A Fantastic First Day At Tramlines 2024
Words and Photos from John Hayhurst
We all still have the twitches from memories of last years Tramlines, the mud and rain on Sunday was ‘biblical’ as Liam Gallagher would say, so this weekends predicted 21 degrees and partly cloudy is a godsend and probably perfect for this time of year.
So much to see at Sheffields biggest party, and we start with Bedroom High Club, local lads from Barnsley playing the Sarah Nulty Main Stage, they have been around for over 6 years now and ‘Courtesy’ has been on my Spotify favourites list for months. So it was great to finally hear it live on a big stage, with an animated guitarist doing high kicks and mid air splits and singer Blue Brownlie in his trademark truckers cap screeching the lyrics. What a start!
The Main Stage line up today is so good we only venture to the other stages for the punktastic Soft Play (aka Slaves) who put in a crowd pleasing and prize winning set in the 2nd stage tent, and then Tim Burgess with The Charlatans for the headliner performance there with nostalgic 90’s indie hits galore.
The Mysterines were also headlining at the Leadmill stage and I can’t get enough of Lia Metcalfe’s vocals, their album ‘Afraid of Tomorrows’ is one of the best this year, this Liverpool 4-piece are heading towards being main stage contenders of the future.
Special guests playing early on are The View and I caught them last year in Manchester, just after the punch up on stage on the previous tour. No sign of any such shenanigans this time and whilst the lyrics might still be indecipherable with such strong Dundee accents they have plenty of tunes like ‘Same Jeans’ ‘Wasted Little DJ’s’ and ‘Superstar Tradesman’ to get those at the front singing along.
Then much loved (by me) Coach Party are on next, this Isle of Wight band surprised a couple of years ago with their ‘Everybody Hates Me’ song at a festival somewhere, from that point to their debut album released last year, it has been a joyous discovery of a new band that have some of the best earworm choruses you find yourself whistling (if you can whistle) several days later. They might not be the most animated on stage but their songs are mostly sub 3 minutes each, so they can get through the whole of ‘Killjoy’ in this one set.
Miles Kane I think wishes he was the reincarnation of Marc Bolan, minus the perm. If new wave glam rock had an unlikely hero, then Kane is it, he certainly crosses that genre with his regular lads indie brand, which can be a potent mix for those who haven’t heard any of his music before.
Then we have a rejuvinated Sophie Ellis-Bextor, thanks to the Saltburn film and that scene! Her set gets everyone dancing in the kitchen, but the piste de résistance is an outstanding version of Madonna’s ‘Like a Prayer’. I’d go as far as saying that she does it better than Madonna, and it is my unexpected highlight of day 1 here at Hillsborough Park.
Brilliant musicians Bombay Bicycle Club become also rans after Ellis-Bextor’s performance, but that doesn’t mean their set wasn’t entertaining or worth watching, but for the general populous here I think Sophie edged it a bit and there was a mass exodus for food/drinks/the loo at this point.
Which at Tramlines is a broad selection of anything you can think of – even lobster! Gone are the days of soggy burgers or jacket spuds as the only food available. This is as good as it gets for an inner city festival, that doesn’t have camping facilities.
Finally, to our Friday headliner Paulo Nutini, I find it strange that after such a long hiatus, he is now considered headliner material, and yet here he is at Tramlines (and Kendal Calling next week). I wouldn’t say it was the most amazing set, it definitely picked up towards the back end when the hits came out like ‘Jenny Don’t Be Hasty’ and ‘Candy’, but ‘Pencil Full of Lead’ was unrecognisable, it used to be full of trumpets and dance, now reduced to a slower dirge, there was a spark missing and playing lots of new stuff is never going to win over a festival crowd, particularly in Yorkshire.
So a little flat after what was an inspired day of great bands, and tomorrow we have the return of Jamie T to look forward to !!
