Victorious Festival, formerly known as Victorious Vintage Festival, seems to be an event that hasn’t quite decided what it wants to be.
Despite that, with a location looking out over the water towards the Isle of Wight, and passed by cross-channel ferries, this yearly gathering attracts 80,000 people across each of the three days, and brings a significant sum (thought to be in the region of £20 million) into the local economy.
In a nod to the earlier days, It’s a festival that gives plenty of stage time to those bands that are still perceived to have a modicum of cool, and haven’t yet succumbed to the endless ‘Back to the ‘80s/90s’ ‘classic’ pop and prosecco touring regime. There’s a broad demographic here, and a feel of a more urban, family-centred Glastonbury.
A hot Friday opens, fittingly, with Hot Wax. They’re unapologetically influenced by grunge, but manage to not be defined by it and a short, sharp half an hour set is a joyful way to start the proceedings. A DJ set packed full of late 80s/early 90s indie pop (Ned’s Atomic Dustbin? I probably haven’t listened to Kill Your Television since then) sets the scene for The Charlatans.
It’s perhaps inevitable that a lot of today’s sartorial options have been determined by the Oasis tour, but Tim Burgess et al have always been the smarter choice (and for my money, much more interesting music).There’s a couple of newer/newest tracks, but it’s a proper festival set, packed full of the hits, starting with Weirdo, and finishing with Sproston Green.
Sprints play another strong set, and it’s been great to see them make the transition from the Big Top at End of the Road to the main stage here.
In a similar vein to the Charlatans, Ash give the lie to the comments made after they trashed Rock City back in the day (We’ve seen all these types of bands on the way up, and we see them again on the way down…).They only have thirty minutes, but manage to pack the second stage and throw pretty much every Ash hit into the mix. There’s even a spirited version of Jump In The Line (shake, shake, shake senora…), the standard popularised by Harry Belafonte, which goes down perfectly in the August sunshine.
In amongst all this joy, we have to address the elephant in the large open-air space. Walking back over to the main stage, I was very much looking forward to another fine set from the brilliantly entertaining Irish band The Mary Wallopers. You may have read the (misleading in places) coverage of their ‘set’, which had the power cut halfway through the first song, ostensibly because they brought on a particular flag.
The response from the organisers felt particularly tone-deaf, not least because the UN had declared a famine in that war zone the same day.
Clearly, this was handled badly, and the comments subsequently made about terms of engagement stating that flags should not be displayed doesn’t stack up when the likes of the Manics have played with Nicky Wire’s amp draped (as usual) with the Welsh flag. The policy will clearly need to be re-considered, not least because the decision led to a further four bands pulling out.
Continuing the political theme, Wunderhorse took to the stage to the Ramones’ Bonzo Goes To Bitburg, a sterling choice. I’ve been ambivalent about this next big thing, and the first couple of songs didn’t do much to persuade me otherwise. They’re a bit more interesting than the likes of Inhaler though (and Inhaler don’t have Biff Byford’s son on bass, oh wait…) and once Jacob Slater had overcome his nerves, they became a more compelling watch.
Also compelling, but in a more ‘TV host knows how to work the audience’ way were Kaiser Chiefs. They were a relatively late addition to the bill, but perfect for this audience. Ricky Wilson employed (see what I did there?) all his training (both teacher and media) to keep the crowd entertained, and the whole performance was pretty tight. Again, mostly big hits, although there was a noticeable drop in energy when they played a couple of newer songs. This was firmly a ‘give us what we know’ set.
Queens of the Stone Age are a surprising addition to the weekend, give that Vampire Weekend and Kings of Leon are the other headliners. They’re still very firmly at the top of their game, and Josh Homme seems to have an extra wiggle in his hips following his health woes. We’re all still ‘sexy babies’ ready to hear a tight set that starts with …Millionaire, straight into No One Knows and ending, as ever, with A Song For The Dead. There are piano interludes, the requisite comments about Mikey Shoes and an audience choice play of Little Sister.
Queens don’t play duff gigs any more, but I would suggest that there was a little less energy in this particular set than other times I’ve seen them. They’ve been touring The End is Nero since 2023 in various stretches broken up by the aforementioned health problems, but I’d suggest that any slight drop is probably due to celebrating Michael Shuman’s 40th birthday a couple of days previously. Even a (very, very slightly) sub-par Queens show is one that should be caught live if you get the chance.
So, in summary, a festival that wasn’t perfect, needs some clarity, but nevertheless what it did well, it did very well.
Words and picture by Sam Gray
Related Posts
