Brighton hosted this year’s White Air Extreme Sports and Music festival over the weekend on its beach. The festival, which originally started on the Isle of Wight moved to sunny Brighton with a bang! The weather was on our side for once and it was a fantastic experience for any extreme sports lover but also had a fantastic lineup of music. From aquathlons, brush surfing, slalom rollerblading, jet skiing and kayaking to BMX, roller derby, wakeboard and many more. It was impossible to escape each day's free activities. On the music side of things artists such as Biffy Clyro, White Lies, The Cribs and Doves drew the crowd in.
If extreme sports weren’t your forte fear not as White Air had an amazing line-up three days straight on its music stage!
Friday saw the return of The Lemonheads to the UK after a long awaited comeback. They performed an amazing set including hits from their incredibl
e 1992 album,
It’s A Shame About Ray including the title track.
My Drug Buddy got great response as did
Big Gay Heart. They also added tracks from their current covers album
Varshons. Brighton locals British Sea Power then sidled on with Heart FM's djs asking if people were prepared to hold up the lads if they crowd surfed and the bemused crowd sheepishly declared they would. Decked out in 1940s gear, they cranked the air sirens and delivered a blistering set that got the crowd going.
The main stage experienced a few technical problems first during Doll & The Kicks, who were truly rocking the stage when the sound got completely cut off, and later the same night when headliners White Lies took nearly an hour to get onstage. It took their age old roadie to calm the crowd with some impromptu playing and simultaneous soundcheck before they eventually came on. More disappointing then that was the fact that lead singer Harry McVeigh wasn’t able to hold a tune after promising I quote:
‘We have been waiting for an hour behind these curtains so we will give the best show we've ever done!’
Farewell To the Fairground one of this years biggest hits didn’t sound right as the drums were too loud and the keyboards somehow muted. McVeigh carried on by saying:
‘We will sing until they drag us off stage!’
And basically all the audience got were four songs including Death and To Lose My Life. The disappointed crowd started throwing beer cans at the stage in anger.
Luckily Scottish alternative rock band Biffy Clyro saved the night with their powerful performance and crazy light shows. Lead singer Simon Neil sounded just as he does on the record and kept on jumping about the stage. They concluded the show with their smash hit Mountains, the whole crowd chanting the chorus
"I am a mountain, I am the sea, You can't take that away from me"
And with that ended the first day.
Saturday was another glorious sunny day and a mouth watering lineup awaited. Ben Howard wowed his audience with his incredible guitar tapping and percussion skills and his heartbreaking voice. He sang with so much passion that it was hard to move away from the stage. Howard got distracted by a landing helicopter at some point but that only added humour and lifted everyone’s spirits when he made a joke about the whole situation. Another great performance came from three piece melodic rock band White Belt Yellow Tag. Almost impossible to remember the name and probably any dyslexic’s nightmare, the guys managed to pull the crowd in with their amazing songs and intense performances that included using a drumstick as a slide. Tracks such as You Are Not Invincible and their new single Tell Your Friends went down a treat. Their style was just as interesting with the drummer looking like a glam rock eighties star (think Ted Nugent with raybans) and the guitarist hiding behind his fringe during the entire set.
The Boxer Rebellion were another band who hit the mark with the crowd, playing songs from their newly released album Union. Evacuate their current single sounded amazing live as did album opener Flashing Red Light Means Go, Spitting Fire and bittersweet ballad Misplaced. The Cribs were probably one of the acts that people were hanging out to see at the festival and with Johnny Marr (The Smiths) on their side. Playing tracks from new album Ignore The Ignorant, they really worked the crowd before finishing with Men's Needs.
Headliners Doves were impossible to get to or even photograph but they still gave an outstanding performance with title track Kingdom of Rust alongside oldies such as Here It Comes and The Last Broadcast and the crowd left with satisfied grins on their faces.
The last day of the festival mainly focused on local talent. Jumping Ships were great fun to watch with a great selection of songs and an amazing stage presence. We feared for the life of their guitarist, who kept jumping all over the stage and almost fell off it at one point. Although not local to Brighton, Max Raptor provided some real energy with frontman Wil jumping, sweating and screaming every note out of his pores. Gloria Cycles followed and seemed a bit static compared to the previous acts but had a huge following willing them on.
Headliners The Perils wrapped up the festival and looked like rock gods with their ravaging looks and hair but luckily they also played some great music. Unashamedly rock, they swigged on hip flasks of Bell's whiskey and even threw out the free cans of Tuborg and Gaymers Cider that were on their rider, instantly winning the crowd over. They finished their set with an amazing drum cacophony with lead singer Danny bashing away on a separate floor tom to close the festival off in style.
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