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Sunderland’s finest The Futureheads pulled in the biggest crowd of the Southport Rocks weekend with their headline set on Saturday night.
Launching full-pelt into the opening double-hit of Beginning of the Twist and Decent Days and Nights, the partisan audience was easily won over in the space of four minutes.
Barreling through the first half of the set as with what seemed like a dozen photographers scrambling around the stage with them, the four piece demonstrated how easily their wiry punk missives translate to festival stages.
With the cascading lights at the back of the stage sparking into life, the group powered through a condensed greatest hits album, showcasing their stellar singles catalogue and their strongest album cuts.
First Day accelerated into a frenetic stomp, the band somehow managing to get through the live version even faster than the white-knuckle original recording.
Prefaced as ‘The Futureheads’ singing game’, Hounds of Love’s barbershop backing vocals were bellowed along to by the several thousand in the crowd.
Despite the massive cheers, the band couldn’t return to the stage for an encore as the strict 11pm noise curfew had passed.
Proceedings concluded with a frantic dash through Man Ray, the group seemingly turning in the hour long set without pausing for breath.
Blessed with superb weather, over in the Alternative Tent sets by many of Liverpool’s leading lights got underway during the afternoon.
Bird, following their excellent support slot at St. Luke’s Church played early on, their deceptively sunny folk melodies surely destined for bigger stages.
Owls* widescreen rock was well received, lead singer Tom’s sonorous voice cutting through the band’s sound.
Grasping onto to the mic stand for dear life throughout, the frontman confidently led the four-piece through the set, much of which sounded as though it had escaped from a David Lynch soundtrack.
Wordless between songs, the group succeeded in not breaking the spell cast by the songs.
The Wild Eyes up next played to a crowd that steadily increased as they progressed, revellers who wandered into the tent during their set staying put.
A snarling Sweet Teardrops up first harked back to the age when the likes of astral travellers Hawkwind filled the good fields of Avalon.
As singer Huw’s guitar cut out momentarily, the band continued unabashed as he shoved the lead back into his FX pedal and thrashed at his axe with renewed conviction.
Closing with Kosmos, their rumbling drums were ringingly captured, the trio’s rhythm section allowing them to sound far bigger than the sum of their parts.
Switching from swirling garage rock to glam stompers, The Loud proved their moniker is well chosen as their trebly rock onslaught blared from the stage.
A Little Taste of Home and Amy’s Gonna Get You were the highlights of the set, the terrace chants well suited to the no-nonsense boogie of the guitar riffs.
Post-punks Dustland followed, their expansive rock best sampled on the early U2 clatter of Horizon.
The three – piece benefited from the superior sound in the tent which was uniformly excellent throughout the day’s proceedings.
The first time out under its present title, the sci-fi convention sounding name the Jedi Festival having been ditched, Southport Rocks announced its arrival on the festival circuit in unequivocal fashion.
With supporting features, the headliners and the festival self-evident successes, the end of the event immediately gave rise to thoughts of who the organisers could secure for next year.
Photos: Marie Hazlewood