Photo Credit: Kevin O’Sullivan
What would the fourth and last day of the Y Not Festival 2024 bring? There are so many bands that we wanted to see today and between us we have managed to cover just about all the main ones.
Whatever you expect from the name King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys, you’re probably wrong. The name seems to swing trepidatiously between a cheesy ‘60s US gang and a satirical cover band; instead, they’re closer to something you’d find playing in a lounge bar… if said lounge bar band was perhaps located in the world of Mad Max. Bizarre doesn’t cut it; bizarrely brilliant, perhaps? Formed in the ‘80s, and counting an appearance on Teletubbies amongst their live repertoire, they’re a band that have to be seen to be truly believed — particularly bassist Shark Van Schtoop, whose Rowan Atkinson levels of performative buffoonery very much stole the set. Jazz-infused ragtime might not have been everyone’s choice for a Sunday morning, but the boys in blue gave one hell of an awakening — and besides, what better way to wash away the hangover than with a twist of Tequila? 8/10 (JOS)
After an interview with Lissy Taylor we went back to the Big Gin stage at 2pm to watch her half hour performance, there was a decent sized crowd down the front and more than a few singing the songs back to the stage. Lissy has travelled around during her career, born in Stoke moved to the USA and now based in Manchester where the band are building a fanbase and touring with bands such as The Snuts. The indie rockers worked through a seven-track set kicking off with Life Changing and Your Girl, two recently released tracks, the crowd reaction was energetic and more so when someone held up a card with the words ‘she’s a stunner’ prompting Lissy to then play that very song She’s A Stunner. Unreleased song Jealous sounded great live and we look forward to it being released later in the year, the set closed with another two relatively new tracks Feel For Me and Minds A Riot. There was a fun feel to the performance as three large signed beach balls were moved around the crowd adding to the atmosphere. 9/10 (AB)
As previously mentioned, The Giant Squid was billed by Y Not as their ‘heavy’ stage. And, for a primarily indie festival, it comparatively lived up to the name — the likes of Unpeople and HotWax preceded headliners The Mysterines, Glasvegas and Bob Vylan. A pretty good showing, considering.
And then there’s the actually heavy. Then there’s the Derbyshire-based, extreme metal band Raised By Owls. Musically, Raised By Owls are a band that even Download or Bloodstock might think twice about — the fact that they were at Y Not, with the likes of Holly Humberstone, The Vaccines and Noel Gallagher, is absurd in just the best possible way. Bedecked in black clothes and clergy collars, you’d be forgiven for thinking that they were holy men if you bumped into them off stage; the unholy sounds blasting at the crowd, though, say otherwise. With the likes of I’m Sorry I Wore A Dying Fetus T-Shirt To Your Baby’s Gender Reveal Party, or The Dark And Twisted Realm In Which Fred Durst Resides going hand in hand with covers of Common People or Break Stuff, along with a dildo-wielding Mr Blobby, Raised By Owls were absurd and aggressive in just the best possible way. 8/10 (JOS)
Alien Chicks were next up in the Giant Squid, they are a Brixton-based trio (Stefan, Josef and Martha) who cover several different genres anything from punk, jazz, rap, Latin and math rock, the set gets off to a ferocious start, just what we need on the last day of the festival. They mainly played tracks from the EP released in July – Indulging The Mobs – every song was appreciated by the crowd which would have exceeded three hundred music fans. Biggest song to date Cowboy gets the best reaction, the style of music that Alien Chicks play would be suited to the Download Festival. 8/10 (AB)
The Kairos were up next, a swagger-filled four-piece born in scuzzy club basements and beer-stained bars up and around Liverpool. With their EP Better Late Than Never only coming out midway through last year and picking up traction with the likes of BBC Radio 1, as well as leading to shows with the likes of James and Red Rum Club, along with their own upcoming tour over the Winter months, it says a lot about their potential to have been given such a prestigious slot on the Y Not main stage so early on in their career; one look at Tom Dempsey and co, though, and you get it. Full of squealing guitars and mops of curly hair, the band were born performers, happily indulging in bouts of showmanship as if posing directly for the photographers crowded below, all while feverishly frolicking through their rollicking set of originals; Thick Of It and Better Late Than Never giving way to the Noel Gallagher-dedicated Lazy Lethargic and the unreleased Punchline Fistfight. Brilliant. 9/10 (JOS)
Stanleys are another band that hail from the Wigan area, following in the footsteps of bands such as The Verve, The Lathums and Starsailor, there must be something in the water down that way! The band are Tom Concannon (vocals), Jake Dorsman (guitar), Harry Ivory (bass) and Rob Hilton (drums), since the release of their popular song A Better Life in 2020 they have steadily built a decent sized fanbase, there would be well over 1000 in The Quarry for today’s performance as Concannon entertained the crowd with some stories in between songs. The new songs such as He Knows are sounding great live, we will watch their progress with interest. 8/10 (AB)
The View took to the Big Gin stage at 4.15pm and what a crowd they attracted, this high-energy performance had everything the crowd could have wished for. The View only got back together in 2023 after a five year hiatus, releasing the Exorcism of Youth album in August 2023, followed by a successful tour they looked like they have never been away. The band’s line up has remained almost consistent since they formed in Dundee in 2005 with Kyle Falconer, Kieran Webster and Pete Reilly still the mainstay of the band, only the drummer Steven Morrison has been replaced. The indie rockers worked through nine songs during the 45 minute set including three from the 2007 debut album Hats Off To The Buskers, Same Jeans gets the best reaction from the crowd as they enthusiastically joined in with Falconer with the instantly recognisable lyrics “I’ve had the same jeans on for four days now/I’m gonna go to a disco in the middle of town/Everybody’s dressing up, I’m dressing down”. Superstar Tradesman and Wasted Little DJ were the other tracks from that album that were highlights, surprisingly they didn’t play any from Exorcism of Youth. 9/10 (AB)
Despite only being a band for around two years, the tent was heaving for Leicester-based five piece The Mercians. Having supported former Kasabian-frontman Tom Meighan across his full UK and Ireland tour last year, including a date at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, it wasn’t hard to imagine why; if such an incendiary figure chooses you to accompany him, you must have something special. And, as Matt, Owen, Harry and Joe moved across the stage, the entire band (bar the drum-bound Ben) seeming to frantically, zealously embody what it means to be stars in the making, the crowd couldn’t help but be mesmerised. The likes of Sunday, JIMSHARK, Kaiser Chiefs’ I Predict A Riot, or unreleased closer Blue delivered an explosive set that belonged on a MUCH bigger platform — even their upcoming headline show at Leicester O2 Academy will undoubtedly struggle to contain them. 10/10 (JOS)
Galway rockers The Clockworks almost filled the Giant Squid tent, we missed the first song Enough Is Never Enough due to the interview commitment but what we did see was very entertaining with tracks such as Bills and Pills reminding us of The Vaccines, the quirky lyrics from vocalist James McGregor being a highlight, an example being “Hannah’s into Charlie, Charlie is a Speadfreak, David likes to dabble but he’s scared to be in trouble, Jack’s smoking in chronic, I swear Matt’s an alcoholic”. Clockworks released a debut album Exit Strategy in 2023 and we would get to hear four tracks from that as well as 2020 release The Future Is Not What It was, helping keep the energy high in the crowd. 9/10 (AB)
A couple of hours after having a lovely chat with the four band members it was now time for Bleach Lab to take to the stage in the Giant Squid tent, the band’s music can be described as dream-pop or shoegaze, we think there are elements of indie rock in there as well. 2023 debut album Lost In A Rush Of Emptiness is filled with songs that touch the soul, vocalist Jenna Kyle portrays this perfectly during the half-hour performance singing about toxic relationships, loss and everything in between, her haunting voice combined with the guitar work from Louis Takooree creating the perfect sound, not forgetting Josh Longman ripping it up on the bass, helping keep the energy on the stage high. The highlights of the set were Safe Place, Counting Empties and Old Ways, the crowd appreciated every song though in a quiet manner. We hope to see Bleach Lab tour again in the near future. 9/10 (AB)
86TVs are a band somehow managing to straddle being both a larger-than-life supergroup and a home-grown familiar affair. Made up of former members of The Maccabees Felix and Hugo White, along with their younger brother Will, and former Noisettes and Stereophonics drummer Jamie Morrison, the band had only just put out their debut album before taking to the stage at Y Not, and it’s unlikely that anyone camping had scrounged up the phone signal to give it the attention it deserves; yet the tent was packed, whether on the Whites’ legacy or the merits of the few singles already unleashed upon the world. With the foursome — and Felix White in particular, strutting around the stage and grinning ear to ear — relishing the chance to demonstrate just what 86TVs are made of, the set felt electric; and, as the crowd basked in the likes of New Used Car, debut single Worn Out Buildings or the newly released A Million Things, that proved to be indie greatness. 8.5/10 (JOS)
HotWax have been ripping it up as they have been doing around the UK and beyond for the past year with their mix of punk and 90s grunge style sure to provide some great energy. The Hastings trio of Tallulah Sim-Savage (vocals and guitar), Lolo Sam (bass) and Alfie Sayers (drums) have been touring extensively recently supporting the likes of Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Royal Blood as well as an appearance at the Download Festival in June to add to their credentials. New song Sail Away sounded great live but Phone Machine and Rip It Out stole the show, Rip It Out was a great track to end the night with the crowd joining in with the chorus “I wanna rip it out my arm, then I’ll rip it out my chest/Then I’ll rip it out my head ‘cause we were the best” as Tallulah and Lolo ripped the place apart for one last time. 8/10 (AB)
20 year old, Birmingham(-ish) based singer-songwriter Nieve Ella, sub-headlining the Quarry stage, hasn’t been around long. In fact, the set was actually the two year anniversary of her first gig — not that you’d know it with how unquestionably comfortable her and her band were on stage. Even technical difficulties, preventing her from hearing what she was doing over openers Girlfriend and Your Room — an issue that may have crippled other artists, particularly so early into their careers — didn’t seem to bother her as she crooned her way through a set of gently soulful tracks, her brilliant, ever-so-slightly breathy vocals a beautiful balm on the undoubtedly sunburnt Y Not crowd.
And then the set seemed to shift on its head to something resembling almost ethereal grunge, with the likes of Sugarcoated or upcoming single Ganni Top an acerbic departure from the emotional, heart wrenching moments that opened the set. No less impactful in their anger than the pained lyrics, no more vulnerable in their vitriol than the stripped back vocals… just different. If anything, the merging of styles seemed closer to two sides of the same coin; the set became almost hypnotic in the chaos. No truer could this be seen than in closer His Sofa, the crowd eating out of her metaphorical hand as they screamed and shouted along, Nieve maestro conductor whipping them into a fevered, fantastical frenzy. One hell of a set, and one hell of a precursor to October’s incoming 8-track EP. 9/10 (JOS)
The Vaccines drew a massive crowd to the Big Gin stage at 7.15pm playing songs from their January 2024 album release Pick-Up Full Of Pink Carnations alongside some of the better known songs. The charismatic vocalist Justin Hayward-Young led the band through an hour-long set of songs including Post Break-Up Sex, You’re Love Is My Favourite Band, Headphones Baby, Jump Off The Top being just a few examples. Heartbreak Kid from the latest release went down well but it was the last two songs that got the Y Not fans bouncing, If You Wanna prompts a mass singalong as does All My Friends Are Falling In Love ending the seventeen-track set on a high. 10/10 (AB)
The music of Dylan John Thomas is well known in these parts proven by the large crowd that assembled in The Quarry tent, the young Glaswegian didn’t let them down, he gets the place jumping from first song Jenna and works through a twelve song set including an ABBA cover Mamma Mia to the delight of the crowd. After his self-titled album release earlier in the year Thomas has been touring around the country and playing festivals building a bigger fanbase, the best of the set Were Rich Boy, Wake Up Ma (the first song he ever wrote) and Up In The Air, creating excitement among the young crowd some maybe clock watching knowing that Noel Gallagher is about to take to the main stage. The 45-minute set seemed to go by so quickly, this talented indie-folk singer heads out on a UK tour in December playing some bigger venues. 9/10 (AB)
To close off the Y Not Festival for 2024 we had the one and only Noel Gallagher (with his High Flying Birds band) performing on the Big Gin stage on the last date of his year long tour. A note was passed to Gallagher from a fan during the set asking when we would get to see Noel live again to which he replied “Not in 2025 or 2026, I am going away to spend some money and write a new album” was his reply. The impressive twenty track set would be a mix of solo material and Oasis classics which we are sure was what the fans were there to see, the set opened with Pretty Boy the leading single from the 2023 Council Skies album, in fact the first four songs were from the aforementioned album – Council Skies, Were Gonna Get There In The End and Open The Door, See What You Find being the others – the crowd reaction to the first few songs was flat until If I Had A Gun … was played, that’s when this gig really began. AKA … What A Life kept the energy high as Noel dedicated that song to Manchester City football club, there was still a lot of chatter among the crowd as they eagerly anticipated hearing some Oasis songs, they didn’t have to wait long for Going Nowhere, taken from The Masterplan LP followed by Talk Tonight, another one from the same album, the atmosphere is still a little flat here but Half The World Away prompts a mass singalong, the song being instantly recognisable from the intro music to BBC comedy The Royle Family.
The ‘Oasis section’ of the performance was going well as Noel played The Masterplan and Little By Little before a surprise cover of Joy Division track Love Will Tear Us Apart brought the house down, the band then left the stage but would soon be back for a three song encore kicking off with Stand By Me, Live Forever and then the best moment of the weekend as Don’t Look Back In Anger began, the crowd involvement was incredible during this last song, EVERYONE was singing along to this one, friends were hugging and dancing together, the atmosphere was one of the best we have ever experienced at a gig. So long Noel see you in 2027! 10/10 (AB)
Written by: Alan Brown and James O’Sullivan
Photo gallery features Alessi Rose, King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys, Raised By Owls, The Kairos, The Mercians, Holly Humberstone, 86TVs, Nieve Ella, Dylan John Thomas and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
