This probably wasn’t the best planned weekend of my life. Having spent Friday and Saturday in Prague seeing OMD, I arrived back in the UK on Sunday morning already running on fumes. Then the Orwell Bridge decided to close, which meant I didn’t finally get back into Felixstowe until 12:49. My lift to Norwich was arriving at 13:00.
Eleven minutes. Plenty of time to talc my balls, have a fresh squirt of deodorant, kiss the wife and the cats and get straight back out of the door. Who needs rest?
This time the travelling party consisted of Jimmy, Coxy, Damo, Geoff Hope, Oily, Wiffy and of course myself, with Wiffy doubling up as the group taxi driver. Which was handy because by this point I wasn’t entirely sure I had the energy to walk to the end of my road, let alone spend several hours at a festival.
Now, ska and reggae aren’t really my thing. I like a bit of The Specials and, of course, Madness, but the rest? Bits here and there. There were bands I wanted to see, particularly Ocean Colour Scene, but this wasn’t one of those days where I’d studied the timings and worked out exactly where I needed to be and when.
To me, this one wasn’t really about the music. It was about the people.
A gig is a gig, but when you’re tired and grumpy after a weekend away, having a decent group of people with you does lift the spirits. Even if half the time you’re sitting around talking complete bollocks rather than actually watching whoever is on stage.
GA+ and the Art of Sitting Down
We’d upgraded our tickets to GA+. I still have no idea what GA+ actually stands for, but what it meant was we could escape the crowds, have a proper sit down, use the posh toilets, or at least toilets that pass as posh at a festival, and supposedly get served quicker at the bar. Frankly, the ability to sit down was worth the upgrade on its own.
We even had our own security bloke, Tony. I’m not entirely sure what help Tony would have been had he actually been called into action. He sat on his chair in the corner and, in the five hours or so we were there, I reckon he moved twice. Every now and again he’d have a little shuffle around the area before returning to his chair and Candy Crush.
Oh well. At least he got out of the house.
Music, Crowds and Retreating to the Picnic Tables
The bill included Ocean Colour Scene, The Wailers, The Selecter and David Rodigan before Madness finished things off, and I did make an effort to actually watch some of them. I headed towards the front of the viewing area for The Wailers, but there were too many people pushing and shoving for my liking, so I soon decided that the ramshackle picnic tables back in GA+ were a far more attractive proposition.
So back I went for more yarns with Oily, Geoff, Damo and Wiffy. Coxy, of course, had gone completely the other way. If there was a mosh pit, he wanted to be in it and he’d taken Jimmy along for the ride. Jimmy did eventually reappear during The Wailers, presumably having decided he’d suffered enough for one afternoon.
Even Ocean Colour Scene couldn’t tempt me away from my seat. They’re one of my favourite Britpop bands and on any normal day I’d have wanted to get as close as possible. But this wasn’t a normal day. I’d been in Prague the previous morning, had barely been home long enough to apply talcum powder and now I’d found myself a comfortable seat with a perfectly decent view of absolutely nothing.
I could hear them though. That’ll do.
There probably comes a point in every man’s life when he has to accept that the lure of a picnic bench has become greater than the lure of getting down the front for one of his favourite bands. Apparently mine came at Earlham Park.
Madness, Chips and Knowing Your Limits
For Madness we did all make our way back into the tent. I managed three or four songs before the crowds got the better of me again and I retreated to the outskirts. You could hear everything perfectly well from there anyway, so it wasn’t like I’d buggered off home.
Instead I had a wander around the grounds, got myself some chips and eventually sat on my own listening to the Nutty Boys. And actually, that suited me perfectly. Everyone else could jump around in a tent. I had chips.
By the time Madness finished, my bed was calling. To be fair, my bed had been calling before The Wailers had even started and it was still light then. By this point it had probably given up calling and was wondering where the bloody hell I was.
The Verdict
So yes, I heard considerably more of Rock N Roll Circus than I actually saw. A lot of the artists weren’t really my cup of tea, I spent far too much time sitting in GA+ and that made the £20 upgrade worth every penny.
Sometimes I go to a gig because I absolutely love the band and want to be down the front soaking up every second. This wasn’t that. This was a Sunday afternoon and evening with Jimmy, Coxy, Damo, Geoff, Oily and Wiffy, plenty of talking bollocks, a bit of music in the background and the occasional venture into the crowds when I could be arsed. And sometimes that’s more than enough.
Prague and OMD on Saturday. Norwich and Madness on Sunday. Back to normality on Monday — luckily, I was off work!
I’m getting far too old for this shit.
Probably won’t stop me though.
More 2026 gig reviews: ← OMD – Prague 2026 · All 2026 gig reviews