Front page	From the Event Guide archive! This article refers to an event which took place on, or until, 13 July 2003 Witnness Witnness It’s that time of year again when you can feel Witnness in the air and there’s no doubt that this years line up is pretty remarkable. But let’s not forget that Sunday night co headliners The White Stripes played in a tent to about 100 people two years ago or that the Polyphonic Spree opened the main stage last year. For all the excitement and coverage that comes with the large acts, it’s often the bands in the smaller tents who give the most special performances. What we’re most excited about is the fact that the Redneck Manifesto are headlining the Witnness On stage on Sunday whilst Gemma Hayes, Snowpatrol, The Frames and Damien Rice have all moved up significantly from previous appearances and The Thrills are straight in on a prime spot. Previous Witnness debutee’s The White Stripes and Polyphonic Spree are now both at advanced stages of their plans for worldwide domination whilst Mike Skinner’s The Streets, the theatrical and life affirming Flaming Lips and The Superfurry Animals are our bets for festival highlights.     INTERVIEW – THE STREETS So the last time the Event Guide spoke to Mike Skinner of The Streets he was about to embark on his first live dates following the release of his brilliant ‘Original Pirate Material’ album. The first date was in Dublin and it was a date that very nearly went very wrong. It’s Monday morning and Mike Skinner sounds gravel voiced. The Event Guide is concerned for the state of his voice so we enquire as to the nature of the weekend that’s just passed. He croaks "Went to a party on Friday, went to a rave on Saturday and played Squash on Sunday so I’m fit and healthy." It’s almost exactly what you’d expect from the Street wise Skinner. With a debut album that chronicled the good times of a generation, swilling lager and necking pills whilst Skinner (observing and taking notes (and taking part)) was banging out the beats and melodies in a garden shed. Since it’s release in Ireland and the U.K. last Summer, ‘Original Pirate Material’ has had a much wider release, first in Europe and now in the U.S. He explains how the rhyming slang and garage and jungle beats goes down in other territories. "It comes out, people think what the hell’s this? all the reviewers can’t understand what’s goes on in it and it kind of grows from there really (laughs). I think the Americans found it harder to understand than anyone else, even places that don’t speak English get it more than the Americans (laughs). In places like Norway and Germany, the countries where really good English is spoken, they seemed to understand it just as well as us, which I was surprised and humbled by because I’m not great on Norwegian music really (laughs)." Skinner took to the States for the usual press and radio duties before bring the full band out for dates. The L.A. date is particular was very surreal. "There was loads of random members of Guns And Roses, Lucy Lou from Charlie’s Angels and some of the cast of Lord Of The Rings, it was very strange." When asked about his memories of that date in The Ambassador last August, Skinner’s tale of the day almost reverting to type, he himself could almost be a character on Original Pirate Material. "It was really stressed because we came over on the ferry the morning of the gig and when we got to the venue realised that I’d forgotten one of the samplers. So we ended up paying my flat mate to fly Ryan Air with the sampler, he had a roaring time with all his mates from Dublin, once he got here he had nothing to do expect neck a few beers and have a ball so the gig was really stressed and then really funny. He turned up five minutes before we were due to go on." And how did the crowd react? " They were great, really up for it, Irish crowds, Scottish crowds, North Of England crowds and Chicago crowds are all the best for me. We did an outdoor gig in Miami last March at a dance festival, it was a full on Paul Oakenfold type fest, we were the drunk louts in between the cool trance music so we find that we seem to play more rock gigs then dance gigs." So can we expect all of this to turn up on a new album? "I got burgled last week and I lost most of the lyrics, that’s put me back about six months. I was hoping to have the album finished in August and have it out in winter. I’ve got all the music now but haven’t got the words (laughs wearily…not happy)." So in theory, how will it sound? "It’s more focussed, the leery ones are more leery and the sadder ones are more sad. I’ve been listening to raga lately, I’m getting bored with hip hop." The Streets play Witnness on Saturday 12th July. ‘Original Pirate Material’ is out now on Warners.       Festival Memories Rob Coomes, Supergrass. "Well I’ve been playing festivals with Supergrass since about ’96. One of the first festivals I played was T In The Park in Glasgow, ‘Alright’ was still a big song and the reception it got was unbelievable. Another one that stand out was Roskilde. We love festivals, I saw Gill Scott Heron at one, I didn’t really know much about him at the time and he was amazing. It’s always good to go to the smaller tents, you always see amazing musicians and wonder why their bands aren’t huge. The Trinity Ball in Dublin has always been really good fun, drink and posh frocks…..not for me but a lot of girls in posh frocks. We’re doing a nice festival in New York this summer. I always really like going to America, it gets a hard press but the people there can be great, things finally seem to be moving for us over there, I’m not sure whether it’s sheer persistence or they actually like this album more than others." Supergrass play Witnness on Saturday 12th July. ‘Life On Other Planets’ is out now on Warners.     Festival Memories Joey Burns – Calexico "Lowlands in Holland might be our favourite, when the album ‘HotRail’ came out in the year 2000, we did it. We hung out with Cypress Hill, after about five bong hits we all melted into the universal one and the Mariachi section were doing tequila on top of that. We’re doing Reading this year, y’know England’s an okay country (laughs). The most memorable experience, in a different kind of light, was playing Roskilde the day after those poor people had been killed at the Pearl Jam show. There was quite a few bands considered pulling playing, mostly the big English pop bands but quite a few decided to play and honour those who had died. They had made quite a huge effort to change things the next day and it set a precedent for security gates throughout Europe. I remember waking up and there was something lingering in the year, then I heard the news and it was really sobering, it woke me up very quickly. Cat Power played just before us, she was on her own and we went out as just a two piece and just build it up from there. The Kilkenny Roots Festival is another incredible festival, the intimacy of it is something that people should try and replicate it around the world. The first year we went was as Calexico and the following year we went as Giant Sand, it’s truly great down there and we’ll be back." Calexico play The Witnness Rising Stage on Sunday 13th July. ‘Feast Of Wire’ is out now on City Slang. www.casacalexico.com