Welcome
Welcome to the very best unofficial V Festival 2003 site!
Read reviews of the bands who played at the 2003 festival on this website.
V is the UK’s first and only dual two-day festival, occuring simultaneously in Chelmsford and Staffordshire, with the line-ups rotating each day.
Since V’s inception in 1996, Richard Ashcroft, Travis, Manic Street Preachers and Suede have all headlined. Other star acts have included James Brown, All Saints, Macy Gray and Moby.
Both sites have their own special charm. At Hylands Park in Chelmsford there is the 500-year-old oak tree while Staffordshire’s Weston Park has a lake. The two sites annually attract over 120,000 people and 50 bands perform in the 4 main arenas.
V Festival has been voted European Festival Of The Year for the last seven years at the annual Live! Magazine Awards.
Which bands have so far been confirmed?
The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coldplay, Ash, The Hives, The Coral, Lemon Jelly, Echo and the Bunnymen, Morcheeba, Feeder, The Roots, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, David Gray, Underworld, PJ Harvey, The Cardigans, Kelly Osbourne, Eisley, Moloko, Super Furry Animals, Mis-teeq, Big Brovaz, Dirty Vegas, Slovo, Inspiral Carpets, Turin Brakes, The Zutons, Ashley Hamilton, Just Jack, David Holmes, The Futureheads, Spearhead, Damien Rice, Athlete, Goldfrapp, Skin, Appleton, The Basement, The Distillers, Tim Burgess, Killing Joke, Kosheen, Reel Big Fish, The Bees, Gus Gus, I Am Kloot, Mint Royale, Bell X-1, Amy Winehouse, Rachel Mari Kimber, Shack, Tom McRae, Evan Dando, Dashboard Confessional, Asian Dub Foundation and Jamie Cullum.
Morcheeba
Morcheeba are a British-based trip-hop combo and are made up of brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey, and Skye Edwards. The Godfreys began writing songs in their home town of Hythe, Kent in the early 90s influenced by 30s blues and 90s hip-hop.
The brothers moved to Clapham, South London and continued recording, meeting Edwards at a party in Greenwich, London.
Edwards added her own unique vocal expertise to the band and in 1995 their song, “Trigger Hippie” became a huge underground hit.
The follow-up “Who Can You Trust” was selected by DJ magazine as one of the top 100 dub albums.
Echo and the Bunnymen
Ian McCulloch and company may be best-remembered for their big 1984 hit Seven Seas, but even though the Liverpudlian rockers have been around since 1978, they’ve matured well.
With their mix of pop sensibilities and progressive instincts, Echo and the Bunnymen - who last played at a V festival in 1997 - are widely held to be among the more commercially-successful and critically acclaimed UK bands to have emerged from the post-punk musical wave.
Shack
In the 80s a band called the Pale Fountains signed to Virgin records for the then-huge sum of ?150,000, but then disappeared after two albums in 1986.
The core of the band were brothers Mick and John Head. Bass player Chris McCaffrey, who was also Mick’s best friend, tragically died of a brain tumour.
Eisley
This young band consisting of four siblings, plus a family friend, have developed their own unique sound of innocence and experience.
The original line-up - three sisters and a brother - from Tyler in Texas USA emerged onto the music scene in 1997.
“We really had no clue,” confesses Chauntelle, who, at 21 is the band’s oldest member and unofficial spokesperson.
Skin
Skin is known as the former front woman of Skunk Anansie. Her solo album “Fleshwounds” features her first single, Trashed.
Skunk Anansie sold over 4 million albums worldwide, a feat attributed mainly to the vocals of Skin. With a political mind and differing musical influences and direction Skin made the decision to go solo.
Feeder
This British alternative rock band was formed eight years ago by Grant Nicholas (guitar/vocals) and Jon Lee (drums),
Taka Hirose (bass) was added to the line up, and the band began playing under the name of Real. After signing to the Echo label later in 1995, the band decided to change their name to Feeder, playing their first gig in Somerset in May.
Slovo
Slovo is the creation of Dave Randall, the former Faithless guitarist who also played guitar on Dido’s smash album No Angel.
The band includes the talents of Andrew Phillips (keyboards, guitar, percussion), Afua Chebueze (spoken vocals) Lucy Shaw (bass), Adura Onashile (dance, percussion) Andrea Britton (vocals) and Ami Rothenberg (drums)
Foo Fighters
The Foo Fighters were formed at the end of 1994 by former Scream and Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl (now on guitar and vocals).
The other band members are Pat Smear (guitar), Nate Mendel (bass) and William Goldsmith (drums).
Their debut single, “This Is A Call’, was released in June 1995 and other successes on their debut album included tracks such as “I’ll Stick Around.”
Spearhead
Skilful and organic sounding Spearhead (fronted by Michael Franti) merge hip-hop with socially conscious writings. They have recently released “Rock the Nation”, taken from the “Stay Human” album.
Franti was born in California in 1966 and used to be one half of hip-hop outfit Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy.
The Futureheads
The Futureheads began in 1999 when Barry Hyde (Guitars, Vocals) and Peter Brewis (Drums, Vocals) met David Craig (Bass, Vocals) and Ross Millard (Guitars, Vocals) at a youth Project in the back streets of Sunderland.
Super Furry Animals
Founded in Cardiff, Wales, this 60s retro-pop offbeat indie pop band comprise Gruff Rhys (vocals/guitar), Dafydd Ieuan (drums), Cian Ciaran (electronics), Guto Pryce (bass) and Huw “Bunf” Bunford (guitar/vocals).
The band were formed in 1993 and the first evidence of the band’s distinctive sound came with the release of the Welsh Concept EP for Cardiff independent Ankst Records in June 1995.
David Gray
David Gray was born in Manchester and brought up in Wales. At the start of his career he played his blend of hard edged folk guitar and vocals in pubs and clubs. At twenty three, Gray signed up with Hut Recordings, who produced records for The Verve and Smashing Pumpkins, and later moved to their new owner, EMI America.
The result was three critically acclaimed albums (A Century Ends, Flesh and Sell Sell Sell).
Tom McRae
Tom McRae, who recently completed a sell-out tour of the UK, is confirmed to play the V stage for the first time.
His self-titled debut album was released in 2000.
Goldfrapp
Alison Goldfrapp from Enfield studied for a degree in Fine Art at Middlesex University in the early 90s.
She provided vocals on “Maxinquaye”, award-winning debut of the UK trip-hop artist, Tricky as well as touring with him and working with UK dance music act, Orbital.
Turin Brakes
Turin Brakes, comprising Ollie Knights (guitar/vocals) and Gale Paridjanian (multi-instrumentals), grew up in Balham, South London.
They were members of their local church choir and in 1989 sang in front of the Queen at the Marchioness riverboat tragedy memorial service.
Paridjanian moved to Toronto, where he played with a band, before returning to England to team up with Knights.
Gus Gus
Gus Gus are a widely acclaimed group of performers and musicians. They released “Attention”, their first album project in two years, in late 2002.
Underworld
Based in Romford, Essex, Underworld began in the late 1980’s as a funk rock affair produced by Tom Bailey of the Thompson Twins and found some success, particularly in the USA.
A second album followed, before key members Karl Hyde (guitar/vocals) and Rick Smith (keyboards) reformed the band as a mainly dance music-orientated band with DJ Darren Emerson.
Their first releases were the privately distributed “The Hump” and “Dirty” (released as Lemon Interrupt.) In 1993 the tracks “Mmm Skyscraper” “I Love You” and “Rez”, became popular with dance music fans.
Ashley Hamilton
Ashley Hamilton’s debut single “Wimmin” was co-written by Robbie Williams, and features the Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones.
In Hamilton’s debut album “TRL” Tommy Lee features on drums and Mixmaster Mike gets on the decks.
Amy Winehouse
Aged only 19, Amy Winehouse has that rare talent of making music far beyond her years. She might sound like a 40s jazz singer, but she uses forefront beats and lyrics, producing a jazzy-hip-hop-r’n'b-soul blend that is like none other.
PJ Harvey
Polly Jean Harvey formed her original three-piece band in 1991 in Somerset and by the autumn of that year the group had released their debut single, ‘Dress’. A second single, ‘Sheela-Na-Gig’ was released in February 1992 followed by an album release the next month.
The Zutons
The Zutons are a five piece band from Liverpool, made up of Dave McCabe (Lead vocals & rhythm guitar) Boyan Chowdhury (Vocals & lead guitar) Russell Pritchard (Bass guitar) Sean Payne (Drummer) and Abi Harding (Alto saxophone)
The Hives
The Hives are part of the reason that the music scene is experiencing its biggest Swedish surge since Abba were sweeping all before them.
There’s nothing camp or disco about Hive music, though!
Dance Arena 2
Junior Sanchez
A union of mind and body characterizes Junior Sanchez’s attitude toward the sound he creates and the results he seeks.
His constant desire to reinvent his sound has earned him respect worldwide as one of the most innovative young DJ/producer/remixer’s today.
Dance Arena
The Freestylers
As their name suggests, The Freestlyers are a heady mix of hip-hop grooves undefined by conventional genres.
Taking in influences from around the world, they have been making breakbeat inspired music since their hugely successful 1998 debut album “We Rock Hard”.