Victorious Festival 2022 just got even better. With a full Friday lineup rather than the traditional evening show. Primal Scream kicked off at 1pm with a greatest hits set and the sun popped on its hat (probably a bucket) and welcomed us to Southsea common

Self Esteem
I’ve written about Rebecca Taylor many times before, and this was the biggest audience I’ve seen her perform to and she lapped it up. Her live show is made for the masses, glorious modern pop tunes with dance routines from her band.
A future headliner?

Anna Calvi
Anna Calvi
Anna having to follow Self Esteem was a hard task and a gear change musically. She may have not been as known as some of the other acts, but Anna took it in her stride, leaned back, played an epic guitar and soaked up the sun.

James
The new mixed gender line-up has definitely added a certain je ne sais quoi. James attracted a massive audience of all ages, who were treated to an early 90’s set list featuring ‘Come Home’, ‘Born of Frustration’ and even ‘Sit Down’!. Tim Booth seemed to be having the time of his life crowd surfing and showcasing his trademark freaky dance moves

Bombay Bicycle Club
The North Londoner’s first came to Portsmouth as teenagers and return some 15 year later with a penultimate headline show. Filled with indie dance fillers like “Luna’, ‘Shuffle’ and ‘Eat, Sleep, Wake’ BBC had the crowd dancing and treated us from some choice cuts from their debut album.

The Stereophonics
Previous headliners The Stereophonics, have morphed from latter era Brit-Pop to Dad-Rock. Gone are the t-shirts and bootcut jeans to be replaced by leathers. Kelly Jones lapped up the applause and went through the motions playing tracks from the last four decades. Not a spectacular show, but the closing fireworks certainly meant that we left with a bang.