Franz Ferdinand wrap up ‘Tonight’ tour at SOS 4.8 festival with Mystery Jets and Hot Chip

Madness, Crystal Castles and The Horrors also feature at the Murcia festival

Franz Ferdinand, Madness and The Horrors were among the acts to play Spain’s SOS 4.8 festival this weekend (April 30-May 2).

The 48-hour non-stop festival saw crowds of up to 35,000 pack out Murcia‘s Auditorio y Centro de Congresos, despite heavy rain falling on the second day (May 1) which forced acts including Mystery Jets, Orbital and Fatboy Slim to take to the stage later than expected.

Franz Ferdinand used their headline appearance on Friday night to cap off a successful world tour of their latest album ‘Tonight: Franz Ferdinand’.

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Frontman Alex Kapranos told NME.COM that the gig had a celebratory feeling for the band, who now head to Portugal to play their final show of the tour before starting work on new material.

“These are the last gigs of this album, and Spanish crowds are always brilliant so it’s been a fun one to do for us,” Kapranos explained after the gig, before adding that to him the festival has a “similar atmosphere to what Benicassim was like four or five years ago”.

The Scottish band played a greatest hits set, with tracks aired including ‘Take Me Out’, ‘Darts Of Pleasure’ and recent single ‘No You Girls’.

Kapranos, wearing a suit and conversing with the audience in Spanish throughout the set, interacted between most songs and also praised those in the crowd who had brought along self-made placards bearing the band’s name.

Meanwhile, The Horrors also took to SOS 4.8‘s main stage on Friday, performing a set that leant heavily on their latest album ‘Primary Colours’, though non-album track ‘Whole New Way’ also got played towards the end. The London band said little throughout the gig, though they looked relaxed and wore shades and lighter colours rather than their normal black attire.

On the festival’s second stage, Crystal Castles showcased their new self-titled album to a heaving audience, many of whom already knew the words to the likes of ‘Celestica’ and ‘Doe Deer’.

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Although frontwoman Alice Glass was more restrained than at some of the band’s more notable shows, she still managed to annoy festival security by refusing to stop shining her flashlight in their faces, and also played dead on stage and wrapped herself in the microphone cord during an intense version of ‘Alice Practise’.

Hot Chip played a hit-friendly set on the Friday night, watched by members of Franz Ferdinand and Mystery Jets. The band, led by Alexis Taylor, threw in their cover of Shakira‘s ‘She Wolf’ before playing a lively version of ‘Over And Over’ that garnered a massive singalong from the main stage audience.

The second day of SOS 4.8 (May 1) got off to a shaky start after a heavy thunderstorm – lasting roughly an hour – caused such a deluge that some roads in the centre of Murcia had to be closed due to flooding.

Parts of the concrete festival site also had to be drained of excess water, forcing most of the acts to delay their appearances, which were due to kick off at 6pm.

Coming onstage an hour later than scheduled at roughly 10pm, Mystery Jets previewed their new album ‘Serotonin’, kicking off their set by playing new song ‘Flash A Hungry Smile’. The band also played old favourites including ‘Young Love’, ‘Half In Love With Elizabeth’ and ‘Two Doors Down’. Bassist Kai Fish was the most vocal of the band in terms of audience interaction, gesturing to the crowd throughout and attempting to speak in cod-Spanish at several points.

Madness also took to the stage later than planned but played a greatest hits set to a huge main stage crowd, putting in a typically audacious performance that saw several members climb up the lighting rigging, though frontman Suggs was content with simply strolling around the stage wearing a suit and shades.

Tracks including ‘It Must Be Love’, ‘Our House’, ‘My Girl’ and ‘Baggy Trousers’ drew mass singalongs from the huge Murcia crowd, and the band reflected the adoration by playing a Spanish-tinged intro to their cover of Max Romeo‘s reggae standard ‘Chase The Devil’.

They ended their set with a extra-long version of ‘Night Boat To Cairo’, taken from their 1979 debut album ‘One Step Beyond’.

Fatboy Slim, Orbital and The Magic Numbers also played well received sets during SOS 4.8.

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