LIVE REVIEW: James, Starsailor, Vistas, Swim School, The Clause, Pavilion Festival, Ayr, 02/05/2025
Local DJ and music producer Ewan McVicar was walking across Low Green in his home town of Ayr one day a few years ago and decided there and then that having a music festival on the green was a great idea … We are so glad that he did so as what began a couple of years ago as a dance music festival has now expanded to three days and today we have five established bands playing for us alongside a wide range of local up-and-coming local bands, and even better the sun is shining gloriously at the picturesque Ayr beach.
Having been up for work at 4.45am the shift thankfully flew by then it was party time as we arrived at the venue for 3pm to check out some of the local bands. We were impressed by The Marches, Box Of Trash and Local Authority, the latter two we have previously seen live at The Garage in Glasgow, the atmosphere was nice and laid back helped by the lovely weather and each band had at least a couple of hundred music lovers down early for their sets.
A marquee tent was set up for this year due to the unpredictability of the Scottish weather and this just added to the ambience, The Clause were first band of the day in the tent at 4.30pm. They’re a band we have been lucky enough to see a few times before, the first as support to The Reytons at Glasgow’s Barrowland, the Birmingham rock quartet played a blinding half-hour set with some instantly recognisable tracks such as It’s Electric and In My Element. They also showcased new song Nothing Is Ever As It Seems that sounded amazing live, we must have been one of the first crowds to hear it live. The band released EP Weekend Millionaire in October 2024 and they played a few from that release. Vocalist Pearce Macca worked the crowd well with his charismatic style and during Fever Dream all four band members were exceptional, the crowd participation during last track In My Element was decent. Watch this band grow during 2025! 8/10
There were two Edinburgh bands on the main card – Swim School and Vistas – and the former were first up at 5.30pm, a band we have been following for a couple of years now and saw live a couple of times, the sound isn’t the best unfortunately and we found it difficult to follow the vocals from Alice Johnson at times but it was still thoroughly enjoyable with Bored and Kill You being the standouts for us. It was all going well until track five and then … BANG! Some equipment had failed on stage and unfortunately the set had to come to an early finish due to the power outage … Oh, wait they came back out on the stage to try one more time as we get a couple of minutes of the track Delirious then it was lights out again, we felt for the band and Alice came back on stage to apologise to the fans. They will be playing a headline show at QMU in November, another one for the diary. 8/10
After a delay of around an hour the power finally came back and ironically it is Travis classic Why Does It Always Rain On Me? that prompts a mass singalong in the packed tent as we await Vistas taking to the stage. Vistas finally begin just after 7pm and are sounding great, the set is cut to four songs to try to catch up a little but the four we get to hear are faultless and there is even a new track in there. Stranger is one of the best of the short set while last number Retrospect is by far Vistas most streamed song and was a great end to proceedings, we’re looking forward to the tour later in the year. 8/10
After a quick refreshment, we managed to squeeze in down at the barrier as James Walsh and his Starsailor band took to the stage for a slightly shortened set, no complaints though as they songs they did play were all ready singalong classics such as Four To The Floor, Poor Misguided Fool, Silence Is Easy and Alcoholic being just a few examples of this, the crowd were very lively and responded well to each song. Latest album Where The Wild Things Grow was released in March 2024 and we would get a couple from that one, Good Souls ended a set jam packed with hits and energy. Do we really have to wait until November to see Starsailor again at Barrowland? 9/10
The atmosphere in the marquee tent is now electric as we await Manchester’s finest James and when the nine band members take to the stage the roar from the crowd would have been heard at the other side of Ayr. Vocalist Tim Booth is wearing a kilt tonight (we are in Burns country after all) and a fake fur coat and is looking stylish as always, the beauty of a James show is that they always switch up the set keeping the fans guessing what tracks they will play. Tonight it is Johnny Yen that kicks off the eighteen-track set, it really does feel surreal to be seeing James play so close to home for what must be at least our tenth time seeing them live after the first one at Barrowland in the early 1990s being incredibly memorable.
Second track in is Waltzing Along and Tim is already down walking along the platform to the delight of the fans with everyone eager to high five their hero, he thinks about going into the crowd … but no it’s too early for that yet! Better With You has Booth sharing vocals with Chloe Alper, one of the two new members that joined the band in 2018 – the other being Deborah Knox-Hewson – they have both helped to bring a very different energy to the live shows. The first big moment of the night comes with Born Of Frustration, taken from the Seven album released way back in 1992 it is one of the best of the set tonight, the energy coming from the crowd is special with the attempts at the native American style of chanting “woo-woo-woo” only adding to the moment as Tim ends the song with the lyrics “the world is spinning endlessly, we’re clinging to our own beliefs, born of frustration”, what an absolute moment.
Busted isn’t a new song but we don’t recall hearing it live before today so feels like a new one for us, it’s a nice melodic track allowing the crowd to catch a breath while Leviathan, She’s A Star and Come Home are played to the usual high standard. During Come Home Tim Booth is out for a surf … no he is not down at the beach but in the crowd causing mayhem as he is gently passed along by a mass of hands while Debbie and Chloe are keeping things ticking along on the stage. They used to host gigs at the nearby Pavilion that is now used as a kids soft-play/restaurants, some big names have been down this way in the past with bands such as Iron Maiden, New Order and Gary Numan and the building was also used in the 1990s for dance music events when known as Hanger 13.
Shadow Of A Giant is one of four tracks from the latest album Yummy as Tim and Chloe once again share vocal duties but it is Sit Down that steals the show with the audience participation being a standout, while it is not the band’s biggest song it is still the most instantly recognisable one. Beautiful Beaches could easily have been the opening track tonight giving the surroundings and is another standout from the set, sadly three songs had to be cut from the set due to time constraints – Attention, Sound and Sometimes being the songs – but nobody was complaining as the night ended with the excellent Tomorrow and Getting Away With It (All Messed Up). James are back in Scotland on 22nd May for a warm up show at Edinburgh’s Corn Exchange and then touring around the UK playing mostly festivals and outdoor shows this summer and are well worth catching live. 10/10
Written by: Alan Brown
