard: “Our first one, we were in a tent, and I think Travis were on after us. We literally came up, jumped off the bus, got our gear onstage, did the gig, watched a couple of other bands and we were off somewhere else. So it was a flying visit. And it was a really good craic.”

Kelly: “The best one might have been when we headlined, or were special guests. I had one where I tried to smash a guitar up on stage – took forever – it’s in that BBC documentary. But to be honest I don’t ever remember having a bad gig up here.”

What makes T stand out from other festivals?

Kelly: “The atmosphere up here really. Whether it’s pissing with rain or it’s like this, they’re always good people. As I said, we’ve never had a bad atmosphere up here. The backstage area is really chilled-out and people are nice. I’ve been up here when it’s been pissing with rain, when the World Cup was on – and I’ve always had some really good times.”

What were you doing in 1994?

Richard: “I was 20, and we were just schlepping round all the pubs and clubs around London and south London, just getting the band name out there, trying to get the songs out there. Just working our nuts off.”

Kelly: “I was 20 as well. We were playing covers by the likes of Oasis and Nirvana, and just trying to write our first album. I think half of Word Gets Around was written by ’94. Then got a record deal by August ’96. We’re almost the same age as this festival.”

JOHNNY MARR

Where were you in 1994?

“I went to see this little band play in front of seven people, and probably a dog, in Manchester. They always started off with a very loud version of I Am The Walrus, by which time when they’d finished it, there was only four people and a dog, and I was one of them. So ’94 reminds me of that time – Oasis knocking around my studio, and just being these little oiks in Adidas tracksuit tops. Whatever happened to them?

“At that particular time I personally didn’t really like rock music. I went through a phase where I was really liking Ennio Morricone, a lot of soundtrack stuff, electronic stuff – Kraftwerk. And Chic had reformed and put out an album called Chic-ism. So it was stuff like that, and Aphex Twin. But the movement that happened that year, with Oasis, where Britain kinda reclaimed its own self-image if you like, was utterly necessary. The next thing I know, I didn’t like guitar music, but Blur were making really good records. And their records really stand up.”

Have you played T before?

“Once, with The Cribs, a couple of years ago – it was exactly like this weather. But the vibe here – everybody says it’s mellow here, and I think it doesn’t have that self-conscious media presence. There’s something a little more free about it, ’cause it’s so far from London.

“The organisers of T in the Park have got a different mindset to the others down south. I think they want to keep it, first and foremost, so that people from Scotland say it’s great.

And they do. That’s a cool thing.

“But when all’s said and done, when you listen to the reaction that’s going on over there for every single band, it’s what festivals are supposed to be about. It’s joyous really, isn’t it?”

 EDITORS

Tom Smith (vocals): “This is our sixth time here. They’ve been good to us. And I remember all the gigs. The first one was in the Futures Tent. It was a bit rowdy, but quite low on the ground in terms of numbers. But I remember it being quite intense. The one that was really memorable was the King Tut’s one on our second record. That felt like the roof was taking off.”

What were you doing in 1994?

“I was 13. Hadn’t really discovered music in a big way by that point. Probably still kicking a football around at school. But it wasn’t long before Definitely Maybe and Parklife came onto my horizon.”

 What makes T in the Park stand out?

“The cliché is it’s the crowds, but they are slightly noisier and more vocal that all other festivals you do.”

DEAP VALLY

Lindsey Troy (guitars): “I have lot of friends who live in London who come every to T in the Park and talk about it all the time. So there must be something good going on here.

Julie Edward (drums): “The crowd today were great, and they made lots of a noise. But also it’s tricky when you get up at 7.30 in the morning to rock hard. You’re not up to rocking speed. We were talking about how when we played Coachella, we were running late and it was high stress – but because there was all this adrenalin, we had energy. So the energy comes from weird places.”

Lindsey: “I’m kinda glad that our set’s over – we can just sunbathe the rest of the day.”

Julie: “We’re gonna get tans in Scotland! But I have Scottish blood – my middle name is Scott.”

Lindsey: “And we’re gonna eat. The catering is great, and there’s a huge dessert spread. There’s so many desert options it’s not even fair.”

What were you doing in 1994?

Julie: “I was 30 and I was a microbiologist.”

Lindsey: “I wasn’t even born yet. No, I was playing a lot of tag.”