Nicola Benedetti

My 15-minute set went by in a flash. I think it was great! We really, really enjoyed it, people were listening, we felt that everyone was really there with us, and it was nice to chat to them a little bit and keep it sort of informal. And it was so nice to have the quartet up there with me ‘cause it was a good support team. I wasn’t up there on my own! I enjoyed it hugely. 

For our set we tried to pick contrasting, short effective pieces. In hindsight maybe I should have played a bit more fast material. But you just have to play what you think represents your music the best. And it’s a totally new crowd, totally new everything, so it was a bit of a guesswork.

People were really receptive – they were so sweet and lovely. I was worried it was gonna be like, “what are you doing here, we’re here to see Kasabian!” But they weren’t at all. 

I’ve never been to T in the Park – I haven’t lived in Scotland for a long time. And I have no time to go to a concert, never! 

We’re playing one more set at 3.30, then we have to leave about 5, so maybe in between those times we’ll get a quick look around. But from what I’ve seen of it, people seem lovely, supportive, and there’s a great atmosphere. I’m just grateful that the music we played, classical music, was accepted. I’m grateful for the opportunity. 

Something like Classical in the Park, I would absolutely love that! For it to be an inspiration to people to pick up instruments and just to be more open to that style of music. Would I be the founding curator? I’d be there! I would give everything for that, absolutely.

Maverick Sabre

Before I came here all I knew about T in the Park was the people like to get lively. I’m looking forward to that. People have taken time out of their schedule, out of their day, maybe missing other artists, to come see you. So you have to show them they’ve made the right decision, and make sure that they enjoy it. 

I’ve done 12, 13 festivals already this year, and we’re doing about 60 in total. The festival circuit is a great boot camp, a massive learning curve as a performer. Especially when you do festivals like T in the Park, where it’s UK-based and maybe people might be more knowledgeable about my music. But then we go to Belgium, say, where there might be ten people in the crowd and they’ve never heard me before. So you need to adapt. And that helps better me as a performer. I love a festival – it’s energy that you can’t really get anywhere else. 

I played in Glasgow when I was 15, as part of Celtic Connections, and it was the first gig I ever did outside Ireland. So I’ve got a good close connection with Scotland. The Irish and Scottish crowd are very similar in their enthusiasms. Glasgow was probably the best date on my last tour, after Dublin. It’s the freeness of the crowd. They don’t hold anything back, they’re not standing together going, “impress me”. They come to enjoy themselves. In turn that makes me enjoy myself more. 

It’s fantastic that T in the Park has stages like T Break, and people do go out and support those new bands. People wander into the tents and find new music, which you don’t really get at many other festivals. 

I’m also coming on with Chase & Status – we’re doing Fire In Your Eyes. I haven’t performed with them in a while, so that should be wicked. Then I wanna hang around and see Kasabian. And I’ll try and catch a couple of other acts. 

Lawson: Andy Brown (singer)

 I made a schoolboy error with my shoes – I’m wearing suede. But you learn from your mistakes. We’ve never been here before but I’ve been literally watching it on telly for years. It’s literally been the standout festival. Since we started we’ve been trying to get a slot on it. And when we got told we were doing it we were just absolutely delighted. It’s another thing to tick off the list as a band. 

We’re playing T Break today, which is one of the smaller ones – but it’s good, it gives us room to grow for next year – maybe we’ll move up a stage. And we love a good intimate gig as well. 

They do seem to support a lot of new bands here. We’re just looking forward to getting out there and playing. As soon as we’re finished, we’re gonna go out there and see all the other bands and have a couple of drinks. 

We toured with The Wanted, and we had a younger demographic there. But we’d like to appeal to a little bit older crowd – that’s why it’s great doing gigs like this. It’s nice to have girls who like The Wanted on board. But we want to appeal to older kids, students – and even guys. We’re just four musos. Muso saddos! That’s literally what we are.We’ve seen The Wanted guys backstage and had a bit of banter with them. We’ve had a table tennis match between ourselves, but we do need to play The Wanted. Would we beat them? Of course! There’s more of them than there is us, but we’re a mighty force. 

We’ll hang around as long as we can – until the tour manager drags us away. Well, carries us away! 

The Wanted: Tom Parker, Siva Kaneswaran

Tom Parker: What did we know about T in the Park before? That it’s in Scotland, and it’s full of Scottish people. We’ve been watching a couple of highlights over the last couple of days on TV and its looks pretty sick. So we’re gonna go out there and rock.

Siva Kaneswaran: T in the Park? It’s ravishing and relentless. 

How do you feel about a rock festival embracing pop acts like yourselves?

Tom: I love it. It’s always a little bit scary for not just a pop act but a boy band pop act to come to a festival. But we did V last year and we stormed it.

Siva: Everyone’s enjoying themselves. It’s all about the music. And Scottish people are all about that. 

Lawson say they’re going to kick your butt at table tennis.

Tom: Come on man! Me and Max have had a table tennis game in our house for two years. We’re pretty good. We’ll have ‘em! 

Do you have a message for T fans who are Wanted virgins?

Tom: Yeah. We’re gonna pick up our instruments, we’re gonna play a Coldplay melody, and we’re gonna rock. Everyone always thinks, “oh, boy band, they’re probably gonna dance, probably gonna mime”. But we’re gonna sing live and play guitars! 

The Enemy: Tom Clarke (singer)

You first played T in the Park in 2007, headlining the Futures stage. What are your memories?

 We had an amazing gig, brilliant atmosphere, probably one of the best festival atmospheres we’d had at that point. But that was kind of a high point! The crowd were going mental – when you’ve whipped a crowd into such a frenzy, it’s kinda cool.It’s great that T in the Park has stages for bands at whatever level. If you’re an unsigned band now, it’s pretty much impossible trying to break through. Certain radio stations aren’t playing guitar music, and if you’re 17, 18, just starting a band, trying to get a record deal, you’ve got no way of exposing your music to people. All you’ve got is the internet. So it’s amazing when I see anyone doing anything for new music – we were driving in today, you see the banners up telling you who’s playing the Introducing Stage or the T Break Stage. That’s amazing. It makes you feel like someone’s doing something.

And you played again in 2008, on the Main Stage.

I remember it being a beautiful day and just looking out at a sea of people, going, how many people? Before us was Amy Macdonald and after us was Counting Crows – that’s an eclectic bill. But they’d both have been playing live music. And you just wanna watch someone pick up an instrument and play it. 

The Coronas: Danny O’Reilly (singer)

 We’ve done a few of the UK festivals, but never T in the Park. We’ve had some great gigs up here in King Tut’s – we were there two months ago, so we’re glad to be back.We were amazed at how big the King Tut’s tent is here. We couldn’t believe it – we were expecting a smaller stage. And we got a great crowd as well. They were really up for it – people seem to just be looking for new music. That’s the best thing about festivals. 

We’re gonna hang about and see Miles Kane – he’s in the dressing room next to us – and hopefully Elbow.