Playing the V festival is aways a nice treat, its tidy and well run, the food is good and the running order is always pretty good too. Squeeze are billed as last time at the start of the day, second on stage, and both shows were looking full on the grass, it seemed like we played better on the second show rather than the first. Essex and all that. Back stage the farm that is, milling around in the hot breeze rubbing shoulders with the young and the beautiful. Free Sony gifts and t shirts, parking and cleanish toilets. All good things to have at a modern day festival. We looked much like we did two years ago when we played here last, nice suits, we also played a very simular set, hits and also rans. In 1973 festivals were so much more refined, hay stacks to sit on, open fires and vans selling food that made you fart, t shirt stands, tents all in a row, back stage much like out front, no time or money for huge gates and tracking on the grass. We were hippies and happy. Today we are on a tour bus with lovely bunks, im in a nice car, there are sofas to fall into and the lights are more than just a few bulbs hanging from a wire. Its all changed. But has much else. The aim is to conquer the world and be the best you can on the stage and within the time aloted, 40 minutes. Once we supported the Pink Fairys, today the Arctic Monkeys. Life has changed and my trousers are a lot wider than they used to be, but my heart still yerns for that glittering prize, the big hello, the world domination and love of all things treacle. Top of the pops and beyond. Its all there in my heart, still, even though its all gone. The passion is still there, and the songs have got so much better and more arranged, its a pie for the baking. Two days at a modern day festival and i feel reconnected with the power which can be and is sometimes Squeeze. We play as well as the next band, and our history stands before us, in some ways well before us. Two days of wrist bands and passes, a tour bus and a nice car. I long for the days, or do i, being on stage with Glenn with no shoes or socks playing songs i had just written in a state of being stoned. We were on fire. I think we still are. If not fire then a gentle flame. New balls please!