August 19, 2006 17:44

Hard-Fi play last ‘organised’ UK shows before second album

Plus Sugababes, Lily Allen and all the early action V Festival Weston Park

Hard-Fi have played their last ‘organised’ UK show of the year at V Festival this afternoon (August 19).

The band who played on the V Stage to a packed crowd despite the damn conditions at Weston Park, explained that the next time they tour will be after they release their second album next year.

“Apart from tomorrow in Chelmsford we’re not to do anything organised in the UK until the next album’s out,” frontman Richard Archer told NME.COM. “But we’re not going to disappear completely.”

Hard-Fi’s singer added that he planned to play a few low key shows while the group work on their second record.

“We want to do some secret things for the fans,” he said. “We’re not sure what yet, but they’ve supported us over the last few years and so we want to do something for them.”

With Hard-Fi playing a set that included the likes of ‘Cash Machine’, ‘Living For The Weekend’ and the title track from their debut album ‘Stars Of CCTV’, Archer added that work on its follow-up is set to begin as soon as this year’s V Festival finishes.

“On Monday we’re going to start demoing up some of the tunes and having a look at a few things,” he said after including new song ’Suburban Nights’ in their set. “We’re then going to Japan and Australia in October and after that we’ll record the new album in November and December and release it in the spring, at least that’s the plan at the moment.”

Although Weston Park has suffered rain showers throughout the opening day, spirits were high as V Festival got underway with fans braving the conditions to catch the opening acts.

As she took the stage into the packed JJB Arena Lily Allen admitted: “I’m fucking shitting myself. I’ve never seen this many people.”

She played five songs including an extended version of the number one ’Smile’ and ’Nan You’re A Window Shopper’.

Explaining her short set, she said: “A 20 minute set, can you believe it? Don’t blame me, it’s V!”

Meanwhile, The Dandy Warhols included songs ’All The Money Or The Simple Life Honey’ and ’Get Off’ in their V Stage set, before closing with hits ’Bohemian Like You’ and ’Boys Better’.

Richard Hawley performed a dreamy laid-back afternoon set in the JJB Arena, playing tracks from his Mercury Prize nominated ’Coles Corner’ album and other records, plus treated fans to a slew of risqué jokes between songs.

Sugababes delivered a hit-packed set including an acoustic medley of ’Shape’ and ’Stronger’, ’Overload’ and ’Ugly’ which saw the band visibly laughing at a streaker in the crowd.

Stay tuned to NME.COM for all the latest festival updates from Stafford and Chelmsford and go to NME.COM/festivals for up to the minute blogs live from both the sites.

Also, make sure you check out next week’s issue of NME, on newsstands nationwide from August 24, for the best coverage from this year's V Festival.