Park Life Weekender, Platt Park, Manchester 9th June 2012

I late call on Friday had me packing my wellies for Saturdays day 1 of Park Life Weekender in Platt Park, Manchester. This was a new festival for me, but one I had to do to kick my Flaming Lips, Wayne Coyne in a ball image bucket that every concert photographer seems to have in their portfolio.

The trip to Manchester in teh car involved a sunny drive until I passed Sheffield where the sky turned very black, yup the daily rain this summer once again reared its ugly head. Turning Platt Fields into mud fest similar to Glastonburys gone by.

First shoot of the day was Alt-J who have been at the last two festivals I have covered but missed both times and I secretly enjoyed their set.

Next was the Phenomenal Handclap Band who it has to be said didn’t clap all that much and certainly were not phenomenal, in fact they gave the impression it was all just a bit to much effort being there.

Next up was a little treat, Chic with special guest Jonny Marr. Niles Rogers from Chic has been involved in some of the best dance tracks ever written & his band treated us to Madonna’s Like A Virgin, David Bowie’s Let Dance along with their own funky groove laden hits.

Afterwards I bumped into Niles Rogers & Jonny Marr for a quick portrait session.

Next up was Kelis who according to reports had an outburst on twitter about her set being cut short, to be honest her set was plagued with sound problems throughout and was probably just as well it was cut short.

From Kelis to the ever professional Noah & The Whale, whose set was just a tad predictable, with one of the fellow photographers telling us exactly when Charlie Fink would use the front high risers.

So finally onto The Flaming Lips, well what can you say, crowd surfing balls, 300 tons of confetti, huge balloons, just a razzmatazz of things going on, superb.