T in the Park came to a triumphant close on Sunday night rounding off the festival’s first year at its new site of Strathallan Castle.
At the festival Music-News.com caught up with Stereophonics singer Kelly Jones, bassist Richard Jones & guitarist Adam Zindani.
Richard Jones said: “This is the eighth time we’ve done it, and I’m not kidding, every time we do it, it’s always amazing. The crowd is so… mental. There’s no other crowd in the world that compares to the Scottish crowd for us. We always have a great time.
“Our first time was in a tent, and Travis were on the Main Stage. And then the next year we came back, we’d graduated to the Main Stage. And they’ve kept inviting us back ever since. We must be doing something right.
“But we’ve been coming to Scotland since 1996 – our first tour outside of Wales was a Tennent’s-sponsored tour of Scotland.”
Adam Zindani added: “The people are great here.”
Richard: “And I think there’s a sense of occasion when the festival has something about its location – like seeing Strathallan Castle when we drove in, that was special. You do some festivals that are so nondescript you don’t remember anything about them. That couldn’t happen at T… But at a festival you’ve got to give the crowd something – so they can respond. And that always happens in Scotland: you do something and they go mental, so you go mental, ten you go mental. It’s just like that. Brilliant.”
Kelly Jones: “There’s a lot of festivals that have come and gone. For us it’s almost 20 years since we started, and T in the Park has always stayed strong in that time. The crowds have always been great – and it’s a young crowd as well, so it keeps moving. And that’s what we try to do as well. Some people will have been following us since 1996. And there will be younger people here who think our new single C’est La Vie is our first single. And as long as you keep those younger people interested, they keep asking you back.
“It’s nice to have an ongoing relationship with T in the Park. And this new site looks lovely. I went up to the Main Stage when James Bay was on, looked out, looked like people were having a good time. And the Ferris wheel was there, so the familiar sites are here. And it’s good that fans can hope from stage to stage here.”
“Our best time here? I think it was 1999, when did Performance & Cocktails. It was proper hammering down with rain, but it didn’t dampen anybody’s spirits. I remember looking out and they were just jumping up and down and it was amazing. And that was the time we realised, whether it was Local Boy In The Photograph or The Bartender and The Thief, what ever it was we were writing were working in a field full of people and they were all singing our songs back to us. That’s when we realised we’re a festival band.
“So we’ll keep doing what we’re doing – and hopefully we’ll be back next year!”
