Review: Splendour Festival (23/07/16)

Into its ninth year, Nottingham’s Splendour Festival sold out days in advance thanks to the recent good weather yet also possibly the biggest line up of the last few years. It was suitably sunny for a fantastic day of music, all in an electric but also family friendly atmosphere.

Opening the Main Stage were Future Sound of Nottingham winners Super Furniture, who delivered a high energy set including quality originals and an entertaining cover of 'King of the Swingers' from The Jungle Book! Kicking off proceedings on the Confetti Stage were local trio Eyre Llew, who ensured a very atmospheric set, bringing musical talent and chilled vibes. Next on Main was soulful rising star Ady Suleiman with a crowd-pleasing performance that shows why he's achieving national airplay and growing media attention. His own original 'State Of Mind' and a cover of Protoje's reggae anthem 'Who Knows' were particular highlights.

Having come all the way from South Africa, Jeremy Loops was determined to make his set stand out. He certainly managed this by beatboxing into a harmonica, looping samples taken of the increasingly lively crowd and bringing an MC on stage to join him. Tracks such as 'Sinner', 'Down South' and particularly 'See I Wrote It For You' caused a growing amount of commotion, while sealing his place as one of the day's finest acts. At the Acoustic Rooms Courtyard, Josh Wheatley delivered something completely different. It had been a year since we saw Josh, and his stage presence and vocals have become considerably stronger in that amount of time. Whether playing moving ballads like 'Close' or up numbers such as 'Hold Me', Wheatley's huge talent was never in doubt - expect big things from him in the coming months. Back at the Confetti Stage, Stiff Little Fingers divided opinion; ardent fans were going wild at the front, although they failed to connect with a portion of those present.

The Main Stage was then graced by Jamie Lawson, who has come a long way since playing the Acoustic Courtyard at the festival last year. While not delivering anything edgy (although we were stunned when he said “this next song contains swearing”), he proved himself to be a skilled songwriter delivering mellow ditties. Due to the lack of their original vocalist and two other founding members, UB40 prompted outrage on the Facebook event page but delighted a large number of people with enjoyable, if slightly repetitive, reggae numbers. At the Confetti Stage, The Rifles had a surprisingly large number of dedicated fans at the festival, including an eight year old who was going “mad fer it” on his dad’s shoulders. The four piece London group were very good and smashed their set, with anthems such as ‘Local Boy’ and ‘Romeo and Julie’ getting everyone in the festival mood. To put it mildly, The Fratellis then caused absolute SCENES down the front from start to finish. They hadn’t even played ‘Chelsea Dagger’ for carnage to unfold – ‘Henrietta’, ‘Baby Don’t You Lie To Me!’ and ‘Whistle For The Choir’ proved how many great songs, old and new, the group have. When ‘Dagger’ finally dropped towards the end of their set, pandemonium predictably unfolded – The Fratellis put in the best performance of the day, as reflected by the reaction they received.

As the sun started to set over Wollaton Park, 80s Sheffield icons The Human League took the Main Stage by storm. The main trio’s voices still sounded as good as ever, ploughing through a series of number ones and greatest hits. By the time they ended on the iconic ‘Don’t You Want Me’, Nottingham had well and truly been won over by the living legends. The Darkness headlined the Confetti Stage in sweary but entertaining style; Justin Hawking’s stage presence is a force to be reckoned with, and the band were exceptional live musicians. The circle pits were the day’s most intense, and the singalong to ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ one of the loudest. Altogether now – “I CAN’T EXPLAIN ALL THE FEELINGS THAT YOU’RE MAKING ME FEEEEEL…”

After pulling out last year (not that she remembered or apologised for this – she mistakenly thought she’d played a couple of years ago), the Main Stage was headlined by Jess Glynne as night fell. Coming out to a banging remix, Glynne tore into the absolutely banging ‘Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself’ and the crowd instantly seemed to be loving it. This was followed by the electric Clean Bandit collaboration ‘Rather Be’, another well delivered vocal. However, as the set went on the quality dipped; other than a great acoustic version of ‘My Love’, the tracks from her one album all seemed to merge into one and nothing really stood out. We gave Glynne until ten o’clock before making the unanimous decision to leave early – Glynne has a good voice, and a carefully choreographed stage presence, but lacked the distinctive material or engagement to do the headliner slot justice.

All in all, though, it was a wonderful day – roll on Splendour 2017!

OVERHEARD AT SPLENDOUR:

“It’s me first festival! Am on it like a car bonnet” – An excitable festival goer in the queue

“You’re going in the pit, we are getting you in the pit” – While watching The Darkness, a pre-teen wanted to help his equally young friend have the best time possible

“I need a lie down, me” – The mosh got too much for one man during The Fratellis’ set