Festival Review: All Points East // Gorillaz - Victoria Park, August 2022
Kicking off All Points East in true iconic style - Gorillaz open up the festival with guest appearances from Tame Impala and Shaun Ryder.
Despite a delayed arrival to Victoria Park from the first day of six for the East London festival - no tube strike was going to ruin our mood. With the site feeling a bit bare at the beginning, it appears we were not the only ones slowed down due to the trains. Our first stop of the day was Kills Birds on the Ray-Ban West Stage - who have been championed by the likes of Dave Grohl and Kim Gordon. Their album ‘Married’ dropped last year and armed with that they brought an early burst of unapologetic fuzz - kind of reminding us of a mix of early Yeah Yeah Yeahs with modern sludge like Witch Fever. Even though the crowd were just starting to wake up and arrive - this set was one of our favorites of the day for this festival.
We ushered our way over for the first time of the day to the East Stage - otherwise known as the main stage, to catch the early set by Obongjayar - who featured on the last Little Simz album on the track ‘Point and Kill’. Fresh from releasing his debut album ‘Nights I Dream Of Doors’ this May via September Recordings and a huge sold out show at London’s famous Koko. The Nigerian born, London based musician flirts between rop, song and spoken word throughout his set. Combining acrobat with soul and dashes of hip-hop. His performance was bold and strongly showed off his abilities to push genres to their full potential.
We then back tracked over to the West Stage to catch a rather peaceful set from Galway’s NewDad - who got their name from a random band name generator. The festival was starting to fill up by this point - and while the band had a decent size crowd - it felt a bit too soft at times. The volume needed turning up from the speakers for the audience to fully digest their performance, however they provided just the right amount of dark and moody guitars for mid-afternoon set.
Adventuring into the only tent at the festival for the home of their North Stage - we don’t think we were ready for the energy that was about to be thrown at us. Remi Wolf was certainly an experience to behold. Hitting 200mph as soon as she hits the stage - it’s no wonder she had such a huge crowd. Filled with positive energy - she got a huge response from her hit ‘Sexy Villain’. If the sunshine had already got you smiling at this festival - Remi Wolf will certainly slap one on your face in no time.
It seems the West Stage is having it’s fair share of sound issues - with Self Esteem’s sound cutting off just as she finishes playing her opening track ‘Prioritise Pleasure’. As she returns to the stage she explains she will play as long as she planned to and declares the sound issues were not her fault. Crashing straight into ‘How Can I Help You’ - the crowds energy matches her buzz. Erupting in applauds and cheers as the track unfolds. With each track delivered with powerful perfection - it is no wonder that her Mercury Price nominated album has gained such praise. With a huge tour planned for March next year - judging by this performance - Self Esteem will have them in the palm of her hand.
The legendary Pusha T took over the East Stage next - playing a career spanning set he had the crowd buzzing from the front row to all the way at the back. With a mixture of older and new fans in the audience - he treated them to a seventeen track set list filled with hits like ‘Neck Wrist’ and ‘Scrape It Off’.
Following on from the energy of that we experience a much needed peaceful set from gglum - bringing a dose of dream-indie-pop to the Firestone stage. Opening with a cover of ‘i wanna be your girlfriend’ by girl in red - gglum’s vocals floated across the hypnotized crowd. After a series of high energy performances in the rather warm sun - this beautiful performance by gglum was exactly what we needed for some chill down time.
The BMW Stage is the best place at the festival to discover some of the best rising music so when Edith Bowman comes out to introduce the next act to the stage - you know you are in for a treat. Calling her ‘One in a million’ - Willow Kayne steps onto the stage to a huge cheer. Already with a host of accolades under her belt at such an early stage in her career, her rise has been nothing short of spectacular. Building on the varied foundations of her ‘Playground Antics’ EP, Willow is broadening the horizons of her sound further with each release, delving deeper into experimentalism while creating some of the most thrilling works of UK pop music at the moment.
Following that - we ran over to the North Stage to catch the end Knucks’ performance. With a huge crowd spitting back his verses back at him. The one thing Knucks’ does best is that he knows how to build a crowd, while their energy is buzzing when they enter the tent. He somehow finds ways to keep taking them higher. This was in the form of a guest appearance from Loyle Carner - who he brought out for ‘Standout’ - sending the crowd wild in the process.
We are certainly putting the steps in today for All Points East as we sprint across the festival site to catch Turnstile warm up the crowd before headliners Gorillaz. With a huge dose of foot stomping throughout - the band had the crowd mermerised from start to finish. Singing back the words to ‘MYSTERY’, ‘BLACKOUT’ and ‘UNDERWATER BOI’ - the band treated the audience to an intense, no-boundaries performance.
As we wonder back over to the West Stage - we overhear someone describing IDLES to someone who has never seem them before. ‘Just pure violence. From start to finish’. And they weren’t wrong! Opening with ‘Colossus’ - the band tease you, allowing your heartbeat to build as you know what is coming. ‘It’s coming….. It’s coming…..’ screams vocalist Joe Talbot - just as the band explode into a war of chaos - sending the crowd into a frenzy. Beer cups flying over the barrier. Splitting the crowd before ‘Car Crash’ - to create an almost wall of death. As the audience run at each - you can’t help but feel that an IDLES performance is a piece of dangerous art - with guitarist Lee Kiernan jumping into the crowd to join them in the madness. So going back to that original description of the band - IDLES are pure violence when it comes to performing live, but a war you can’t help battle head on with full high energy joy.
Now it finally came to that time of the evening - Gorillaz are to now take the stage at All Points East for their special headline performance. Gorillaz are a one in a lifetime kind of band - fronted and driven by Damon Albarn they bought a career spanning display of perfection. Brining out a number of special guest including De La Soul, Happy Monday’s Shaun Ryder, Moonchild and Mos Def. Halfway through their set they brought out Tame Impala to perform a new song called ‘New Gold’.
All Points East always delivers with their headliner choices and Gorilaz definitely provided something special for the opening weekend of the six day festival.
Words and Photography by Ant Adams
