The Isle of Wight Festival has become an annual gathering of old, established and postively new bands. This article focuses on the newcomers at the 2007 event.

The Old

The 7th Isle of Wight Festival opens on 8 June 2007 with a line-up reflecting both its history and the contemporary music scene. The first three events (1968-1970) saw major acts such as Jefferson Airplane, The Who, Joe Cocker, Free, Joni Mitchell, Miles Davies, Leonard Cohen, Joan Baez, The Moody Blues, and most famously Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix. For Hendrix, it was his last public performance.

The news about this year’s festival has been dominated by Sunday night’s headliners, The Rolling Stones, an appearance that has had many old rockers dusting off their tents and sleeping bags and heading for the Isle of Wight ferry. Other genuflections in the direction of the history of rock are Country Joe McDonald, who provided one of the most memorable Woodstock moments with ‘The Fish Cheer’, and Donovan.

Punk-era bands bypassed, but Liverpool’s Echo and the Bunnymen represent the immediate post-punk rockers and Koopa, a band breaking through into the public consciousness through relentless touring and the decision of the music industry to include downloads (their chosen route) in chart calculations, represent ‘neo-punk’.

The New

New bands feature heavily on the Festival bill. Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood is responsible, in part, for The Thirst, a South London band. Wood had heard good reports of them, attended a gig at the Half Moon in Putney, and made them his new record label’s (Wooden Records) first signing.

Another newcomer is The Menschen, who only formed in January this year and who won a Battle of the Bands contest to open Saturday’s session on the Main Stage. This 5 piece indie rock and roll band hail from the Island and claim influences from jazz and blues as well as more mainstream sources. They are only now about to release their first recording.

The next generation is also represented by Siniez, another Isle of Wight band, none of whom are more than 16. Again, unrecorded, they will open on Sunday.

And the More Experienced

More experienced bands include Groove Amada, an electronic two-man band coming to the end of their first decade together, who, having recorded with Richie Havens, represent another link with the 1960s festivals. Others are Ash, a four-piece outfit from Northern Ireland, Wolfmother, a Grammy award-winning group from Sydney, Australia, Keane whoa re closer to their roots in East Sussex, and Kasabian winners of the Best Live Act award at the 2007 NME Awards.

Glasgow is well represented with The Hedrons, an all-girl guitar band with a pedigree that includes T in the Park, Download festival and Guilfest, and the three-piece Fratellis carrying the city’s colours.

Most intriguingly of all perhaps is the inclusion on the bill of former Spice girl MelanieC. If the festival website is to be believed, she is due to perform immediately after Country Joe MacDonald. Quite what festival-goers will make of that juxtaposition remains to be seen. Will it be remembered as one of those 'wish you were there' moments? Only time will tell.