T 2008, Epilogue: Stipe Turns RoboCop, Burgess Goes For Bowl

With an unshakable vision of Tim Burgess’ one man undercut resurrection, another peerless dose of math rockin’ beats from Battles and a mesmerising gig by Toronto electro rock combo Holy Fuck all wedged in the memory as some of the most entertaining scenes of the afternoon, a bit of headline jousting between big names demanded some sprinting between stages to catch a slice of R.E.M., Prodigy and Brian Jonestown Massacre on the final night of T in the Park (Sunday, 12 July).

Athens, Georgia’s favourite titans mixed the new, the old and the middle-aged from their vast repertoire as they served a career spanning set that included ‘Living Well Is the Best Revenge’, ‘Orange Crush’ and ‘What’s the Frequency Kenneth’. Michael Stipe was in particularly playful form, pulling out his cider visor to bust robotic shapes whenever the fancy took him.

Fellow festival veterans the Prodigy have been raising hell for some 17 years now but it was still war all the time for Maxim, Keith and Liam who brought the bombast from the off and tore the NME stage a new one with ‘Their Law’ tonight. New tunes ‘Worlds on Fire’ and ‘Warrior Dance’ were typically confrontational fare, though they indicated that some slight return to the proto-Rave aesthetic of their Experience era could be on the cards come the next LP. I blame Klaxons.

Given the news that Hot Chip and, eh, formula one supremo Eddie Jordan’s R&B combo had both relinquished their claim - one more dubious than the other - to the Pet Sounds arena headline slot in the 11th hour, presumably for fear of collision with the aforementioned and Primal Scream, Brian Jonestown Massacre stepped up for the job only to find a small assembly of dozens in attendance. Playing a subdued shadow of last year's afternoon King Tut's Tent set, a bored Joel Gion challenged the faithful to "do their worst" and throw pints in his direction because he’s “fucking punk rock from California, man” while maverick BJM ringleader Anton Newcombe was content to stand stage left and harmonise with the wife. No, no, not like that. Strangely, with the exception of 'Yeah, Yeah', the fruits of their excellent My Bloody Underground LP were otherwise left in the bowl.

So it was through a sea of spent revellers and back to the safety of Stipe and company's bosom, just in time to witness ‘It’s the End of the World As We Know It (and I feel Fine)’, ‘Man on the Moon’ and the site of a few kilos of fireworks detonating over Kinross - a great finale that hammered home the 15th birthday party feel of this year's 'Best of' line-up. But when the smoke cleared and the PA died down, one question was left lingering: what was Tim thinking when he fished that from Room 101?