Isle Of Wight Festival 16/06/2023 (FRIDAY)

I’m going to write these festival blogs a little differently from normal. I can’t for the life of me find reliable set lists for each artist online, so I will just write about a handful of things I remember from each performance and talk about the time we spent at the festival grounds. A lot of the videos can be found on Sky Arts and YouTube, though some songs were supposedly omitted from the sets which were uploaded online. The Sugababes setlist I came across claims they did songs I don’t remember at all – namely ‘Ugly’, which I was actively listening out for. It’s possible I zoned out since I have the unfortunate habit of doing that sometimes (just ask Paul) but I did actually enjoy seeing them, so it seems unlikely I’d have missed certain songs entirely. Basically, I’m not relying on online sources for this.

Paul and I travelled to The Isle of Wight from London on the 15th, since we had tickets for the 16th and 18th. We took a train from London to Portsmouth and then caught a ferry after grabbing some ice-cream, which took about 45 minutes or so to cross the water. I don’t really trust boats but I haven’t actually had a bad experience on one. I don’t like driving or flying either, so it’s surprising I leave the house as often as I do. The festival opened on the 15th and ran until the morning of the 19th (where people just had to pack up and go home, basically). As far as I could make out, only DJ sets were there on Thursday evening. Not my cup of tea but to each their own. We walked past someone outside Morrisons in Newport who said the festival was jam-packed with people on Thursday, which made me nervous about getting close to the main stage. It was easy in the end, as long as we sacrificed moving again. It was scorching hot, so I was also anxious about waiting around in the heat with limited water. It’s not fun being sandwiched between hundreds of strangers in 25 degree heat but we were lucky to get close to the stage and sit in the shade until the music started at 4pm. Sun-stroke didn’t claim us this time around! I do love the heat as experiencing it is so rare here in the UK but we were both thankful to see rain on Sunday. It felt long overdue. Paul has never enjoyed basking in the sun like I do, even though I don’t tan and risk ending up looking like a lobster every time.

I kept waking up far too early on this trip, at 6am each morning or even earlier. Sorry Paul. Anxiety and excitement got the best of me. Because of this, we had plenty of time to eat and relax before heading out to the festival on Friday. We got there around midday after catching the bus from Newport and, to our surprise, it was still too early to get in! This was confusing as I’d assumed the whole area would be accessible because people were camping there. We got through the first barrier at 1pm and the second at 2pm. Yes, there was a second barrier in place. We had lunch from a noodle stall while we waited and I worked up the courage (thanks to a can of vino) to brave the massively tall “Booster” ride that had been plonked there for people’s stupidity – I mean, enjoyment. I ended up on the undesirable side of it though, as I hoped to see the main stage from the top. The view was still breath-taking, as I could see what seemed like miles of tents and a lake in the distance. I was the only person on my side of the ride, so I ended up going upside down between eight and ten times because of the imbalance. I felt sick afterwards but that didn’t stop me queuing at the brownie stall! When we were waiting in line someone ran up to us and complimented Paul’s Angels & Airwaves t-shirt! I think he was a bit taken aback because the design is quite subtle and you wouldn’t expect many people to be familiar with the band.

We had a look around the main area after 2pm but there wasn’t much to see that differed from what we’d come across before, so we decided to sit by the main stage and wait for The Clause at 4pm. I’d already purchased a hat to stop my neck from burning (I forgot to put sun cream on there as I’m not experienced) and a pink festival t-shirt so there wasn’t anything else I wanted to buy. We are not really “festival people”, if you can’t already tell. We’d seen OneRepublic in London and I thought it would be super exciting to see them a mere two days later. It’s the only two UK shows they’re doing this year, in my defence. My birthday was on the 17th, so we skipped that day of the festival in order to explore the island instead. I didn’t fancy spending my birthday getting pushed around by thousands of drunk festival-goers, as high-spirited as they were. We missed out on George Ezra, The Chemical Brothers and Scouting For Girls amongst others but I didn’t mind too much as there was nobody I hugely anticipated and I’ll see some of these artists again in the future, no doubt. It cost about £100 a ticket per day, or worked out slightly less for a weekend ticket. I’d already purchased day tickets for Friday and Sunday, so it would be complicated to switch them for weekend tickets even if I really wanted to. What also drew me to the festival was being at least somewhat familiar with everyone performing. The band I knew the least (apart from The Clause, who only had a twenty minute slot) was The Courteeners. I bought their ‘St. Jude’ CD a couple weeks beforehand so I could sample them. It’s signed, too! ‘Not Nineteen Forever’ is my favourite and it appears to be their most popular. The beginning of ‘Aftershow’ sounds like the ‘Lavender Town Theme’ to me. I’m sorry that my brain goes there. I do try and take music seriously, I promise.

The Clause bounced onstage at 4pm and I’m glad we decided to see them because they were more our style of music than the pop acts which followed, until OneRepublic. Paul hilariously misremembered their name as “The Crazies”, which still makes me laugh. He also said the frontman (Pearce Mecca) looks like Tom Holland. I couldn’t unsee the resemblance after that. They told us it was their first time performing on the main stage, after having graced the smaller stages throughout the years. They reminded us to support the smaller artists coming to play this festival and said they would be performing on the River Stage on Sunday afternoon. We considered seeing them again but knew we wouldn’t want to lose our good position at the main stage again. He discussed how he’d stare out the window during his 9-5 job and wish to be doing something he loved – and this is it, what they want to do. They proudly announced they are from Birmingham and made me wonder why bands always do that. It might be to advertise possible future gigs (they’re likely to perform there if they live there) or it could be to gain camaraderie if people in attendance are from the same city. Maybe I overthink things. My favourite song of theirs was probably ‘Hate the Player’ as it stood out to me the most at the time. My opinion may change when I listen to them again on Spotify but this one definitely has a memorable chorus and title. Paul ranked them very highly when we listed every band we saw in order, so it would be nice to see them again sometime.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor was next. I always feel a sense of nostalgia when I listen to her songs because they remind me of being a kid watching her music videos on MTV at my best friend’s house. I named one of my guinea-pigs after her, which I guess was a compliment even though it doesn’t sound like one. My other two guinea-pigs were named after one of my favourite Pokemon (Eevee) and one of my favourite drinks (Pepsi), so one of my favourite singers makes perfect sense. Sophie the guinea-pig also had the best hair, which I feel counts for something. I enjoyed her songs and thought the performance was very fun and upbeat. Her voice is pretty and I love that she borrowed the members from The Feeling to play keyboard/guitar etc. The band dressed up as various animals (including a shark, gorilla and a dinosaur) which was funny. I know she is married to Richard Jones from the band and they have several kids together. She briefly chatted about the ‘Kitchen Disco’ project they started during lockdown to sing songs and cheer people up/communicate with loved ones they couldn’t see in person. I remember her talking about it on ‘The Graham Norton Show’. She was curious to see whether anyone in the crowd had tuned in and she did an homage to the online show by singing ‘Like a Prayer’ by Madonna. I expected her to sing ‘Take Me To Church’ by Hozier as she introduced it by saying something like “Now let me take you all to church!” The song was a bit disappointing in comparison but she sang it beautifully and it is one I like. The fact she did mostly covers is a little underwhelming, as I’m gullible and believed ‘Take Me Home’ was originally by her and not Cher until I looked up the set list! My favourite of the bunch was ‘Hypnotized’, which I didn’t know before but is a definite ear-worm.

I was looking forward to Sugababes, since I also have fond memories of their songs from being a kid when I first heard them. It’s not the type of music Paul or I would actively choose to listen to but the songs were fun to hear at the time. I am surprised how pop-centric the line-up for this festival was, with only one or two exceptions. Paul joked that the three men who walked on stage first were the Sugababes, when they were the band members playing drums etc. We knew almost all of the songs, even though we’d forgotten most of them. I know they have quite a large following online and have been touring recently, so I have thought about them recently but never had the urge to go back and re-listen to their songs. The choreography was good but there were a couple of clumsy moments. The crew took the stools out one song early (they used them for ‘Overload’) and the photographer was AWOL when they asked her to take a photo of them with the crowd. Then she proceeded to run onstage the “long way around” instead of simply going up the steps at the front. One woman beside us was so into the songs she didn’t realise a bee almost flew directly into her mouth when she was cheering, which was equally hilarious and terrifying. I didn’t realise until reading about them now that the band members changed a lot throughout the years and Heidi Range was probably a member of the trio when I listened to their songs. They reverted to their original members in 2012, according to Wikipedia. I’m not very good with pop trivia. They appeared to have excellent chemistry, regardless.

OneRepublic burst on to the stage and every time I see them I fall more in love with them. Their energy is unlike anyone else’s I’ve seen (except maybe McFly) and they never fail to deliver. There were a few people wearing OneRepublic t-shirts (including myself) and a woman was singing ‘Counting Stars’ on the bus, which was amazing to hear since so many popular bands were performing at the festival that day. Ryan Tedder told us it was a “weird day” when he was asked to have a zoom call with Tom Cruise about writing a song for the new ‘Top Gun’ movie and explained ‘I Ain’t Worried’ “fell out of the sky” the next day. He said The Isle of Wight is the most beautiful UK island they have been to and kept spirits high by declaring Friday night the best night of a festival (though he may be biased because it’s the night they were there). Paul and I played a game where we guessed which songs they would do and in which order. I was much more invested in the game than Paul was and he cheated by taking a photo of the set list. I believed he guessed the first three songs correctly because I didn’t expect him to ruin the game! We didn’t get any new songs this time around and we got a shorter version of the medley, which was a huge hit and had hundreds of people singing along to some of the most successful songs RT has written for other artists. Paul didn’t think they’d perform ‘Halo’ but I did, since I’d seen videos of them impressing people with it at festivals before. Someone on Twitter said they did ‘Sunshine’ and ‘Run’ at Pinkpop the same weekend but we’d already heard them perform those in Glasgow anyway. Once they were done, I noticed the man beside me was looking up OneRepublic tour dates, so he must have been impressed! But disappointed they aren’t doing any more UK shows, I bet. Me too. The set list got handed to a woman in the front row and she gave it to a random girl a few rows back, saying she doesn’t even know who the band are. Ahem… She should have given it to me! I was wearing their t-shirt!

The Courteeners followed and we were getting exhausted but I wanted to hear them. I usually get tired by the end of concerts but this felt so long by comparison, especially since we’d just seen the band we mainly came for. We were hot and dehydrated but I was excited to hear ‘Not Nineteeen Forever’, which they performed second-last. The band were likeable and full of personality but didn’t move around a whole lot, which made them the complete opposite to OneRepublic. It was like night and day. I really liked the beautiful visuals on the screens which complemented the music and captured the mood perfectly. I vaguely recalled some of the songs from my recent CD purchase but not all of them. They came across as very cool and collected, with the main singer (Liam Fray) wearing dark sunglasses the whole time. I read people complained the crowd weren’t very into the band but that doesn’t seem to be the case when you watch the videos back as lots of people are screaming and jumping around. People were definitely chanting their most well-known tracks. They did a great job leading into Pulp, as their music is of a similar style – a much better match than the eclectic mix of artists beforehand. They said they are always made to feel welcome at the festival and enthused about Pulp being one of their biggest musical influences and how it is an honour to open for them. After hearing them live, I’ve actually been enjoying my CD more – even if the majority of songs didn’t really do anything for me on the night.