With half the country off to get stuck in mud/traffic at Punchestown this weekend, let’s look at the times Turn, who at the time (and maybe still) played the festival more times than anyone, rocked the racecourses.
Witnness Festival 2000 - Fairyhouse 6th August
Originally sponsored by Guinness the festival was held at Fairyhouse racecourse in Co. Meath.
Turn were the first band on the Witnness More stage on the Sunday, this was before Antisocial was released and later on in the month Turn would go on and play the Reading festival in England.
Witnness Festival 2001 - Fairyhouse 4th August
Now with a higher profile in Ireland Turn headlined the Cafe tent on the Saturday. Although Ollie’s amp went on fire half way through, they played some new songs such as ‘The JJ72 Song’ which became “In Position”
Witnness Festival 2002 - Fairyhouse 13th July
Witnness was now moved to July to share acts with the T in the Park festival in Scotland, so in typical July weather it rained and rained the week before, with the result being the festival site was more mud than grass. Turn were on first on the main stage on the Saturday and as woodchips were being layed down around the area all morning, the gates only opened when Turn took to the stage. Turn’s set was broadcast on 2FM and is available for download in the Media section.
Witnness Festival 2003 - Punchestown 12th July
After sinking stages and traffic problems the Witnness festival was moved to Punchestown racecourse in Co. Kildare for 2003 and this was probably the sunniest weekend the festival ever had.
Turn also had some changes with Alan Lee now playing bass (and Martin Quinn on 2nd guitar/keyboards). The band had just released the Forward album the month before and had toured around Ireland meaning they were more popular than ever. So they were put on in the smallest tent at the festival around 5pm. With the tent packed with a thousand or more people before the band even took to the stage, hundreds were left outside to watch as Turn played one of there greatest ever gigs.
Oxegen Festival 2004 - Punchestown 11th July
A new name for the festival as it was now sponsored by Heineken. Turn now featured Ciaran Kavanagh on bass, and it was also the very first gig playing with him. The band played on the Ticket stage on the Sunday. With the stage being on what was normally a car park, and the wind and rain on the day, it was hardly the most enjoyable day for the crowd and probably the band.
Oxegen Festival 2005 - Punchestown 9th July
The last year of Oxegen for Turn and they played in the Green Room tent which they stuffed with thousands and thousands of people. A clip of “Summer Song” from this year can be seen on YouTube.
The Turn myspace had a full report of the day:
Year 6 out of 6 for Turn to play the Oxegen/Witnness festival and it was probably the best one so far. The day started off with Ollie doing interviews with seemingly everyone with a camera/microphone or even pen, MTV, 2FM, Today FM etc.
There were some worries that no one might come see Turn because they’ve done nothing much publicly in the last year, especially when the tent emptied down to about 100 or so people after Stephen Fretwell’s set. But of course the tent became packed, with the crowd even chanting before they came on, which for some reason doesn’t happen enough.
Because of only a 30 minute set there was a bit of debate whether to play “Beretta” or “Queen of my Heart”. But in the end they both got played, in a straight full on rock set, with “Close Your Eyes” being saved for future (and probably a lot) gigs.
Here is a round up of TV shows that feature the music of Turn.
Kyle XY
Boy Eats Girl (Released in 2005)