No Rock And Roll Fun

POWER CUTS: The Daily Mail, of all places, ran a rather gushing profile of Vince Power post-Reading festival, giving him a chance to slap away negative reports about Reading:

"The line-up was awesome. The weather never works to plan. I've seen worse."

We're not sure that any other British festival has had its car park swallowed by a river two days before, but to give credit to the MFers, they dealt with the challenge pretty effectively. The Mail also mentions the way Power came to control Reading in the first place:

Three years later, festival owner Howard Pendleton decided that he could run it himself and Power's services were no longer required. Power eventually bought the festival site after 'running around around like a headless chicken' for the best part of a year.

- which makes it sound like a benign, happy little deal rather than the dubious bit of action it really was. Or "ruthless business". Like the takeover of the Town & Country clubs, come to that:

"It was around the time with the fight over the Town & Country that people started painting me as a megalomaniac with an aggressive tone," [Power] says.

Meanwhile, it's clear that he's not going to give up on Glastonbury without a fight:

"Our contract runs until 2006 and who knows what will happen then. Needless to say, I strongly believe we will still have an involvement."

With the money behind the Mean Fiddler group, and Power's shrewd eye for the main chance, we wouldn't be surprised if they buy up all the houses in the village of Pilton...