Bonnie Dundee and Radio 1's Big Weekend

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Right, what the hell happened there then? It’s been THREE YEARS since I wrote this blog but for some reason I never published it.

I’m not going to edit what I’ve said, basically it’s all based around “One Big Weekend” which is an annual Radio One concert in the UK which, for the first and only time, came to Scotland in May 2006, the fact that it came to Dundee was even better.

I managed to get myself to both days, even though I didn’t get tickets for either, go figure? And had a pretty amazing time all weekend, unfortunately Fiona was really ill with the cold and couldn’t make it, leaving me hell-raising on my own.

Anyway there’s much more to tell you in the next few blog so I’ll just publish this as is.

Peace out, and until the next time, which will be about 20 minutes…….

Well it’s been a while but I’ve finally kept up with my promise to add a blog from my home town, bonnie Dundee, or Fundee as it’s now known, thanks in part to the excellent music festival that we’ve just hosted, not any old music festival, only Europe's biggest FREE music festival, Radio 1’s Big Weekend.

The weather was great; the line up was amazing and although it was a lost weekend due to the amount of drink and partying the photos bring back a few memories…..

So enough about the festival already, I will go on about more at the end no doubt but there’s more to Dundee that just it’s ability to host the biggest party in the county.

Dundee is my home town; I left when I was 17 to go to college in Edinburgh and then stayed in the capital. After a year travelling we applied for jobs everywhere in the country and decided to take up the offer of moving back North, back to the motherland, back to the real world.

It has had it’s up’s and downs like everywhere else, in the 19th century it was home to the richest people in the UK when it controlled the world Jute manufacturing but unfortunately when the last mill closed in the 1980’s, coupled with the closure of a number of other industries in the city, Dundee fell into a bit of a depression. High unemployment and poor town planning left Dundee looking like a ghost town but it was just a downward part of the cycle, 20 years later and in the year 2006 Dundee is a thriving, artistic, young, student-packed city that is on the up-and-up.

Dundee is famous for the ‘three J’s”, Jute, Jam and Journalism, and also a cake that I’ve never tasted, it’s a tourist thing. We have the most beautiful location of all Scotland’s cities, spreading along the coast of the Silvery Tay, and we receive more hours of sunshine every year than anywhere else in the country, and it *never* rains, well hardly ever, well sometimes.

The latest edition of the Lonely Planet Scotland describes Dundee with the following:

“Dundee enjoys perhaps the finest location of any Scottish city, spreading along the northern shore of the Firth of Tay, and can boast tourist attractions of national importance in Discovery Point and the Verdant Works museum. Add in the attractive seaside suburb of Broughty Ferry, some lively nightlife and the Dundonians themselves - among the friendliest, most welcoming and most entertaining people you’ll meet - and Dundee is definitely worth a stopover.”

An excellent endorsement of a very proud people and a wonderful city.

The City is home to Oor Wullie, The Broons, Dennis the Menace, Desperate Dan and many more cartoon characters, all made famous in countless magazines, newspapers and comics for over 80 years. Dundee is probably most famous for being the home of Dundee United Football Club, the world's greatest football team who currently lie 4th from bottom of the Scottish Premierleague, not ideal.

We also have the world oldest floating warship, the Frigate Unicorn which sailed for the first time on the 30th of March 1824, amazingly this isn’t even our prime sea faring attracting in the city, that title belongs to the RSS Discovery.

Most famous as the ship that carried Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on their first trip to reach the South Pole, RRS Discovery was the last wooden three-masted ship to be built in the British Isles in 1901.

RRS Discovery is now the centrepiece of Dundee's fabulous visitor attraction 'Discovery Point' which coupled with our museum of the Jute industry, Verdant Works, have both won European Museum of the year and are well worth a look as is the Dundee Law, the highest point in the city that offers excellent 360 degree views of the city and beyond. ‘The Law’ is an extinct volcano that now hosts a monument to our fallen hero’s of the Great War and World War II.

Dundee is a very young city with over 15% of our population being students, it’s a really arty place with a huge café and pub culture, and there are excellent museums and galleries all over the town and the Dundee Contemporary Arts centre (DCA) is one of the hottest venues around wich leads me back to the BIG weekend................

The line was as follows, Saturday, on the main stage:

Paulo Nutini, Corrine Bailey Rae, Gnarls Barkley, Orson, Razorlight, Muse, The Streets, Mylo and Snow Patrol.

And on the second stage, the “In New Music We Trust” stage, an equally impressive line up of:

Fratelli’s, Mystery Jets, Boy Kill Boy, Dirty Pretty Things, Bloc Party and Primal Scream.

On Sunday it was arguably an even better line up, on the main stage:

The Feeling, The Ordinary Boys, Sugababes, Feeder, Editors, Pink and Keane.

And on the “In New Music We Trust” stage:

The View, Hot Chip, We Are Scientists, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Kooks and The Zutons.

A fantastic line up, there were also loads of local bands playing in numerous other venue’s in the city as well as the world’s top dj’s spinning sets at after-show parties that went on until the ‘wee sma’ oor’s’.

I made it to a couple of the parties but was really past caring about photo’s by then, my favourite bands were defo Razorlight, Feeder, Muse, The Kooks, The Feeling, Primal Scream, Orson and the fantastic Snow Patrol back on their old stomping ground.

Everyone was great though, Sugababes, Dirty Pretty Things, and the best number one we’ve had for ages, “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley, went down a storm with ‘the kids’ and the usual crowd favourites the Ordinary Boys, Keane and the Editors were very well received as was local band The View. Pink was Pink, ‘no my cup-o-tea' but the kids seemed to dig her, so fair play.

All said and done and with a week of recovery planned it was a fantastic weekend that will take something special to beat it, but with “T in the Park” (probably Europe’s best music festival) only 2 months and 40 miles away we’re already looking forward to that.

I hope you enjoy the photo’s and make sure you visit Dundee the next time you come to Scotland, I’ll hopefully add another blog from my trip to Chicago in June.

All the best, and until the next time, keep smiling.

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