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Description: The O2 sponsored rock and pop shindig goes into 2007 with its usual mix of mainstream favourites, up-and-coming gems and a number of musical surprises. Thu: Boy/girl red/white indie-blues duo The White Stripes and stoner-rock favourites Queens Of The Stone Age, Air, Satellite Party, The Bees, Detroit Cobras, The Sounds, Dredg, Polytechnic, Ghosts, The Kissaway Trail and more. Fri: Danced up chart favourites Faithless, quirky singer-songwriter Badly Drawn Boy, Just Jack, Kelis, Mark Ronson, Gotan Project, Aim, CAt Empire, Robyn and more. Sat: French electro-rocking duo Daft Punk and dance-frenzied Brazilian boy/girl popsters CSS plus indie-ravers Klaxons, LCD Soundsystem, Mark Ronson, Plan B, Calvin Harris, New Young Pony Club, Datarock, Metronomy and more. Sun: Leeds indie-rock heroes Kaiser Chiefs with their hand-picked support Editors, Wakefield sibling popsters The Cribs, perky popsters The Rakes and cheeky NME favourites The Twang. Plus Pigeon Detectives, Mumm-Ra, Duke Spirit, Good Shoes, Polysics, Los Campesinos!, You Say Party We Say Die, The Films, Ripchord, Richard Swift and more.
Phone: 0871230 5440
Trains: Tube: Hyde Park Corner/Marble Arch 
White Stripes: the best live band on the planet perform at the O2 Wireless Festival
After their intimate ballroom blitz in south London on Tuesday, the White Stripes became London's main attraction when they commandeered Hyde Park for a triumphant show last night.
Even Marble Arch glowed red and white in tribute to the Detroit duo's continuing status as more than likely the best live band on the planet.
This brief week of appearances in the UK, which also included an unlikely acoustic performance for 20 Chelsea Pensioners at the Royal Hospital, is Jack and Meg White's only promotional push for their sixth album, Icky Thump.
They barely even performed any new songs from the new album here, but even so it will surely be number one on Sunday.
With the big screens displaying the action strictly in the band's two-tone colour scheme, they managed to transcend the largely uninspiring surroundings of the Wireless festival, where tacky fairground rides and certain branded marquees encroached too noisily on the main space.
The annual long weekend's strength, thankfully, is in an impressive line-up of bands every day until Sunday.
Yesterday Sweden's Sounds livened things up early on with some energetic electropop, while calming Air hypnotised the occupants of an adjacent tent and a gloriously unhinged Queens of the Stone Age noisily paved the way for the headliners.
Changing the set almost completely from Tuesday's at the Rivoli Ballroom, the White Stripes romped around their extensive back catalogue with barely a pause.
Icky Thump was not the focus because this band would never perform just to sell a new record.
Even from this distance, Jack and Meg seemed to inhabit the songs, shifting intuitively between whatever tracks simply felt right.
Jack pounded a weighty organ between riffs during new song I'm Slowly Turning Into You, but really focused on the raw genius of his guitar work.
I Think I Smell a Rat was frighteningly savage, his slide guitar on a cover of Son House's Death Letter as overwhelming as ever.
Meg drummed throughout with poised dignity in stark contrast to the maelstrom surrounding her.
Few musical unions work as naturally as this one. This four-day festival has hit its high point already.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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In my opinion the White Stripes are great! Jack is extremely talented and Meg has a interesting style of drumming which I think adds to the unique factor of the band, I think its amazing that music as good as theirs can be made by just two people!
- Unknown, Harrogate
As a blues/rock fan I just don't get the White Hypes. I've had the misfortune to see them live and I think Meg is quite possibly the worst drummer I've ever seen. Jack is also vastly overrated. If you want to see/hear a good blues guitar player check out Derek Trucks. He is a far superior musician. I suspect the british gimic obsessed media wouldn't rate him because he doesn't wear red and white outfits!
- Al Stuart, London
