Victorious Festival with The Turner Brothers

Well, where do I start?

We knew all summer that this was going to be the big gig of the year, and boy, did Victorious deliver. I'm kind of overwhelmed by all the amazing support, photos and feedback from the bands two sets, and I'll do my best to sum up the day here...

We headed off on The Party Bus super early on Saturday morning. I, like many, weren't fully convinced that we were going have everyone together when it was time to set off (we were pushing the time frame a little already at this point) but in the usual Turner Brother way, everything came together, everyone went to the loo and we hit the road with high expectations. The Turner Brothers took about 40 people on that bus, and most of them were fully in the T-Bro spirit, wearing the t-shirts and singing Turner Brother tunes. We listened to Laylow four times on that journey. Seriously.

And then we arrived at Victorious! You'll have to excuse the weird jumble of photos I have for this post, the camera on my phone is seriously dire and my point and shoot has given up the ghost (genuine request - if you have a cheap point and shoot camera you don't need, please let me know, I'm desperate for one and the budget won't stretch right now). So the photos that I have here have been taken by Jay, who is pretty much my saviour when it comes to gig photos, with his fancy phone and great eye for shots, and Richard Allen, who was the official videographer for the day and from whose footage all the performance stills have come apart from one.

Thanks guys! ♥♥

Time for the big performance! We got all the equipment backstage, set up and it was time to play, opening the second biggest stage that Victorious had to offer...

Here's a sneaky, overexcited photo of me and Jay getting to hang out backstage.

I rushed back round to the field to watch the boys, and they absolutely smashed it. Two guitars, two trumpets, Parry on percussion and the brothers giving it their all, there was a substantial crowd gathered by the end and a whole coachload of marauding fans dancing to all the songs they knew off by heart.

Look at the size of that stage!

After their first set, we had a six hour break to explore the festival and see some of the incredible acts lined up. We explored and went a little feral on overly expensive cider. I ate a very large amount of food and failed to take pictures of any of it at all. Because I'm a good blogger like that ;-)

A real highlight of the afternoon for me was seeing one of my favourite female artists, Laura Mvula on the main stage. She was pretty awe-inspiring, with her beautiful voice and a serious energy that I'd love to experience in a smaller setting. I'm listening to her right now :)

The second Turner Brother set was at the Mayfield Studios Real Ale Stage, a packed, tented stage with rain cover, perfect as the heavens opened just before their slot, meaning even more people crammed in to experience what turned out to be my favourite Turner Brothers performance ever...

That tent was so hot, all our Turner Brother t-shirts were soaked with sweat. The guys did a shout-out to their coachful and a whole section of the front of the tent went absolutely wild, there was an incredible atmosphere and the crowd even convinced them to play "one more" which turned out to be my favourite Turner Brother song of all time, one they keep promising me they will play and keep forgetting, 'Janine'.

And then it was all over :)

I abandoned ship and went to see Primal Scream on the main stage, they weren't everything I dreamed they would be, to be honest, but the rain coming down and the sun setting and the stage lights and the crowd and the mud up to our knees pretty much made all my other festival dreams come true!

A seriously unforgettable day, and the boys have had so many incredible comments and new fans over the last few days, it's been hard to keep up with. They play Croxfest on Saturday if you fancy catching them live at a free gig before summer finally gives up the ghost and leaves us wintery and crammed into dark pubs instead of rolling around in sun-drenched fields or at least enjoying warm summer rain.

On a side note, I have a couple of other posts coming up this week. Last night I went to see a truly awesome new band, The Dash, in Camden and I promised a little write-up, I really believe they are destined for big things so I'm glad I got to see them in such a close-up setting.

Big thanks to Nick Courtney et al at Victorious, David Horrocks Photography, Richard Allen Photography, Isaac from Liquid Lens Productions and my lovely friends for coming along and getting involved at the gig, love you all ♥♥