The Feile Festival in Cork was billed as the big night for The Stone Roses. But, as Andy Crysell discovered, it was Orbital that stole the show...

Paul Hartnoll "I'll tell you one thing. I'm just glad we're not a trendy band in the same was that someone like Tricky is... You hear these tales about the hangers on that follow him around without him even wanting them there; about how he has to put up with people like David Bowie storming into his dressing room to have his picture taken with him."

The Stone Roses. Terence Trent D'arby. Paul Weller. Elastica. Orbital. Backstage at Ireland's Feile Festival in Cork's Pairc Ul Chaolmh sits a row of Portakabins, each one with a different band's name on it. Outside Elastica's there's Justine and Damon... snogging! Next door, shooting the breeze with D'arby (a man who's brought enough stage costumes to launch a west end musical), there's Weller, sporting perhaps his worst haircut to date. All's quiet on the baggy front. Two hard looking blokes guard the door, but predictably The Stone Roses fail to show their faces.

At Orbital's place, by contrast, it's more of a family picnic than a VIP chinwag sesh. Hanging out with a bunch of mates who hitched a lift in their snazzy two-decker tour bus, the Hartnoll brothers, Paul and Phil, seem so removed from this impenetrable star system as to be hardly there. Some six hours later, however, the reason why Orbital are at Feile becomes magnificently clear.