By Carron Stacey, A Humdrum Mum

WHEN?: Saturday 26 August 2023 (press pass)

It’s all about you. A while ago, rumours suggested that the special guest slot was going to be none other than 00s pop/rock boy band sensation McFly.

• Read on for reasons including Kaiser Chiefs, Inspiral Carpets and The Dhol Foundation

They were due to play another festival in the evening, allowing enough time to play here too. How I wished I’d run that story.

I would be lying if I said I liked them, but walking over the verge by the Castle Stage during their set, my mind is changed. The field and the hill are packed, everyone singing along. The love for this band blows me away and makes me look through a different lens on what I’d previously just thought of as a boy band.

It seems Victorious got it just right and their number one hit, It’s All About You, seems to be the lyric of the day. It is all about us, guys, thank you McFly.

Inspiral Carpets are a live favourite of mine, so I had to make the decision to skip The Divine Comedy. Festival decisions are among the hardest you’ll ever have to make and I am sorry.

Mr Humdrum did manage to see them, reporting that singer Neil Hannon is dapper in a black suit, brandishing a glass of red wine. Toasting Absent Friends, he remarks he has 45 minutes and a load of songs, so he’ll just sing them.

He is soon distracted by his plectrum and after receiving “all the plectrums in the world”, continues with Becoming More Like Alfie. Drinking in the afternoon, claims Neil, was going to make the bus journey home messy but they would be able to complete all of the Guardian quiz this time.

Mr Humdrum wants to catch the end of the Inspirals, so ends up leaving to the beginning notes of Something for the Weekend. From the massive Madchester movement, Inspirals are led, for me, by the icon that is Clint Boon, whose organ work is key to their sound.

We’ve seen him DJ before and he is just cool, cool as f***, as their T-shirts used to proclaim. A short set starts with Joe and covers She Comes In The Fall, This Is How It Feels, Two Worlds Collide and the epic (and my favourite) Saturn 5. They missed Find Out Why, I Want You, and my second favourite, Dragging Me Down. (Luckily for us, we are seeing them headline at Shiiine Weekender, Butlins in November.)

Clint talks of how they thought they were finished after the loss of drummer Craig. They hired “some new eye candy” quips Clint, namely Kev Clark and I think he did Craig proud. It’s great to see the Inspirals still at it; so much love from the audience, complete with many “moos” (referencing their record label) making them all smile on stage.

The World Stage hosts a plethora of surprises and this time for me, it is The Dhol Foundation. Mr Humdrum has an album from the early 2000s, and family members have seen them open for Kula Shaker, so they’re great recommendations for us.

If only our legs and hips aren’t so broken from the day before, we would be jumping around for an hour straight. It’s impossible not to dance, however, to the banging beats from their dhol drums on top of the DJ set.

TDF are definitely ones to see again, playing classic Bhangra beats alongside upbeat Irish tunes, aided by their violinist Marcia, especially on After The Rain. A visual spectacle in their red jackets and well versed in choreographed dance/drum moves (how can they move around like that?), they are now a festival fav for me.

Belle and Sebastian round off a set bringing up loads of people on stage to dance with them at the for their hit Boy With The Arab Strap. I’m already bouncing around because as well as it being a brilliant song, it reminds me of that epic series Teachers. And I love to see recorders being given centre stage in a song.

Singer Stuart Murdoch regales us with a beautiful tale of meeting his wife, who attends a B&S gig around “once every twenty years”. She is coaxed on stage to applause from the audience. I love the set, including recent single Unnecessary Drama, finishing with I Want the World to Stop, but our superfan friends wished for more of their favourites.

It’s all about me, so I’m deciding to watch Kaiser Chiefs this time. Sadly, last time they played here two years ago, it was raining and I didn’t catch them. A match fit Ricky Wilson delivers a brilliant set today; they really should have been headlining.

Entering to Money For Nothing, Never Miss a Beat starts them off. Na Na Na Na Naa, Modern Way, I Love You Less and Less, the classic Ruby, I Predict a Riot and The Angry Mob follow. Ricky knows exactly how to play an audience and he actually out-Robbies Robbie Williams on that front.

Mr Humdrum doesn’t remember ever seeing or hearing all of the Common Stage field singing along to every single song like this before. They are the best “non headliners” we’ve seen yet. During finale Oh My God, he pretends to dance off the stage, changes his mind and waltzes back on to hear the audience’s call backs, which put such a smile on his face that you forget he’s a seasoned performer. He’s just a kid really, enjoying himself with his band, singing songs everyone knows all the lyrics to. You can’t get much better than that. Well, we didn’t today.

The decision to move the comedy/music bell tent closer this year was brilliant as after the comedy finishes, you wander in, tempted this time by Ultra 90s, a high-energy tribute band singing, obviously, 90s dance hits, along with 00s too (for the kids!). They were brilliant and after a fantastic finale of N-Trance’s Set You Free and Candi Staton’s You got the Love, we managed to nip out to catch my favourite Kasabian song, Fire. It’s all about me, McFly told me; it really was today. Us, all of us.

• Pictures via Facebook courtesy Victorious. Main picture and McFly images by Elliot McRae, Dhol Foundation by Emma Wurfel and Kaiser Chiefs by Elliot McRae.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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