Thanks to regular contributors Suzanne and Alan Whitewood for their review of the Isle of Wight Festival. In their own words. Ed
This year’s Isle of Wight Festival at Seaclose Park was kick-started by a female Led Zeppelin tribute act with Lez Zeppelin opening proceedings in the Big Top on Thursday.
From the opening chords of ‘Rock and Roll’ it was obvious the drums were too loud and hard, drowning out both guitars and vocals, but lead singer Shannon Conley hit the notes like Robert Plant.
Next up for the girl quartet was ‘Black Dog’, ‘Immigrant Song’, ‘The Ocean’ and ‘The Song Remains the Same’. An extended version of ‘Dazed and Confused’ and then ‘A Whole Lotta Love’ closed their 45 minute set.
Lack of quiet spots
With no less than twelve performance areas blasting out music and with more sounds emanating from the various other sites including the funfair rides it was difficult to find a quiet corner most of the time.
With such a confined site it was obvious sound migration would be a problem at times.
Local talent
Several Island acts were given the opportunity to perform at the IW Festival. Lucid, which features twins Sunny and Blue gave several performances.
Also appearing were Stu Collins, the Paul Armfield Band, Gareth Icke, Medina Ukelele Orchestra and Resonate.
On the main stage Tank Top was the opening set on Saturday with The Bear Social doing likewise on Sunday.
Headliners
With the daylight having faded on Saturday night headliners The Killers opened with ‘Mr. Brightside’. Brandon Flowers soon had the Seaclose crowd with him.
In an energetic set the band gave faithful reproductions of well known favourites like ‘Human’ ‘When You were Young’ ‘Somebody Told Me’ and ‘Can You Read My Mind’. A versatile Brandon was kept busy as lead vocalist and playing keyboards, guitar and synthesizer.
Local reference
As a nod to locals in the audience he mentioned Dinosaur Isle and, during The Beatles‘ classic, ‘When I’m 64’ he noted ‘….we could watch the Killers on the Isle of Wight.’
This exciting set ended with fireworks.
Island charities
A number of Island charities and organisations were in attendance at the Festival. Volunteers from Earl Mountbatten Hospice were selling the ever popular sunflowers.
Dimbola’s stand was promoting its photograph collection of the 1970 Festival at Afton while friends of St. Catherine’s were running a tuck shop.
Local flavours
Food and drink was well to the fore with Quay arts running its popular Kashmir Café with Island produced real ale on offer.
Tea and cake was available in the well named Solace tent, thanks to the Islandwide network of churches in a project coordinated by Ced Wells and Newport C of E Primary PTA ran their ‘Alice in Candy Land’ stall housed in a yurt. Both of these local organisations were supported by Island Yurts.
Asking for donations for fresh fruit supporters of the IW Air Ambulance were hopefully raising funds whilst staff from the NHS were giving advice on Care in the Sun and Eco Island supporters were handing out information on all things Eco as well as having a competition to win solar powered chargers.
From DJ to bus driver
Island born Rick Jackson, whose day job is a radio presenter with Wave 105 had an unusual role over the weekend.
As he holds a HGV licence he was driving one of the fleet of Festival buses and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Jon Bon Jovi
Now celebrating thirty years in the business, Sunday headliners Bon Jovi gave an energetic performance containing many of their best known songs.
With their second number ‘You Give Love a Bad Name’ Jon had the audience with him all the way. For ‘Raise Your Hands’ the crowd did just that.
There is no doubt that Jon is a showman – a real pro – but he does rather rely on the crowd to carry his performance. At one stage he commented “I feel at home” and mentioned how he had seen who had performed at previous festivals on the Island. Other songs included ‘It’s My Life’, ’Keep The Faith’, ‘Bad Medicine’ and ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’. For some he added acoustic versions at the end of the rock numbers.
‘Livin’ On a Prayer’ closed their set at the unexpected early time of 10.25pm and some of the crowd had already left the park before the firework display.
‘Dry County’ was conspicuous by its absence.
