HOMELANDS GETS THE FESTIVAL SEASON UNDERWAY

HOMELANDS kicked off the UK summer festival season
yesterday (May 28), bringing together crowds of rockers and ravers with headliners BECK, MYLO, Babyshambles, ROOTS MANUVA, Babyshambles and The Bravery.


Indie surprises The Bravery and Human League were scheduled early in the day and played to a crowd of dedicated fans who had made the trek down to The Bowl in Hampshire’s Matterley Estate.


However Pete Doherty made a swift departure to catch a flight to Scotland for the Burns Festival, as did Human League, who played to a growing crowd before leaving by helicopter to support Duran Duran in Birmingham.


Back on the ground, Audio Bullys warmed-up the dance faithful for highlight of the afternoon, Mylo.


The Isle Of Skye native played favourites like ‘Destroy Rock & Roll’, recent single ‘In Your Arms’ and ‘Drop
The Pressure’ to a rapturous audience, that stretched out of the
Live Arena Tent and into the afternoon sunshine.


With 2 Many DJs, Norman Jay and Grandmaster Melle Mel gradually filling the various dance tents and stages, headliner Beck had to win over an initially lukewarm audience but did so with a set of classics (‘Beercan’, ‘Loser’) plus newer material before closing with new single ‘E-Pro’.


As the sun set, the , meanwhile, took over the main stage for a raucous hour-and-a-half. The set included ‘Let’s Push Things Forward’, ‘Has It Come to This?’, lighter anthem ‘Dry Your Eyes’ and a surprise cover of Mylo’s ‘Drop The Pressure’.


After a jump about to ‘Fit But You Know It’, the masses filtered out of the main tent ready to take up Mike Skinner’s onstage challenge to “party through ‘til 6am”.