Before The Strokes began their headline set it was time for diminutive funk pixie himself, Beck, to slide across the stage.

Kicking off with a classic from Odelay, ‘Devils Haircut’ bounced out across the crowd to the Havana themed bars in the distance…the sun was shining and all was well with the world.

With an extensive back catalogue to plunder, there was no shortage of crowd pleaser's from ‘Think I’m in Love’ to ‘The New Pollution’… all building to the 2 songs everyone had been waiting for. After several guitar swaps, a couple of jacket changes and of course, a new hat, the opening chords of ‘Loser’ whipped the crowd into a Hyde Park fever – and the levels of fervour were kept at maximum when it was followed up with the bounce-along gem that is ‘Sexx Laws’.

A couple more standards before the set was brought to a perfect finale with ‘Where it’s At’ – I couldn't see two turntables but Beck certainly had a microphone and he knew how to use it!

…time for a Havana Club with a slice of The Cuban Brothers before the main event…take a breath!

The Strokes are back in London for the first time in 5 years, headlining the first night of the British Summer Time Festival in Hyde Park.

Photo by: Laura Lewis

The stage was minimalist at best, with no fancy back drop, if it wasn't for the excellent video screens at BST, I’m sure they would have been happy just to perform as if they were in CBGB’s. Unlike all too many bands these days, with a desire for self promotion of their latest offerings The Strokes, gave the punters what they wanted, a ‘best of’ set ensuring that the pace never dropped either on the stage or in the crowd.

Frontman Julian Casablancas sporting an impressive mullet was on good form, with ‘interesting banter throughout the set, my personal favourite was "we've really enjoyed ourselves we don't recognise London with this great weather" as I stood there shivering.

The set kicked off with ‘Is this It’ from their first album of the same name, and it felt like we were back in the noughties, closely followed by ‘Barely Legal’, ‘Welcome to Japan’ and ‘You Talk Way Too Much’. The crowd welcomed ‘Last Nite’ like the second coming, with every word being screamed at the top of their collective voice.

Photo by: Dave Hogan

The finale of the three track encore was ‘Take It Or Leave It’ a great way to end the day, and proof that The Strokes are still a force to be reckoned with.

So all in all a good start to British Summer Time, but they really need to sort out the queues for the bars!!!!!!

Article by Shaun Bailey