Live Review

Isle Of Wight Festival 2012 – Isle Of Wight

• 29th Jun 2012

Acts We Managed To Catch:

The Stranglers and Primal Scream (Thursday)
Elbow and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (Friday)
Madness and Pearl Jam (Saturday)
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Bruce Springsteen and The Darkness (Sunday)

With no Glastonbury on show this year, festivals up and down the country this festival season are trying to capitalize on this opportunity to attract the crowds.

Isle of Wight did just that, by not only pushing their dates back to what could have possibly been dates for Glasto this year, they secured three huge headline acts: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Pearl Jam and The Boss himself: Bruce Springsteen.

However, no one knew what was to take place though on the Thursday. Yes I know you know, you saw it on the news, heard it on the radio, heard it in your local butchers, and if you want one’s own experience of the travelling to the festival on that horrendous Thursday, it was in one word: painful.

After departing the ferry at 9:30am (Yes, that early!) we set off on a 5.4 mile journey to the campsite, only to the shock and utter mind-boggling fact that the 5.4 mile journey in-fact took six and a half hours. Yup the same amount of time it would have taken to fly from London to New York City.

And yet amongst all this chaos, a great festival was taking place and that was all that mattered.

Thursday night was a great way to kick things off and turn those glum, drenched faces into happy, eager people ready to start the weekend and who else better than The Stranglers and Primal Scream. Both bands offered music that appealed to hardcore fans and fans who would easily recognise their most well known tunes, and before you knew it, whilst on your way back to the campsite, the thought that you had spent half your day in your car squashed by all your gear went out the window and the fact that you were at a rocking festival kicked and you were ready to take it on.

When Friday rolled round, as said, the mood was finally in place, the weather again was all over the place but luckily it was the day that it did not rain and why not, because one of Britain’s best live bands were playing that evening: Elbow. Guy Garvey may I just add (the front-man of Elbow) is a true well polished front-man, he knows how to interact with the crowd as it showed when he sung to the crowd: “Traffic in cars holding me back / Here we are, getting p****d”. Grounds for Divorce, Lippy Kids and their closing song One Day Like This were the highlights of the set and again proved why the band are one of Britain’s greatest musical assets as this present time.

Classic rocker Tom Petty closed the evening with a strong set, filled with all his greatest hits which everyone in the crowd knew of and got behind the old rocker who brought the evening to a chirpy and calm end.

As Saturday rolled round, there was almost a new feeling in the air, acts for the day included Tinie Tempah, Labrinth, Jessie J and Madness. Acts that young and old had heard of and were eager to see and proved to be a long day for the festival attendees. Madness in particular proved why practically anyone would enjoy their set and why they are such a solid act to have for any festival as they provided a set that young and old would enjoy and they did.

The main attraction (for me personally) was Pearl Jam that evening, after just finishing two shows in Manchester days prior to their headline show, there were a lot of old school grunge fans in the crowd as well as (I.E me) new fans who appreciated and were ready to get their first sight of one of the longest going and amazing live bands out there – Pearl Jam. Their set included old and new with a fantastic and almost well improvised cover of The Beatles’ tune “Rain” almost on cue when the rain started to fall down on the Isle of Wight once again, but this time people weren’t frustrated, they were enjoying it as Pearl Jam rocked on through the night.

After a horrendous night of rain and wind, the sun cracked open as Noel Gallagher and his High Flying Birds took the stage for the former Oasis songwriter’s first UK Festival appearance this year. With his well acclaimed new solo album hits included in his set as well as well known Oasis tunes, Mr. Gallagher put on a fine show, despite having a flare thrown on stage during his final number ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’.

The Boss then took to the stage to close the festival, with his well organised and superb E-Street band behind him, Mr. Springsteen stomped and ran his way up and down the set along with taking a few trips to the front of crowd and wearing one lucky Festival attendant’s hat (not sure if he ever got it back!), the Boss played all his classic hits, bringing the festival to a glorious end and ending it all on a high by doing a loud and thumping cover of ‘Twist and Shout’ along with fireworks and the craziness that you associate with festivals.

Despite the six hour gridlocks, the muddy and treacherous conditions, the weekend was a joy to be at, the acts there were well picked and offered something to everyone, the disappointment and anger of the travelling were long gone out the window and I am pretty sure the people coming home are full of happy faces and celebration after a wonderful weekend.

Rating: 4/5