The Wombats

It is summer. You love live outdoor music, but you cannot afford the £320 for a weekend Latitude ticket (or even £113.50 for a day ticket). You love outdoor music festivals, but you do not want the confusion of having to decide what to see and what to miss. You would love to go to Glastonbury, but it is a hell of a long way to get to from Norwich. The answer, my friends, is an outdoor music event, held right here, on a Sunday, in Norwich.

And that is what Earlham Park Live and The Festival Crowd provided last Sunday, on Norwich’s very own 88 acre parkland site, just a stone's throw from the University of East Anglia campus, and easily accessible from the city centre. Forget those clashfinder guides, leave your tent, sleeping bag and camping stove at home, and enjoy the chance to listen to a day of top musical entertainment for just £45. With four bands, including headliners The Wombats, lots of food and drink vendors, and even a couple of white-knuckle fairground attractions, this was the perfect day out for Norwich music lovers.

I arrived just after the gates opened at 2.00pm, thereby giving me plenty of time to get my bearings, find the toilets, the bar and the drinking water points, and then relax with some food, a cold beer, and some excellently curated summer sounds from Future Radio DJ James Worsfold, before the live music kicked off at 4.00pm.

It was Cherryholt, a young five piece band from Stamford, Lincolnshire who got the live gig under way with an opening set that sparkled with youthful indie-pop energy, and with a line-up that featured lead singer Reuben Baskerville, Daniel Goldspink on keys, Dylan Austwick on drums, and twin brothers Ben and Harvey Walsh on bass and lead guitars. Their sound reminded me of The Kooks, and lead singer Reuben certainly looked a bit like a young Luke Pritchard as well. ‘Flies’ is their latest single, but it was ‘Irresistable’ and stadium anthem closer ‘Cut Me Down’ that really did it for me. Liked them a lot.

Another big surprise for me was The Amazons. They have been around for a while now, having come together in Reading in 2014. They have released four studio albums, and the first three all made it into the Top 10 album chart. I had seen them live before, both at the Nick Rayns LCR and at the Adrian Flux Waterfront, but this is my first proper listen since keyboard player Ella McRobb joined the band to share vocals alongside Matt Thompson. Beginning and ending their set with ‘In My Mind’ and ‘Black Magic’, tracks from their eponymous 2017 release, and including a brand new song, appropriately called ‘One Hot July’, The Amazons’ melodic brand of indie-rock with a country edge hits the spot real fine, their golden sound reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac at their very best, but with a heavier edge. For me, The Amazons really did deliver.

Maxïmo Park emerged from Newcastle in the mid-Noughties, with their 2005 album debut, 'A Certain Trigger'. They have since released another seven albums, and played Norwich six times, perhaps most famously when they headlined the NME Awards Tour at the Nick Rayns LCR in 2006. Main support on the night was a cocky Sheffield outfit called The Arctic Monkeys. At Earlham Park Paul Smith and the band produce a career-spanning eleven song set that opens with what is probably their best known song, 'Our Velocity'. An odd choice, perhaps, but once the obligatory Alan Partridge impersonations had been duly done and dusted, the rest of the set gave us a generous look back at the eight album back-catalogue, including songs like ‘The National Health’ and ‘Leave This Island’ which cover a lot of social and political ground. Later in the set, the snappily dressed lead singer Paul Smith seemed to sense that he was losing the attention of some of the younger members of the audience, and jokingly tried a bit of Freddie Mercury call-and-response. It got probably the biggest reaction of the set. It is a shame, because I really wanted to like them, but I am afraid that they just did not do it for me either, not on a hot Sunday afternoon in June.

And yet, completely to my own surprise, I was completely and utterly charmed and won over by The Wombats. They are a band who have been regular visitors to Norwich for almost as long as Maxïmo Park. They first played the Adrian Flux Waterfront back in 2007, but this is their first gig back in Norwich since playing the Nick Rayns LCR four years ago. And, like Maxïmo Park, they have an extensive back-catalogue of material to mix in with songs from last year’s ‘Oh! The Ocean’. Delivering a massively generous 17 song set which spanned their 20 year career as a recording band, lead singer and guitarist Matthew Murphy, bassist Tord Øverland Knudsen, and drummer Dan Haggis had the audience in the palms of their hands, and with the words to almost all the songs being sung back by Wombats fans from 16 to 60 years of age. Even the heavens applauded, producing the most magnificent and magical sunset over Earlham Park to celebrate, The Wombats proved on Sunday night what is possible when three friends at college meet, pick up guitars, and decide to form a band. Pure Merseyside Magic.

A fabulous all-dayer, in the beautiful setting of Earlham Park, and helped of course by the glorious weather. Four very different bands, but all playing their music outdoors on a warm and sunny Sunday in Norwich. What could be more perfect?

Live music returns to Earlham Park for the four day Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus, being held from Thursday August 20th to Sunday August with headliners James, The Streets, The Kooks, and Madness, and a full supporting line-up on all four dates. For tickets, go to www.rocknrollcircus.co.uk