Review: Tramlines festival day 3, Sheffield

In true festival fashion, the heavens opened on Sunday afternoon for the final day of the 2023 Tramlines Festival. Despite the deluge of rain, it didn’t dampen the festival-goers spirits and 38,000 revellers braved the elements to watch the likes of Paul Heaton, Kaiser Chiefs, Kate Nash and hometown heroes Reverend and the Makers.

A delayed start at Tramlines due to the downpour and staff trying to ensure the venue was safe meant that several of the earlier acts had to be cancelled. Early on, Brighton six-piece Creeping Jean impressed with their indie-rock. They have had airtime on Kerrang and Radio X recently, latest hit Hold The Image is a superb track.

The Zutons opened the Sarah Nulty Main Stage and as ever, put on a great set. Zuton Fever, Pressure Point, Remember Me and Valerie all featured, ensuring fans in attendance were dancing and singing in the deluge early.

Local heroes, Reverend and the Makers enjoyed a great set in front of their hometown crowd. Frontman Jon McClure opened up with Bassline as part of an eleven song set which was heavily influenced by latest album, Heatwave In The Cold North, which reached number six in the UK album charts earlier this year.

There certainly wasn’t a heatwave at Hillsborough Park, but undeterred, fans bounced along to the song as well as Problems, Letter to my 21-year-old Self and High amongst others.

With almost two decades in music, Leeds quintet Kaiser Chiefs are no strangers to commanding the stage and impressing a large crowd. Mega hits such as I Predict a Riot and Ruby are befitting of a festival crowd.

Frontman Ricky Wilson thanked the crowd for ‘coming out’ and ‘sticking with them’ as he proceeded to work his way through the band’s impressive back catalogue of anthemic belters.

Everyday I Love You Less and Less and Oh My God were two hits saved for the latter half of the set which ensured the bumper crowd were bouncing in unison.

The rain continued to pour when the evergreen Paul Heaton made his way onto the stage to a rapturous applause. Heaton had already won the hearts of festival-goers, when he announced 24-hours-earlier on social media that he had put some money behind the bar of five local, independent pubs for fans to ‘have a drink on him’.

Heaton opened up with I Drove Her Away With My Tears swiftly followed by Sheep, I Gotta Praise and Old Red Eyes is Back. Whether it’s 38,000 at Hillsborough or a small, intimate gig, it feels like Heaton is singing personally to everyone in the crowd – a true musical icon.

With just shy of 40 years in the businesses, Heaton had no trouble delving into the back catalogue of hits including Rotterdam, Perfect 10, Don’t Marry Her and Caravan of Love.

Despite less than favourable weather conditions, both artists and fans were exemplary all weekend and although the rain may have caused a few people to grimace, they were smiling at the end of the evening when leaving Hillsborough Park.