What do you get when you cross 65,000 pairs of feet, a day’s worth of rain and a large park in London? Yes, the wireless festival in Hyde Park came to a close with a squelch, a yelp and lots of Umbrella-ellas. It was almost like a real festival then: the ankle deep mud, the overpriced beer, although minus the interminably long drives through country lanes to get in or out.
Getting the afternoon off to a decent start are Rizzle Kicks, who’s infectious energy and skanking radio friendly tunes beat the clouds away. They even threw in cover versions of the James Bond and Inspector gadget theme tunes. Possibly because they’ve only one album, but more likely just because it’s fun. They do fun very well.
J Cole suffers a sudden downpour during his set, but hips n hops on through. The Sun returns for Jessie J who is all smiles and audience interaction, bringing out one fan to sing on not just one song, but the entire rest of her set.
Rhianna played the capital only a fortnight ago, but she comes on tonight like she never left. Flanked by an enormous Vegas/ Egyptian themed set, she launched straight into ‘Only Girl (in the world)’. Hit followed hit as she worked her way around the stage, spending most of her time on the lower front part of the stage, making her all but invisible except for the projection screens. In fact some parts of the audience were facing projection screens to the side of Hyde park, meaning they essentially watched the whole gig sideways. Still, they were in the same field as RiRi,and they looked happy.
For an encore we get ‘Love the way you lie’, ‘Umbrella’ and ‘We found love’. Rhianna’s voice full and powerful throughout. The crowd raise their Umbrellas in salute, fireworks explode, Rhianna brand beach balls are thrown to the crowd….it’s not raining anymore. A fitting end then. Keep Calm and wear your mud with Pride.
Rhianna photo credit: Michael Bowles
