Festival Review: The Maccabees // All Points East, August 2025
Everyone’s favourite band, The Maccabees, came back together to play at what felt like the end of the world, headlining the final day of All Points East on Sunday.
An orange-red haze of dust coated the skies above Victoria Park on Sunday for the final day of the All Points East Festival, as people gathered to see the likes of Sorry, The Futureheads, Everything Everything and CMAT all before the beloved band The Maccabees closed out the festival with one of their first performances together since their hiatus in 2017. Styling scarves and face masks back into their outfits, festival goers weren’t going to let the dust disrupt one of their last festivals of the summer, as the crowds scattered across the park to fit in a jam-packed day of good music.
Over on the Ordinary Stage, hidden underneath the trees, New York garage-rock five-piece Slow Fiction brought in a good crowd. A mix of furious drums, grungy guitars and Julia Vassalo’s biting vocals caught and kept the crowd’s attention as they played through tracks like Brother, Apollo, their latest single, the bone-rattling track When, as well as an unreleased song 99, which Vassalo said was “about handling being in large crowds of people.” A necessary song for the day, that’s for sure.
Irish post-punk band The Murder Capital headed up the East Stage, a Palestinian flag placed in the middle, something that has been present for all of their gigs for almost two years. However, on Sunday, it felt particularly poignant, after Irish band the Mary Wallopers' set was cut short at another UK festival due to them having the Palestinian flag on stage. Opening with The Fall from their most recent album Blindness, a gritty, pulsating track with rattling drums and wailing guitars, combined with vocalist James McGovern’s menacing vocals, the band set the tone for what was to come during their slot…heavy, intense, exciting.
Other tracks included Can’t Pretend To Know and A Distant Life, both also from Blindness, as well as Don’t Cling To Life from their first album When I Have Fears. The crowd danced, those closer to the front forming a pit, throwing their bodies together, scarves clad around their necks to protect themselves from the clouds of dust their feet kicked up. Before they performed Love Of Country, McGovern addressed the current attempt at censoring artists, specifically the event with the Mary Wallopers, “I wanna hear some fucking noise for the Mary Wallopers and all the other bands who pulled out of that shitty festival in solidarity…I want to hear some noise for the people of Palestine”, both times he was met with roars of support from the crowd, before leading a Free Palestine chant. Love Of Country, already a dark, haunting song with its slower pace of guitars and drums, was accompanied by black and white visuals on the big screen, the air feeling particularly heavy during this performance. Large text calling out Israel’s genocide of Palestine appeared on the screen as the song neared the end, a chorus of cheers erupting from the crowd. During a time where more and more artists are being censored, silenced and targeted for showing their solidarity with Palestine, The Murder Capital’s display was a necessary and welcome part of the set.
The band joked with the crowd in between songs, making light of a small hiccup before the track Ethel, which they had to restart, but not before laughing at themselves together. “This is a song about a baby…wah wah wah”, McGovern announced to the crowd before the opening guitars of the song began. The Murder Capital closed their set with Words Lost Meaning, which had the crowd singing along word for word, hands in the air, some of them on the shoulders of their friends, soaking in the rays of sunshine, excited to get stuck into what lay ahead at the festival.
And what lay ahead, over at the West Stage, were Manchester favourites, Everything Everything. The four-piece’s electronic rock sound live is fun, immersive, intense, pulsating - opening with To The Blade from their Get To Heaven album, Everything Everything captured the crowd’s attention from start to finish. The band seemed to enjoy their set just as much as those who had come to watch them, playing a solid mix of tracks from their extensive collection. Favourites such as Pizza Boy, Cold Reactor and No Reptiles receiving a big reception from the crowd.
Fellow Manchester band, Westside Cowboy, who have been on an upward trajectory since the beginning of summer, played on the Amex Stage, where the crowd continued to grow outside the tent to catch a glimpse of the band. With the release of their debut EP at the beginning of the month and numerous festival performances, the four-piece were a clear favourite at the festival. The band played through most of their EP, including songs Shells, Drunk Surfer, and a personal favourite, I’ve Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love (Until I Met You). The crowd seemed genuinely enthralled, arms raised, and heads moving in time with the band, who were soaking up every minute of electric energy inside (and outside) the tent.
Unsurprisingly, the East Stage was packed out for the Queen of Ireland, CMAT, who came out with her Very Sexy CMAT band, the bright blue background of her yet to be released but highly anticipated album EURO-COUNTRY lighting up the stage. The crowd, ignoring the ever-present clouds of dust, immediately started dancing and swaying as the opening of The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station started. A chorus of “okay, don’t be a bitch, the man’s got kids and they wouldn’t like this” rang out around the park, almost overpowering CMAT’s impressive vocals. CMAT is yet to play a disappointing set; she is the ultimate stage presence, hilarious, energetic, and charismatic. Hypnotising the entire crowd into doing the “Dunboyne Co Meath Two Step” during I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby! despite the dust, as well as everyone participating in the viral dance for Take A Sexy Picture Of Me. Those at All Points East were even treated to a new song When A Good Man Cries which, in the words of CMAT, “is about being a huge bitch.” CMAT’s last festival show of the summer was fun, infectious, hilarious and a highlight for many of the festival goers.
Those brave enough to go the distance between the East and West stage between CMAT and The Maccabees’ sets would have caught everyone’s favourite summertime band, Bombay Bicycle Club. A set that was wholesome, warm like the summer sun and joyous, Bombay Bicycle Club ensured that their crowd got the best of the best. Playing all of the fan favourites, including Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You), Luna, Lights Out, Words Gone, Diving and Shuffle, the set was all types of nostalgic. They also had a special guest (and huge fan), CMAT, join them for Carry Me, and closed with Always Like This. Festival-goers made a swift exit from that stage to ensure they got a good spot for the band everyone was there to see…
There was a buzz in the air as the crowd gathered at the East Stage, positioning themselves for The Maccabees, a band many thought they would never get to see live. Eyes bright with anticipation, the ground vibrating under the chorus of cheers, many people already in floods of tears as The Maccabees took to the stage and put on what can only be described as a once in a lifetime performance. Their set was heartwarming and nostalgic from the get go, tracks like Latchmere, Lego and X-Ray bringing the crowd right back to 2007, back to their bedrooms with their CDs, the long car rides with their iPod Nanos.
The Maccabees were just as pleased to be there, as the crowd were to have them there, as Orlando Weeks thanked them for “getting the band back together.” Silhouettes of people on shoulders shone through the dark and the dust, friends embracing each other as each song - Kamakura, Wall Of Arms, Can You Give It - reminds them of another happy, youthful memory. The London band were never left to carry the show by themselves, the crowd providing backing vocals for the full set, everyone singing their hearts out to the songs they had never forgotten about, had never stopped listening to, despite The Maccabees eight year absence.
Another blast from the past arrived on stage in the form of Jamie T, who came out to perform Marks To Prove It with The Maccabees, as well as a surprise performance of his song Sticks ‘N’ Stones, which saw the crowd completely lose it. Despite Jamie’s lyrics about seeing “the dust settle”, there was absolutely no sign of that happening, as the crowd jumped around together, bodies crashing and spinning, arms waving throughout the well loved 00s track.
More tears were shed during The Maccabees encore, when the band performed Toothpaste Kisses, a song that was present for a lot of teenage romances during its prime. It felt almost bittersweet as the show slowly came to an end, with the band closing out with beloved track Pelican.
The crowd lingered, cheering and clapping long after The Maccabees left the stage, no one fully ready to say goodbye, not when the gap between the last goodbye and this hello was so long. Most people wanted to linger in the magic, the joy, the nostalgia that The Maccabees had left behind.
There is perhaps no better way to ring out the end of summer than seeing one of your favourite bands back together, a band who soundtracked all of our summers, many, many, many years before.
Words by Angela English
Photography by Abigail Shii
