Fleetwood Mac rollback the years to deliver a spectacular close to a truly marvellous weekend at the Isle of Wight Festival.

The Isle of Wight Festival is the perfect ‘major’ festival, it has the funds and history to attract the biggest artists, but away from the Main Stage & Big Top it captures the intimacy of a small event, a great vibe friendly security staff, small queues for bars and cash points, you get the picture. In addition the festival is rightly proud of its heritage and pays tribute to it, some may say it’s cheesy, but you need to know where you have been before you can move forward. This year the Main Stage was renamed ‘The Electric Church’ in memory of the last performance by Jimi Hendrix in 1970, at the same time they managed to raise £5,000 for charity through the sales of Hendrix masks.

Fleetwood Mac have been a long time target for Festival Director John Giddings and based upon Sunday’s performance it was easy to see why, they were simply marvellous. 

Photo: Sarah Lincoln

Within seconds of appearing on stage the familiar bassline of 'The Chain' fills the early evening air, with the track reaching a crescendo of thunderous drumming and screeching guitar, now that's how to start a show!

For the next 2 hours we were treated to hit after hit. The vocals were shared between Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and McVie, prior to 'Dreams' Stevie Nicks "Welcomed back Mrs Christine McVie" to huge cheers.

Half way through the set there was an acoustic session where Buckingham performed a wonderful version of 'Big Love'.

The finale was appropriately 'Dont Stop' as fireworks filled the night sky, as they lefty the stage everyone knew they had seen something special.

Photo: Callum Baker

Saturday night’s headliners were Blur, and they are on form with a performance that matched the intensity of their reunion performances at Hyde Park in 2009. Damon Albarn arrived on stage with trade mark Fred Perry plus Docker Jacket (it was a bit nippy) and repeatedly asking the crowd “Are you up for this”.

The set kicked off with ‘Go Out’, from The Magic Whip, the sound is not dissimilar to The Clash and includes some great guitar work from Graham Coxon. Next up is ‘There’s No Other Way’, which provides the first sing a long of the set with Albarn strutting and pouting and it’s not long until he is in with the crowd.

Photo: Sara Lincoln

The set is well structured mixing old and new material, ‘Parklife’ gets the biggest cheer of the night when they are joined by the ever chirpy Phil Daniels (they love a bit of him). They close the set with a rousing rendition of the anthemic ‘The Universal’.

Saturday afternoon provided the opportunity to relive 70’s disco/funk/jazz with Kool & The Gang, all dressed in black and blue, with 45 years on the road these guys know how to structure a set. They start with ‘Hollywood Swingin’ a great funky bass and the chorus of Hey Hey Hey, ensuring they get the crowd participation from the start. The horn section came into their own during ‘Jungle Boogie’ along with a wah wah peddle infused guitar rhythm. They close their set with ‘Ladies Night’, ‘Get Down On It’ and ‘Celebration’, this was certainly a match for the Glastonbury Sunday afternoon slot.

Photo: Sara Lincoln

Alas Pharrell failed to meet the standards set by Kool & The Gang, there is no denying that he is a great writer/producer, however his approach of morphing snippets of tracks into one song just didn’t work for me, perhaps he should take a leaf out of Nile Rogers book and perform the songs in their entirety. His performance of the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ was a nice touch doffing his hat to Jimi Hendrix, not unsparingly ‘Get Lucky’ concluded the set much to everyone’s delight.

Photo: Callum Baker

Sunday afternoon was really a case of rolling back the years, Suzanne Vega was given just a 30 minute set, which was both enchanting and delightful with the wonderful ‘Tom’s Diner’ rounding off her set.

The last time Ian Anderson, performed at the Isle of Wight Festival was 1970 all the more surprising that he could still play the flute on one leg! ‘Thick as Brick’ was my personal favourite of the set showing that old rockers never die, they just get lower down the bill.

The Big Top played host to a full tent for The Lightning Seeds, a band that represent everything that was good about 90’s indie scene, albeit that it took this performance to remind me. The intoxicating ‘Sense’ gets us started, their set includes ‘The Life of Riley’, ‘Sugar Coated Iceberg ‘and ‘Lucky You’.

Since his first album Paolo Nutini has grown from a ‘pop’ artist to a serious soul singer, a throwback to the early days of Rod Stewart’s career or possibly Joe Cocker. It is testament to his singing ability that he can effortlessly switch between the two. ‘Coming Up Easy’ has him in soulful mood and the inclusion of the Hammond organ makes it all the more 60’s. ‘Jenny Don’t Be Hasty’ shows him at his ‘poppy’ best and gets the crowd singing along with him. He was even allowed to play the official IOW Fender Stratocaster. 

Photo: Dylan Roberts

Away from the Main Stage there was a great selection of small stages with DJ’s and live bands, a particular favourite was The Bohemian Woods, which on Saturday saw a stage takeover by The Midnight bakery ‘Cirque De La Quirke’. We where we were constantly pulled back to the area for an all-day rave and a 6 hour DJ set from Miles Metric. Lampshade’s adorning the wooden area were turned into the must have head accessories for the revellers. It was like drifting into another world and sad that the festival goers who planted their chairs firmly in front of the main stage all weekend missed out on these tasty delights. Sunday the area had a more roots infused feel with C.C. Smugglers later in the day whipping up a small barn dance.

The Kashmir Tent, was an oasis of real ale, it drew in a large crowd for John Otway, alas we couldn’t get in, but I’m sure he was really free!!

The Intoxicated Tea Rooms was a place to sit down and chill whilst watching some excellent swing dancing, you could even join in for a lesson if you fancied. We even managed to witness the local boy made good Mark King attempt his first DJ set in the Hey Joe Rock Bar.

Bulmers, Strongbow, Pimm’s, Jack Daniels & The Zebra Champagne Bar and Ace Casino branded areas all had entertainment for all ages.

It’s hard to fault the Isle Of Wight Festival it has a great line-up, friendly atmosphere and something to suit all ages. It’s run like a well-oiled cog in a major wheel and long may it reign.

Article: M/L Game