2009: Tom at the Isle of Wight Festival
On the left, the center of gravity of a rock festival, the stage ringed in
lights at night.
In 2009, the Isle of Wight Festival was headlined by Neil Young, whom some
present complained was too old. We beg to differ! Tom and Maureen spent the long weekend away from
Paris to see him and the other rock and rollers playing all weekend long,
morning till night.
They spent the nights in their tent in the tent village provided by the
organizers, and spent their days watching the acts and exploring the English
countryside. There they found an English country breakfast which was good enough
to photograph!
As lovers of English country breakfasts, cruelly deprived of them by years of
self-imposed exile, we feel compelled to include this
one here, to make our mouths water again and again!
We sent Tom and Maureen to the Isle of Wight to give him a holiday, a break
from his schoolwork and work. It was a busman's holiday for him, with music
everywhere in his life (his schoolwork is principally music). But rock festivals have their
own aura, and Tom was more than psyched. Here are Maureen and Tom below, looking a little
posed but hey, it was a rock festival!
Ian had attended the second or third Isle of Wight Festival, held in 1970 and
featuring the Who playing Tommy from beginning to end, the Doors and Jimi
Hendrix, among others on the list of great rockers of the time. He couldn't share that
festival with Tom, then eighteen years
unborn, but he could show him something similar. Neil Young, one of Ian's
favorites since about 1970 but a rocker who Tom had never seen play, was an
added bonus.
The stage in daylight, showing the giant screens that show the musicians to
the bulk of the audience. These photos came from Maureen and Tom, as a thank you
for inviting them. As I write this later in the year, they are still in Tom's
photo albums on Facebook.
My guess is that the Razorlight shot was taken of the screen next to the
stage: very few in a rock festival stand close enough to the stage to capture a
close-up of the musicians.
The photo on the left shows two typical rock festival attendees, between
concerts. The photo below sneaks in a shot of Tom in Paris, playing with Leo and
another friend.
