Are you foo-kin ready?
Foo Fighters: A+
Most likely to… have a random man parachute over the main stage. Yes, this actually happened.
“Are you ready to rock?” Dave Grohl yelled, inciting a seismic shift in the crowd, prior to opening with ‘The Pretender’. It was a three hour rock marathon which saw them belt out tons of classics, spanning from their 1995 debut to 2017’s Concrete and Gold. There were a few rogue moments. During ‘Learning to Fly’, a man parachuted across the stage, whilst Grohl’s daughter, Violet, shared the stage for an emotional duet of ‘My Hero’. The crowd sang in sync, as Grohl and his daughter slowed the atmosphere down whilst in embrace. The whole show was the epitome of rock n’ roll showmanship. Dave Grohl has still got it.
The 1975: A
Most likely to… have matched the aesthetic and ordering of each song with the colour of the sunset at each point in the night.
Playing a healthy mix of both new and old material, Matty Healy & Co were class; whether you’re a die-hard fan, or don’t know a single tune, and refer to them as The 1984 as my dad irritatingly does, they put on a show. Upbeat and energetic for the most part, they slowed the electric atmosphere down and poured a bucket of nostalgia over the crowd, playing ‘Robbers’ and ‘Fallingforyou’. And anyway, perhaps Matty’s substantial speech on our climate crisis slightly compensates for his unrighteous pretentiousness. Anyhow – musically and visually, they were breathtaking.
The Night Café: B
Most likely to… go for a pint with you after their set
Half an hour is simply not enough for these fellas… Having earned a loyal following, most prominently in their home town of Liverpool (up the reds!), the tent was packed with other scousers who were anticipatedly discussing what tracks they’d end up playing. Starting with material from their new album, which was released the day before their set – and which you can read about here – the crowd gently lulled together until they reached more familiarly upbeat songs such as ‘Mixed Signals’, before eventually slowing it down for the first song they ever released, ‘Addicted’ – clearly a favourite within the crowd. This invited the crowd to sway along contentedly and take a moment to appreciate just how far they’ve come since releasing the single back in 2015.
Let’s Eat Grandma: B
Most likely to… sack off school to write music
Amidst breathy vocals and humming sounds lies their relatable lyricism centering around the frustrations of teenage life. Their tracks had the crowd swaying and nodding; probably as a signifier of their agreement with ventings about youthful vexations, and also as a product of them being in awe of their sheer whimsicalness. More uptempo tracks such as ‘It’s Not Just Me’ induced a lively ripple in the audience; summoning a plethora of dancing, singing, and endless grins. Sludge-pop never sounded so good.
Blossoms: C
Most likely to… be the mute at the back.
Donning a crowd-pleasing set list which seamlessly compromised old timey classics such ‘’Honey Sweet’ with songs from their slightly more electronic sounding second album Cool Like You, waves of synth and undertones of psychedelia streamed through the fields in front of the main stage; highlighting the band’s signature sound, which is definitely more prominently executed when performed live. They didn’t really connect with the audience, though. It was more a systematic run through of a sensible mix of their older and newer stuff, rather than a show. Still, it was fun, and when it concluded with ‘Charlemagne’, an undoubted Blossoms classic, it left the crowd in an indie frenzy amongst the several smoke bombs which were set off at once.
Sundara Karma: B
Most likely to… get you up on someone’s shoulders
Effortlessly cool and lightheartedly electric. ‘Higher States’ opened their set as pints were lobbed across the tent, and more smoke bombs streamed through the stuffy air. A collective highlight of their set was ‘Flame’ – a dynamic singalong was initiated after an almighty chant of the intro. The same energy returned through the performance of the deeply rooted favourite ‘She Said’, as the crowd indulged in synchronised swaying and the faithful echoing of every single lyric. They were probably the coolest kids to take the Radio 1 stage.
The Hunna: D
Most likely to… be the first indie band you heard when you were 14, which was the root cause of your teenage shift into wearing solely funky shirts and black jeans.
Confident and on the surface cool, they probably would’ve been more likely to garner more of a reaction if they were a band who actually sufficed in terms of originality. Despite accumulating a massive following on social media, to me, it seems like there’s no real cohesion to their sound. Yes, they’ve raked up the views and hundreds of thousands of listens, but their stage presence is boring; nothing worthy of excitement, despite igniting a desperately needed sense of dynamism during the most recognised tracks, She’s Casual’ and ‘Bonfire’. Painfully mediocre and distinctively unimaginative, it was a definite no from me.
