Did anyone else cry in the bathroom at work when David Bowie pulled out?

Share your memories!

by innuendo141

22 comments
  1. Depresses me so much to see this. I was lucky enough to get to 4 really good oxegens as well.

    But modern festival culture is such a joke. There are some good ones but they’re so expensive and they’ve just done away with proper festivals so they can make dozens of smaller ones and charge about 70-100% of the price of a 4 day festival with great acts.

    Nothing is free from being torn up, sold off for the highest price possible and destroyed from Aby of us enjoying it so a small few can pocket the change. Those responsible should see a firing squad

  2. Wasn’t at this one but went to 2005. We really didn’t know how good we had it with line ups in those days. Although Pink sticks out like a sore thumb, she’s some good songs, and very popular but doesn’t seem like a festival act. I’m guessing she was still doing the ‘not like other female pop singers’ thing at this point.

    I like how you can chart the rise and fall of certain bands popularity by their billing at festivals.

  3. I worked at Oxegen 2005-2009 and always had a good weekend despite having a job to do, but like the level of disorder and antisocial behavior at that particularly from maybe 2007 onwards was something else.

  4. Wife was a huge fan of Bowie and her birthday is on the 12th of July, so this was the perfect present, until he had to pull out….we really lost a great artist with him…..

  5. I remember Julian Casablancas being blocked and insulting Irish women. What a heel move.

  6. Were Snow Patrol not huge at this stage? They had released Run earlier in 2004. I definitely would’ve thought them more popular than Paddy Casey.

  7. I was there. Having Bowie pull out to be replaced by The Darkness a few days before the gig was like being told Christmas is cancelled but it’s ok, you’re going to the dentist instead.

  8. The Darkness covering Street Spirit will forever haunt me.

  9. Besides the birth of my son I think the happiest I’ve ever been in a specific time was seeing Jamie T, the Maccabees and Klaxons back to back to back in the pit in the new band stage with a stranger passing a bottle of bucky around. Just pure joy.

  10. This was my first festival, some of my mates had been to Witnness a couple of time and we were in a big gang of probably 15 with another 20 or 30 people we knew camping beside us

    The Cure were amazing, it was probably partially whatever I had consumed but it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had at a gig

    I wasn’t much of a Bowie fan so I was fine with the Darkness replacing them. Don’t remember much about them but I remember standing through Pink and Ash and Faithless so I’d have a good spot

    Looking back now there’s loads of other bands I’d have liked to see. I wasn’t really one to wander off on my own at the time so I was sticking close to my mates

    It was a different experience than you’d get now

  11. Was that the year we were all up to our waists in mud? It’s all a blur to me

  12. Only bought a ticket for Bowie.

    Was class to see Kings of Leon touring the first album before they went to shite

  13. Festivals not my thing, but fucking hell that was some line up!

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