Beautiful Days Festival
August 2026
Live Review
Beautiful Days surpassed itself this year with a run of bands on the main stage that were both eclectic and exciting, whilst embracing all manner of styles of music: old, new, borrowed and blue. One moment it was the new kids on the block bringing their ruckus and the next it was the generational jukebox bands with their songs that are embedded deep in the musical psyche of the UK.
Friday
Erotic Secrets of Pompeii defy the normal hang-ups of being first on and drag a huge crowd down to the main stage in the blazing sun to deliver a powerful set that defies everything. In a blur of lunatic make-up and black stylings, they are Suede if the glam-indie titans had a Cardiacs quirk, with an added dash of the off-kilter punk glam of early Adam and the Ants. Galvanising and thrilling, and now ready to be embraced, Erotic Secrets of Pompeii’s triumphant afternoon underlines that they have arrived.
Popping down from Glastonbury Nick Parker and the False Alarms deliver lyrical songs that combine a humour and a perceptive eye with their own folk stylings.
Gwenno switches the mood with captivating songs of beguiling beauty that pull you into her world of Celtic mystery and moods. She is followed by more celts who have a different musical twist with The Undertones who are one of those timeless jukebox bands where every song has a killer hook and brings a memory of youthful exuberance. They also play two equally good new songs that potentially signpost an incoming new album next year.
Billy Bragg is very much at home here, with Beautiful Days feeling like a large version of his Leftfield stage at Glastonbury, and his songs of hope and humanity bring real emotional impact from the crowd. It’s sing along with Billy as the politics and love and life swirl around the field.
Skindred bring the party with charismatic frontman Benji’s high-falutin’ high kicks shamanic showbiz delivered over their thunderous metallic KO songs, before Super Furry Animals top the day off with their glorious eccentricity and songs that switch moods and styles in the blink of an eye.
Saturday
Saturday is amongst us with its glorious climate-crisis sunshine and an earlier start. Trampolene defy the bleary-eyed stage time with the charismatic effervescence of frontman Jack Jones, who is an indie icon waiting to happen. The magnetic Welsh waif oozes optimism and good spirits and backs it up with melodic guitar-indie songs that reflect his day job as Pete Doherty’s guitar player. With non-stop touring on the horizon, the band are now heading for a breakthrough and the great reaction today underlines this.
Crystal Tides are post-Arctic Monkeys indie-guitar hustlers from Portsmouth, whilst Bar Stool Preachers bring the punk-rock anthems and their call-and-response punk rock. Their big songs get a singalong stamp of approval from the crowd as the band’s mix of UK punk ruckus and American punky showbiz sounds as invigorating as ever.
Split Dogs are a thrilling, raucous walk on the wild side, fronted by the charismatron presence of Harry Atkins. They are a punk rock ’n’ roll four-piece who out-sniff Amyl and the Sniffers in a glorious rush of off-kilter razzmatazz and fury.
Skinny Lister are London-based folk-punk whose trad roots mix ’n’ match with the now and go down well, setting the stage for a triumphant show from Big Special. The Midlands duo have to be one of the best bands in the UK right now and a huge crowd gathers for the compelling unit. They are at the top of their game and their songs switch moods and grooves from incessant funk noise to pop/noise punkoid rushes to almost Doors-like psychedelic beauty. Big Special are evocative and immersive with the duo driven by the powerhouse drumming and electronics of Callum Moloney underpinning Joe Hicklin’s stunning vocals. Man, he has a great set of pipes — one minute crooning, the next delivering a poem and the next ranting. They are mesmerising, thrilling and groundbreaking and perhaps the best band in the UK right now!
The Royston Club are doing the Hollywood town of Wrexham proud with their visceral indie-guitar rushes. There is an exciting youthful exuberance about them but also a deeply intelligent songwriting that sees their spot massively well received. Several years in, Gogol Bordello have somehow managed to remain as energetic and consuming as ever. With an added heavier touch to their new songs, they remain a live powerhouse, and their songs of love and fury go down a storm as they deliver their intelligent lyrics and music that still twists East European folk melody with a punk urgency.
It’s been decades since I’ve seen Madness and they have lost none of their brilliance. Older and maybe wiser, the band have grown into their vintage stage as they shuffle on dressed to the nines like a dusty music-hall ghost troupe blinking into the modern light. One of the great British pop bands, they are a portal back to those days of music-hall entertainment and top of the pops tradition, with Suggs as the ringleader and master of ceremonies, singing the songs that are deeply embedded into our DNA. So many great songs chug by from one of the great all-time singles bands, who deal in melancholy and joy, love and loss, life and death, and turn it all into a catchy tune… Who doesn’t love Madness?
Sunday
Sambrosa All Stars open Sunday with an enlivening set of Cuban-fused shuffles before Dublin’s Meryl Streek brings the anger with his punk-rock industrial workout. Now armed with a drummer, he stretches into his new duo era with an added swing and power, and his tunes have lost none of their intelligence, anger and bite.
3 Daft Monkeys are part of the extended Levellers family and go back more than 25 years with the band. Their own take on the ancient rhythms of folk, cranked through 21st-century sound and vision, always creates both a folk spell and a modern dance.
Snayx are as thrillingly off-kilter as ever. They are the latest in a long line of bands from the now who disprove all the naysayers who seem to think angry, articulate music is a thing of the past. Snayx bring it to the now, twisting punk-rock noise with hip-hop grooves, and are as captivating as ever.
Finally, Chameleons appear at Beautiful Days and grace the main stage. They are as beguiling in their brilliance as ever as Mark Burgess’ brooding voice coats the songs and their chiming guitar eloquence hypnotises. The band are on a late-career creative surge and sound especially strong on the new album songs. This is a classic band being classic.
A thrilling example of the right now are Ireland’s Gurriers, the fast-rising crew who have made the post-IDLES and post-Fontaines D.C. space their own. If you want arty late-night music with an intense emotional edge, lots of thundering rhythms and great slices of pop/noise guitar, then Gurriers are the moment, and they create a huge mosh pit.
It’s heartening to see just how big Nova Twins have become. The effervescent pair ricochet around the stage and, like all the great British bands, dress up but also bring the noise. They mix the thundering power of metal with the adrenaline rush of punk and the smart end of Charli XCX pop. They are beyond genre, managing to win MOBO and Kerrang! awards, which kinda underlines their unique synthesis of sound, and they make it all into a killer live show.
Yet another jukebox band, The Wonder Stuff own the stage with a set that gets to pick n mix from their 19 Top 20 hits, deep cuts and newer tunes. Still cheeky and still a celebration of the possibility of quintessentially British song and dance, The Wonder Stuff are very much Midlands in their music and are still defiantly themselves. The set is a reminder of just how many of their joyous songs lurk in your psyche and how potent their October UK tour with the Inspiral Carpets is going to be.
The traditional weekend curtain-closer of the Levellers is now upon us, and the band gather backstage ready for their grand finale, which they pull off with arguably their best performance in years. They sound tight and focused, and that adds to the power of their songs as they deal anthem after anthem in a timeless rush that brings the house down.
As the last embers of their sound fade away and the curtain has been called on another festival and another summer as we return our green and ghostly land to the darker and chillier months…
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