Isle Of Wight Festival 2018 review: Unforgiving crowd offer mixed reactions to this year's headliners

Kasabian shine as Liam Gallagher afflicted by sound problems

(Dan Reid/REX)

Drenched in the unforgiving June sunshine, even the parched grass at this year’s Isle of Wight festival appeared to be adhering to the golden dress code to celebrate the event’s 50th anniversary.

The fancy dress, combined with laddy singalong headliners The Killers, Depeche Mode, Liam Gallagher and Kasabian, plus the World Cup taking place in Russia (and being screened at the festival) made for a raucous carnival meets football crowd atmosphere.

Rabid City fan Liam Gallagher arrived on stage to the ‘Champions’ chant, while former England forward Peter Crouch was spotted moshing to Kasabian’s 2009 hit ‘Fire’ during their Friday night set. The lofty former England player was even noticed by guitarist Serge Pizzorno, who called out: “Crouchy get down down, I can see you.”

The Friday line-up made for the most connected of the days, offering plenty for the crowd to get into from early on. Scouse rockers Judas enthusiastically bounced the festival open in the Big Top tent, while Bang Bang Romeo threw everything into their main stage set. But the festival really found its mojo when Nile Rodgers and Chic performed a flawless and shameless greatest hits set, sending the crowd completely wild – there were 50,000 people dancing with communal joyous abandon in the sunshine. People wanted to party and Rodgers brought it, and then some.

The 65 year old producer and guitarist used the set to announce he is now cancer free and pay tribute to David Bowie, before performing ‘Let’s Dance’ – the title track from the album the pair produced together in 1983. It was quite the moment.

Not to be outdone, Welsh rockers Feeder drew an enormous ‘one in one out’ crowd to the Big Top shortly afterwards, delivering an emotional and polished performance, their 2003 indie ballad ‘Just the Way I’m Feeling’ drawing arguably the most passionate sing along of the weekend.

Kasabian meanwhile shone with a textbook festival headline finish. Frontman Tom Mieghan was reportedly suffering from hayfever (as were several people at the dusty site), but his performance appeared completely unaffected as the band belted out anthemic rock tune after another. The set was testament to the depth of their now extensive back catalogue and the festival headline spot is absolutely the place for them.

Perhaps it was the relentless heat, but – despite its promise – the rest of the festival failed to reach the dizzy heights of Friday. The godfather of everything Kasabian has ever done, Liam Gallagher, should have been the highlight, yet his hour-long joint headline spot with Depeche Mode made for a rushed experience, despite moments of brilliance and the Mancunian’s razor-sharp wit.

There was a timeless moment when the helicopter/guitar intro to ‘Morning Glory’ ripped into the orange sky – a reminder that those Oasis songs, now pushing 25 years old, are still some of the best ever written. And Gallagher was right to fill his set with them, at one point dedicating ‘Whatever’ to the “miserable c**** who don’t think I should play Oasis songs”. Unfortunately, the sound wasn’t quite right for his set; the vocals were fine, but overall it was slightly too quiet. A shame, considering he was quite clearly a major reason many festival goers were there at all.

Having Gallagher share the top spot with Depeche Mode was a genius move for fans of a certain age, but despite an unbelievably good set by the electro rockers the younger crowd failed to get into it, which made for a disjointed experience. Where some people were completely losing it as Dave Gahan, spectacular in flamboyant leathered gothic glory, threw everything into ‘Policy of Truth’ from 1990’s ‘Violator’, gangs of younger festival goers sat on the ground, simply not getting it.

Perhaps it would have helped had they thrown ‘Personal Jesus’ in sooner to whet the appetite of the unforgiving festival crowd, but it would have spoilt the flow of what was without a doubt the best standalone performance of the weekend, the band’s new music sounding as fresh, loud and polished as those now thirty year old classics.