JAMIE T and Courteeners rocked Victorious Festival on Saturday night with two electrifying sets, providing relief for music fans after periods of torrential rain earlier in the day. The South London indie-rock hip-hop headliner showed he is still running with believers as he played a lyric-packed set of tunes, including hits Limits Lie, Rabbit Hole and 368. But it was a stunning three song encore of songs Shelia, Sticks ‘n’ Stones and Zombie, accompanied by festival fireworks, that most delighted fans and was a stand out moment of his set.
Meanwhile, Courteeners showed why they were able to play to more than 40,000 fans at Heaton Park in Manchester last year in their own right, with hits like What Took You So Long, Not Nineteen Forever, Modern Love and Are You in Love With a Notion? Frontman Liam Fray also introduced a new single, Summer of the Night Bus, from their next album Pink Cactus Café, released in October. But Victorious is not only about national names, and, after years of working their way up from smaller stages, rising local south coast stars Crystal Tides made their debut on the main stage on Saturday afternoon in front of tens of thousands of music fans. Lead singer Billy Gregory, guitarists Harry Knowles and Neil Cripps, bassist George Regan and drummer Joe Knight, played 30 minutes of blistering hits before telling the crowd of their ambitious plans to headline their own show at Portsmouth Guildhall next March after releasing a new EP this autumn.
George.