Sunday 13/06/10 Isle Of Wight Festival, Day Three @ Seaclose Park, Isle Of Wight

The resplendent weather means that many people cooked in their tents on Saturday night, and they were slow to move on the Sunday. The Courteeners opened the main stage to a very fragmented crowd, but by the time they’re halfway through with 'Not Nineteen Forever' people started to hazily focus on the stage. They wind things up with 'What Took You So Long?', or as some friendly people at the ferris wheel described it, “the post office song”.
 
Friendly Fires are vivacious and noisy, and cannot fail to get the Main Stage dancing. Frontman Ed Macfarlane is drenched in sweat and dancing like a ‘70s bowling champion, but you can’t blame him when you hear ‘Kiss of Life’, ‘Jump in the Pool’ and ‘Skeleton Boy’. Finishing with ‘Paris’ there is a mad dash to the front of the arena for dancing as the band bring the cowbell back into fashion.
 
Spandau Ballet know how to delight a summer crowd drenched in sun – with stalwart ‘80s classics like ‘True’, and inevitably, ‘Gold’. Time to trip across to The Big Top where the Big Pink precede sing-a-long dream ‘Dominos’ with a cover of Beyonce’s ‘Sweet Dreams’.
 
No one who saw Pink on the line-up could doubt that she wasn’t going to bring something special to the stage, and she didn’t fail to disappoint. Firing out of a pressure cannon, the dazzling stunt saw Pink explode into her set flying down to the stage in a stunt that due to the wind was only given the all clear five minutes before the set started. ‘So What’ saw the star rigged in a giant globe bungee oscillating and somersaulting over the hysterical crowd. Wicked fun, and the kind of antics ‘Get This Party Started’ was made for.
 
Before the mad dash for the the ferry, there’s surely a chance to watch a former Beatle. Introduced by James Cordon via video link for no discernible reason, Sir Paul McCartney is pretty high on everyone’s gig wish list. Rolling out the nostalgia carpet and then showering it in Shake ‘n’ Vac, McCartney opened with Wings’ favourites ‘Venus and Mars Rockshow’ and stomper ‘Jet’. With that kind of canon there was no way the audience could be disappointed. Further Wings’ classics included ‘Band on the Run’ and ‘Live and Let Die’, but it was his Beatles’ tracks that set the festival alight. ‘The Long and Winding Road’, ‘Paperback Writer’, ‘Blackbird’, a Ukulele-edged ‘Something’, ‘Hey Jude’, ‘Let it Be’ and ‘Day Tripper’ were amongst the luxuriously lengthy set. In a nod to Hendrix, whose last performance was 40 years ago at the festival, Macca sang ‘Purple Haze’ as he finished ‘Let Me Roll It’. Macca’s not getting any younger, but he still managed to shine.

Finishing with a punchy version of ‘Helter Skelter’ followed by a melody of ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band’ and ‘The End’, few punters could suggest they hadn’t seen something special with Macca’s first festival gig since Glastonbury 2004.

Isle of Wight festival - Day Three in Photos