Hyde Park Calling - Hyde Park - June 2007

The Answer - Only knew a few of their songs beforehand (Under The Sky, Never Too Late, and the Sweet Emotion cover). They were pretty good, the lead guy has an impressive voice (although he can't quite recreate how high he goes on record), and they seemed to be quite comfortable on such a big stage ... but I dunno, in terms of the new breed of Zeppelin and Sabbath aping 70s retro rock bands, I think I prefer the slight unpredictability of Wolfmother, The Answer got kind of repetitive very quickly ... there's only so much you can watch of the singer walking around the stage shaking his hair. 3/5

Jet – Didn't see too much of them, so can't really comment … they just don't really interest me all that much. Did get to see Are You Gonna Be My Girl though, when I thought they were going to save that for last, but that's about all of note.

Chris Cornell – It first needs to be said how incredible it was to be hearing some of those songs live … some of my favourite songs ever, including classics from Soundgarden (Spoonman, Outshined, Rusty Cage, Let Me Drown, Black Hole Sun, Jesus Christ Pose), Audioslave (Show Me How To Live, Cochise, Like A Stone, Be Yourself, Doesn't Remind Me), Chris solo (You Know My Name with a cameo keyboard performance by David Arnold, Arms Around You Love), and even Temple Of The Dog (Hunger Strike .. which is the point where I said "I can't believe I'm seeing this live!"). He still has an amazing voice on him too. The only problem was, there wasn't much in the way of physical energy … or, arguably, of showmanship. Chris's act did seem to be mainly to just hang off his mic stand, or walk around the stage, occasionally using his arms for emphasis, and sometimes making use of the platforms at the sides of the stage and catwalk into the audience centre stage. The band was somewhat more energetic, but when you consider who Chris is, and compare him to a) Eddie Vedder, the other surviving frontman of the grunge big 4, and b) Steve Tyler, who's 16 years older, the lack of energy is pretty noticeable. Still worth a 4/5 in my opinion, but not up to the standard of Pearl Jam.

Aerosmith – Pretty much ass kicking. At 90 minutes (a time limit strictly enforced by the police apparently) the set was way too short, but it was packed with hit after hit after hit … Love In An Elevator, Same Old Song and Dance, Cryin', Dream On, Don't Wanna Miss A Thing, Seasons Of Wither, an electrifying Baby Please Don't Go, Jaded, Eat The Rich, Living On The Edge, and a closing Walk This Way with DMC of Run DMC. The band, despite all being around 60, remain the very definition of pure sleazy, electric, energetic rock n' roll … the Toxic Twins of Perry and Tyler are especially still a joy to watch and listen to. With Perry's psychotic blues guitar, and Tyler's still incredible screaming, they're one of the ultimate rock partnerships. 5/5 without a doubt.