V Festival, Hylands Park, Chelmsford

V is the most anonymous of the big festivals, and this year slate-grey skies and an unimaginative bill made it a particularly bleak spectacle. Not that there was a shortage of characters, even with Amy Winehouse absent. Kanye West saluted her with a snatch of "Rehab", during a hip-hop set so opulent it included a harpist. Meanwhile, Dizzee Rascal's "Keep Fit, Look Sharp" defined his raw, tight UK version of the genre.

His show was the weekend's only aggressive moment; even guitar-rapper Plan B spitting: "How dare they try to cheapen us?" during "Witness the Sickness", couldn't match it.

Pete Doherty was not at his most committed. Strong winds blew away his wispy voice, but Babyshambles played unpredictable, frayed rock 'n' roll of a kind that's rare. The belief that rock should be about more than the tatty open-air music mall V generally resembles was voiced by Jarvis Cocker. "We're all one," he suggested. "That's the point of a concert, isn't it?"

As Cocker sang Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", a short distance away, Happy Mondays' Shaun Ryder was pondering a minute's silence for his late mentor Tony Wilson. Instead, he played "24 Hour Party People". Elsewhere, Primal Scream proved they remain a thinking, feeling band, splicing Krautrock and the Stooges for "Shoot Speed/Kill Light", and introducing a new song about drug paranoia, "Can't Go Back".

Headlining Saturday's main stage, Foo Fighters remain a dull, good-time hard rock band. Sunday's headliners, Kasabian and The Killers, then competed in bombast and bluster, revealing how eager mainstream indie has become to please.

Hardly marquee moments, these. It was left to James to inject some spirit into Sunday's main stage. Tim Booth's kilt, careless dancing and songs of small-town outsiderdom and transcendence were matched by a speech addressing V's neutered atmosphere.

Lily Allen drew a bigger crowd for her increasingly ska-heavy musings. Later, it was possible to walk from the Manic Street Preachers playing the deathless "Motorcycle Emptiness" into a tent where Iggy Pop's Stooges are tearing up "No Fun". Iggy remains a remarkable spectacle.

Basement Jaxx played a closing samba-disco for those bored with The Killers, but even they weren't at their best. V's greyness got everyone down.