the rain can not dampen fans love for Black Keys and The Prodigy

Isle of Wight Festival 2015

Thursday 11th to Sunday 14th June 2015
Seaclose Park, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 2DN, England MAP
£195 with camping

Daily capacity: 90,000

Following the beautiful weather of Thursday the Isle of Wight caught the tail end of the thunder-storms that swept across the south of England overnight, and although there wasn't too much rain as Friday began it remained quite overcast. Arriving on site at around four a rain shower started to fall, so leaving the Struts energetic performance on the main stage we sought shelter in the big top and caught a performance fromJJ Rosa, whose performance bought to mind a younger Florence Welch.

As the skies cleared we returned to the main stage in time to catch Irish band Kodaline. Two years ago this band impressed us with their performance at the festival. This time round, although far more polished, it seems some of the passion that they had live has been lost along the way. By contrast, passion is something that the Counting Crows could never be accused of lacking. Despite his laid-back San Franciscan air his delivery is full of passion. Wisely sticking to a set drawn form their first (and best know) album, in the hands of another band the maudlin and introspective lyrics could be plain depressing, however Duritz’ simple and heartfelt vocal makes them far more uplifting and something quite beautiful.

As we headed out to get our first proper look at this years site,the main arena seemed to be much busier than usual on a Friday afternoon. First stop was at The Kashmir Cafe for a pint of their delicious draught cherry beer, then our plan was to listen to a local band that had been recommended to us playing at the Platform One. These days most large festivals have an accompanying phone app, and this was to become our companion navigating our way through the bands and locations. Unfortunately the IW Festival app had a few quirks that occasionally left you frustrated - and today’s issue was that it insisted the Platform One stage was located behind the Hipshaker Bar. Eventually after a lot of meandering round and a text to someone else we established the stage was in fact up the far end of the site by there camping - once we manually searched the map we then found the second pin showing the true location, and so we finally set off across the site, noticing that as we did that that although the crowds were big around the main arena areas, they tailed off noticeably as you headed out. This is a common problem with the festival as, because the focus is on the big stages, there is little to inspire people to explore too far.

Finally reaching the Platform One stage, which showcases the talents of upcoming musicians from the music college that gives the stage its name, we arrived just in time to catch The Orders – a trio of lads who draw heavily on the influences of The Jam, Ash and The Arctic Monkeys. For a group so young they show a lot of promise and cool heads, while watching it seemed as though their music was drawing quite a crowd, but I suspect it was the rain that had started falling again.But those who came in for shelter would not have been disappointed with this young band.

Unfortunately the weather had set in for the evening leaving us with the prospect of a wet trudge across the site to get back to the main stage for The Black Keys, whose upbeat bluesy rock was a good reward for those who had braved the deluge. In a strange way the rain and thunder moving up the English channel helped set the scene for the tonight’s headliners The Prodigy. Creating a counterpoint for the nihilistic, industrial music of the band. A lot has been made about the fact that in the current political climate this is an already angry band at their most pissed off. This was clearly the case as previous times I have seen them there was always an air of dark pantomime about their shows, but this time the show was stripped back, lit largely in a sickly green light, counter-pointed with blinding white strobes, while Keith Flint and Maxim stalked the stage screaming their rage into the storm.

Isle of Wight Festival 2015 has, despite the weather, got off to a great start, and if the rain doesn’t stay around looks likely to be a great weekend ahead.

The Prodigy: Isle of Wight Festival 2015