We met Alli at the Mo-Rockin' Wine Bar, for wine on the hill, before we made our way out to the Amphitheatre, for Hungry Kids Of Hungary. Let You Down, Set It Right, and Scattered Diamonds stood out here, with the set including the band letting big inflated bouncing balls loose on the crowd.
Now, my camera tells me I saw The Vaccines next, and I vaguely remember the stage back drop, but can not tell you anything about their set! Rum and vodka had clearly made their mark.
Cloud Control was a band I was very keen to see in the lineup, having not seen them live since they hit the big time with their Bliss Release. Gold Canary and Death Cloud were awesome, the latter inspiring a dancing flash mob all up the grassy hill.
Next, Carl was very keen to see Oh Mercy, since I recommended this year's release to him, so we made our way over to the "Gotye Tent" to catch the second half of their set. A decent crowd in the tent, while daylight started to fade outside, tracks like Let Me Go, Keith St, Mercy Valley and Stay Please Stay had the crowd singing, with older songs like Seemed Like A Good Idea also featuring.
A gap in our band lineup desires, Carl and I met up with Alli and Charmaine at the SS Strongbow boat bar, chilling in deck chairs, before I headed back to the Amphitheatre for Elbow. I found the portion of this set fairly lacklustre and ungenerous really. I have since read that Grounds For Divorce was great, with crowd participation, but I saw none of that energy. But I did leave to get back to the "Gotye Tent", for the next band.
Noah And The Whale filled the GW McLennan/Gotye Tent, and produced an awesome sound, with violin on stage and all. Tonight's The Kind Of Night, Life Is Life and the infectious singalong that was L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. made this set the pick of the day for me.
Joining the majority of the crowd, I then trekked back to the Amphitheatre for the rest of the night, and caught the second half of the Kaiser Chiefs from the Upper tier. I Predict A Riot, Angry Mob and Oh My God were clear crowd favourite, with a rocking set.
In stroke of pure luck, with my phone's battery on it's last legs, I managed to find Carl sitting just above where I was at the time, and joined him to watch Pulp. A band as old as me, I will confess to not knowing much of their material - but Common People was brilliant! Jarvis Cocker was the supreme entertainer, made the set punchy and completely engaging.
Then it was time for the final, headlining act of the festival. Coldplay arrived onstage to a brimming Amphitheatre, and whilst not being the biggest fan of Chris Martin and co, I'll have to admit that their set was totally amazing.
Yellow was played very early in their 90 minute set, and this band pulled off their set without all the dancers and production of the first night - just a band playing their music, and having the crowd eating out of their hands. Martin was chatty throughout, pulling out Aussie references for almost everything. Violet Hill and Viva La Vida were huge full crowd singalongs, with the dedication of The Scientist to Pulp, hoping we didn't see them live for the last time.
Encore opened with Clocks, and merged to Fix You, which included a tribute to the late Amy Winehouse, before ending the festival with their new track, Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall.
What a weekend of music! One of the best weekends ever, Splendour delivered, even with it's criticisms about being the most expensive festival worldwide. With the sheer number of acts that I saw, it worked out to be less than $20 each - wow!
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