As we make a return to live music, the August bank holiday weekend saw the long awaited return to Southsea sea front for one of the South East’s best smaller scale festivals in the form of Victorious Festival. Victorious has been a fast growing festival over the past decade with previous eclectic acts including Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Elbow, Franz Ferdinand and The Specials. This year’s line-up continued in this vein with headline sets from Madness, The Streets, Manic Street Preachers, Chic and Royal Blood.
Friday saw just the main Common Stage in use and a sign of the weekend’s appeal was the size of the crowd throughout with audiences treated to a string of hits from Joy Division and New Order from Peter Hook & The Light, with the sun coming out for the evening with Blue Monday. Following some technical hiccups early on, Feeder produced a storming set with hits including 'Buck Rogers', 'Feeling A Moment' and 'Just The Way I’m Feeling', warming the crowd up for the double treat of The Kooks and Madness. The Kooks were one of the weekend’s biggest draws and delivered on their promise, marking the 15th anniversary of their debut record with tunes from across their career and eliciting some of the best crowd responses.
Madness closed the opening night to a delighted and exuberant crowd containing hit after hit from early staples 'One Step Beyond' and 'The Prince' to some of their best loved tracks 'Our House', 'House Of Fun', 'It Must Be Love' and many more. For a band that has now been going just over 40 years, Suggs and co certainly know how to put on a show and treat their audience to their Camden flavour of ska.
Saturday saw huge crowds and perhaps a sign of how much the festival was missed in 2020. With the addition of the Castle Stage there were a few clashes, an indicator of the diversity of acts on display. Following rousing sets from Black Honey and The Lathums, Blossoms were the early main attraction delivering a set with tracks from across their three albums to date and making room for a cover of The Rolling Stones’ 'Miss You' in tribute to the late Charlie Watts (Rolling Stones tracks appeared throughout the build up to many acts across the weekend). The Stockport group continue to impress and show why they are one of the UK’s biggest indie acts at present.
The Fratellis proved a fine appetiser for The Castle Stage delivering a rousing set as the sun set. Manic Street Preachers, a late addition to the bill following Richard Ashcroft’s withdrawal proved why they are one of the finest British bands of the past 30 years with a set featuring tracks from their upcoming 14th studio album. Opening with 'Motorcycle Emptiness' and closing with 'A Design For Life' the set was one of the best of the weekend with James Dean Bradfield in fine voice, proving his quality as a vocalist and guitarist.
The final day of the festival was kick-started by Britpop group Cast, delighting the crowd with 90s nostalgia although also beset by some slight technical glitches. Miles Kane ratcheted things up a notch drawing an impressive crowd and treating the crowd to 'Aviation' and 'Standing Next To Me' from The Last Shadow Puppets. This was one a rollicking set and really set the festival up for a grandstand conclusion. Fontaines DC while delivering impressive sound would perhaps have been better suited for a Friday or Saturday evening, their punk-esque sound proving a tad dark for a Sunday evening.
Supergrass proved one of the standouts of the weekend and why they are held in such high regard as a live act delivering a storming set full of tracks from across their 25 plus year career with 'Pumping On Your Stereo' and 'Moving' proving particular standouts and their trademark track 'Alright' sending the crowd into a frenzy. Gaz Coombes voice has aged remarkably with much of the setlist sounding close to the record, Gaz also proved his worth as a lead guitarist.
Royal Blood, from along the South Coast proved a fine capping to a triumphant return to live music delivering a loud and raucous set opening with 'Typhoons' off their recent album and concluding with 'Figure It Out', there was rarely a misstep and an opportunity for Ben Thatcher to cut loose on the drums and solo on 'Little Monster' showing the group are more than just a noise machine. While a tad loud compared to some of the weekend’s other acts Royal Blood more than demonstrated why they are one of the best loved bands in the UK at present and the crowd were thoroughly engrossed.
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Words: Chris Connor
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