Drenched to the core, I started my No Tomorrow experience hiding under a tree for shelter from the pelting rain. Probably not the best start to a supposedly Summer festival, but it didn’t knock my confidence that this day was going to be bloody amazing.
Taking place at Wollaton Park, No Tomorrow is a festival as well as an end of year student party; so good weather was quite important. So the fact that the weather forecasts predicted the “worst thunderstorms in a hundred years” probably didn’t put people in the best frame of mind for the start of the day.Thinking about it, I probably shouldn’t have stood under that tree…
We’re all about Nottingham acts here at Nusic, so we’ve only covered Hoodtown acts in this review. WOLF CLUB were the first, and they didn’t let any of that weather malarkey stop them giving their absolute all in opening the main stage! After beating out 15 other bands to take this slot, there were high expectations – well, they were met, shook hands, and then went for loads of drinks together. Their hands in the air, euphoric Electro-Pop/Indie/Dance/It’s really hard to describe okay, suited the festival perfectly, and as people were piling in we’re sure there were a few people going “I’m sure I’ve heard that on the telly”! The standout moment for me from their set was “Broken”, which starts out showing a more softer side to the band, showing off vocalist Chris’ voice really well; before the beat drops and it turns into a euphoric lovefest. Well played boys!
THE AFTERDARK MOVEMENT were up next, and I’ll get this out of the way first cause it’s impossible to ignore; THEY BROUGHT THE SUN OUT! Yup, the band came out on stage to rather miserable looking weather, and by the time “Since I’ve Been Here” dropped, you could see the sun start to come out behind the clouds. You couldn’t have picked a more perfect band for the sun to come out to either, cause their Hip-Hop/Funk/Soul/Jazz/Why is everyone on this stage so bloody hard to describe? sounds were incredibly uplifting. The band were incredibly tight, despite having not rehearsed together in bloody ages. They also had a nice personal relationship with the crowd, bringing them all in closer, getting them to sing along; and having a go at the camera man who forgot to turn his phone off! ALWAYS TURN THE PHONE OFF!
A few non-Nottingham acts and a dodgy burger later, INDIANA graced the stage. As the first time playing this stage with her new Nottingham basedf band, this was quite a special moment, and they put on an amazing performance together. INDIANA’s vocals were breathtaking as always, and despite the fact her songs are a bit slower than that of the previous acts on the stage, the crowd were captivated. “No Romeo”, one of the new songs off her soon to be released album of the same name, really got the crowd going with it’s incredibly catchy hook – getting people to sing the name of your album back to you is quite clever if you ask me! I think the key moment from the entire set came at the very end; as she went into her recent top 20 single “Solo Dancing”, she was stunned to see a good five thousand people sing the words back to her. She certainly wasn’t dancing by herself, put it that way.
Finally, the last act on our Nusic radar was of course, the headliners, and former Uni Of students LONDON GRAMMAR. It’s hard to believe that just two years ago, these guys would have been attending this festival, celebrating Dot’s graduation, not bloody headlining it! But, there’s a reason these guys are so successful, it’s because they’re one of the best live bands in the country. Seriously; it’s hard to make ten thousand dance fans (very drunk dance fans, I might add) calm down a bit, and just appreciate the music; but their live performances are something truly breath taking. “Wasting My Young Years” ignited a massive crowd singalong; and I’m sure the lyrics resonated with plenty of the Uni grads in the crowd.
Adding a bit of humour to the set, vocalist Hannah encouraged all the crowd to get as drunk as they could before the bar shut… whilst drinking a cup of tea… oh the irony! “Nightcall” was absolutely haunting; and in my opinion is one of the best songs in their live set, as it allows the audience to essentially be their personal choir. The chorus literally sends shivers down your spine. “Strong” closes their set; and is still in my opinion one of the greatest compositions of all time. This performance just reminded me why. I think it’s safe to say that they did their old Uni proud.
No Tomorrow was incredible. Simple as that. Even without the weather, it would have been amazing; but the fact we had the great British sun on our side really made the day special. Nottingham did itself proud; and I’m pretty sure all of the acts will have quite a few new likes on Facebook over this next couple of days. That is if the students can remember any of their names. What was that first band called again? WolfGang?…
Yours in Love of New Music,
Sam Nahirny x
P.S We know that the amazing Detonate Festival was also taking place yesterday, you might be wondering why we didn’t cover it well our big bro LeftLion was down there, we weren’t simply cause there were no live Nottingham acts playing.
