Saturday 27h July 2024
Due to the recent birth of my beautiful but demanding daughter, 2024 was to be a truncated Tramlines for yours truly. While Saturday was the weakest day in terms of the lineup, it was also the most convenient. And so, I find myself tearing down the M18 to arrive at Hillsborough Park in time for The Snuts…
The West Lothian heroes deliver a career-spanning main stage set that kicks off with fan favourite ‘Glasgow’ and concludes with a well-received rendition of ‘Gloria’. While The Snuts are perhaps not quite ready to play to such a massive crowd, their brand of chorus-heavy indie pop sounds great with the South Yorkshire sun beating down. ‘Seasons’ is the set highlight and across 12 tracks The Snuts eventually win over the sizable crowd.
English Teacher provide a very different sonic texture over at The Leadmill Stage with lead vocalist Lily Fontaine offering a voice that soars along with wry lyrics and innovative instrumentation. The Leeds band feature a cello player as part of their live set up and their whole vibe is very different to the lad rock aesthetic that has probably become too prevalent at Tramlines in recent years. It’s a successful set that has moments of genuine beauty – most notably during ‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab’ (which opens the set) and a rocked-up version of ‘R&B’—the main stage beckons.
Following a brief detour to catch Ol’ Dirty Brasstards delivering brass versions of pop standards (‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’) and emo classics (Fall Out Boy’s ‘Sugar, We’re Going Down), it’s back to The Leadmill Stage for indie heroes Peace. It’s been over ten years since the band released their excellent debut album In Love, but the songs sound as insistent as ever and opening track ‘Lovesick’ gets the Sheffield crowd onside straight away. These songs are meant to be played live and a packed tent at a summer festival is the perfect place for Peace and their summery three-minute bursts of sunshine indie pop. Other first album highlights ‘Wraith’ and ‘California Daze’ are met with a similar level of enthusiasm but it is their cover of Binary Finary’s trance classic ‘1998’, here transposed into a seven-minute prog freakout that sounds incredible bouncing off the canvas of the Leadmill Stage, that steals the show.
Unfortunately, first-time Tramlines headliner Jamie T has none of the nous of the band that preceded him. His mumbling, incoherent set is an insult to the Sheffield punters that have paid good money to see a first-rate headliner. The sad truth is that the South London singer-songwriter has neither the back catalogue nor the stage presence to pull off a Saturday night headline slot. While the first few tracks at least sound good, the lack of recognisable hits soon loses the noticeably reduced crowd, and by the time he does pull out the big guns, he is so shitfaced that it barely matters anyway. His drunken rambling between songs in which he repeatedly slags off the crowd, Sheffield and his own career leaves a bad taste in the mouth. I’m all for the rock ‘n’ roll myth but this a festival. Your job as a performer is to win the crowd over. Not everybody is there to see you. Jamie T has no interest in any of this and instead spends much of his time whining about his own waning career (ironic as this bleating comes in the midst of a headline show at a large and well-respected festival – you’re not doing too bad, mate).
The real tragedy here is that for a moment during set closer ‘Zombie’, T comes alive again, and we are given a glimpse into the headliner set this could have been. In the end, this chaotic car crash of a set will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. Tramlines has a headline problem. Jamie T and by all accounts Paulo Nutini the night before represent the latest in a long line of underwhelming headline acts going back to Richard Ashcroft and The Libertines. They must address this next year.
Having said all that, Saturday at Tramlines 2024 is still a wonderful day of (mostly) great music, three different trips to food vendors (kebab, chicken and chips, and finally an ice cream, thank you very much) and reuniting with old friends. Hopefully, my full return next year will be accompanied by a more exciting lineup.