Summer Festival Guide

Iron Maiden Review at Sonisphere 2014

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Stamping his mark early today Bruce Dickinson flew his WW1 plane around the festival which hypnotized the crowd, this surly got Sonisphere ready for Iron Maiden's two hour set. Different to the spitfire flying across at last years Download although this year Bruce flew himself. Iron Maiden tops worn by every other person today proved the people of Sonisphere were very excited about this set. The bands opening started with the screens showing ice burgs which had a link to there wintery stage set visuals. "Start Moon Child" kicked off the set and kicked off the crowd as well. Backdrops were different to each song and signature Eddie appeared in his few different forms. One being with his head blow off and fire coming out to top off Iron Maiden's, Iron Maiden. A few other of their hits kept the crowd engaged from the start to finish of the set; 'Can I Play With Madness', 'Aces High', 'Seven Sun of the Seven Suns' and lastly but certainly not least, 'Sanctuary'. Fire, bright lights, sparks and fireworks fled the stage all the way though the set making it even more spectacular than it was. The bands image was interesting as they wore there own merchandise tops so they pretty much matched the crowd. Nearly everyone was singing along, even children which proves Iron Maiden's legacy to carry on this timeless, classic band to even noughties / teenies kids. This by far was he best performance seen at Sonisphere so far, can anyone else pull this off on Sunday?

Photo courtesy of Sonisphere

Rudimental and Kanye West review at Wireless 2014 – Saturday

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As Saturday rolls around, its been raining overnight in London but as the afternoon hits, the clouds slowly make way for sun as we hit Finsbury Park for Wireless Festival again.  As Drake cancelled, Kanye West will once again headline the London leg of Wireless and after yesterdays performance, we were hoping he might take note of the negative reviews and change things up today.

Running slightly late, a jewel encrusted mask wearing Kanye West kicks off with “Black Skinhead” and then into “I Don’t Like”.  Kanye changes things up to pay tribute to Drake who can’t be here and his deejay spins out a few Drake hits which go down really well with the public of whom most are disappointed is not here.  Kanye continues hit performance and his set is almost a replica of Friday night and we await the moment he begins his daily rant.  As “Clique” kicks in, Kanye once again pauses for a moment before telling the crowd about his issues with the media and how they portray him.  He then proceed’s to tell the crowd that they are “his clique”, and the music thunders back in as Yezzy finishes up this “Clique” verse.  There was a pattern occurring as Kanye belts through “Can’t tell me nothing”, “New Slaves”, “Power”, “Stronger” & “Runaway”.  Its at this point on Friday night Kanye kicked off his rant and the crowd was praying that he didn’t.  However this is Kanye West and he does what he wants, regardless of the boos which can surely be heard up on the stage.  As I stand by, numerous crowd goers begin to filter out stating, “I can’t believe he is doing it again”.

For me personally, the festival stage is not made for Kanye West, his sets belong in an arena.  At a time when thousands have paid to hear good music, the last thing they want to deal with is a 10 minute rant.

Rant over Kanye West, he smashes through hits, “Diamonds from Sierra Leone”, “Jesus Walks”, “Touch the Sky”, “All of the Lights” & “Bound 2”.

Overall minus the rant, you can’t knock the performance that Kanye gives, its energetic and the crowd join in to rap and sing on all his songs.

The rest of the Wireless day is packed full of massive artists and we managed to catch Rudimental, Wiz Khalifa, Labrinth, Azealia Banks and more.

London’s own Rudimental brought their full stage production to the Wireless main stage and as the sun shone down on London, the lads from London trawled through their hits “Give You Up”, “Right Here”, “Free” and their massive smash hit “Feel the love”.  Special guests John Newman and Ella Eyre joined the Rudimental boys on stage for “Not Giving In” and “Waiting All Nite” respectively.

Photo courtesty of Wireless Festival – Andrew Whitton

Wiz Khalifa brought his typical cool stage presence to the main stage and had heads bopping for the hour long set as he entertained the crowd with “Bout Me”, “Man of the Year”, “”GangBang”, “Roll Up”, “We Own It”, “Young Wild and Free” and crowd hitter “Black and Yellow”.

Another local London lad, Labrinth always knows how to work the crowd and he did just that at Finsbury Park.  Always dressed to impress, Lab’s biggest tracks of the day are “Let the Sun Shine”, “Earthquake” and “Beneath Your Beautiful”.

Over in the Pepsi Max stage, the likes of Knife Party and Pretty Lights bring draw the electronic dance music fans to the tent.  The Boombox stage also hosts D&B artist Wilkinson, as well as All About She, and girl group M.O.

So another day at Wireless Festival is over, and with Bruno Mars and Outkast to headline tomorrow there is still a hell of a lot to look forward to.  See you in the park tomorrow!

Photo courtesy of Wireless Festival – Rachael Wright

Pharrell & Kanye West close out Friday at Wireless Festival 2014

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Wireless Festival returned to London to host another set of superstar artists at this ever popular UK Festival.  Taking place over two locations this year, the other being Birmingham, the 2014 edition of Wireless organised a huge set of headliners including Kanye West, Pharrell, Drake, Bruno Mars and Outkast.

However due to a last minute cancellation, Wireless fans were disapointed to learn that Canadian hip hop mega star Drake was not going to perform to due health reasons preventing him from travelling to the UK.  Not to worry however as Kanye West agreed to headline both Friday and Saturday in London whilst Rudimental would play an extended performance in Birmingham.

London turned on the weather for Friday and the main stage hosted Foxes, Iggy Azalea, Tinie Tempah, Pharrell Williams and Kanye West.

Kanye West's return to London drew a sellout crowd in the new home of Wireless, Finsbury Park.  The sound of barking dogs signals “Black Skinhead” from West’s latest album Yeezus.  As the sun began to set a silver masked Kanye appears on the stage with the crowd giving him a huge cheer.   Taking control of the stage, Kanye moves straight into hits “On Sight”, “I Don’t Like” and then his massive anthem from last year “Mercy”.

Photo courtesy of Wireless Festival – Andrew Whitton

It wouldn’t be a Kanye performance without a bit of banter and a message to the crowd stating that the media are unfair and portray him in a negative way.  As the boo’s start to arise through the crowd, he says to the Wireless crowd “You guys are my clique” and then belts out “Clique” immediately drowning out the boo’s with the crowd singing his chorus.

Going through his back catalogue, notable tracks, “Stronger”, “Nigga’s In Paris”, “Run this town” and more keep the Yezzy fans happy as the sky turns grey and a few drops of rain start to fall.

Kanye’s pulling power and popularity is notable visible as the majority of the 40,000 crowd watch his set, but his mid performance rants don’t help the festival crowd and you visibly notice that they start filtering out.  Kanye will head back to the Wireless Main Stage tomorrow so lets see what he has to offer up then!

Before Kanye took to the stage, Pharrell performed to a massive crowd whist the sun was shining down on London town.  Complete with his trademark hat, white tee and jeans, his performance is well received performing numerous tracks from his latest album Girl and a number of collaborations he has done through the year.  Kicking off with “Lose yourself to dance”, Pharrell had the crowd singing the whole hour and it was only appropriate that he ended with “Happy”.  The similes of the fans said it all, well done Pharrell!

Pharrell Williams Wireless Festival 4th July Tracklist:

  • Lose yourself to dance
  • Come get it Bae
  • Frontin
  • Hunter
  • Larilyn Monroe
  • Hot In Here
  • Jump Jump
  • Rockstar
  • Lapdance
  • She wants to move
  • Beautiful
  • Drop it like its hot
  • Know who you are
  • Hollaback Girl
  • Blurred Lines
  • Get Lucky
  • Happy

Photo courtesy of Wireless Festival – Scott Salt

Tinie Tempah also gave an explosive set, but what else do you expect from one of the UK’s biggest artists.  Tracks performed from both Disc-Overy and Demonstration showed that there is a reason this is Tinie’s fifth appearance at Wireless.  He takes control of the stage and gives the crowd just what they need in a crazy hot day in at a summer festival, some great tunes to dance and sing to.

Friday’s Wireless has come to an end but this is just the beginning of the weekend and we look forward to seeing  the likes of Rudimental, Wiz Khalifa, Labrinth, and more!  Lets just hope the weather plays nice and there isn’t too much rain!