By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Sunday 27 July 2025, Uptown Festival at Blackheath

Song Three Lions was played as the Lionesses won the Euros on penalties shortly before former M People frontwoman Heather Small took to the stage.

• Read on for reasons including Roachford, Johnny Hates Jazz & Jaki Graham

Culture Club (main picture) headlined this year’s Uptown Festival and Boy George took the opportunity to reminisce about growing up locally and ‘running through Eltham dressed as a nun’.

He mentioned former Blackheath resident Anthony Newley’s influence on 1 of his heroes David Bowie and played an unexpected but emphatic cover of Bowie’s Let’s Dance charttopper.

Uptown Festival prides itself on being a family event and Culture Club proved themselves great headliners as Madness did last year in bringing a vast back catalogue of hits performed with real vigour.

They may not have played Three Lions but Lightning Seeds performed here in 2024 and we felt 2025 had the edge in terms of quality support.

1 of our party has happy memories of crossing the London Marathon finishing line as Heather Small’s Proud was playing and she gave us that as well as plenty of the M People hits that she’s probably best known for.

We watched her set from the viewing bridge in the VIP area and this was better positioned and larger than we remember previously.

Elsewhere Roachford brought his Cuddly Toy, Johnny Hates Jazz their hits and Jaki Graham proved a vocal powerhouse to start the afternoon with.

There was also much more seating in the VIP area than last year and the bar service was swift.

The weather was also favourable without being too hot and we very much hope Uptown Festival returns next year because it’s a really fun event that brings a great deal to the area.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Culture Club Tickets
• Have you seen a Boy George show before and what do you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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