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Iced T in the Park

Imagineattending Ozzfest or Bonnaroo in the middle of November and you’llunderstand the difference between a Scottish summer rock festival andan American one. It was so overcast and cool at July’s annual T in thePark in Balado (26 miles north of Edinburgh) that Pink needn’thave bothered with her pre-show nipple tweaker (yes, she has one;supposedly it gets her pumped). “I’ve never played a festival thisbig,” she told us backstage. “I’m a little nervous. But getting 60,000people riled up at the same time is fun. It’s like, ‘Fuck, let’s rockout! Let’s drink some beer!'”Yes, let’s. The Pixies weren’t the only legends reuniting for T this year. So were the Wu-Tang Clan, sadly minus Ol’ Dirty Bastard. “We all had chances to go out and experience our own things,” the RZAtold us, “whether it was movies or TV or albums, and we know we shouldcome together and do one more strong Wu-Tang campaign. We’re planning anew record, but we haven’t started it yet. Right now, we’re justgetting to know each other again.” As if on cue, a member of the Wucrew walked by with a big, steaming plate of caterer’s table meat.”See, some of us eat beef, some of us is vegetarians since we lastmet!” the RZA explained. Before going onstage, Justin Hawkins of the Darkness(who were bumped up to headlining status after David Bowie pulled outdue to heart surgery) promised: “We’ve put together an enormousproduction at the last minute.” “Lasers?” we asked, hopefully. “Lasersare too 1989,” he said. “We’re more 1985.”Glaswegian heroes Franz Ferdinand,who played a bit farther down the bill last year, seemed happy to beupgraded, but even happier to be home. “I’m going to see my mum,”drummer Paul Thomson said excitedly. “I think she’s gonna show me every TV appearance we’ve done in the last year.” The Libertines also performed, without singer/guitarist Pete Doherty,whose drug problem has led to several worryingly short trips to rehab.”It would be nice to have Pete here, but there’s no point incompounding his illness by accepting it,” singer Carl Barat said. We asked Jake Shears, frontman for New York’s own pop-disco ironists Scissor Sisters (whoare huge in Britain), if he missed New York, where the air turns topoop vapor around this time of year. “I do,” he said, “but it’s gonebeyond being homesick. Now it feels like the world is my home.” If thisis your home, can you please turn the heat up?