T In The Park 2012 – Sunday (Review)

Review of T In The Park 2012 – Sunday

After the monsoon (OK slight exaggeration) that befell the festival site on Saturday, the weather wasn’t half as bad on Sunday.  Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t tropical sunshine and the ground was still more akin to the swamp in Shrek than the Copacabana, but at least the persistent monsoon was a little more subdued.

The day started off with a little classical flavour.  Now when did that type of music attract those types of artists?  Even classical is going a little pop to gain attention, first Katherine Jenkins now Nicola Benedetti.  She started the proceedings off with an amazing show of art on her violin.

T in the Park 2012 Nicola Benedetti

So one of the supposed highlights of this year’s T in the Park was meant to have been Nicki Minaj.  The barbie girl didn’t do herself and favours by turning up over 50 minutes late with no explanation or even an introduction.  Instead the girl started shaking her various bits around with her backing dancers and just went ahead rapping.

Now the performance itself wasn’t that bad.  Perhaps it was purely anger at her, or the fact that Andy Murray once again managed to fail, meant the crowd were not happy.  Whilst the front section of the crowd seemed to be enjoying it, distinct noises which appear to be boos reverbed from the back.  A statement has since come out suggesting a delayed flight caused the delay.  Maybe she could have said that.

Her performance was over almost as quickly as it began.  She didn’t really get any rapport going with the huge crowd and they only really got going when she burst in to ‘Starships’ and to a lesser degree ‘Pound the Alarm’ but even then, boos were still ringing around the venue.

The Nicki Minaj performance and the reaction from a growingly hostile crowd was probably both the biggest disappointment and talking point.

McFly also surprised a few people, with an accomplished set at the start of the day.  This seems to be a far way from when they started out as teenie bopping boy band.  But the best reaction for them was when they played ‘Stargirl’ I didn’t know so many people knew the words. Must have been a Karaoke or SingStar favourite in Scotland.

Perpetual festival headliners Kasabian forced through their set with their usual rigour.  The band genuinely had the whole crowd banging in perhaps the most interactive scene from any of the live bands.

T in the Park 2012 Kasabian

Swedish House Mafia, who have recently announced their decision to split, were also a fitting finale.  The tunes they played and the show they put on lifted the entire venue and meant everybody was left with a positive view on the weekend, despite the heavy Saturday downpours and the occasional rubbish act.

Overall a great weekend at T. Shame the place got so muddy but I don’t think it dampened the spirits at all.  Now we have to wait for next year