This was my first ever festival (my wife saw The Cure headline Glastonbury in the 80s) and will probably be my last given that all the stars aligned and delivered everything I would have wanted from one. Let’s see, tickets won via a competition on musicmuso, the weather was glorious and headliners that I would have chosen myself. I really can’t see this happening again. It was going to be a cracking weekend…….wasn’t it?
Friday for me kicked off with Nile Rodgers and Chic on the main stage. I have never seen Nile before but had low expectations. Boy I was wrong. What a set!! It was littered with Chic classics, opening with "Everybody Dance" and "Dance, Dance, Dance", but also included songs by artists he’s written for and worked with. The Diana Ross/Sister Sledge medley had everyone up singing and dancing before announcing he was now cancer free and launching in to Pharrell’s "Get Lucky", which he co-wrote. The highlight for me though was Bowie’s "Let’s Dance", which he co-produced with the music/fashion icon, and had the crowd in a frenzy. A great start to the festival.
The Script were next up on the main stage and were again, another band I have not seen before. A few people I spoke to before the weekend had said they used to like The Script but lost respect when Danny (O’Donoghue) became a judge on The Voice. On this evidence I would say that was a misjudgement. The band were full of energy (and O’Donoghue full of obscenities!!) and opened with "Rock the World" from their current album, Freedom Child. O’Donoghue seemed to be really touched by the reception and feedback from the crowd as the set went on. "Superheroes", "For the First Time" and "Breakeven" (‘the reason why most of the audience know The Script’ according to O’Donoghue) followed along with a few new tracks, including the very catchy "Rain", and culminated with a rousing "Hall of Fame". This was definitely a good warm up for this night’s headliners, the mighty Kasabian.
I'd been really looking forward to seeing Leicester’s finest and they didn’t disappoint. The eighteen song set was an absolute belter. Last year’s For Crying Out Loud supplied four of the songs including opener "Ill Ray (The King)". "Bumblebee" followed along with "Underdog", "Shoot the Runner", "Re-Wired" and a cover of Groove Armada’s "At the River" which led in to one of the highlights of the whole evening, Serge drumming up a mosh pit for the classic, "Club Foot". During "Empire", Serge encouraged everyone to crouch down on the ground (including Peter Crouch!) to be followed by a 50,000 person bounce around. What a moment! The staging and light show were top notch and "Stevie" was another highlight before FatBoy Slim cover "Praise You" morphed in to "L.S.F." for the close of the set before a three song encore of "Comeback Kid", "Vlad the Impaler" and the amazing closer "Fire".
Saturday started a little earlier as we wanted to explore a few more of the stages before the main acts. It was also allocated ‘Gold Day’ to coincide with the golden (50th) anniversary of the festival itself. To say we saw a few ‘sights’ would be an understatement and I felt was unable to take photos of most of it out of decency!! I did get a photo of a policeman with a gold beard though. Made my day!!
First up was a ‘cowpunk’ band from Dorset called Pronghorn on the Platform One stage. It was fiddle and banjo action all the way which had so much energy it was incredible. They are probably not a band I am going to buy a CD of but as a live act they are infectious. We then took a short stroll to the Hard Rock Cafe stage where we caught the end of Gypsyfingers set (think All About Eve) and then saw Germein, three sisters from Australia with their pop/rock set. They are support for Little Mix on their upcoming tour so will undoubtedly be getting more exposure this coming year.
It was then back to the main stage and a bit of ducking and diving to get nearer the front for the headliners, Depeche Mode later that evening. First off though were Blossoms, the band I was most intrigued to see as I love their first two albums. Opening with "There’s a Reason Why (I Never Returned Your Call)", they played a twelve track set, which was quite synth heavy, pleasing the Depeche Mode fans in the audience. "Charlemagne", probably their most well know track, closed their set, which certainly enhanced their live credentials and I will be looking out for headline shows to see them again.
James Bay was next and this was an act I had no interest in seeing having only really heard two of his songs, "Pink Lemonade" and "Hold Back the River". He opened up with the former and it soon became apparent that I had grossly underestimated the guy. His band were tight and he had huge charisma and crowd connectivity. The more ‘with it’ of the audience clearly knew more of his songs than I did and happily sang along to every word. The eleven song set was evenly split between his two albums with a good cover of Tina Turner’s "The Best" thrown in for good measure. He closed with "Hold Back the River" and had the audience singing along and wide awake for the next act……...Mr Liam Gallagher.
Liam made his entry to "Fucking in the Bushes" in his parka with his now infamous swagger and opened up the Oasis heavy set with "Rock ‘n’ Roll Star" because ‘there’s only a few of us left’. An impeccable "Morning Glory" followed. The ‘As You Were’ set then kicked in with "Greedy Soul", "Wall of Glass", "Bold" and "For What It’s Worth" delivered one after the other. The rest of the set, apart from "I Get By", was Oasis all the way and the crowd were lapping it up. The perhaps lesser known "Bring it Down" and "Listen Up" were followed by the more familiar "Whatever", "Supersonic" and "Some Might Say". Gallagher seemed to have a few on stage sound issues but they didn’t convey to the wider audience. He also called out the idiot in the crowd with the laser pen, which was typical Liam! He then gave the audience the choice of "Live Forever", "Wonderwall"or him ‘fucking off’. After a brief tete a tete with a Depeche Mode fan in the front row who had obviously shouted the latter in his direction he sang both songs to probably the loudest crowd sing-a-longs of the whole weekend (that I saw anyway). Hearing "Wonderwall" performed live, even if not by Oasis as a whole, can now be ticked off the bucket list. He seemed genuinely touched with the reception he received and also genuinely said he hoped everyone enjoyed Depeche Mode.
This was the reason that I had wanted to come to this festival…….Depeche Mode. I have been a fan for 25 years and were the band I grew up with. I have seen them more times than I care to remember, including at the Royal Albert Hall, outdoors at Crystal Palace on the debauch Devotional Tour and last year at the London Olympic Stadium for their largest ever UK gig. They are a different beast nowadays but they are still a beast, live anyway. Their latest album Spirit provided the opener "Going Backwards" and really got things started followed by the amazing "It’s No Good". Singles "Precious" and Violator’s "Policy of Truth" and "World in My Eyes" then followed with Dave Gahan’s incredible energy bringing the songs to life. Spirit’s stand out Kraftwerkesque "Cover Me" led in to Martin Gore delivering "The Things You Said" from Music for the Masses. The only slight disappointment was he didn’t follow it up with "Home" as well but this was a festival set list I suppose. The remix version of "Everything Counts" really got the non-DM fans engaged before the sing-a-long and arm raising of "Personal Jesus" and the highlight of the whole weekend, the anthemic "Never Let Me Down Again". Seeing Gahan orchestrating the audience, waving his arms is always a moment, but get a 50,000 crowd of let’s be honest mainly Liam and non-DM fans to do it was an amazing sight. Gore doing "Somebody" in the encore was a great moment for my wife as she’s not seen it live before. The canny inclusion of "Just Can’t Get Enough" for the first time on this tour was a masterstroke as the whole crowd jumped around and sang. They closed with Violator classic "Enjoy the Silence" including the obligatory handclapping session. What a night, what a day.
Sunday was the hottest day of the weekend. It was also the day England played Panama at the World Cup. We had thought about heading to the BT Sport Field of Dreams but decided it was too hot to sit out for two hours on top of the bands. The videos from the Field of Dreams looked amazing but a cold beer in the pub was DEFINITELY the right decision.
Suzanne Vega singing "Marlene on the Wall" on the Hard Rock Cafe stage was our opening musical action of the day and she drew a massive crowd. We then went for a wander around the rest of the site and it then only became obvious how large the festival site is. We caught a little bit of The Skids in the big top, who had also drawn a very large crowd and numerous mosh pits. We then stumbled across the Electro Love tent in which we saw the ‘so far removed from The Skids’ Miyagi doing covers of Flashdance, Fame and other such 80s classics.
Seeking shelter from the the intense sun, we found it at the Hard Rock Cafe bar and watched a couple of full sets on their stage. First up were Romances from London who delivered a good set of original rock tracks. Next up were DeVience, also from London. Think Guns ‘n’ Roses with new material. They were brilliant with a fantastically charismatic frontman who knew exactly the type of audience he was playing to. It was good to see his hard work during the set was building a good crowd. We'd definitely go and see them live again.
Manic Street Preachers were the penultimate act on the main stage and their fourteen song set went down well in the main, though I was disappointed there was no "Australia". A cover of The Cure’s "In Between Days" was a surprise but worked quite well. "Motorcycle Emptiness" kicked things off followed by last December’s "International Blue". The new songs were a little flat in my opinion but when they moved back to the hits all clicked into place. "You Stole the Sun from My Heart", "Everything Must Go", "Kevin Carter", "You Love Us", "Tsunami" and "A Design for Life" all went down well as the sun started to set over the festival site, the sky filled with incredible colours.
The Killers closed the festival main stage and are again a band I have never seen before. After being dumped for a girl by my oldest son when we were set to see them last year on their UK tour, I was really looking forward to catching them live. Unfortunately, a combination of poor bus transport and them arriving on stage late meant we only got to see the first three songs of the set before having to leave. On the plus side I did get to see three of their better known songs and "Somebody Told Me" live didn’t let me down. On the downside, I didn’t get to see much more and "Mr Brightside" live still remains unticked on my bucket list. The three songs we did see, "The Man", "Somebody Told me" and "Spaceman" were great with Brandon Flowers on good form. The Killers remain on my ‘must see live’ list.
The whole weekend was an incredible experience and we were so happy to be there for the 50th anniversary. I just need to get myself a T-shirt now as they had all sold out by Sunday!!
Review by Stephen Blair