‘VARIOUS ARTISTS’ – VICTORIOUS FESTIVAL, SOUTHSEA 23-25.8.24
The UK’s biggest metropolitan festival, ‘Victorious Festival’, is held annually in the stunning seaside location of Southsea overlooking the Solent, near Portsmouth. It is billed as “the ultimate family-friendly festival experience” and this is reflected by the expansive selection of varying music artists across many genres plus an incredible collection of other artists and comedians. The Bank Holiday extravaganza event is held across 13 stages on three days – 23rd, 24th and 25th August 2024.
This year’s headliners were Fatboy Slim, Snow Patrol, Jamie T, & Biffy Clyro. The bumper line-up also included Courteeners, Pixies, Becky Hill, Wet Leg, Idles, Louis Tomlinson and Jess Glynne to name just a few.
So without further ado, we get down to business…………
DAY ONE – FRIDAY 23RD AUGUST
This is article one of three and concentrates on the happenings on Day One. Day Two’s account can be found HERE and Day Three’s account can be found HERE.
RAZORLIGHT – Common Stage (1:15pm – 2:00pm)
Due to encountering a flooded bathroom upon arrival at my accommodation, I only arrive at ‘Victorious’ in time to see Razorlight’s last song of their set. It just happens to be ‘America’ which is my least favourite song of their entire back catalogue. Still it’s a good rendition, so I can’t complain too bitterly. Johnny Borrell is still doing his utmost to be the ultimate rock star, with his shirt open to show his apparently gym fit torso. The current version of the band is a reunion of the line-up that recorded their second and third albums. They’re on tour later in the year, playing Brighton Komedia on 22nd October and Brixton Academy on 21st November. Hopefully I’ll get there in time to see their whole set!
THE MURDER CAPITAL – Common Stage (2:30pm – 3:00pm)
Next up are The Murder Capital, who like Razorlight are at the Common Stage, which is effectively the main stage. The band give their customary energetic performance, but don’t give off their usual menacing vibe. Maybe that’s because they’re playing in daylight. I must confess that I’m surprised at how far down the bill they are. I thought they’d be higher up. It’s a short set so naturally it’s stuffed full of their best material. Before ‘Heart In The Hole’ a roadie chucks a tambourine to vocalist James McGovern, who’s standing stage centre. He catches it effortlessly whilst barely looking in the direction from which it came. Cool as. The set ends with the now classic ‘Don’t Cling To Life’. For anyone here who hasn’t seen the band before, it’s a fine introduction.
THE ROYSTON CLUB – Castle Stage (3:05pm – 3:35pm)
I now walk the 0.8 miles (my colleague Jessica has measured the distance) from the Common Stage to the Castle Stage for The Royston Club, who are from Wrexham. This explains the number of Red Dragon flags in the crowd, plus the Welsh flag on guitarist Ben Matthias’s mic stand. They start with recent single ‘The Patch Where Nothing Grows’. Vocalist Tom Faithfull’s guitar cuts out halfway through the song, only for the sound to be miraculously restored as the song ends. “The magic of live music” as he puts it. Tom invites us to “have a bit of a boogie”. Few take him up on the offer. It’s probably a bit early in the day. I saw The Royston Club earlier this year supporting Miles Kane at Brighton’s Concorde 2, (see above photo) where I observed “They’re a very good live band too – highly recommended”. I was impressed then, and they’re no less impressive today. They have gigs in October and November, but none down south unfortunately.
PEACE – Castle Stage (4:05pm – 4:35pm)
I stay where I am for Peace, who are a three piece from Worcester. They currently comprise brothers Harry Koisser on guitar and Sam Koisser on bass. They have a drummer who I presume only joins them for live dates. They’ve been around quite a while, having formed in 2009, but this is the first time that I’ve seen them. They were on hiatus from 2018 until last year. Their music is punchy, funky indie with dollops of psychedelia on the side. The drummer has ‘Boycie’ emblazoned on his bass drum skin, so I guess that’s his name! The material is varied, and they’re certainly versatile as a band. The last song has a great instrumental middle section which reminds me of why I like three piece bands so much – there’s plenty of room for the musicians to do interesting stuff, which Peace certainly do! Obviously resuming operations last year has been a bit of a rebirth for them. More power to their collective elbows!
LOTTERY WINNERS – Common Stage (5:05pm – 5:50pm)
I trek back to the Common Stage for the Lottery Winners. They’re a four piece from Leigh in Greater Manchester. Vocalist Thom Rylance is quite a comedian, which after a while becomes a bit wearing. He does a quite convincing Freddie Mercury impersonation. However, shut up and play yer guitar!!! Admittedly, he doesn’t strap on a guitar until the second song, but still… There seems to be a lot of piano on the backing track, which is slightly annoying. The rhythm section of Katie Lloyd on bass and Joe Singleton is sufficiently meaty-sounding as not to really need a recorded piano bashing out chords. The first two songs ‘Worry’ and ‘The Meaning Of Life’ are quite poppy, but that’s okay, as they’re well played. Thom is a bit overwhelmed by how many people are there to see them. Obviously their reputation precedes them! Thom tells us all about his ADHD prior to ‘Letter To Myself’, which is addressed to his twelve year old self. It’s really good! It’s a tuneful singalong with a serious message. ‘Much Better’ has a fab McCartneyesque bass line courtesy of Katie Lloyd, then they play a jokey cover of ‘Chasing Cars’ by Snow Patrol (more of whom later) before going into their own ‘You’re Not Alone’, which is actually a far better song. For ‘Start Again’ they’re joined by Thom’s brother Tristram on guitar. Tristram apparently produces their albums. It’s quite rocky and is probably the best song in the set. Thom films the last song ‘Burning House’. I must confess that I started off watching the Lottery Winners’ set not being too impressed with them, and ended up really liking them. There aren’t many bands that turn me around in 30-40 minutes! They play Dingwalls in Camden on 14th September.
IDLES – Common Stage (6:10pm – 7:00pm)
Idles play in daylight at the Common Stage, which is very considerate of them as it means that I don’t have to walk anywhere. Idles are another band who I would have expected to have been higher up the bill. Singer Joe Talbot greets the crowd with “bore da” which is Welsh for good morning. Indeed, he addresses the crowd in a number of different languages throughout the set, including the occasional smattering of English. Truly he is a man of the world: an internationalist. First song ‘Colossus’ begins with a squall of feedback, then rumbles slowly before properly taking off. Opening songs don’t get much better. ‘Gift Horse’ has a high velocity from the start, and features guitarist Mark Bowen crowd-surfing whilst still playing. Guitarist Lee Kiernan pulls off the same trick later in the set. During ‘Mr Motivator’ Joe Talbot yells “f*ck the King!!!” which is a bit naughty. Joe also yells “viva Palestino!” more than once. They play ‘Never Fight A Man With A Perm’, which not only has one of my favourite song titles of all time, but is also one of my favourite songs! They finish with ‘Rottweiler’, which Joe introduces as an “anti-fascist song”. All of the best songs are, Joe. There’s a superb instrumental section in this song which features Joe on a small drum kit, and then having a drum duet with drummer Jon Beavis. This has been a superb set, although being far too short! I make no bones about it: Idles are one of my favourite bands, and are certainly one of the best live bands around today.
SNOW PATROL – Common Stage (7:40pm – 8:50pm)
Snow Patrol, who play the Common Stage tonight, are a band who, in my opinion, started off really well, and then became increasingly disappointingly dull. Maybe as an attempt to illustrate their career trajectory, they start off with ‘You’re All I Have’. This is one of their rockier songs and momentarily fills me with hope for the rest of the set. It’s a false dawn however. ‘Take Back The City’ is good though, and is a reminder of just how good a frontman Gary Lightbody is, even if he is wearing an ill-advised headband. It’s nowhere near as bad as the one worn by Mark Knopfler in the mid 1980s. Inevitably ‘Chocolate’ is wheeled out mid-set. The whole crowd sings it. It really is quite a dull song, which is probably why the world and his wife like it so much. Having said that – I wish I’d written it! They play a new song from their forthcoming album ‘The Forest Is The Path’. It’s medium paced and not too bad. Another new song is co-written by the forthcoming album’s producer, Fraser T Smith. It’s also mid-paced and not unpleasant. It’s a bit plodding and sounds like it was written with drive time radio in mind. I expect that in years to come the choruses of both of these songs will be being bellowed by crowds in arenas and stadia throughout the world. Make no mistake, Snow Patrol are really good at what they do, but what they do is shift units and fill arenas. I can’t help suspecting that their focus is on commercial success with art being only a passing concern. Maybe one day they’ll prove me wrong by making a really artistically challenging and interesting record. They have the ability. I hope they do it. It won’t be the album that they’re recording at the moment though. They dedicate ‘Chasing Cars’ to Idles, “one of the best rock bands in the last ten years” (correct, Gary), and to Fatboy Slim. Well, that’s nice.
FATBOY SLIM – Common Stage (9:35pm – 10:55pm)
So, we move on to Fatboy Slim. I must confess, I’m not particularly taken with superstar DJs. However, I really liked ‘You’ve Come A Long Way Baby’, and the singles that came from it. Judging by the records that he samples, Norman Cook clearly has excellent musical taste. I wonder whether the excellence of Fatboy’s records can really translate into the live arena. After all, it’s just a geezer playing records right? Wrong. Very, very wrong. A friend of mine recently told me that Fatboy puts on “a fantastic show”. So, I really had to find out what all the fuss was about. Early signs aren’t good. There’s Fatboy up there with all his gear, and a couple of screens. Okay, this might be interesting for ten minutes or so, but is it going to hold my attention for over an hour? As it turns out – yes it will!!! He starts with something of an overture featuring bits of ‘Praise You’ and ‘The Rockafeller Skank’. The show is effectively on the screens, with non-stop videos that are synchronised with the music. Sometimes the screens show Fatboy lip-synching with the vocals, both sung and spoken word. The crowd are part of the show too, because everybody gets into it. You can’t not!!! Lemmy may have said that “DJs aren’t musicians, they just play records”, but this performance is undeniably art. Does this show actually constitute live music? That’s debatable. It is, however, an incredible spectacle. There are lasers and pyrotechnics towards the end. The show finishes with an elongated ‘The Rockafeller Skank’ featuring the riff from The Rolling Stones’ ‘Satisfaction’ plus a dash of the Ramones’ ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’. The whole shebang ends with ‘The End’ by The Beatles, and of course, fireworks! It’s been utterly brilliant. I was blown away. Never seen anything quite like it. Possibly not a damascene moment, but close!
‘Victorious Festival’ will return next year! The dates for your diary are 22nd to 24th August 2025. Tickets are on sale now and the various options can be viewed HERE.
The Brighton & Hove News team attended the 2023 and 2022 ‘Victorious Festivals’. You can read and enjoy our reviews below:
