Leeds Festival 23rd to 25th Aug 2019 bramham park

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The Gods were clearly smiling down on this year’s Leeds festival as the problem for once wasn’t trying to dry out and avoid mud slides. 

This year the updates throughout the weekend were to keep hydrated, as Leeds and the rest of the country basked in record high temperatures.

The annual post GCSE blowout saw record attendances throughout the festival and all seven stages were rammed to capacity all day, every day. Many trying to get some shade from the blistering heat no doubt!

The beauty of Leeds festival is that it doesn’t specialise in any one musical genre, so even the pickiest of attendees would find something to enjoy. You could even spend your time watching comedians at the alternative stage if wish.

Friday night headliners were The Foo Fighters who delivered an epic two-and-a-half-hour set, which was basically their greatest hits show, and the crowds absolutely loved every minute of it. Highlights included the duet with his daughter Violet, on ‘My Hero’ and whilst hammering out ‘Learning to Fly’ bizarrely the crowd spent much of the time watching a man on a gyrocopter fly over the crowd.

As seems to be the norm these days, Dave Grohl then got a Freddie Mercury lookalike out of the audience to join them in a rocky version of ‘Under Pressure’. The band aren’t afraid to embrace that traditional rock death section otherwise known as a drum solo and Taylor Hawkins just about got away with a 10 minute thrash of the kit which had risen majestically up into the air, (pure Spinal Tap really).

The thing you need to bear in mind about this, and indeed all festivals is that you ain’t going to see all the bands, unless you plan your weekend with military precision, and so during the Foo Fighters we went over to the dance tent to catch Denis Sulta deliver a set which included clever mixing of a lot of old school dance tunes from the 70’s and 80’s. 

Then it was back to catch the end The Foo Fighters and a spectacular firework display to cap it all off. 

Saturday saw more scorching weather with main stage headliners The 1975 delivering a politically charged set with climate change and Dubai’s dubious stance on gays being addressed front and centre. 

Sadly, it would be remiss of me not to say that Saturday was somewhat overshadowed by the death of a 17-year-old, who at the time of writing this review appeared to have taken a lethal combination of drugs. This is despite repeated warnings by the festival that low life’s were selling drugs that were apparently 2 to 3 times the normal strength. 

Sunday saw more Saharan weather and there’s no getting away from the fact that the highlight of the day for many, was the set from Billie Eilish. 

Organisers wisely moved her planned set from the Radio 1 stage across to the main stage, and observers noted that there seemed to be more people there than for any other band throughout the whole weekend. 

Still only 17 years old, there’s little doubt that she will he headlining this stage, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see her do this next year! For many people, the 40-minute set was the highpoint of the weekend and the sheer number of people in front of the stage seemed to confirm this. 

Sunday night was topped off by the return of Post Malone who continues to go from strength to strength. The owner of a genuinely good voice his trap/rap style proved to be a great way to end the weekend and his current offering ‘Goodbyes’is still for me one of the best singles of the year so far. 

Hot weather and huge crowds ever ensured that this year’s festival was once again a huge success and the eclectic nature of the bands throughout the weekend ensured that there was always something for everyone. 

Tickets for 2020 are on sale right now, and there’s no doubt there won’t be a problem shifting them!

https://www.leedsfestival.com/news/2020-tickets

Back in his home town, Sting along with Shaggy delivered an energetic and powerful set to a near capacity audience who loved every minute of it.

The combination of Sting and Shaggy is a curious one, clearly good friends, they recently released the 44/876 album and promptly set off on a tour around the globe. It’s a union that on the face of it shouldn’t work, but on stage there is no doubt that it actually does. 

Whilst the set leans very much towards Sting/Police material, Shaggy gets chance to perform his material, and the Oh Carolina/We’ll Be Together section works especially well. As Sting points out on stage, Shaggy shamelessly flogs his new album ‘’Wah Gwaan?!’ released on the 10thMay, and the brings out Canadian singer Alexander Stewart to perform on ‘You’ which has a Dancehall groove which gets the whole crowd moving. 

At one point before ‘Crooked Tree’ from the 44/876 album, Shaggy dons a judges wig, and goes into full on panto mode sentence Sting who obligingly wears the obligatory stripy burglar shirt!

One of the many highlights was the appearance of the Newcastle Voices of Virtue Gospel Choir on stage for a rousing rendition of ‘If You Love Somebody’ which quite literally raised the roof in the way that only a Gospel choir can do. 

Time is being kind to Sting as well, his voice is still as good as ever, and a band as tight as and the crowd are loving every minute of it. The reworked version of ‘Englishman in New York’ is an absolute treat, and ‘Walking On The Moon’ sounds as good as it ever.

‘Roxanne’ with its familiar opening chords is wildly received by the crowd and them morphs into Shaggys ‘Boombastic’ which wasn’t exactly to my taste to be honest, but I suspect I was in the minority with that view. Keep them separate as far as I’m concerned!

The Police classic ‘Can’t Stand Losing You’ confirms that a good tune will always stand the test of time and this sounded as good as ever, with Shaggy prowling around the stage encouraging the crowd to go a little nuts.

Of course the night wouldn’t be complete without ‘Every Breath You Take’ and closing track ‘Next To You’ which brought the evening to an absolute barnstorming finish.

These days in the UK it’s apparently not very cool to like Sting, and you could argue with some merit that the can occasionally be his own worst enemy, but here is an artist still at the top of his game, the tunes clearly stand the test of time. 

It’s clear that both he and Shaggy are having a great time on this tour, the audiences lap up every minute of it it’s great fun, and as far as I’m concerned there’s nothing wrong with that. 

Any guesses on who Sting will be touring with next time? 

Setlist:

• 44/876
• Morning is Coming
• Englishman in New York
• Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
• Oh Carolina/We’ll be Together
• If You Can’t Find Love
• Message In a Bottle
• You
• Brand New Day
• Waiting For The Break Of Day
• Gotta Get Back My Baby
• If You Love Somebody Set Them Free
• Don’t Make Me Wait
• Angel
• Dreaming In The USA
• Crooked Tree
• Shape Of My Heart
• Walking On The Moon
• So Lonely/Strength Of A Woman
• Roxanne/Boombastic
• Can’t Stand Losing You
• Desert Rose
• It Wasn’t Me
• Every Breath You Take

Next To You 

Bingley Weekender, the festival that very nearly didn’t happen!

For several years, this event has been held at the local Myrtle Park and in recent years had been run by the local council. Sadly the council decided in their infinite wisdom that they weren’t going to run the event in 2019, primarily due to laughably bad reasons, that have already been well documented elsewhere.

The announcement from the council didn’t actually come until the end of April, and with only 4 months left to organise something it was assumed that 2019 wasn’t going to happen!

However…..

Bingley rugby Club stepped into the breech, said that they would run the whole event on their grounds, and despite only having a short time to get what usually takes the best part of a year to arrange, it has to be said that given the timeframe they were working to, they achieved what seemed on the face of it, nigh on impossible, and what a great weekend it was.

Headliners this year, were Ocean Colour Scene, The Doves and on Sunday night bringing the weekend to a close, festival stalwarts James. In addition to the main stage there were also 2 additional stages, New Music and Discovery stages, and with over 50 bands on across all three stages over the weekend, there was something for everyone.

And so it was that come Friday 30th Aug, Bingley festival was once again open for business, and first band on the Discovery Stage it was Saint Agnes who set the tone for the weekend with a blistering opening set, and Kitty Arrabella Austen menacingly prowled the stage fronting the loud and rocky band who deserve a slot on the main stage if they come back next year.

Then it was over to the main stage to catch the back end of the set from Liverpool born Louis Berry and his indie acoustic set was well received by the rapidly increasing crowd.

Staying with the main stage, Gang of Four were up next and having gone through several lineup changes over the years, they still sounded as good as ever with their punk/dance fusion kind of crossover style. 

Energy levels then went up several notches with the arrival of The Idles, who are an absolute dream to photograph! From Bristol and formed in 2009, their live performances are rapidly becoming legendary, not only for their punk/Indie style, but visually you can’t take your eyes of them. Frontman Joe Talbot prowls the stage and guitarist Mark Bowen proceeds to perform the set in his boxers only and clearly loves a bit of crowd participation, at one point having a bit of a surf over the crowd! 

A tough act to follow, but that’s exactly what Ocean Colour Scene had to do, and the crowd loved the closing set of day one and classics, ‘The Riverboat Song’ and ‘The Day We caught The train’ ensured that everyone headed off into the night happy and thankfully dry.

Day 2 and highlight of the day for me was Tom Grennan who had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand.

Unfortunately Craig Charles had to cancel his Funk and Soul set, simply because the decks he needed hadn’t been sent to the venue, and to be fair to him, he did come out on stage to apologise to all, explain what happened, and hopefully he will be back next year, complete with decks!

Over on the Discovery stage singer songwriter Zuzu and her 3 piece band delivered a stylish guitar pop set, and is certainly someone who could be destined for great things, based on the set I saw. Over on the New Music stage, Apollo Junction were on great form and got the crowd involved at every opportunity with their infectious dance/Indie crossover style.

As I mentioned earlier in this article, with the three stages, there was always something for everyone, and back on the main stage The Marsicans were followed by Circa Waves who were real crowd favourites.

Tom Grennan then took to the stage and to be honest he was the act many people had actually come to see on Saturday. From the start he didn’t disappoint and he had the crowd bouncing along with ‘Found what I’ve been looking for’ being just one of highlights of his set. 2019 has been a great year for him, and 2020 could be even better at this rate. Wasn’t too sure about the shell suit look though.

Headliners The Doves brought day 2 to a close with their epic indie wall of sound. Clearly their 8 year break hasn’t done them any harm at all and since reforming earlier this year they are now back on the tour trail and new material is on the way!

Day 2 had more or less gone off without a hitch and into the final day we went with the sun shining!

Sadly this is England and the occasional shower did decide to pay us a visit during the day but this didn’t put the crowds off at all.

As Ten Tonnes otherwise known as Ethan Barnett, took to the stage the heavens immediately opened, but this didn’t deter the crowds from enjoying his Indie guitar breezy style delivery. By the way, he does have a famous lightly older brother, which I will leave you to find out for yourselves who it is!

Over on the Discover stage, Patawawa, Rothwell and Anteros kept the crowds entertained, and these three bands certainly deserve a slot on the main stage if the opportunity arises in the future.

Billy Bragg on the main stage was another genuine highlight of the day and it was good to see that time has not stunted his passion and social values. It’s been many years since I’ve seen him on stage and his back catalogue just gets better and better. 

Miles Kane is gaining a sizeable following these days, and on the performance today it’s easy to see why. His swaggering rock n roll style was perfect for the main stage and if you get chance to catch him on his tour later this year I would urge you to take it.

80’ stalwarts Echo and The Bunnymen arrived on stage and sadly they weren’t allowing any photo access for their set, but this certainly didn’t detract from their performance with original members Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant both in fine form. 

All too quickly it was time for the closing act of the weekend, and of course James didn’t disappoint. Still releasing new material, they are and continue to be a huge festival attraction, with front man Tim Booth working both the stage and the crowd to great effect. 30 years later their still releasing new material to critical acclaim, and it seemed quite fitting that James who have become Bingley regulars should bring the weekend to an epic close.

I can’t over emphasise what a magnificent job Bingley rugby Club and all associated with this event did in getting this years festival up and running it what seemed like an impossible time frame.

They deserve much credit and indeed as I write this article I can confirm that Bingley Weekender 2020 has just been announced, and it’ll be on the 4th to 6th Sept 2020, and tickets are on sale right now.

Think it’s safe to say we’re all looking forward to it already!!