Knowsley Hall Music Festival

At 1pm on the 23rd of June Knowsley Hall Music Festival opened it’s gates for the very first time, and music lovers from all over came to see some of the greatest bands in the world.

Starting with the MySpace stage, which proved that emerging talent is out there with enormous originality. Saturdays line up saw Radio City Battle of the Band Winners Idol Minds take to the stage with a wonderful new enthusiasm and passion for their music which followed into the sunday with winners from Rock FM, Key 103, Music Week and MySpace winners The Johnsons, Cracatilla, dbd and Sourmash all proving that they have bright futures ahead of them!

The MySpace stage also saw home-grown talent The Aeroplanes encapsulate the crowd, without doubt a hightlight of the weekends entertainment and tipped as ones to watch from many of the national press on site, not bad going against the likes of The Who and Keane.

As Saturday went on the weather was on our side and the sun continued to shine (we could still see grass), the atmosphere was fantastic with the crowds enjoying themselves and singing along to the likes of The View, The Thrills and local lads The Coral who turned it up a gear in preparation for headliners The Who.

But as the greatest rock band in the world took to the stage the heavens opened and the rain began to fall…and fall…and fall. Although this didn’t dampen the spirits of the thousands that had turned out to see the legendary rockers. With Roger & Pete showing no signs of age they owned the stage (albeit drinking tea?!) which had a backdrop of archived footage of Moon & Entwistle from Mod days gone by. They may be older than your average rock band but they’ve still got it, and watching Townshend jet off to Glastonbury in his chopper is a moment we’ll never forget!

The weather wasn’t going to give us a break on the Sunday, but this didn’t stop the crowds from flowing in to see yet another amazing line-up. Liverpool is the City of music and the festival just proved that nothing would come between them and their music, not even a quagmire of mud!

Even if spirits were a little low on the Sunday this was soon changed by the refreshing ska sounds of Madness, their infectious energy flowed to the crowd who by this point were already soaked and decided to just accept the fact that it was never going to stop and just dance with it! Performing classics like ‘Baggy Trousers’ and ‘House of Fun’ the audience were captivated, and Lord Derby was more than happy as his children joined them on stage for a dance. Something that they and us will surely remember for the rest of our lives. A perfect moment as the sun went down!

With a festival in their home-town it was only right that the Zutons were out in full force on the Sunday and pulled off one of their finest performances playing to friends, family and fans alike, proving why these guys are firm favourites on the festival circuit.

Following The zutons could have proved difficult but Keane rose to the challenge. Delivering amazing visuals and crowd pleasing anthems a slimline lead singer Tom Chaplin exuded himself, with stunning vocals and energy that was matched by his fellow band members. Their final song kicked in and the sound of Knowsley Hall Music Festival in full voice “This will be the end of everything, so why don’t we go, somewhere only we know…..” is a memory we share with thousands.

Despite the teething problems on the day all of which will be rectified for next years show, ultimately the Knowsley Hall Music Festival brought together a line up never seen before in the north west, all of which delivered some amazingly memorable performances that will live with us forever!

Liverpool is a City renowned for its fantastic atmosphere and great sense of humour and this is what shined through for us (particularly those people who turned up in flip flops and 3” heels!).

We salute you! See you again next year, hopefully

Tickets are on sale NOW for 2008: