Zoo shambles

Another festival disaster: Zoo8 seems to have been something of a nightmare with half the bands not showing, and the venue (a zoo, of course) having to dig deep into their own pockets to see that Ash would play when the promoters didn't look able to guarantee the payment.

Which means, in effect, that the penguins and tigers of Port Lympne were subsidising a music festival.

Even with Ash secured, no-shows and overflows left fans less-than-thrilled:

Fan David Haskoll said there were four toilets and no taps in the campsite, while the toilets in the main arena were "full to overflowing".

Julia Bray, whose daughter was at the event, wrote on a Facebook page: "Hours of queuing, campsite dreadful, bands didn't show up or moved stages, staff very rude or unhelpful."

Another fan, Rachel Collings, wrote: "Badly organised, badly informed. Worst fest ever!"

Hey - Woodstock II would take issue with that.

Funnily enough, though - presumably following the Eavis playbook - those charged with overseeing the event report a wonderful time had by all:

A spokeswoman for the park said: "As with all music festivals, there were some hiccups.

"This being the first Zoo8 at the park, there were bound to be some problems but they were all resolved quickly and efficiently, mainly by our own staff who stepped in to sort things out.

"According to St John Ambulance, Health and Safety, the licensing office, environmental health and the police, they were all happy."

Then again, none of those fine organisations would be expected to factor in the non-appearance of Dizzee Rascal, Athlete, The Rascals or Wiley.

There was a time when Embrace would have been top ten...

Anthony Thornton's Serande This has conducted a survey* and drawn up a list of the ten most hated bands in the world.

What it throws into relief is how, once a band is hated, it can take a lot longer for that bile to disappear than it does for the love to evaporate: Hard-Fi, Athlete and Keane all appear to still make people rummage about for sharp objects and loose cobbles to hurl, whereas you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who used to love them desperate to build a case on their behalf these days. Likewise, although Kula Shaker aren't there, it's probably only in the last eighteen months or so they've started to stop haunting people's nightmares.

* - Settle down, Ben Goldacre, he makes no claim to scientific methodology.