Sunday energy and vibes of All Points East
Words: Ceirios Bebb
If you weren’t at Reading or Leeds festival over the weekend, All Points East at Victoria Park in London was the place to be. The long awaited return of The Maccabees and the finale of a week of music at the park following performances from the likes of Barry Can’t Swim, Confidence Man, Raye and FKA Twigs; Sunday afternoon promised to be a show to remember. We caught sets of plenty of future indie stars as well as the big names, The Maccabees of course, Bombay Bicycle Club and CMAT.
Opening the East stage for Sunday’s main acts was Katy J Pearson, and even though summer is almost over Pearson's beautiful guitars combined with melodic trumpet and violin made it feel like the beginning of summer all over again. She has played multiple festivals this summer including Glastonbury and is definitely an artist to watch out for as her live set was truly magical and with only half an hour opening All Points East, her full set promises to be a good one.
To follow up from Katy J Pearson was Prima Queen in the North Arena with a packed crowd all dancing along for echoey indie guitar driven music. They came onto stage in tennis style outfits keeping with the summer feel of the festival. With hundreds of people clapping along they were a perfect band to build up the energy and excitement for the day. On the same stage right after Prima Queen were british four-piece band Divorce, bringing nostalgic and emotional lyrics into an indie country infused sound.
Yorkshire band The Cribs were up next on the East stage. The sun was on its way down and the people of London had clearly warmed up ready for Maccabees as the audience for The Cribs was truly wild. With a vast majority of the crowd singing along knowing all the lyrics and a mosh pit formed front and centre there was no lack of excitement and enthusiasm at all.
Photo: Isha Shah
Irish singer songwriter CMAT was definitely one of the highlights of the day bringing an hour of non-stop entertainment and catchy songs that draw people to become a part of the show, singing and dancing with her Country and pop infused hits. Beginning the set with hypnotic line dancing to ‘I Don’t Really Care For You’ that made you want to get up on stage and join in to playing an unreleased song which got fans excited for the release of her album Euro-Country this week. She finished her set magnificently, having the entire audience two-stepping for ‘I Wanna Be A Cowboy Baby’ and joining in with repeating lyrics of her final song ‘Stay For Something’ during which she came out into the crowd to greet excited fans before crowd surfing her way back to the stage.
Photo: Isha Shah
And finally, the show we had all been waiting for; The Maccabees took to the stage to a screaming sea of fans in monochromatic outfits starting strong with ‘Latchmere’ from their 2007 album ‘Colour It In’ with hundreds of emotional fans shouting the words. It was clear to see that over their 20 years of making music their relatable lyrics have resonated with so many fans as they shout out to the crowd asking them to sing along “if any of these songs mean anything to you”.
With hands in the air to be seen all over the park and teary eyes singing along, it was evident that this show meant the world to so many Maccabees fans who have been patiently waiting for this reunion over the last 8 years in which the band had split up. The band stated multiple times how excited they were to be back. Some technical difficulties hit multiple times during the show, with all sound cutting out halfway through songs, however with only the faint sound of the onstage amps you could hear the true energy and passion of the crowd as they continued to sing even when the band were silenced. With another round of applause the sound of the speakers return as the band ask the crowd to jump for the song ‘Can You Give It’.
Nearing the end of their set they invited english singer-songwriter Jamie T on stage with them to perform ‘Marks To Prove It’. Maccabees were without a doubt the perfect headline, the band celebrating their reunion and album release anniversary while the fans celebrated the opportunity to see one of their favourite bands live after years of not being able to.
Photo: Isha Shah