Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Party atmosphere as stars perform the hits
ABOUT 20,000 sun-kissed Taysiders lapped up a sweltering Saturday in Perth for BBC Music’s Biggest Weekend.
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Emeli Sande, Simple Minds and Amy Macdonald were among the major acts who graced the stage at Scone Palace. And they certainly didn’t disappoint revellers at the Scottish leg of the UK-wide event. Unsurprisingly, the bulk of the crowd were there for Oasis icon Gallagher, who brought the thunder for his headline set. Not a single word was uttered by the Mancunian during the first three songs – Fort Knox, Holy Mountain and It’s A Beautiful World from new record Who Built The Moon? Although the recent hits were wellreceived, it was the songs from the band that shot him to fame which led to deafening singalongs, starting with a thumping rendition of Little By Little.
Half The World Away, The Importance Of Being Idle, Wonderwall, Go Let It Out and Don’t Look Back In Anger soon followed – with the latter now considered a poignant anthem in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena attacks last year.
A sparkling day at Scone ended with smiles all round for Gallagher’s final song – a cover of The Beatles’ hit All You Need Is Love.
It was a surprise that the crowd hadn’t gone hoarse by the time his set got under way considering the main stage was littered with singalongs.
New wave favourites Squeeze – somewhat surprisingly allocated the opening spot – got things off to a flying start with hits such as Cool For Cats and Up The Junction.
Although not famed for a major back catalogue, ska legends The Beat put in one of the best performances of the day in the beaming sunshine, getting people up and dancing to Mirror In The Bathroom.
Amy Macdonald’s pop anthems fitted perfectly with the backdrop and the Scottish songstress enjoyed a good crowd for her homecoming.
Mr Rock & Roll, This Is The Life and Run were highlights in a shortened set.
There was only room for the big tracks for Sunderland-born Emeli Sande who had the crowd belting out every word to Read All About It, Next To Me and Heaven.
Legendary rockers Simple Minds were given a rousing reception on their arrival to the main stage and will no doubt be given a similar welcome at Slessor Gardens in September.
The aptly-named Waterfront along with iconic anthems Alive And Kicking and Don’t You (Forget About Me) were unsurprisingly the stand-outs.
The previous day, big crowds had enjoyed a somewhat more laid-back day of music with shows by the likes of jazz singer Jamie Cullum and violinist Nigel Kennedy.
But from start to finish of the Biggest Weekend, fans kept the party atmosphere flowing on two glorious days for live music,
Nostalgia will return to Scone with Rewind in July but after the success of this, hopefully another major festival for Tayside is not too far away.