City Park in Stirling is the place to be today for the first full day of the Radio 2 Festival and what a backdrop we have, with the sight of the jaw dropping Stirling Castle directly behind the main stage. This is the first ever time the Radio 2 Festival has headed north to Scotland and the crowd didn’t let us down.
We followed the army of middle-aged music fans towards City Park and entry to the site was seamless and greatly organised. The first band of the day are from Glasgow as Texas take to the stage at 1pm just as we are walking through the park, the sun is shining, there are masses of people sitting on chairs they have brought. There is a general nice atmosphere amongst the crowd, sometimes spending time at festivals such as TRNSMT or Leeds can be hard work among a sea of teenage school leavers so the Radio 2 Festival is a welcome relief from that! The half-hour with Sharleen Spiteri goes by in a flash, all the classic hits are here including Black Eyed Boy, Say What You Want and Summer Son, the last of these is very relevant as the temperature rises. Spiteri is her usual comical self, threatening to swear at one point and working the crowd so well. There is a mass singalong to the last song of the set Inner Smile, we really can’t wait for the next Texas tour now. 9/10
The next act also from Glasgow takes us by surprise as Lulu took to the stage, for a seventy seven-year-old her voice is still absolutely perfect. The crowd react with a feverish intensity, yes Shout! Is in there both at the beginning and end of the set, this is the song that set Lulu on the path to stardom and still resonates all these years later. There is even time for a new song with I’m In Love Again, Lulu also released mammoth album Independence back in July, the extended editions runs to an amazing sixty-two songs and well over five hours, definitely a collectors edition. A surprise cover of David Bowie track The Man Who Sold The World delights the thousands that are here, Lulu had a great working relationship with Bowie and comments, “I know that you are up there looking down on us David”. What a lovely fitting tribute to the global superstar that was David Bowie. A tribute to Sidney Poitier as well as a shout to 007 keeps the crowd lively and who can forget the collaboration Lulu had with Take That all those years ago with Relight My Fire? Everyone in the park is singing along now for what was a very entertaining half-hour, Lulu could easily have headlined this festival today … as could Texas. 9/10
After Lulu we headed over to the BBC tent for a half-hour of the Paddy McGuinness DJ set that was very lively with every tune being an anthem that brought joy to the massive crowd. Londoner Jack Savoretti is next up on the main stage to entertain the masses, his mix of melodic-pop and Americana keeps the festival atmosphere running smoothly with the title track from Jack’s latest album We Will Always Be The Way We Were sounding great in the sunshine while the Pino Donaggio cover of You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me ends a decent half hour. 7/10
This festival is usually big on the 1980s music and ABC take that slot today with a perfect set that transported us right back to that very decade, vocalist Martin Fry still possesses all the charm and charisma that he had all those years ago and is sporting a loud pink suit today, in fact they are all wearing suits other than the guitarist who tells us that he lost his suit today! Three of ABC’s best known songs are played right at the beginning of the set that fires the crowd up – When Smokey Sings, Poison Arrow and All Of My Heart being the songs – while the band’s biggest ever release The Look of Love is kept right to the end and has the whole of City Park singing along. 8/10
With four Brit Awards behind her already Emeli Sande hits the stage in the sunshine, we have been so lucky with the weather today. Even though Sande is Sunderland-born she has always been considered a Scot having grown up in Alford, Aberdeenshire, Emeli works through a set filled with classic hits from her era, her voice is still as sweet as ever as she delights the crowd today. It may be a bit muddy underfoot but the sun is still shining creating a very unique atmosphere in City Park. Read All About It, Part III was a collaboration she did with Professor Green and is the standout of the set along with Next To Me. 8/10
The Script are the penultimate artist of the day at the Radio 2 Festival, they are given forty-five minutes to entertain the crowd and that they do, the amount of The Script t-shirts we see today proves how popular the band still are. Frontman Danny O’Donoghue is tasked with vocal, rhythm guitar and keyboards – a proper musician then – the Dubliners work through a nine-track set that includes all the band’s major hits including The Man Who Can’t Be Moved, Hall Of Fame and Breakeven, these three tracks alone have well over five BILLION streams on Spotify between them. Just last month The Script released a new album – The User’s Guide To Being Human – and we are lucky to get to hear a couple from that release (The Crowd Was Singing Wonderwall & Man In The Arena). The crowd’s reaction to most of these songs was delightful, The Script head out on a major arena tour in October/November. 8/10
As darkness falls there is time for one last act today: Chaka Khan. Here is an artist that has eleven Grammy Awards and sold over seventy million records and a brand-new album Chakzilla that was released only last week. Most folk are here for the big hits tonight and have to wait until near the end of the hour long set for the classics songs I Feel For You, I’m Every Woman and Ain’t Nobody, Alexandra Burke joins Chaka Khan for I’m Every Woman. There is time for a couple of tracks from the new record too with Chakzilla the title song and Boogie’s In My Soul. We weren’t able to stick around for the full day, so will just have to wait until next May to see Simple Minds now. 8/10
Written by: Alan Brown
