Photo Credit: Kevin O’Sullivan
The day two fun began at mid-day in the Giant Squid tent as Brighton-based alternative pop duo Cowz got the crowd warmed up for a full-on day of music. The group was founded by Saga Wahiststrom and Natasha Nicholl in 2021 and they released debut EP That’s Cute! Baby in May of this year with their set featuring many of these. 6/10 (AB)
Similar to The Allotment, the first three slots of each day at The Quarry features lesser known talent, curated by the magnificent people over at BBC Introducing; and, although opening a stage might seem daunting, knowing the likes of Jake Bugg, Holly Humberstone and Easy Life cut their teeth in those same slots in years gone by must have set one hell of a goal for Chesterfield four piece April Tapes to strive towards. And, although the tent might have started a little sparse, it didn’t take long for them to get their audience; as their gentle stream of rock drifted free from the tent, pervading the arena and drawing in anyone lucky enough to be caught in its snare, it quickly filled up. None too soon, either; each track seemed to fly by, undoubtedly and deservedly scoring the band legions of new followers — a great start to the day. 7.5/10 (JOS)
22-year-old Harvey Jay Dodgson came next, up over at the Giant Squid stage. With a support slot pedigree that includes the likes of Lottery Winners and HIMALAYAS — who themselves have just finished shows supporting rock legends Nickelback and Foo Fighters, respectively — and a number of sold out headline dates, including his hometown venue of Wedgewood Rooms, expectations started high. And, as the raspy-voiced troubadour effortlessly rose above each and every one of them — quite literally, in the case of Tell Me, as he climbed one of the pillars holding the tent up — the bar for the weekend rose too.
With the likes of opener and recent single Freedom, the ferocious Marilyn Rose, the unreleased Embers, or closer The Love Of It, Harvey effortlessly cemented himself as a highlight of the weekend — a frankly unbelievable feat, given the number of bands still to come. 10/10 (JOS)
Quirky Manchester indie rockers Spangled played a rousing half hour set at 1pm on the Big Gin stage, vocalist Ben Johnson provided the entertainment with some hilarious stage antics helping create a good buzz in the crowd, he seemed to cover every inch of the stage! Surprisingly they missed out Good Lif Better, one of their well-known songs, the best of the six they did play were That Farm In Durham and Little Tom, they had quite a few fans in the crowd helping create a special atmosphere, a short Stone Roses cover also got the crowd excited. 9/10 (AB)
Another set, another visit to the Quarry — it was time for Isaac Nielson. Another BBC Introducing favourite, the singer songwriter and his band wasted no time in taking full advantage of their big ol’ festival setting, jumping around and racing across their new auditory playground; and, as the singer songwriter and his band tore through their frantic set, with the likes of Take It Higher, The Fight Within Us and A Cat Named Paul all flying past — although, of course, Isaac made sure to reserve some time for a rendition of Freddie Mercury’s iconic Live Aid vocal warmups — the crowd were right there with them in a chorus of fist pumping, throat-rending fun. A beautiful sight to behold. 8.5/10 (JOS)
Back in the yellow-and-blue canvas of the Giant Squid tent, it was time for Balancing Act. Having just got back from supporting IDKHOW BUT THEY FOUND ME across the UK and Europe over June and July, Y Not marked the last chance for anyone to catch the Manchester-based band prior to their upcoming Tightropes & Limericks EP headline tour in October; and, although not everyone present knew it, they were in for something monumental. With charismatic vocalist Kai Roberts looking like he’d taken a page out of Samuel T. Herring’s go to dance moves (if you don’t get the reference, look up ‘Future Islands Letterman’ — you’ll thank us later) and climbing onto the barrier to tower over his adoring fans, the likes of Cheshire Smile, She Plays The Theremin — heartbreakingly not featuring a theremin itself — and upcoming single Under The Table took on a sense of sharp, almost cinematic clarity that was nothing short of phenomenal. Eccentric, ethereal, exciting, and endlessly engaging — front to back, Before I Shoot to All Yours, Balancing Act tipped heavily towards stunning. Easily another standout. 10/10 (JOS)
Rising Liverpool-based indie band Keyside brought a decent crowd down to The Allotment, they have recently toured with fellow scouser Jamie Webster as well as Shed Seven so are gaining loads of experience while still releasing their own music, the set started with Angeline, their biggest track to date, unreleased new song Love Is On The Side sounded great live but the best two tracks were left to the end of the set, firstly Nikita (a new release) and ending with Paris To Marseille. We first saw Keyside at Sound City in 2023 and their music has matured a lot since then. Will be keeping an eye on their progress with interest. 8/10 (AB)
Back at the Big Gin Stage, the Y Not field was greeted with the explosion of curly red hair that is Liverpool-based singer-songwriter Michael Aldag. At only 19, his gentle, emotional crooning belies a singer well beyond his years; although a plethora of young girls screaming along to his set shows his charming troubadour days are still well underway. For a lot of bands, particularly those early in the day, it can be a struggle to connect with an unfamiliar audience. For Michael, it couldn’t have been easier: just play a load of covers! With the likes of Stick Season, Love Story, Read My Mind, or UK’s unofficial national anthem, Mr. Brightside interspersed amongst the likes of promenade, cheating and POLAROID, primarily taken from recent debut album ‘sorry for everything’, Michael Aldag had his crowd hanging off of every word. 8/10 (JOS)
Ruby J is an singer/songwriter we have wanted to see for a while and today was the day in The Quarry, Ruby fuses multiple genres with her own unique style, reminding us at times of Scottish soul singer Brooke Combe. She had the full band today including saxophone and trumpet, Ruby started off acoustically so its good to see an artist progress to a full band. The Backtrack EP was released in December and we heard tracks mainly from that including Don’t Care and Should Be Me. 8/10 (AB)
Venturing up through the arena, campers were greeted by the distinctive neon pink-and-green canvas tent of Flamingo Jack’s, hiding the Dorset based punk rock quartet of Sinful Maggie. “We’re not very good, we’re not very professional… and we’re lazy”, the crowd were warned by vocalist and guitarist Charlie Draper — but sometimes half an hour of chaotic, ska-infused punk is just what you need to feel alive. With the likes of Better Off Dead, Calamityville and Little Miss Narcissist blasting through the tent, Sinful Maggie happily made their mark on the tapestry of Y Not 2024. 7.5/10 (JOS)
The Pill were a late replacement for Crystal Tides, travelling all the way from the Isle of Wight, they got there just in the nick of time to play a set that packed a punch, they have only one released song to date but the lively three-piece worked the crowd in the Giant Squid tent with a unique punky style, Woman Driver one of the heavier of the set, Bale Of Hay ends the set on a high. 7/10 (AB)
Scottish-Italian PG Ciarletta was a beautifully wholesome blip in the afternoon. With his cheeky grin, self-deprecating humour and sun streaming in the tent around him, it was frankly impossible not to find yourself nodding along; and, as his guitar-led anthems serenaded the Allotment, from the likes of The Sesh, 27, or the foot-stomping Start A Revolution to the unreleased Chancer, the audience basking in his smiling face and feel-good tunes, you couldn’t help but smile. Catch him on tour in October to beat back the inevitable Winter blues! 8/10 (JOS)
VENUS GRRLS are an alternative rock band from Leeds and do they know how to rock! The five members of the band are Grace Kelly (singer/guitar), Eliza Lee (guitar), Hannah Barraclough (bass), Grace Stubbings (synth) and Gabby Cooke (drums), there was a packed tent awaiting the band taking to the stage at the Giant Squid. They played a full-on half hour set with Hex, Divine and Bloodsick being the standout tracks for us. Vocalist Grace Kelly had a Leukemia diagnosis a couple of years ago which is now thankfully in remission, the track Lidocaine was written around this. The excellent performance was back up by the response from the crowd who encouraged the band at every turn. We are looking forward to seeing VENUS GRRLS on their first ever headline tour in September. 9/10 (AB)
Despite the temperature reaching the heady heights of 28°C, and the sweaty, sun-baked crowd already being half on its way to heatstroke, the duo of Isaac Holman and Laurie Vincent seemed to make it their personal mission to drive the crowd to exhaustion. Either that, or their discography didn’t really leave them a choice. Opening with the fiery Punk’s Dead, taken from the universally acclaimed, chart topping new album HEAVY JELLY, the two never seemed to stop to breathe, launching from one breakneck track into the next as they single-handedly exhausted what looked like the entirety of Y Not; screams of “fuck the hi-hat”, “Debbie!” and “you keep it, we don’t want it” became the soundtrack to the delinquent duo’s depravity, and the crowd couldn’t have loved it more. You’d never think that the two had undergone a name change, nearly broken up, and only returned last year — rather, from personal experience, you’d simply be relieved to make it out of Soft Play’s arena alive. 9/10 (JOS)
Dolores Forever were the surprise act of the day for us and are so glad we caught their set at the Giant Squid. Fresh from releasing an EP Split Lip on 24th July the London alt-pop duo were on top form, Hannah Wilson and Julia Fabrin were on duo vocals as they took the fans through a half-hour set playing songs including LOVER, Go Fast Go Slow and Conversations With Strangers. They release their debut album in September, It’s Nothing, which we and many others are looking forward to. 8/10 (AB)
The Kooks. A band that you either know, or you don’t know that you know — and then She Moves In Her Own away or Naïve kicks in, and suddenly you’re singing like there’s no tomorrow. There’s virtually no in-between (providing you’re a late ‘90s, early ‘00s baby!) but, even if you actually are the musical equivalent of a unicorn, the songs are so simple that you find yourself singing along anyway. From Bad Habit, Westside, or the squealing-guitar featuring Closer to Do You Wanna, the afore-mentioned Naïve and even an acoustically-delivered Seaside, the crowd were delivered a string of Kooks classics — as well as the unreleased Sunny Baby, with the promise of a new album coming soon to headphones near you — that had them dancing and singing along to the Brighton boys’ best. A fantastic set, as ever. 9/10 (JOS)
Galway band NewDad have been gaining a lot of attention this year after the release of their debut album MADRA, thus joining a long list of up-and-coming Irish bands such as Fontaines DC, The Clockworks and SPRINTS. Forming in 2018 they are Julie Dawson (vocals & guitar), Sean O’Dowd (guitar), Cara Joshi (bass) and Fiachra Parslow (drums), their sound is very unique with elements of shoegaze, their influences are bands such as The Cure, Pixies and Slowdive, you can certainly hear that in the music. The Giant Squid tents was packed out for this one, the crowd appreciating every one of the ten tracks played, no mosh pits for this one just head nodding all around, NewDad can get quite heavy at times, the connection between the band members was a highlight, Joshi is a master on that bass! Five tracks from the MADRA album were played, the title track being the last of the set, Sickly Sweet being one of the best of the set alongside biggest track to date Blue. There was a surprise cover of The Cure track Just Like Heaven which fits in well with their style of music. NewDad have had a massive 2024 and will continue to attract more fans to their unique shoegaze style. 10/10 (AB)
Lottery Winners packed out the Quarry tent as they played a 45-minute set filled with laughter, singing, dancing and a lot of piss taking from charismatic vocalist Thom Ryceland. This band have risen massively over the past year or so even having a number one album behind them, Anxiety Replacement Therapy. They also have a serious side to them as they deal with subjects such as mental health, for example Letter To Myself and You’re Not Alone deal with this subject matter. For those that hadn’t saw them live before tonight they needn’t have worried as Tom always teaches the fans some of the lines to sing, the first track Worry being a straightforward one getting the crowd onside from the first song. Tonight’s main headliners are Snow Patrol and Ryceland is very aware of that and gets the crowd singing along to the chorus of Chasing Cars between their own tracks, never saw a crowd reaction like it. Letter To Myself was the highlight of the set, featuring Frank Turner is written around the vocalist writing a letter as a 12 year old and forgetting about it until years later when he used it to write the song, which has some entertaining lyrics. The fact that they only managed seven songs is testament to how much Ryceland talks to the crowd during their set, last track Burning House ends the set on a high with everyone joining in with the chorus “It’s like a burning house, and I’m just sitting on the couch/Chilling out as it all burns down around me”. Even though this was our third time seeing The Lottery Winners this year they keep getting better every time. 10/10 (AB)
Liverpool alternative rockers The Mysterines were the last band of the night in The Giant Squid, the crowds came in their droves even though Snow Patrol were just about to take to the main stage for a headline set. With three EP and two album releases behind them now, they exude confidence on the stage as Lia Metcalfe gave everything during the hour-long performance with a great vocal range. These four musicians have known each other since childhood and this shines through on the stage as the set begins with three tracks from June album release Afraid Of Tomorrows, opener Sink Ya Teeth is played at a high intensity getting the crowd singing the chorus “Sink your teeth in deeper”, it’s a great start and gets even better with next track The Last Dance, a little slower than the first track and more like a waltz, it seems to go on for an age, check out the video for this one! Bass player George Favager keeps the energy high in the crowd with his offerings of hand claps, duly accepted by the fans who seem to be really taken by this mesmerising performance. We would get to hear eight tracks from the Afraid Of Tomorrows album and four from 2022 release Reeling.
The last two songs of the thirteen-track set really set the place alive, the breath-taking Hung Up is quickly followed by Stray ending the night on a massive high and realising that I made the right decision to come and watch this instead of Snow Patrol. The Mysterines have an incredible stage presence and know how to work a crowd, we would highly recommend seeing them live. They now head out on an incredibly long tour starting in the USA in October before moving on to the UK and Europe before returning again to the UK for part two of the tour, we can’t wait until October! Look out soon for our interview with The Mysterines on Bring The Noise. 10/10 (AB)
With the clouds making their merry way across the sky, fat drops of rain beginning to cascade across the campers, and the night beginning to draw in, the temperature began to noticeably cool; it felt almost fated, given Snow Patrol were up next. Comfortably one of the most iconic bands the UK has produced over the past twenty years — even ignoring the seven successful albums the band have put out, Chasing Cars is one of a very small number of tracks to comfortably break into Spotify’s unofficial billions club, among a number of other awards, accolades and nominations — getting to see them at Y Not felt special, and the countless crying faces cheering in excitement as Gary Lightbody, Nathan Connolly and Johnny McDaid emerged on stage proved it.
As 2006’s You’re All I Have kicked in, the band diving straight into their emotionally-charged setlist, Snow Patrol showed just what makes them such a beloved band to millions. Open Your Eyes, a disappointingly-unlit-crowd-featuring Run, the (at the time) unreleased All, the kaleidoscopic The Lightning Strike (What If This Storm Ends?)… each song was better than the last, all building to both the beautiful ballad of Chasing Cars and an explosive climax of Just Say Yes that had the crowd’s cheers rising into the air like a religious offering. If you’re lucky, catch them at their intimate show in Camden’s KOKO in September — otherwise, stay tuned for the tour! 9/10 (JOS)
Written by: Alan Brown and James O’Sullivan
Photo gallery features Balancing Act, Michael Aldag, Ruby J, Black Honey, Yard Act, Soft Play, The Kooks, Lottery Winners, Jake Bugg and Snow Patrol.
