T In The Park, Saturday 10th July 2010

With the rain battering down on day two of T In The Park, we take shelter for rising indie-rock trio General Fiasco, who confidently take to the stage, opening the King Tuts tent. Playing material from their debut album ‘Buildings’, such as ‘We Are The Foolish’ and ‘Ever So Shy’, they go down a storm with a fairly responsive audience; it’s clear they already have a strong fan-base. Towards the end of the set, lead vocalist Owen Strathern takes out an acoustic guitar and plays ‘Sinking Ships’; beautifully soft, with strong vocals. As they finish their final song, Stathern throws his guitar onto the stage floor, and all members walk off. This band are seriously difficult not to love.

Opening with ‘World Sick’, Broken Social Scene start their set in the Tuts tent strongly. An incredibly diverse band who incorporate two sets of drums, horns, maracas, a violin and guitars aplenty, the crowd has an ever changing stage set up to take in. With members coming and going from the stage during and after each song, it gets a little confusing, but is a truly intriguing process to watch. ‘Texico Bitches’ proves to be the most popular song of the afternoon, giving the crowd some much needed life, and even some singing along.

The first, and in fact only, band at this year’s BBC Introducing stage for us, is Admiral Fallow. Formerly known as Brother Louis Collective, this is the new project centred around Scottish singer / songwriter Louis Abbott. Blasting through a high energy set with just the right mix of extremely well crafted and heartfelt songs, it’s quite obvious why they are ones to watch. Crowd favourite ‘Squealing Pigs’ has everybody dancing, whilst ‘Subbuteo’ provides a loud and powerful finish. Stunning vocals, coupled with the addition of a double bass, flute and more, this talented and very fun to watch live band, quite simply, blow everyone else away.

Across the field, back in the King Tuts tent, we have Scottish folk-heart-rock band, Frightened Rabbit. Playing to a full tent, Frabbit as they are lovingly known, come on stage to a roaring cheer. Opening song ‘Modern Leper’ gets the extremely excited crowd moving, whilst ‘Old Old Fashioned’ has everyone singing along. It’s easy to see from the beginning that this will be a show to remember. The love and adoration that Frightened Rabbit fans have for this little band completely shines through. Plenty of the crowd are on shoulders in the packed out centre whilst others are dancing around the sides. Seeing a band truly happy and grateful whilst on stage, can make the world of difference. With an extremely accomplished sound, ‘Keep Yourself Warm’ ends the set magnificently. ‘Thanks for making this one of our greatest weekends ever!’

Next up, We Are Scientists open with their two most recent singles, ‘Rules Don’t Stop’ and ‘Nice Guys’ from album ‘Barbara’. Along with the catchy choruses and songs you can’t help but dance to, what makes their set is their cheeky onstage banter - mostly exchanged between Keith Murray and Chris Cain, until a “We Are Scientists” chant breaks out in the crowd. “Now I wouldn’t normally say this but, that’s our name, DON’T wear it out!” Shouts Keith, back at the chanting crowd. ‘Nobody Moves, Nobody Gets Hurt’ stands as the song to really get everyone moving.

30 Seconds To Mars are second to last on the NME stage tonight. With a large audience awaiting them, boy, do they deliver. Playing a set of mostly newer material from their 2009 release, ‘This Is War’, could have proven a bit risky in a festival environment, but not tonight. A crowd of Scottish rockers jumping up and down at any opportunity and happy to comply with encouragements for claps and chants stands before them. Frontman Jared Leto walks out onto the stage during ‘Escape’ wearing a pair of sunglasses, a zipped up jacket and a kilt (over a pair of jeans, much to many of the ladies disappointment, I’m sure). Half way through the set he unzips the jacket to reveal he is also wearing an ‘I <3 Scotland’ t-shirt underneath. You can’t say he doesn’t make an effort. ‘Attack’ has one of the loudest sing a longs of the night with the excitable crowd giving it all they have throughout. ‘Closer To The Edge’ being the bands latest release has the frontman asking the crowd to scream ‘NO NO NO NO’ back at him during the song, to record on camera. Continuing on with ‘The Kill (Bury Me)’ keeps the momentum going, especially when Jared Leto himself jumps from the stage onto the barrier, then into the crowd, causing frenzy. After escaping the grasp of hundreds of hands, he climbs back on stage for the end of their T In The Park set with the massive sounding ‘Kings and Queens’. An electrifying performance, leaving nobody dissatisfied; they put on one hell of a show.

After that massive performance over on the NME stage, we need to be brought back down to earth, and what more perfect than checking out an up and coming artist in the T Break tent. After signing to Universal Republic, Pearl and the Puppets have burst onto the music scene in a serious way. Playing the here tonight, quite a crowd turn up for this emerging artist. ‘Because I Do’ compliments Katie Sutherlands dulcet tones, while the melodic guitar rhythms and sweet sounding vocals make this a lovely performance to listen to. Debut single ‘Make Me Smile’ is received well, with a simply wonderful performance of a whole other kind.

With thousands of festival goers waiting to catch the first part of Eminem’s delayed performance, Julian Casablancas’ crowd steadily increases over at the Futures stage. Opening with The Strokes’ ‘Hard To Explain’, he has everyone bouncing. Jumping down onto the barrier during ‘Out Of The Blue’ causes mayhem for the security guards as the crowd goes wild. Casablancas runs along the barrier, finishing the song at the edge of the tent. More keyboard influenced than the Strokes guitar heavy sound, though with the new songs seemingly going down well, it is still not quite the same as the crowd reaction to old Strokes favourites. However, if you liked the band, it’s pretty certain that you are going to enjoy it’s frontman.