day two review (cont)

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Ray Lamontagne is late for his slot on the Xfm stage, so people hoping to catch a glimpse of him before returning to witness the start of KT Tunstall on the Main Stage are out of luck. This year’s MOR hit, the Chinese-come-Scottish songbird performs with all the glaze of a well-produced television program, but despite the perfectly rehearsed show she still puts her foot in it. Those unaware of her ethnic background are unlikely to be impressed by her nationalistic comments calling for people with girlfriends and boyfriends from “outside the country” to dump them in favour of “keeping it local”. To follow this up by saying said relationships are “built on fallacy” is a little over the top, but ending on the confusing note that they’re also apparently “built on sand” is at best naively racist.

Still, people are here to hear the hits, and as she performs songs off her chart-busting debut ‘Eye To The Telescope’, people jig and swing, transforming Hyde Park into a giant, bustling PTA end-of-term disco.

New York has-beens, Fun Lovin’ Criminals headline the Xfm stage, bringing a slice of 90’s nostalgia to the Wireless proceedings. Frontman Hughie’s put on weight since his band last bothered the public eye, and as they open up with a cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Rock & Roll’, it’s clear there’s to be no new innovation injection tonight.

That’s not to say they don’t put on a good show, in fact it’s a positive thrill to hear something that’s not bluegrass influenced. Songs like ‘Korean Bodega’ and ‘Coney Island Girl’ are loud and dumb, but given the lack of loud dumb rock elsewhere on site, people lap it up willingly. “Now for some rock and roll, motherfuckers!” screams Hughie before launching into festival anthem ‘Scooby Snacks’, complete with Pulp Fiction samples in place, and never before has the cliché call-to-arms felt so perfectly timed.

Rounding things off with a screeching rendition of ‘The Fun Lovin’ Criminal’, people are energised as they return to the Main Stage for the evening’s headliner David Gray. Say what you want about the piano-tinkling mumbler, but as the sun sets over London and the air brushes warmly against you, there’s no doubt that tonight Wireless festival is a great place to be. From ‘Sail Away’ to newer single ‘Hospital Food’, where Gray fails in pushing the boundary, he makes up tenfold in cementing the day’s success with a backrub of peaceful pleasure. ‘Babylon’ may well be the song that makes you want to pull your eyes out and puke for its mediocrity, but the setting for its performance tonight seems so picturesque that on this occasion you’d have to be particularly cold hearted not to relax and warm to it.

Day two of Wireless ends and, even with the ultimately weak line-up, still manages to please. From hereon the line-up’s set to get better and better (if you ignore the squealing eyesore of James Blunt). If it can continue as it has so far, then it’s to be a five-day festival that really works. Stay tuned...

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