Swedish House Mafia's last ever Scottish date sees Sunday at T end on a high

T in the Park 2012 review

By Clare Sinclair | Published: Tue 10th Jul 2012

T in the Park 2012

Friday 6th to Sunday 8th July 2012
Balado, nr Kinross. Scotland, KY13 0NJ, Scotland MAP
£199 full weekend with Thursday camping

Daily capacity: 85,000

There were unsurprisingly a number of people who decided to call it a day after Saturday at T; a combination of the rain, followed by the mud seemed to be too much for some people and stories of vans getting stuck proved too much for some who decided to flee the event. Heading up for the final day albeit a bit tired and weary the weather seemed to be holding out, something which seemed to be perking up everyone's spirits. However, the mud was even more difficult to wade through, which hadn't been accounted for when planning time. It was for this reason that unfortunately Rita Ora could only be heard as the long trek from the entrance to the NME stage took far longer than anticipated. It became clear that this day would take some forward planning and careful manoeuvring to make the most of the acts.

Finally making it along to the NME stage, pint in hand, just in time for Maverick Sabre it was unfortunate there wasn't a single area to sit and enjoy the soulful sound of the Hackney rapper/singer. A relative newcomer to the scene; although he's collaborated already with Chase & Status and Professor Green, many of his tracks were relatively unknown to most yet debut single 'Let Me Go' got the crowd going and he played well so early on the bill, getting the party started through the hangovers and chill.

As a female, one of the issues with big festivals like T in the Park has to undoubtedly be the toilets. Let's face it, by day three the turdises are never going to be the nicest, and with the mud turning into large pools, a wait in that was less than appealing. One of the saving graces had to be the 'LadyWeeWee' facilities offered by WaterAid; selling 'P-Mate' packs enabling the females to use their own urinals since this is an unusual addition the facilities were much quieter, had practically non-existent queues and were impressively clean. Plus with profits going to charity, it helped the conscientious festival goer to give something back.

Squelching back to the main stage, Keane were just kicking off their set. Having been around since 1997, it's easy to forget just how many big hits the trio had. Somewhere 'Only We Know' drew a huge sing-a-long, as did 'Everybody's Changing'. They drew a large crowd, faithfully chanting along to the piano based indie tunes, and although were nothing explosive, gave a strong performance proving they still hold a place in our hearts.

The pace of the afternoon changed dramatically with the arrival of Chase & Status; the drum'n'bass DJs Saul Milton and Will Kennard aimed to get the main stage jumping and bouncing along with hits such as Blind Faith, even bringing out earlier seen Maverick Sabre as he collaborated on Fire In Your Eyes. Hardened fans would have gotten a lot out of their set, yet most of their songs remain relatively unknown, except the bigger name partnership's such as 'End Credits' with Plan B also proving a popular hit during their set.

From here came another difficult choice of the weekend; firm favourites Elbow played on the main stage as newcomer to T Nicki Minaj was to appear on NME. Heading over to see Minaj to check out something new turned out to be the worst decision made over the whole weekend; and quite possibly all year. At first, the crowd for the Trinidad born rapper/singer was growing at an unsettling pace. However, as the minutes ticked by with no sign of the star, the crowd grew restless, many heading away from the NME stage, expletives being thrown all over the place, showing a growing dislike for waiting so long. Eventually as she appeared almost an hour late no apology or explanation and the boos of the crowd were so loud it became nigh on impossible to hear the diva. Thumping bass and bad acoustics amongst rumours that she was miming meant that it was time to make a hasty exit back to the main stage. It's safe to say that Nicki Minaj has not made a friend in the Scottish T in the Park audience, or with other artists, many taking to their twitter pages to make public the backstage antics of the singer as she reportedly made outlandish demands before appearing on stage.

Catching the end of Elbow however just highlighted how wrong a decision I had made the band led by Guy Garvey proved exactly why they're firm favourites, ending their set with the anthemic 'One Day Like This' finishing off with the crowd chanting the chorus over and over.

And so again there came a choice for who to end the festival with; Kasabian, or Swedish House Mafia. With the Swedish trio of DJs having recently announced a split, and this being their last ever Scottish date, it seemed fitting to close off the weekend with them over at the NME stage. They most certainly pulled out all the stops for this performance; smoke machines positioned in the audience to create atmosphere, pyrotechnics and fire on stage and a powerhouse of their songs meant the Sunday night went out in true style. Recent hit 'Greyhound' was received well, but nothing could prepare for how crazy the audience would go when 'Miami 2 Ibiza' was played every member of the heaving crowd yelling the lyrics before jumping with a renewed energy. They even brought out the old school hits with 'Encore Une Fois' before holding up Scottish flags while remixing 'You've Got The Love with One (Your Name)'. And in keeping with the theme of the weekend, the song of the moment being Gotye's 'Somebody I Used To Know', they managed to mix that in before bringing their last Scottish date to a close with confetti blasted into the audience as 'Save The World' blared out, rain teeming down again but not a soul caring.

All that left was the obligatory lone piper playing 'Flower of Scotland', Geoff Ellis' closing speech to the chant of "here we fucking go" and a firework display before it was time to make the long trip back home. With adverts appearing everywhere for next years 20th T in the Park birthday promising to be a huge weekend, it's clear Ellis and organisers are already looking ahead to the future. After a good weekend, let's do it all over again. Just less mud next time, please.

around the festival site (3)

review by: Clare Sinclair

photos by: Greg Forbes