By Carron Stacey, A Humdrum Mum

WHEN?: Saturday 24 August, Victorious runs through Sunday 25 August 2024 (press pass)

90steachergirl was right. It was Busted who were the secret set. As much as there was love for them, it seemed a tad obvious after McFly last year.

• Read on for reasons including A Humdrum Mum catching up with stars-to-be Welly after their gig

I was convinced it was a black-bobbed 80s rapper, just based on the fact that I know her tennis schedule had changed this weekend. I would have loved to have seen her doin’ the do …

We arrive by taxi at the artist drop off point, too late for the secret set, and a smart, young man asks if he can jump into our taxi. Of course! But you’ve missed the best act today, he says. Who’s that then I ask? Busted, he replies. Really? You can hear my eyebrows sarcastically arch at that. Yes, my dear, he says. I AM Busted!

OMG noooo, say I then switch to fangirl mode. My friend loves you, I shriek, Can I have a photo with you first please? Thankfully his good nature takes over and he smiles for a photo before speeding off in the cab. OK well that never happened. Except it did, but it was Mr China Crisis and the festival was Let’s Rock Southampton a few weeks ago! Mr Humdrum was most amused that I hadn’t worked out immediately that he was someone famous! And I got the photo for Frequent Festival Goer, who is indeed a big fan.

We did see Busted being driven out of the festival today though! And yes, 90steachergirl loved them. The secret set arrive five minutes prior to being on stage, almost missing their slot and when Matt Willis announces at least it’s not raining, guess what happens? It didn’t dampen spirits for the last three songs, everyone was jumping. The set list included: Air Hostess, You Said No, Thunderbirds (including the line about Tracey Island that was the secret gig clue), Sleeping with the Light On, What I Go To School For, Crashed the Wedding and ending with Year 3000. Thank you to 90steachergirl for this review. (Mrs Humdrum realises when writing it up that she’d actually have preferred to have seen Busted than McFly as she knows (and likes) more of their songs!)

Instead we watch a good crowd practising their cha cha cha to Atlantico, a Colombian Latin dance band. The horn section attracts me, as usual. We catch Jordan Duke, a local rapper and enjoy his enthusiasm whilst sitting on very damp hay bales.

Crystal Tides everyone bangs on about, being local, including 90steachergirl, as they share a love of football. I have to admit that I had Crystal Waters in my head, the 90s group wailing She’s Homeless. How wrong was I? They are a local new-indie rock based band, formed in 2018. The crowd love them, so do we.

They perform on the Common Stage and announce that they want to be the first local band to headline on that stage at Victorious! Good luck to them, they definitely have the fan base and the catchy songs. They are headlining Portsmouth Guildhall on March 22 next year. We’ll be there!

Amazingly, we are able to catch all of Frankie Boyle’s routine thanks to the screens. Mr Humdrum wants to listen to CMAT at the same time, which we are able to do! Frankie is the usual Frankie, with inappropriate jokes and observations littering the set.

However, the difference between his shocking jokes and others’ is just that he’s clever. And you can’t really argue with what he says. A downpour of rain spoils the last few minutes as we all try to put on our anoraks (again!), but well done Victorious. A definite hit there.

Black Grape – what can we say – a legend, definitely. No Kermit, though I heard Shaun moaning that someone didn’t turn up – can anyone confirm that for me? We’ve watched him many times, but did get to hear Kelly’s Heroes, my favourite.

We’ve talked many times before about how many hits you need over a lifetime to live off (aside from a Christmas hit). Three or four? Lightning Seeds have at least seven (Oh, I’d forgotten this one etc). We’ve seen Broudie on the 90s indie scene so many times, but this is the best we’d heard him and there is a huge packed Castle Stage for him. Oh and add a football song to the Christmas hit to retire on! One of my festival correspondents wasn’t impressed with Three Lions at the end! But everyone else was!

Sugababes were the afternoon act a few years ago, and as they also have a good few hits, they can retire on them too! They also have the USP of being the original lineup. Last time, not being a great fan, I can say they were excellent. This time, on the Castle Stage, it was rammed. I hear many festival goers afterwards saying they should have headlined.

After a long build up with voice-overs and dramatic music, they burst on singing Freak Like Me. This is good news for me, as we only want to catch one song before heading off to prepare for our highlight of the day. 90steachergirl, as well as being amazed that she was 5 when they formed, say they are brilliant and the rammed Castle Stage area sound like they agree.

Off to Welly. We “discovered” this Brighton-based irreverent madcap group a few years ago on the World Music Stage, when one of the headliners disappointed us. Frequent Festival Goer found them too that night and since then, we’ve been to all their local gigs, chatted to their mums and followed them like proud aunties. It’s got to the stage now where Welly and the band will recognise and chat to me. Such a proud aunt!

Tonight although they are on the same Introducing Stage as last year, they have a 8.30 slot. The crowd build and so does our collective anticipation. We’ve convinced our visiting friends to come after they have seen Courteeners (they are big fans, and FestyMum, one of my festival correspondents says the morning after that she has to remember she isn’t 19). Avid readers may remember FestyMum’s son Alfie kindly reviewing some bands a number of years ago. And we have our usual pals around. The set is only 30 minutes long, and they’re fresh from their Reading gig earlier, but wow how you can tell they’ve upped their game.

They just take it to the next level every time we see them. You can’t imagine how they can get better, but they do. They’re more polished, the sound is more “wall of sound”, the confidence of the band messing around on stage. They’ve changed their setlist, but noticing that they have a few old fans (not just elderly, thanks Welly!) in the crowd, they play Flowers, which they say they haven’t played since the last time they were in Pompey. It goes down a storm. Finishing with, obviously, Me and Your Mates, which Welly dedicates to all of us, a mosh pit emerges and Welly decides to join in. The pure joy on everyone’s faces sounds like a cliche, but this is what music is all about. Bringing young and old together with banging tunes. He crowd surfs his way back (pictured) and Hannah tells me later that it wasn’t planned. FestyMum enthuses that she can see why we love them so much. Her two kids love it. Frequent Festival Goer laments the lack of Take Five, but has her proud aunt look glued on her face.

I am able to nip backstage to have a quick chat with them and they are all so generous. I’m hoping when they are mega famous that they’ll employ me to write their biographies! Hannah on synths explains that she’s morphed from this stage-struck girl playing keyboards on stage, afraid to look at the audience, because they’ll look back, into someone running across the stage opposite to Jacob being Angus, able to feed off the audience having fun.

We also laugh at how unplanned the crowd surfing was. Welly himself gives me a sweaty hug and tells me that yes, he’s been at Reading today, but performing at Victorious (their third year running) feels like a homecoming. “No shade to Reading, but this feels like home. It was so fun to play tonight, the crowd knew the old songs. We played some new stuff as well, they loved it. It fees like a checkpoint every year.”

We certainly all hope that they continue to use Victorious as a way to gauge how they’re doing. Under new management, things really feel afoot with these guys. Their new team manages Ash, alt-J and Wolf Alice too, so good company. We are with you all the way! And we are seeing them on 15 September, in Southampton’s The Joiners, where Welly tells me they played their very first gig.

Pixies. Such an important group to me growing up. I was dubious about googling the recent festival set lists. I know how Black Francis is a particular type of performer, and I didn’t want to be disappointed. I googled and wasn’t.

The Castle Stage is jam packed, I absolutely hadn’t expected them to be as popular as they were, given 90steachergirl wasn’t even born whey they first split up! No fuss, no frills, just music. Opening with Gouge Away (and the guitar certainly does gouge away at the acoustics in the arena), the crowd are hooked.

We are amazed that even the younger ones in the crowd can sing along. Wave of Mutilation, Monkey Gone to Heaven Debaser, Hey, Mr Grieves, Caribou, Planet of Sound (how could I have forgotten that song?), Velouria, Where is my mind? finishing up with Here Comes Your Man.

There were new songs (Chicken) interspersed and some slow ones I wasn’t quire sure of. I did read that they played Isla de Encanta recently and I was desperate to hear him sing in Spanish, but that was not to be. Never go to a gig of your heroes, I paraphrase, but Pixies didn’t disappoint. I was half expecting a grumpy old man (well he’s 59), but actually he was very sweet, especially when he messed up one of the newer songs, saying he got lost in it and forgot to change chords! A humble man.

The rain didn’t stop play today. Let’s see what Day Three has to offer. No gaps in our route to midnight today, or should I say route from Panic Shack to Wet Leg. Let’s go!

• Pictures via Facebook courtesy Victorious. 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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