T in the Park, Friday
Strathallan Castle, Perthshire
Marianne Gunn
Four stars
Celebrating its 21st year, the T in the Park music festival has - perhaps - come of age in the Auchterarder countryside. Since launching at the Strathclyde Park site in Hamilton, and later finding an equally much-loved and maligned home in Balado, many critics have doubted the possible success of this year's reincarnation (especially with the threat to the local Osprey population and lack of "heavy hitting" bands). However, although the site is more undulating than its Kinross cousin, the natural contours have allowed for a compartmentalisation of sorts, and - as is especially the case for the Radio 1 stage - acoustics are pleasingly enhanced by the environment (although whoever obscured the site's view of Strathallan Castle with a whopping great burger van should be sent on an aesthetics course forthwith).
On the Main Stage, Sam Smith was Friday's main highlight. Having played a storming Glasgow O2 Academy gig in March, Smith has since been plagued by a recent serious health scare and his T performance is only his fifth post surgery. Playing key tracks from his debut album, as well as a funked up section with his fab band and singers, Smith segued from an Elvis cover to his own song and (tellingly about the festival's key demographic) the crowd sang aloud more volubly to Lay Me Down. His touring arrangement of La La La and Money On My Mind gave him another opportunity to prove his vocal dexterity has not been impacted. He simply comes across as a very likeable 23-year-old British talent who has just happened to have taken the US by storm.
Although Kasabian headlined the evening, the dance acts were the main event. Fatboy Slim's DJ turn in King Tut's Wah Wah Tent was at utter capacity with moisture dripping from the blue canvas monolith as Norman Cook mixed his own material (such as Right Here, Right Now and Praise You) with anthems from the '90 such as Underworld's Born Slippy and musical classics like Psycho Killer from the Talking Heads. Mark Ronson's DJ set (including his Bruno Mars collaboration and dance-floor filler Uptown Funk) suffered a more lukewarm reception, although he was competing with David Guetta who had come directly from his Ibiza club night at Pacha, armed with enough confetti cannon, streamer and pyrotechnic accompaniments to really put on a show. Tracks from his sixth album Listen (Hey Mama, Dangerous, Lovers On The Sun and What I Did for Love) were interspersed with his recent back catalogue (such as Love Is Gone and Titanium) although hankering for his old school French House music was probably an individual - and more minor - quibble.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article