Blur made a triumphant return to Ireland last night though lead singer Damon Albarn admitted he was too stoned to remember the set list at one stage.
Albarn stopped after Country Houseto acknowledge that he was confused as to what songs the band were supposed to be playing.
“I had some nice hash earlier and twice tonight it has made me lose my way in the set list,” he told a huge crowd who had gathered for the Friday night headline performance at Oxegen.
“I'm not standing up here to tell you all to smoke hash, but, if you want to, you might forget things from time to time. At the end of the day it doesn't really matter, does it?”
A pumped-up Albarn ascended the barriers at a couple of stages to embrace the crowd and sprayed them with water. The band played a crowd-pleasing set which included all their best known songs with the exception of Charmless Man.
Albarn acknowledged it had been 10 years since they last played Ireland as a band as their 2003 concerts here were without guitarist Graham Coxon.
He also remembered that the first time they played Ireland was in 1990 to play at the wedding reception for a “lovely man” called Leo Finlay, a Dublin-born music journalist who died of a heart attack aged 32 in 1997.
Albarn also dedicated the closing song The Universalto Joe Dolan.
A huge crowd turned up for Dublin band The Script who yesterday announced an Irish tour and a support slot with Paul McCartney at the opening of Shea Stadium next week.
Near the end of their set, lead singer Danny O' Donoghue sat on the edge of the stage and watched as the crowd sang Ole, Ole, Ole.
He dedicated their breakthrough song We Cryto "our country Ireland:" and to all those who are "victims of circumstance and trying to get out of situations".
Guitarist Mark Sheehan said the success of their debut album, which went to No.1 in Ireland for five weeks and was also internationally successful made them feel like “ordinary people living extraordinary lives at the moment”.
Snow Patrol front man Gary Lightbody dedicated Runto the Oxegen crowd and expressed a desire to be manhandled by the audience. He also brought two girls up on stage for Set Fire To The Third Barand he dedicated Shut Your Eyesto Lily Allen.
The first day of Oxegen went well despite the occasional spot of drizzle.
Gardai said the 23 arrests for public order and drugs offences were nothing out of the ordinary for a major rock festival and there was no significant delays yesterday for festival-goers accessing the Punchestown site as there had been for AC/DC two weeks ago.