By Carron Stacey, A Humdrum Mum

WHEN?: Friday 25 August 2023 (press pass)

Disco isn’t dead. The first year for a full Friday, kicking off for us with a drumming workshop from DrumNation Tribe at the People’s Lounge.

• Read on for reasons including Jamiroquai, Pete Tong, The Charlatans and Welly

We were on the way to find my friend who was volunteering at The People’s Kitchen (interview to come) and became waylaid by the workshop.

DrumNation is a community-based drum circle. By the end of it, after banging a bucket and playing mini bongos, the audience felt like we’d be able to host one ourselves.

Glittered up, we go along to Billy Nomates, who introduced her set by saying, ‘It’s just me, if that’s ok.’ Obviously referencing the huge online backlash she faced after, get ready for it, daring to play at Glastonbury singing along to a backing track!

She has such stage presence, her voice is amazing and she really moves around the stage. She says she couldn’t hear any of her performance at Victorious due to technical issues and hoped it was ok – it was perfect. Next up, our festival favs.

We discovered Welly last year, playing at the World Music Stage and have seen them twice in Portsmouth’s Edge of the Wedge since. Every time we’ve seen them, they’ve just got better and better; but this set was another level.

When they play longer sets, their audience interaction is just brilliant, but this was a day for the songs. Their exuberance could be construed as arrogance, but it isn’t. In an interview (coming later), Welly himself tells me that people in Portsmouth just get his lyrics – suburban, but not subversive and not ironic.

We had seen quite a few band T-shirts on the way to the festival and at the gig, but nothing beats the super fan wearing her wing defence netball bib. I am so doing that next time.

Love for the band locally is growing with hordes of fans waiting around at the front of the stage to compliment them and get a photo. There was a time when you could hear the difference between the well produced Me and Your Mates and other songs; now they all sound as polished.

Deere John, Flowers (their Creep, they said!), It’s Not Like This In France, Shopping, Take 5, and our ultimate favourite, Me and Your Mates, which always appears in my kitchen disco playlist.

The sticker Disco Isn’t Dead appears on the lead guitar – what is disco? Surely just anything that makes you get up and dance. That’s the day’s mantra. With Welly, it lives on.

We are lucky enough to hear local singer/songwriter Harrison Rhys at our very own school festival recently and were delighted to see him play again at Victorious. His mature voice and excellent song choices make for a great set.

Friendly Fires just didn’t fit into the tight schedule this year; however they played before The Prodigy in 2018 (no mean feat to warm up the audience eh?) and they were awesome then.

The Charlatans make their second appearance at Victorious; the first was marred for me due to their set being just before Madness headlined. Sadly the crowd were waiting for the headliners and talked through the whole set. This time, I am not disappointed.

The Charlatans, and I use this phrase so much, but it is warranted, provided the soundtrack to my college/uni years and beyond. Their set includes 1990’s The Only One I Know and Weirdo the following year, Just When You’re Thinkin’ Things Over (I had a moment during this), One To Another, North Country Boy (I can’t help always singing West Country Boy by the Shire Horses to this), Just Lookin’ and ending with Sproston Green from their debut album.

Singer Tim Burgess seems to really appreciate the audience; he films us multiple times and encourages us to lift our arms for him. His was a generous set, beautifully sung in a nostalgic atmosphere.

Herein lies the dilemma – Pete Tong’s Ibiza classics with The Essential Orchestra, conducted by Jules Buckley, or Jamiroquai – a disco soundtrack to the 90s? We did both.

Settling on the hill by the Castle Stage, we readied ourselves for a dreamy set of bangers reimagined in classical tones. When the orchestra started banging out Freed From Desire, we and everyone else on the hill moved down and joined the dancing throng. Disco isn’t dead.

I’m trying to find a set list for this gig, but there isn’t one and I can’t remember all of the tracks played. The singers were amazing; Alison Limerick’s Where Love Lives was outstanding. You’ll just have to go see his tour to hear them all.

As much as we love Pete Tong, we think we owe readers a Jamiroquai review. We arrive during Cosmic Girl to see a track-suited Jay Kay, with full-on Indigenous American headdress, dancing around to his ever-so-tight band.

Following this was Canned Heat and finishing with Virtual Insanity. He laughs when he tells us he’s tired out doing the meet and greet circuit! This proves he still has it, I’m amazed his voice can still get that high. We see the best of the set, and I’m glad we did, but we may have missed the best bangers at Pete Tong. You can’t have it all ways. Both acts just go to show, you know, that disco very much isn’t dead.

• Pictures via Facebook courtesy Victorious. Main picture Tom Langford, Pete Tong by Elliot McRae and Welly by Matt Sills Tickets
• Read more from Carron at her blog A Humdrum Mum
• Have you seen any of these shows? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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