It’s not the quantity but the quality the old adage says and Calling Festival with the one main outdoor stage (albeit massive) and a smaller intimate tented stage goes to show that you don’t need masses of stages to host a great music event.

The salubrious environs of London SW4 saw some heavyweights descend upon the Common on Saturday and Sunday with Aerosmith and Stevie Wonder respectively at the top table.

Ably supported on the main stage by Joe Bonamasa, Thunder, Richie Sambora, Radkey , Heaven's Basement and the 3 Dudes on Saturday. Followed on Sunday by Jack Johnson, Paloma Faith, Michael Kiwanuka, James Bay and Jetta.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, the tented Pepsi max stage hosted The Jezabels, Walking Papers, Toseland, Lonely the Brave, No Hot Ashes , Tax the Heat, Chantal Claret and Yellowire. Followed on Sunday by Gregory Porter, Flyte, Norma Jean Martine, Bruno Major, jack Garratt, Will Heard and JJ Rosa.

A friendly atmosphere was encountered as soon as you approach the venue and the staff were helpful. A good mix of food stalls to cater for everyone’s taste and budget, queues were not too bad for either food or drink throughout the day – the only negative maybe a lack of enough toilets as the queues were very long at times.

There was a wide ranging mix of ages and appearances but the common factor was that although the rain tried its best to make the weekend a washout nearly everyone had a smile on their face and didn’t let it spoil their enjoyment. The tented stage may have received more visitors due to the inclement weather but that proved to be a blessing in disguise as there were some truly great performances happening in this venue which matched the performances happening on the main stage.

Heavens Basement were excellent – a late addition to the line-up but a great one. They got the crowd going and set the tone for what proved to be a captivating mix of music and performances for the remainder of the evening.

Thunder performed brilliantly and the crowd responded with a love-in of singing and clapping throughout their set.

In the Pepsi Max Stage the Walking Papers performed an electrifying set, whilst they probably deserved a bigger audience it is without doubt that the more intimate tented stage lent itself perfectly to their performance, they created an amazing atmosphere and the crowd left ecstatic.

The Jezabels produced an amazing performance and had their first “mosh pit“ when a guy in a pink hat really did try his best to get the mosh pit started but just annoyed the security guards who, in the words of the singer, “deleted him from the building”.

My daughter left the tented stage with a new favourite band and an appreciation of their indie music. The singer closed with an instruction to go and enjoy Aerosmith, so we duly obliged….

From the moment Aerosmith walked on stage their performance was perfection– as you would expect from a band that has performed together  They belted out favourites such as Love in an Elevator, Cryin, I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing, Dude Looks like a Lady, Walk this Way Steven Tyler may be getting on a bit but he can still hold his own, The crowd were smiling and singing along – even the kids. An evocative closure, sunset over the common, stage lighting in full flow, as the Jo Perry stood on the white piano. The evening ended with a flurry of confetti being blasted into the night air. Roll on Sunday……….it had a lot to live up to.

Sundays line up promised to be a bit more chilled and relaxed than Saturdays offerings and indeed the first act we caught was Paloma Faith.

Her mix of pop and soul music was the perfect way to start the day off. A large crowd gathered in the rain and she appeared on stage in her trademark eccentric style wearing a massive white headdress and charming the crowd with her wit and style.  Her set included Take Me, I Feel For You (a Prince / Chaka Khan cover which got the crowd going) and of course her latest single Only Love Can Hurt Like This – the performance had everyone singing and dancing throughout.

A deluge of rain saw us take cover in the Pepsi max tent where we heard some music from Flyte – a new and, as yet, unsigned band - and they performed some quirky Indie music to keep the sheltering public entertained – we left with a note to look up some more of their music.

Back on the main stage the crowd were gathering to see Jack Johnson – he performed Flake, Taylor, Sitting-Waiting-Wishing, Shot Reverse Shot, Good People and Better Together. The sun came out and it was time for people to relax. Lots of people sat, eating, drinking, listening and generally having a nice chilled out time. He was the perfect warm up man for the main event…….

And so with the sun shining it was time to see whom everyone had turned up to see.

A Motown legend with an amazing back catalogue of music was about to do a 2 hour plus show superbly assisted by a fantastic backing band and singers.

Stevie Wonder appeared on stage to an incredible welcome and the applause took a while to die down and then he launched straight on to How Sweet It Is (To be Loved By You).

The fantastic start was then followed by incredible performances of some of his hit songs including Part Time Lover, Living for the City, Sir Duke, You are the Sunshine of my Life and I Just Called to Say I Love You amongst many others and the evening finished off with a magnificent rendition of Superstition with surprise guest appearance by Richie Sambora who had travelled from Glastonbury to appear with this legend.

Throughout his set Stevie interacted with the crowds not only with his music but with his views on racial inequality, social injustice and his ideas about love and faith. Showing us his sense of humour he used a superb English accent to pretend he was a Stevie Wonder impersonator – even having to learn the traditional head roll / shake. The crowd were in stitches – one of the world's great Motown performers had them eating out of his hands.

The great man showed his class by singing Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow as a tribute to the late Gerry Goffin and If You Think You’re Lonely Now, a tribute to Bobby Womack who died the previous day, was sung by one of the backing singers.

The entire set had the crowd mesmerised, dancing and singing along and wishing for more – what a great evening!

So that’s it for another year. Calling Festival 2104, signed, sealed and delivered………I’m yours!

Gabriella Wayne