By the time day two arrives the festival is still bathing in sunshine, having quite probably its best weather on record; to be fair it was probably due it after last year’s washout.
Today’s line up features out and pop diva and worldwide superstar Rihanna gracing the Main Stage, joining her there is the smooth west coast rap of Snoop Dogg and Scottish acts The View, Deacon Blue and The Fratellis.
Indeed Saturday appears to be the main day for Scottish acts appearing across the big stages as those three are joined by Travis, Frightened Rabbit and Twin Atlantic featuring high up the bill Radio 1 Stage and the Tut’s Tent.
Being the Scottish focused site that we are Rave Child once again attempted to cover an array of local upcoming talent, further enhanced by the opening of the BBC Introducing tent, along with some of the bigger festival highlights.
Indeed I start at BBC Introducing and following a Vic Galloway introduction, apparently he’s been to all 20 Ts, the day’s music begins in snarling fashion with Glasgow based three-piece PAWS.
The boys are familiar faces around Glasgow, and having worked their asses off for a good few years 2012 saw things fall into place with their critically acclaimed debut Cokefloat! receiving plenty of praise and everyone looking forward to what’s to come.
There isn’t a better way to start your Saturday afternoon as the trio’s fuzzy lo-fi punk sets people into reminiscent mode of bands that from the American alternative that may have graced T in its early days.
As vocalist Phil Taylor sneers “see you at Snoop Dogg”, we go with a spring in our step back out into the sunshine.
I opt for the continued lo-fi punk vibe of Baby Strange rather than the trek across the site to catch the brilliant indie-folk styling of Fake Major at T Break.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t all go quite to plan as everyone’s best intentions at T are often interrupted by unexpected meetings with people you’ve not seen in ages and I end up enjoying the sunshine and not holding out on lunch for any longer than necessary.
After popping my head in at the Transmission Stage, to see what latest hyped youngsters and Arctic Monkeys tour guest The Strypes are all about, and being convincingly underwhelmed I find myself in the rare position of not knowing what to do, however a trip over to Radio 1 to catch Villagers provides a welcome surprise, albeit after the all-round weak experience of witnessing the end of boy band Lawson’s set, oh they’re not a boy band they’re a band band, right?
The relatively small crowd at the site’s second biggest stage might present somewhat of a misbooking but watching a good singer-songwriter in the sunshine is always a pleasant experience.
Yes, there’s nothing obviously special about Villagers but the Irish band’s indie folk and the slightly awkward yet endearing presence of frontman Conor O’Brien provides nothing short of a delight when compared to alternatives Dundee troublemakers The View and Take That’s runt of the litter Mark Owen.
I had originally planned to check out Ke$ha’s set, full on pop sets are always fun and I heard she puts on a good show, but a time table mix up mean I think this isn’t possible and I head back over to BBC Introducing for Saint Max & the Fanatics.
I’ve tried to book these guys to play on a few previous occasions but none have come quite to fruition and judging on today’s performance it’s going to be a difficult thing to do from now on.
Max and his Fanatics deliver a set of ska tinged indie rock delivered with a swagger that some of the biggest acts to play T would be proud of.
These guys have bigger things written all over them, at least they should have, and as Max sneers “you’re missing Paloma Faith” no one here is questioning where they are, the guys even throw in a brilliant cover Boney-M classic ‘Rasputin’, what more could you ask for?
Next up is arguably today’s real highlight Snoop Dogg, the iconic rapper steps up to the occasion with the perfect festival set jam packed with dirty sing-alongs and a heavy portions of sleazy dancing courtesy of Snoop’s personal lap dancers.
Snoop is a seasoned performer and he knows how to build up a crowd, not that a T crowd needs building up much by 7pm, but with tracks like ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’ and ‘The Next Episode’ he takes things to the next level, as he bows goodbye to “Glasgow” we’re left thinking how on earth will Rihanna top this.
Luckily for her she doesn’t have to follow this, that’s the job of The Voice judge fronted and ultimately bland pop rock of The Script, so I wave the Main Stage goodbye and go catch the end of Frightened Rabbit.
Sadly, by the time we make it over the Radio 1 Stage the boys are tying things up with a massive sing-along of “I’ll get my hole” from their Scotland sound tracking ‘Keep Yourself Warm’, it only really works here doesn’t it?
Back over to Transmission then and a lack of choices sees me peeping my head into T Break for the third time today and to my joy didn’t find a former X-Factor contestant, however Waiting For Go are just rounding off their set and I don’t see enough to pass judgement.
So, off to Transmission to check out what British Sea Power have to offer, I’ll be the first to admit that this is a band that I’ve not paid a massive amount of attention to, but I was surprised as their set provides a captivating experience as the multiple band members shuffle behind layers of foliage.
The lack of familiarity of any of the songs isn’t a put off here, their set is a full of massive sounding indie rock, quite fitting with My Bloody Valentine set to blow the tent away after them.
As the Brighton based six-piece finish things off darkness is falling on Saturday night and the festival show pieces ready to take the stage the BSP boys are joined on stage and a giant polar and a giant grizzly bear, well blokes in costumes, but it’s a charming spectacle as they trying to fight in out in somewhat restricted conditions.
Opting out of seeing MBV is no mean feat, but when they’re competing with a real worldwide superstar it surely is warranted.
Everyone wants Rihanna to get down and dance, delivering pop hits that everyone and their grandparents would recognise affront a lavish back drop, albeit after seven tracks we’re left short of any real hits, surprising as the 25 year old singer has featured on seven UK number one singles and a further 17 top 10 singles to date.
But by time she hits into ‘Rude Boy’ the hits start rolling; ‘What’s My Name?’, ‘Umbrella’, ‘S&M’, ‘Only Girl (In The World)’ and ‘Diamonds’ to mention a few, and the Barbados born pop diva is in her element dancing away and giving T20’s second day the ending it deserves.
We could have asked her to delve a bit further into her back catalogue, no early chart successes of ‘SOS’ or ‘Pon de Replay’ here, but that’s just a minor complaint – roll on day three!
Related Articles: Day One Day Three
Words: Iain Dawson
Photos: Vito Andreoni (Snoop Dogg)
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