By Carron Stacey, A Humdrum Mum

WHEN?: Sunday 27 August 2023 (press pass)

Hard-Fi rock the Common Stage at their first festival in 11 years. Singer Richard Archer informs us that they usually specify to only play in places with a roof, but they let us off today, thankfully.

• Read on for reasons including The GO! Team, Dara O’Briain and The Freestylers

It was a loud, high energy start to the day and their big hits, Hard to Beat and Living For the Weekend, go down a treat.

The GO! Team surprise us all on the Common Stage in the afternoon. I love a few of their hits, so really wanted to see them. Singer Ninja tells us they will try to play something from each of their seven albums.

The energy on the stage is amazing, wowing the audience, but what wows me more was when they all swap instruments! Reminiscent of Field Music a few years ago, the guitarist drums, then plays recorder (criminally using the recorder as a drum stick – but the second time a recorder has been spotted this year) and the keyboard player plays guitar, etc.

A really lovely performance from the Brighton-based band, mostly with double drummers (and we all know that Ms Humdrum loves her double drums). Well worth seeing again. My highlights are Mayday and Everyone’s a VIP to Someone. Missing, for me, is Buy Nothing Day but you can’t have it all.

Quick run to the Beats & Swing stage for Tuba Libres. I have interviewed them previously and loved their set. I can’t beat their own self-description: “Infectious funk grooves delivered straight to your feet via a brass cannon.”

What they don’t tell you is they always perform, choreographed to the last fluorescent square inch, in day glow lycra! With a new trumpeter, they cover Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance and Spice Girls’ Two Become One, along with their own tracks, my favourite being the Hot Potato Polka. A brilliant set in the sun.

This is the second year of attracting really big names in the comedy tent, and with a move nearer the Common Stage, this year’s line up does not disappoint. We have our very own Zoe Lyons, along with Omid Djalili, Jason Manford and Dara O’Briain.

We catch Dara, well we hear him; it was too rammed to see anything. He has fun with the BSL interpreter (how do you sign slapping a boob on the pole?) and regales us with a tale of a raucous night out at one of our own local pubs, The One Eyed Dog.

OMG! It’s the Church at Beats & Swing. A festival-must, according to Beats & Swing, plus our friends had seen them at Beautiful Days the other week and it was their festival highlight! It takes me a while to get into the set; think an even more funky version of the church scene in the Blues Brothers.

They call themselves “a church for the secret underground.” Leader Reverend Michael Alabama Jackson praises us, and sexy Jesus, and helps us redeem ourselves because he knows we’ve been “really naughty this weekend”. It’s when they play Gay Bar that I really get it. You’ll have to see them yourselves to hear the four words that studying all the scriptures and religions across the world have taught them. I can merely tell you the first three: “Don’t be a”.

An uplifting inclusive show with funky tunes, horns, Pulp Fiction songs and sexy Jesus. What more do you want? Still at Beats & Swing, the church makes way for the congregation ready to hear The Freestylers. We’ve seen them a few times and although we feel broken, our feet, knees and hips move in time to the banging tracks. A great set, attracting everyone, old and young (I say that because our son, 17, was there as well as us oldies).

Ready for a rest, we chill out to Muttnik, a “cosmic funk trio”. Well, we want to dance, but we can’t: we have walked 33 miles in three days! And racked up 21 miles of cycling, which is the best way for locals to get down there. Our toes move though. This is the beauty of the World Music Village: two stages featuring those avant garde randoms that you might normally not come across. We wish we’d seen the whole set.

On our way home, we are reminded that Johnny Marr was headlining the Castle Stage. Having seen him before, I didn’t mind missing him this time. I did sing Big Mouth and How Soon Is Now whilst riding along the seafront on my bike, as we could hear him clearly for ages.

Nine years of Victorious Festival on the stunning Southsea seafront has got better and better each year. But this year is going to be hard to beat in terms of organisation, toilets and queues. And McFly. It feels safe at all times and although the line up will never appeal to everyone, there’s always something to listen to and discover.

My three top discoveries this weekend are The Dhol Foundation, OMG! It’s the Church and Thatchers Haze cider, which is now my favourite drink. My three musical highlights are Welly, Charlatans and GO! Team. Roll on next year. Now, where is the Deep Heat?

• Pictures via Facebook courtesy Victorious. Main picture Hard-Fi by Tom Langford, The Freestylers by Emma Wurfel and OMG It’s The Church by James White, 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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