I've been to many different places in London over the years for gigs, but one I was yet to go to was Hyde Park. After hearing the Pet Shop Boys were going to be headlining Radio 2 in the Park this year, and finding tickets were just over £50 (actually cheaper than tickets for Pet Shop Boys at The O2 next year), it seemed like the perfect time for me to finally go to my first Hyde Park gig.
Of course being an event with several acts on the line up, there was inevitably going to be ones that I didn't like. My hope was that the ones I didn't like were on early and I could turn up later to just see the ones I like. Truth be told, aside from the Pet Shop Boys, none of the other acts were ones I'd go out of my way to see in concert. The second best act on the line up in my opinion was Simply Red, so guess who was on first?
I arrived shortly before 13:00 hoping it wouldn't take too long to get in, actually got in pretty quickly. What amazed me when I walked in was just how far away the stage was.
Simply Red came on around 13:15 and started the set with "Stars". They also did "Sunrise", "Fairground", "Something Got Me Started", a new one, and finished with "Ain't That A Lot Of Love". It was a good performance and was over pretty quickly. Afterwards Mick Hucknall was being interviewed and he said "Holding Back The Years" was his favourite and enjoys playing live, but he never actually played it in his set. Guess with the time they had there was inevitably going to be some big hits missing from it.
The second act of the day was Kelsea Ballerini, someone I'd never heard of, but I found myself standing next to a big fan of hers who told me she was a country singer.
When she started her set, my first thought was it didn't sound very country, then my second thought was this is bloody awful. It would get worse after the first song, it was dreary cringe worthy crap that was quite painful to listen to. Her fans were enthusiastic but it sounded like there was only 12 of them. Was glad when her set was over.
The next act was supposed to be Emeli Sande, but she pulled out at the last minute. I'd struggle to name an Emeli Sande song, but I know I've heard her and know she's crap. Instead they had Craig Charles doing a funk and soul DJ set, that was more like it.
Bananarama were next up. After seeing the line up, my thoughts were Bananarama are alright. As they started to play though, I thought who am I trying to kid, I don't like their music at all. It was good for a bit of 80s nostalgia though, apart from when they played 2 of their new songs that nobody knew.
We then had Clean Bandit, who I thought would be more Radio 1 than Radio 2. I actually liked the one on the M&S advert as an instrumental, but the vocals ruin it. The band themselves consist of a female cellist and 2 males who seem to disappear in the background. They had 2 female singers and a female violinist at the front of the stage who weren't official band members.
The female cellist kept turning up to the front of the stage, often without her cello, to do a bit of dancing. To be honest I thought some of their tunes are alright, but can't help thinking they would be much better without vocals. When they finished with the M&S tune, they got the audience to sing along but I couldn't as I only ever listen to the instrumental.
Next up was Status Quo, a band who have been around for longer than Radio 2. It is often said that all their songs sound the same, and after watching this performance its hard not to disagree. They began the set with "Caroline" and it took till the chorus for me to figure out which one it was. There was also a medley of hits which I found difficult to tell when they'd actually changed songs, but I guess that's good mixing skills with instruments.
In the middle of the set they did "In The Army Now" which does sound different to their other songs, and I realised that I actually quite like that song. Their set was longer than the earlier ones, and they finished with "Whatever You Want" and "Rockin All Over the World".
Just one more act to go before the Pet Shop Boys, but it was the one I was least looking forward to, Westlife. They did their new song, some generic electropop crap written by Ed Sheeran, a bunch of depressing ballads they're most famous for, and their awful karaoke version of "Uptown Girl". Fortunately their set didn't last too long.
Whilst waiting for the Pet Shop Boys to appear, Gary Davies came on stage to DJ. They announced him as the king of the 80s, then ironically he didn't play anything from the 80s in his set, mainly playing 90s dance music such as "Right Here Right Now" by Fatboy Slim and "Insomnia" by Faithless.
The Pet Shop Boys finally appeared on stage. When I'd previously seen them in concert it was just Neil and Chris, but this time they had other musicians on stage with them including the drummer I saw play for High Contrast last year.
Being headliners gave them the opportunity to play lesser known tunes, which they did with "Burn" and "Vocal". They also had 2 guest appearances for the set. First was Olly Alexander from Years & Years who collaborates on their new tune "Dreamland". He was a very excitable guest to say the least. The second guest was Beverley Knight who sang the Dusty Springfield part on "What Have I Done To Deserve This" and did a pretty good job of it.
Of course we had the big hits too such as "It's A Sin", "West End Girls", "Go West" and the final one they did was "Always On My Mind".
It was hands down best set of the day, but that was almost inevitable.
To summarise, here's each set ranked from best to worst:
Pet Shop Boys - So many great tunes played out loud, top performance
Simply Red - Enjoyed it from start to finish, new song sounded alright
Status Quo - Good performers, music a bit samey but at least the set wasn't too long
Bananarama - No different to what you'd hear at an 80s night, minus the new songs
Clean Bandit - Not bad, but please lose the vocals
Westlife - Dreadful, but with songs like that wouldn't expect any different
Kelsea Ballerini - Hopefully won't hear her again, such terrible music
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