If you’ve been trawling through festival line-ups and fallen down the rabbit hole, The Edge writers are here to pull you back out again and talk you through their top picks at this year’s festivals from the new-wave rockers to the indie resurrectors.
The Cure @ Glastonbury
We haven’t seen very many UK dates from The Cure for 2019, but the band are going all out to headline Glastonbury Festival this year. But fear not, if you weren’t lucky enough to get tickets, you might be heading north to catch them at Glasgow Summer Sessions (though let’s not get into the stressful online queue for tickets). They have also announced a number of festival dates all over Europe.
But what they lack in quantity of shows, they will more than make up for in quality. The Cure are famous for their three-hour shows and lengthy setlists, from deep cuts to big hits spanning from start to finish of their 40-year discography.
Whether you managed to get your hands on tickets, or you’re staying home watching their Glastonbury set on TV, you’re guaranteed to be in for a good night with The Cure.
Slaves @ Truck
Punk rock duo Slaves are going to be headlining the early bird headliner slot for Truck festival 2019 and I must admit, I’m excited. With only 100 days to go ’till Truck fest these guys are my incentive for forking out the extra cashola for the early bird ticket.
Slaves are no strangers to the Truck festival stage having played in 2015 and sub-headlined with The Libertines in 2017. The Kent two-piece consisting of lead singer/drummer Isaac Holman and guitarist Laurie Vincent released their third studio album, Acts of Fear and Love, last year which maintains their punk rocker ‘oomph’ whilst also having a more anthemic feel towards it. A perfect combination to kick things off in the idyllic Oxfordshire countryside.
Slaves will be assisted by Indoor Pets, Lady Bird and Self Help with more to be announced.
Sports Team @ various festivals
Sports Team are doing the rounds this summer, performing at the likes of The Great Escape, Truck/Y Not, Neverworld, Reading/Leeds, Tramlines and more throughout central Europe. They also just so happen to be your new favourite band. Not afraid to take the mick out of themselves, this cheeky sextet are providing a well-needed breath of fresh air for the indie genre.
Goodbye to indie music that takes itself too seriously and hello to lyrics like “I’ll take your t-shirt and put it in the wash/ Then when you go out in public/ Your fabric will be f***ing soft”, taken from their song ‘Kutcher’ which uses the premise of Ashton Kutcher’s naughties show Punk’d as a metaphor for getting one over on your ex. They’ve even made an addition to the best road trip songs corpus and made driving on the motorway more enjoyable with their latest single ‘M5’, when “no one else is on it” that is, which is just as good to sing sat behind the wheel of a car as it will be in the midst of a festival crowd. With delicious lyrics you can’t help but recite over and over again and live performances that provide pure and unadulterated joy and escapism from anything you’ve got going on in your life, Sports Team will be one of the highlights of your summer.
