Y Not Festival returned with a line-up that was enticing from the start, featuring not only great headline artists (Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Catfish and The Bottlemen, Everything Everything, Kelis) but appealing emerging talent too.

With so many artists to choose from, our recommendations from the weekend include No Hot Ashes, Louis Berry, Secret Company, NGOD and Good Foxy.

Friday

Getting to the festival a little later in the day on the Friday than we’d have liked, the first artist we saw was the unforgiving Asylums at the Jack Rocks/This Feeling stage. They performed a setlist comprising of tracks featured on their ‘Killer Brain Waves’ album that hit the shelves that day. This Band were one of NEN’s top tips for 2016, and catching their live set and seeing the raucous tracks brought to life was something we’d been looking forward to. We caught ‘Joy In A Small Wage’, the treatise to having no money, and ‘Necessary Appliances’, a track about their love for the Argos magazine, as they announced on stage; a great start to this year’s Y Not.

Though the festival hit a rocky start almost immediately with Kelis, one of the higher billed artists, dropping out with seemingly no prior warning as she was supposed to appear on stage, and Public Access TV shortly after were also a no show.

Everything Everything

We headed over to the Main Stage for Everything Everything‘s set, to find that they were perhaps struggling with sound issues. Something wasn’t right. But Jonathan Higgs’ vocals were on point and reaching, even if the higher notes he sang in head voice didn’t quite maintain the right volume to travel. Alex Robertshaw, guitarist, couldn’t seem to hear his vocals at one point and his guitars were abnormally loud at several times.

It wasn’t the best performance from Everything Everything, but this is due to them being outstanding on both previous occasions that I have seen them live and therefore anything other than exceptional, as seems to be the norm for these five gentlemen, gets a harsher critique. Stand out songs were ‘Regret’ and ‘Distant Past’, purely due to the crowd’s responses – finally engaging in the set. Yet older tracks ‘My KZ Your Boyfriend’ and ‘Cough Cough’ were astounding as Higgs and the lads looked comfortable performing at the later end of the bill, as they should!

Yak were marking their territory on The Giant Squid Stage, and we took a ganders at the raucous, boisterous lot who were racking up quite a storm. ‘Alas Salvation’, their new album from May of 2016, was the focus of the band’s set, which featured fuzzy guitars and volume to the max. Listening back to their album now, it sounds particularly mild and calm compared to what we were met with in the tent. ‘Harbour The Feeling’, followed by the album opener ‘Victorious’, were enough to tell us all we needed to know. Noise rock indeed!

We ventured to see Little Barrie, drawn to the track that is now the Better Call Saul theme tune. Their sound is all about the guitars. There are three of them, but that doesn’t stop the big wall of sound that comes right out at you from the stage. A band who have been together 15 years; this is one that might finally be beginning to get their time in the spotlight, courtesy of the Jack Rocks/This Feeling stage.

As we wandered around the site we were drawn to The Quarry where Coasts were playing their finale track, ‘Oceans’, which was being sung back to them with gusto. The tent was absolutely packed out, and it looked to be a largely impressive performance; leaving the stage with the crowd still chanting along enthusiastically.

Black Honey

NEN’s headliner for the Friday evening was Black Honey, led by the mesmerising Izzy B. Phillips. She captivated the crowd with sultry vocals, often likened to Wolf Alice and Lana Del Rey, and we nod our heads to these associations, but don’t come to Black Honey thinking you’ll know what they’re like. ‘Spinning Wheel’ kicked off the set, the cinematic opening almost straight from a Western film welcomes you with open arms and trapping you in the net of Black Honey for the entirety of their set. ‘Madonna’ was next with its sleazy, almost lazy guitar sound, smooth vocals effortlessly coating the sound from the rest of the band. This band are unstoppable and a deserved headliner of one of the smaller stages while they learn their profession inside out and hopefully climb their way to the top billing of the larger stages for next year.

Saturday

We kicked off Saturday with a Main Stage performance from NGOD, who unconventionally kicked off their set with their recent single, ‘Blue’. Their performance was strong, boasting a set list of easy listening tracks which included previous single, ‘Are You Satisfied?’ They were a great band to stumble across, and scouring YouTube post-festival, you can find a plethora of various tracks that prove NGOD’s deserved slot on the main stage.

We decided to check out the BIMM line-up for Arnie’s Stage, and were met with some interesting and intriguing bands, including Good Foxy. A proper funky guitar sound and a harmonica on one track — the only off putting thing was the 20 year old male backing dancer throwing distracting shapes mid stage… was he an intended addition to the performance? We couldn’t tell, but he was clearly into the music, and so were we!

Jodie Abacus

Jodie Abacus stole our attention next as we caught his appearance on the main stage. He won over the crowd effortlessly, performing some unheard tracks including ‘When The Wheels Fall Off’ and ‘Keep Your Head Down Son’, as well as his well known ‘Hot Kitchen’ with its “Coca Cola, hot kitchen” chorus. His soulful R&B vocals flow easily over the funky pop of the band, urging you to nod your head or at least tap your foot. At times his lyrics could have more depth, but overall Abacus won our affections.

We love Sundara Karma, and so we caught their set at The Quarry later on in the afternoon. The entire tent were singing along with their set, and it is clear that this band have a large and dedicated following, their solid performance reflecting their hard work to get to where they are. ‘Flame’ was clearly a stand out track, with the band cutting out to hear the crowd’s chorus, and with Oscar Lulu, frontman, entering the crowd to join the rowdy bunch! ‘Flame’ was followed by the next single which we heard as ‘She Said’, then came to a ripping conclusion with latest Romeo & Juliet inspired single, ‘Loveblood’.

RAT BOY

We darted back to the Main Stage to catch RAT BOY with his indie-rap modernised Jamie T style. ‘Sign On’ and ‘Move’ were stand out tracks, with the band’s unique brand of upbeat, man of the people lyrics. Cardy has a good voice when in the moments of singing, and the band’s confidence and cheeky manner make any performance of theirs a must-see. The end of the set was particularly confusing. The set had only run over by five minutes and it was not clear what was happening but it appeared that RAT BOY were cut short, with the cheeky frontman left asking “where’s my mic at?” Maybe it was because in ‘Sign On,’ Jordan Cardy, who is RAT BOY, yelled “Fuck security”… not sure! We saw the band in good spirits walking around the arena later on, so no hard feelings…

Back at the Arnie’s Stage we saw Mindofalion, who we absolutely recommend. ‘Falling Down’ was their set closer, with its looped guitars and Gallagher-influenced style of vocals at. They’d earlier played 2000 Trees, which is another suitable fit for this band, as of yet unsigned, but sure to be snapped up soon.

We went to see Circa Waves, finding them a perfect set up for the evening’s music. They were predictably good and perfect as the band before Catfish and the Bottlemen to catch any crossover fans. They opened on their Strokes-esque track ‘Good For Me’, immediately drawing in the audience and teasing out various other tracks from their one album, which made up the set list. Circa Waves contributed to the early evening some incredibly catchy upbeat dance-along tracks in the form of ‘Young Chasers’ and ‘Stuck In My Teeth’, drawing to a close with ‘T-Shirt Weather’. Perfect.

Catfish And The Bottlemen

Catfish and the Bottlemen played an impeccable show and set the standards high for the weekend. There was so much hype in the lead up to their performance and I’ve never seen so many band t-shirts for one band in one place. On the Saturday, you could be met with five Catfish t-shirt wearers in any one moment – it was fascinating to see such a loyal and dedicated fan base.

The crowd for the set was overwhelming and they welcomed lovingly the hour long set, which largely consisted of tracks from the first album, ‘The Balcony’ with only sneak peeks at its follow up in the form of ‘Anything’ and the singles so far: ‘Soundcheck’, ‘7’, and ‘Twice’. It is clear though with the new album tracks what the band have been saying about creating songs for their live set, as when the build up in ‘Soundcheck’ comes before the big guitar solo, something that you might gloss over in the recording, but cannot possibly do live, is the bass as the solo section kicks in. It leaves you in shivers. It would have been great to have more new tracks, yet understandable that they wouldn’t want to bombard a festival audience with too many new tracks from an album only just two months old.

Secret Company was a band who we overheard when walking past and had to duck into the tent to hear more of. We only caught the end of their set, yet a lot of love arose for this band in such a short period of time. We caught a maximum of three songs, but it was enough to make them one of our highlights of Y Not festival. They performed a stunning cover of The Temper Trap’s ‘Sweet Disposition’, followed by their own fantastic contribution, ‘Fever Of Love’. They reminded us of Amber Run with their non-complex yet big sounding tracks, with vocals not so dissimilar to Joe Keogh (Amber Run frontman). The tracks are so spacious with reverberated guitars and big choruses.

Noel Gallagher

Noel Gallagher was next: and what an amazing achievement to score Gallagher as the festival headliner! Noel Gallagher’s set was something that a lot of people were heading to with the hope of plenty of Oasis songs. To his credit, he complied, playing a set consisting of almost a half and half split of the Britpop legends and his new High Flying Birds catalogue. Yet you must feel for the man who has now released two albums under the new guise, yet whose audiences still just want a good old Oasis singalong.

‘Half The World Away’ was beautiful and gave us goosebumps, what with it being the theme tune to the much loved Royle Family created by the recently passed Caroline Aherne. ‘Wonderwall’ was stunning, and it was a treat to hear it performed by the man himself and not a busker on the street; yet the vocal arrangement was altered, making for a singalong to be a tricky one, causing audiences to treat the song as a true performance and listen as opposed to singing all over and not being able to experience it. And that’s what getting to see Gallagher perform Oasis tracks was — a memorable experience for those people who just want to reminisce about the good old bygone era. High Flying Birds tracks, to their credit, had similar momentum, but were not as recognised by the crowd. ‘If I Had a Gun’ and ‘What A Life’ still achieved the same level of appreciation in our minds.

Sunday

Sunday was another day of great music. We started off with No Hot Ashes. This was another stand out set for NEN and we are looking forward to seeing more of fresh Stockport talent.  So when this cheeky lot took to stage — and their loveable tracks — ‘Easy Peeler’, ‘Goose’ and ‘Smooth (No Bits)’, merely won us over with a performance that is sure to set them up for a good few months as they begin to build their deserved recognition. Peppering their original tracks with various snippets of other songs, including MGMT’s ‘Electric Feel’ and Jay Z’s ’99 Problems’, they knew how to draw the right attention. They also covered Grandmaster Flash’s ‘The Message’, which, as they rightly announced before playing, “is a cover… not a shit one, a good one”. We’d been looking forward to ‘Cool Cat’ and No Hot Ashes did not disappoint. An absolute tune!

A brilliant performance from Vaults — whose name and reputation preceded them — led us straight to The Quarry at multiple times over the weekend to catch their set, due to our only realising we were following an outdated programme! Her voice at times was very Adele-like, with that accurate and strong power behind it, and Blythe Pepino was playful and grateful to be up on stage, fronting such a great British electronica band. Several tracks, including ‘One Last Night’ weren’t as exciting as others, but there is definite potential in her set list.

Louis Berry was a great stage presence. His heavy Liverpudlian accent left us floundering on the first instance of talking between songs. His performance was top, with so many tracks highly exemplary of his talent and his uniqueness in the industry right now. With obvious Johnny Cash influences and references, Berry is truthful, thoughtful and a good representative of an artist striving with all they have to make music they believe in, and not being handed success through buying his way in. His singles were ridiculously well-received: ‘My .45’, ‘Laurie’, and ‘Nicole’ just several examples of his excellent songwriting ability and charismatic stage presence.

Sunset Sons

Sunset Sons were a great addition to the Sunday Main Stage, and we were looking forward to seeing a festival set after seeing them personally last November. Since then they’ve released their debut album, and their set consisted entirely of album tracks. Beginning with ‘Medicine’, and venturing after into ‘Tick Tick’, their set reached high points when they got to their sing-along choruses. Rory was particularly good at engaging the crowd, instigating clap alongs at every opportunity and standing almost in the crowd to blur the boundary between stage and fans. ‘She Wants’, ‘Somewhere Maybe’ and ‘Bring the Bright Light’ were our highlights, and congrats to this lot who have just been nominated at the AIM Awards for Best Live Act.

Milky Chance were to be our headliner for Sunday as we were unable to stick around. Unfortunately, ‘Stolen Dance’, one of the tracks the crowd were looking forward to, didn’t quite have the large impact it could have done. Where there could have been a big build up to the chorus, which sort of happens in production on the track, this was largely lacking live, and the track lost momentum and impact. Although the mellow version was a good performance of the track, it lost its life a little, and this was how we felt about the entirety of the set really. Nevertheless, their songs have potential and we do look forward to hearing their follow up to ‘Sadnecessary’, which they have just started working on.

The festival housed some pretty impressive talent, yet we must admit that the atmosphere just didn’t cut it like some of the other festivals out there. The capacity had almost doubled from the year before, and talk in the camps from previous festival-goers suggested the festival wasn’t quite able to handle the growth. We hope to return next year however, to see how the Best Medium Sized Festival in 2015 fares in 2017!