British dance duo Groove Armada have fallen out with Kings Of Leon after a backstage row escalated.
With the festival season drawing to a close, perhaps ClashMusic should reveal an industry secret - backstage is not all it's cracked up to be. A fact Groove Armada make explicitly clear in a new blog posting.
It seems the duo were none too pleased by the behaviour of the Followills, who apparently caused no end of problems backstage. In a hugely entertaining blog posting Groove Armada revealed that that Kings Of Leon alienated themselves from almost every other artist on the bill.
Pre-booking the toilet and shower facilities, the band caused enormous queues. "A couple of us found a gap in the barrier. Out of nowhere came a very large man. “Reserved for the Kings of Leon” he said, “and so is this half of the artist toilets”. It’s hard to believe that someone actually phoned their agent and said “listen I know that Paul Weller, Kasabian, Florence, Stereophonics, Groove Armada + co are all sharing the artist village and facilities, but we require that you put a fence down the middle of the toilets and showers and put a large man there to keep them just for us.” But somebody did."
Continuing, Groove Armada revealed the scale of the security operation to keep Kings Of Leon from the other artists. "Backstage again, we were outside the catering tent, about to cross the path back to the dressing rooms when loads of massive blokes in suits and shades came out of nowhere shouting “don’t move, don’t move, DO NOT move” whilst pushing people back to the sides of the track. Was it Obama?"
It seems that when Kings Of Leon finally appeared the whole situation boiled over. "Then 4 blacked out range rovers came round the corner. One for each King of Leon. As it became clear what all this presidential fuss was about, tom gave the worldwide one fingered sign of dislike as the cars went past. The last one stopped. The drummer got out making “come on then” type gestures. “Come on then” tom gestured back."
After a final confrontation before Kings Of Leon departed, Groove Armada were left to ponder the events of the weekend.
To read the entire blog click HERE.