TRNSMT Festival 2018!

For the last couple of weeks, everyone was caught up in Football Fever. However, for the last two weekends, those who were in Scotland were in festival fever...yep, in TRNSMT festival fever to be precise.

The first TRNSMT happened in 2017, as replacement for T in the Park, who were having problems at its new site. However, since then, it looks like that TRNSMT has now replaced T in the Park altogether.

There was a change this year to TRNSMT. Compared to last year, where the festival was only held on one weekend, this year's festival took place over two weekends. Without further ado, here is a rundown of what happened at TRNSMT 2018.

The Headliners

For the first weekend, on Friday and Saturday, we had two 90s-early noughties icons and a UK exclusive. For the Friday, we had Stereophonics, who brought their latest album Scream Above the Sounds to Glasgow Green, where the festival was being held. They went through a great set of songs, from recent songs, such as I Wanna Get Lost With You, C'est Le Vie and Indian Summer, to bonafide classics, such as Just looking, Have a Nice Day, Dakota and Mr Writer.

On Saturday, another 90's-early noughties icon played, in the form of Liam Gallagher. He released his first solo album, As You Were, in October 2017 and TRNSMT was the first time he had headlined a festival in Scotland since 2002, when he headlined T in the Park as part of Oasis. In addition, he had also played T in the Park twice, as part of Beady Eye, in 2011 and 2013.

In terms of his set, he delivered a set that only Liam Gallagher could...a set that consisted of new Liam hits, such as For What It's Worth, Wall Of Glass and Greedy Soul, and old Oasis hits, including Rock n Roll Star, Wonderwall, Supersonic and Slide Away, which I think is what everyone wanted right?




However, the biggest highlight was Sunday's headliner, which was a UK exclusive...Arctic Monkeys. Yep, the Arctics played their first and, as far as we know, only UK festival date (unless they do a secret set at Reading and/or Leeds...). This is also notable as it was almost 4 years since they last played a festival in Scotland; they headlined T in the Park in 2014. During their set, they played songs from all six of their albums, including The View From Afternoon and From the Ritz to the Rubble, which they have started bringing back into their setlist, and Teddy Picker, which made its Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino tour debut, showing the audience exactly why they had been missed for 4 years or, in Alex's case, 2 years, as he last played in Scotland as part of The Last Shadow Puppets at T in  the Park 2016.  Saying that, there was a Last Shadow Puppets reunion, as Miles Kane joined the Arctic Monkeys on stage to play guitar on 505, as per tradition.



During the next weekend that TRNSMT was held, the headliners were Adam Lambert and Queen and The Killers. Delivered a great set, Adam Lambert and Queen brought out hits such as Killer Queen, Who Wants To Live Forever?, The Show Must Go On, Radio GaGa and, of course, Bohemian Rhapsody, among others, putting on a show that would have made Freddie Mercury proud.

In terms of The Killers, they brought Glamorous Indie Rock and Roll (see what I did there?) to Glasgow Green. However, they didn't actually play this song during their set. Instead, they made sure they got the classics in there, including All These Things I've Done, Smile Like You Mean It, When You Were Young, Somebody Told Me and, of course, Mr Brightside. They also covered Side, by Travis and The Whole of the Moon, by The Waterboys and invited a fan to drum with them on For Reasons Unknown. They later came back to Scotland to play the King Tut's Wah Wah Hut the next day.

The rest of the show.

Whilst the headliners were all rock acts, the rest of the acts across both weekends were more varied.  Yes we still had rock acts, such as Blossoms, Wolf Alice, The Courteeners and Miles Kane, who performed a cover of Donna Summer's Hot Stuff, which suited the hot weather that we have had throughout the whole of July, as well as playing some new songs from his upcoming album Coup de Grace, like his new single, Cry On My Guitar.







In addition, there were some pop acts, such as Jessie J, who hasn't played a festival in ages and The Script, who rounded off their Freedom Child Tour with a stint at Glasgow Green, playing a selection of their biggest hits, such as Superheroes, For the First Time, The Man Who Can't Be Moved, Rain and Hall of Fame (minus Will.I.Am unfortunately).







We also had some newbies on the line up, with some being higher up the lineup (on the main stage) than what I thought they would be, such as Tom Grennan, who had a massive hit with his debut song Sober, and Lewis Capaldi. However, many of the newbies were on the King Tut's Stage as well, such as Sigrid, winner of the BBC sound of 2018 prize and known for her very popular song Strangers, Tom Walker and Pale Waves. However, we also had well established acts, again on both stages, like Nina Nesbitt, Jessie Ware, Franz Ferdinand and Chvrches. Finally, we had classic bands such as Shed Seven, Interpol, The Darkness (Yep, they're still going), Embrace and Texas.

Overall, TRNSMT was the perfect mix of pop and Rock and young and old and I for one thought it was the perfect balance. Yes, it could be said that the headliners were not very diverse, in terms of genre, but hey, they still brought the crowds so TRNSMT must be doing something right!

Em x