Live Review | Radio 1 Big Weekend Glasgow | Saturday

radio 1Big Weekend certainly kickstarted the festival atmosphere in Glasgow this weekend.

From bright scorching sunshine to pouring rain, people doned their wellies and sunglasses to tackle the day.

First up on the main stage were One Direction and within three songs, if you could hear over the deafening screams, the band proved why they’re so popular with their catchy hits, charming personalities and strong vocals. It was not only younger fans who were singing along as you could easily spot a few men getting into the tracks tapping their feet and singing along without even realising. Highlights in their set included Kiss You, Best Song Ever and Little Things.

Next up we caught Lorde on the In New Music We Trust stage who despite having extremely strong vocals, it was all a little too distracting as she weirdly jerked around the stage. Having said that, if you were to take your attention away from watching, you could easily forgive her with her power voice.

Bastille are no strangers to festivals, but this slot was earlier than the boys are familiar with. Despite this, their energy maintained at a top-level and they even managed to get the full festival crowd down the front crouching ready for jumping to Of The Night and it was at this point we spotted our first Glasgow guy ‘taps aff’ dancing on someone’s shoulders.

It’s easy to get caught up in the recent success of Pharrell Williams’ single Happy and forget that in fact he was responsible for some of the biggest tunes of last year including Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines to Daft Punk’s Get Lucky. His set also provided a nice little throwback to his charting songs from NER*D.

A packed out In New Music tent watched Bombay Bicycle Club set with highlights including Feel and .

Lily Allen strutted on stage with sunglasses on in a bright gold corset style top and green skirt and completely owned the stage. Her infectious happiness on stage helped the crowd celebrate the spell of sunshine creating a true festival vibe for her set. Her older material had the best reception including The Fear and Smile as she took off her heels and whirled her way around the stage barefoot.

It is no surprise that there was a packed tent as Glasgow’s Twin Atlantic took to the stage and pint glasses appeared high in the air throughout the tent. The band managed to have the full crowd singing back with their broad Glaswegian accent and highlights in the set included Crash Land and Free as confetti fell through the air.

Calvin Harris well and truly got the Glasgow crowd off their feet as he took over the stage with a giant set up, smoke, lasers, coloured flame throwers and fireworks. And with each song he performed, you realise why he is rated so highly across the globe for his chart-topping hits. Not one person was still and you could forget taps off for this set as one keen audience member even swung their trousers in the air.

Headlining the Saturday night main stage was Coldplay and after hearing mixed things about the band, it was captivating to see them live. And as they performed their latest single A Sky Full of Stars swallow shaped lights fluttered through the air creating a visual spectacle and mobile phones lit up the audience. And after 18 years as a band touring the globe, the beaming proud smile across frontman Chris Martin’s face shows that they still appreciate every second on the stage.

<strong>You can catch up on all the Radio 1 Big Weekend performances via the Radio 1 website.</strong>




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