Photo: WENN.com
The move from Hyde Park, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for this weekend’s hard rock calling festival has been well documented; BBC London even ran a segment on the revolutionary use of astro turf. With memories of last summers ruined and mud soaked grass at Hyde park still lingering, it was a welcome relief, and somewhat of a novelty upon entering the site.
The par was impressive and somewhat confusing, the separation of the main stage from the three smaller stages, was such that you had to manage the art of leaving one early, to walk half an hour to the other, exacerbating the standard festival dilemma of timetable clashes.
We first caught Glasgow boys Twin Atlantic, who took to the main stage just before 5pm, stating ‘they had brought the weather with them’. Not having played a gig in over 8 months, the boys made a triumphant return, successfully slipping in new and unheard songs with those from their 2011 album Free, much to the delight of the crowd. As with all festivals, the opportunity to see new bands who you may have previously dismissed as not your thing, was ample. On the journey to the Pepsi max stage, a growing atmosphere around the (quite literal) bandstand stage drew my attention and was able to catch the last song of a band who were really something else; bringing life back into the guitar driven indie genre, the 4 piece from Essex, named Vox Empire are now a band I want to hear more of.
Having first seen the klaxons play at reading in 2006, I was vaguely disappointed (albeit not surprised) that their performance and set has changed very little. If I was to be down at the front I’m sure I would have been caught up in the chaos and no doubt for klaxons fans this is still something of a show, but it seems overdone and also quite dated, their songs remind me of being a certain age, and being very time specific.
Kasabian, on the other hand, the Saturday headliners who took to the stage just before 9pm, after Paul Weller took his leave, were a completely different story. Tom Meighan’s enthusiasm matched that of the by now very pumped up crowd, and the real show began.
Such has been Kasabian's longevity that when Tom announced the next song was to be from their 2004 album, the thought that it has been near on a decade since their debut album left me reeling. The songs that are so familiar to us all, and anthemic still sound as fresh and in the moment as when they were first heard. And that is probably why Kasabian deserved to headline the show. The pure energy of the crowd showed that Kasabian can still pull a mixed crowd of music lovers, who are willing and able to get so involved and lost within the show is the real triumph here.
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