Online Exclusive – Neighbourhood Weekender Review

Neighbourhood Weekender, Victoria Park, Warrington, 24-25 May 2025
★★★★☆

Although specialising in showcasing new talent, this year’s Neighbourhood Weekender was headlined by two veteran bands offering masterclasses in how to top the bill at a festival entirely on their own terms.

Although specialising in showcasing new talent, this year’s Neighbourhood Weekender was headlined by two veteran bands offering masterclasses in how to top the bill at a festival entirely on their own terms.

James are famed for playing shows in exactly the way they want. In Warrington, they were at one with the crowd from the off, Tim Booth first jumping into the audience during Waltzing Along less than 10 minutes into their set.

In outsized fluffy white jacket and matching slouchy hat, Booth looked every inch the popstar, his appearance’s style matched by an unpredictable set, typified by the ferocious percussive assault of Heads immediately being followed by a starkly-lit impassioned Shadow Of A Giant.

Announcing “For the younger members of the audience who might want to dance” could be a considered a tease, as it introduced a prog-house take on Attention, rather than one of James’ more familiar songs. But it was followed by a titanic run of Getting Away With It – complete with Roxy Music-style sax breakdown – Come Home and a drum-heavy Sit Down.

Rather than disappear for an encore, Booth insisted the band carry on, meaning the hits continued with a celebratory Tomorrow. The 105 minutes ended on Laid. That’s how to get delirious without being an obvious hits roadshow.

Stereophonics – picture credit: Liam Maxwell

Sunny Atmosphere

Less delirious, Stereophonics closed the Weekender in more sedate mood. They seem to alternate between slow and fast albums lately. The recent Make ’Em Laugh, Make ’Em Cry, Make ’Em Wait kept them at No.1 after 13 LPs with one of their most mature affairs.

That was also the vibe for an easygoing singalong set. There were big songs aplenty from the off: Have A Nice Day, Maybe Tomorrow, Vegas Two Times. If Kelly Jones didn’t leap into the crowd, he was happy to prowl across the stage, looking Maximum Rockstar while throwing guitar shapes under the big screen.

But it wasn’t until announcing “This is where it all started” for A Thousand Trees that the pace picked up, 50 minutes in. Bartender And The Thief was a reliable riot and Mr And Mrs Smith enjoyably intense, with giant beachballs and fireworks for Dakota closing proceedings with a fountain of colour which maybe took three songs too long to arrive.

Starsailor – picture credit: Liam Maxwell

Festival Favourites

Other wilful veterans included Ocean Colour Scene, frankly the weekend’s big disappointment. They opened with nostalgic vintage band video footage, yet the wait for The Riverboat Song and The Day We Caught The Train felt very “Eat your greens” in a soporific show where Simon Fowler’s grumpiness and the focus on their bluesier material would have been more appropriate for the Big Top’s intimacy than puncturing the main stage crowd’s sunny atmosphere.

The Bluetones were much more fun, Mark Morriss’ self-deprecating humour – “This is a new one and, yes, we are at a festival” – was unnecessary, given how buoyant their hits still sounded and that newie Cheap Hotel was infectious enough to prevent a rush to the food stalls.

Of the other veterans, local heroes Starsailor celebrating their 25^th anniversary to an overflowing Big Top tent were the biggest triumph. For casuals, it’s still a surprise how rugged those early hits are in concert, a rumbling presence matched by energetic newer songs like Where The Wild Things Grow.

The K’s – picture credit: Freya Barber

Not Just A Nostalgic Trip

In general, Neighbourhood Weekender deserves its reputation as giving newer artists a step up to a welcoming crowd. There were superb artists flourishing away from the media spotlight everywhere you looked across the three stages.

Wunderhorse and The K’s were the biggest sensations, both leaving fans locked outside the Big Top and drawing word-perfect audiences yelling along to every word. About to release their second album, The K’s have honed their set to perfection, a mix of seemingly simple rock & roll thrills and skyscraping ballads showing off Jamie Boyle’s operatic vocals and Ryan Breslin’s inventive riffs, delivered with the joy of years of support slots finally paying off.

Seemingly less about showmanship, Wunderhorse mainman Jacob Slater let the salivating crowd do the work. In front of a neon-lit devil logo, Slater certainly seems to have done some kind of nefarious deal to make a crowd so hysterical, though there’s no denying songs this anthemic deserve the rapturous response.

Lottery Winners – Picture credit: Freya Barber

Breezy Singalongs

Lottery Winers typified the general good mood. About to support Robbie Williams across Europe’s stadiums, they seem a natural fit: Thom Rylance is as extravagant as Robbie and songs imbued with equal levels of personality should fit right in on the biggest stages. Expect the dance routine to Turn Around to soon become ubiquitous.

Jostling just behind them in hoping to rack up two No 1 albums, The Clause and The Royston Club also brought a singalong vibe, with the former’s closing bounce In Your Element kicking off Sunday’s first moshpit, while the latter’s fiendishly catchy essence was distilled neatly into 30 minutes that bodes well for August’s new album Songs For The Spine.

Many new acts yet to release an album also triumphed, whether through Seb Lowe’s politically infused shamanistic rabble rousing, Cliffords evoking Garbage and the long-lost histrionic drama of JJ72, or Alex Spencer rattling off breezy singalongs like a one-man Fountains Of Wayne topped off by a backflip in his finale.

Sunday 1994 – picture credit: Liam Maxwell

The Next Generation

Still only 18, Tom A Smith has nonetheless been a name to watch for a couple of years. His songwriting is now outstripping his charisma, new tunes What and Fashion a wild midpoint between Ian Dury and Cabaret Voltaire, while Sunday (1994)’s dreampop lived up to their growing hype, wistfully summery despite a mid-set hailstone shower. At the other end of the scale, Villanelle were as tunefully snarly and snotty as you’d hope from Gene Gallagher’s parentage, the confrontational ruck of Lazy especially infectious.

Best of all, The Guest List were Dog Man Star-era Suede one minute, The Rakes the next and with a charisma all their own, before Chloe Slater detonated fizzbomb sugar-rush guitar pop topped off by icily passionate vocals: Death Trap is Warm Leatherette for the housing crisis generation.

A mighty way to show that there’s still plenty of great new music out there, whatever you’re into, combined with singalong favourites of old, mostly able to show they’re still blessed with a fighting spirit. More of the same next year, please.

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Featured picture credit: Freya Barber