Victorious 2015
Southsea, Portsmouth
30th August 2015
Sean BW Parker reports back from Victorious 2015, headlined by The Flaming Lips.
Oddly jingoistic as its name seems, the Victorious festival in Portsmouth’s Southsea is a sophisticated, well-run affair, and refreshingly low on advertising. The Tudor Rose being sprayed permanently nearby, and legend of Nelson’s departing to defeat the dreaded French Hun forgotten for two days beneath ominous English channel skies.
It generally pissed down. Peter Hook and The Light didn’t seem to care though, ploughing through an hour of New Order and Joy Division classics. Hook was resplendent in estate agent beard pandering with t-shirt as always, until taking it off to reveal a very much ‘there’ torso during finale ‘Blue Monday’, after earlier dedicating JD’s ‘Transmisson’ to a dormant Bobby Gillespie in the Queens Hotel over the road. Put it away, love.
Trafalgar’s skies truly took their revenge during The Magic Numbers’ set, with the two girl/two boy dynamic still working its charms, particularly when a cherubic, if bemused dark curly-haired young lad in cowboy hat was invited onstage to accompany on tambourine for the finale. Heart-warming stuff, even if the dwindling crowd was collectively developing pneumonia.
The day belonged to The Fratellis though. Utterly powerful and on top of their game, their Libertines-in-Texas stomp was ideal for the Pompey crowd, and when ‘Chelsea Dagger’ launched its inevitable rush. The increasingly muddy field had become an expansive, joyous football terrace, replete with The Frat’s multi-tattooed drummer-inspired moves.
Primal Scream started off dangerously wobbly, with shaky confidence and Bobby Gillespie’s faux-soul failing to do anything to raise doused spirits which thought nothing would better The Fratellis barnstorm. The band fell into their stride predictably enough though as the hits started rolling and Gillesipie woke up, with ‘Loaded’, ‘Moving On Up’ and ‘Rocks’ unifying the biggest crowds of the day.
The Flaming Lips seem to be too weird for Southsea. The dwindling but passionate crowd became enraptured by Wayne Coyne and co’s psychedelic romance soon enough though, and through ‘Fight Club’, ‘Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots’ and ‘The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song’, it became evident that there is love for the Lips, if only mainly in specialised pockets. Coyne’s plastic hamster ball made an appearance during ‘Vein Of Stars’, as he rode it out into the middle of the arena, with assorted alien dancers behind onstage.
Ringing out with ‘Do You Realise??’ it was up to the individual, weather-hardened punter whether it was that or ‘Chelsea Dagger’ that they rolled home through the slick streets to. The Flaming Lips’ ‘Fuck Yeah Portsmouth’ inflatable banner might have been the keeper. Victorious – why hide under a bushel indeed?
~
More on Victorious Festival can be found over on their official website: VictoriousFestival.co.uk.
All words by Sean BW Parker. More writing by Sean can be found at his Louder Than War author’s archive. Sean can also be found on twitter as @seanbwparker.
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