Mardi Gras 2002 Review

United Kingdom | by Andrew Future | 06 July 2002

The Popstarz Stage

Quite what the Hackney Massive, (innit!), make of several thousand happy campers wandering through their hood in broad daylight is beyond us. We're too busy applying our eyeliner. Luckily, the rain holds and so does our mascara as "Acne Marshis" gyrates its balls for the annual pink parade and Mardi Gras performing arts festival.

The Parkinsons are wrapping up a short-sharp screaming to no one routine as Virtual Festivals arrives and are quickly followed in the 'future of punk noise' stakes by Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster. Looking curiously like a thin version of wrestler The Undertaker, their singer gives VF the look of death when we stand on his mic cable following one of his many jaunts into the 'audience' of oooh, about twelve people.

The Yeah Yeah Yeah's turn it up a bit. It's the Stones with a female singer, none of this revolutionary life changing shite
you may have heard, but it's wholesome entertaining one-album fun.

In our weekly The Cooper Temple Clause coverage, everyone's favourite high-haired indie-mediawhores wry it up as ever, although today's soundsystem seems remarkably inquipped to deal with their rather loud brand of six man prog tag pop action. Pretty, wholesome, what more could you want from a boy to take home and meet ma and pa?

Haven are either bland or brilliant, and today is no exception, swaying between the two, they look out of place so far up the bill, but out of all the young pretenders they look the most likely to go and make a semi decent record at some point.

Everything however, pales in comparison to Suede. It could be different, but as unlikely as it is, Mardi Gras at the Popstarz stage marks a remarkably accomplished compaction of ten years of Suede into forty-five minutes of perfection. From 'The Wild Ones' to 'Metal Mickey', from 'Everything Will Flow' to brilliant new single 'Positivity' it's all there. What seals it all off though, is a totally unexpectedly fantastic rendition of 'Killing Of A Flashboy'. As the unitiated dwell disorientated by the hysteria around them, Virtual Festivals dives into the moshpit like never before.