It was always supposed to be Doechii Day - but alas, the Grammy-winning rapper cancelled a short run of European festivals earlier this week. Considering she’s yet to play a big show over here (her London debut was at the titchy Islington Assembly Hall) it’s no surprise that many of Saturday’s attendees were coming for a first live glimpse of her acclaimed 2024 mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal.
For All Points East, it presented yet another nightmare, following last weekend’s widely panned SAULT show. A quick refresher: the increasingly-less-enigmatic neo-soul group dragged fans up to the festival at 5pm, left everybody standing in the blazing sun for an hour while other acts played to empty fields, and then commenced a 5-hour long theatre show with no clear structure or separate artist billings. Several festival-goers scathingly compared it to a GCSE drama piece.
Over on the West Stage, Nao – who also played on SAULT’s billing last week – addressed the elephant in the room. “Due to circumstances that I can’t control, I started singing [opener] Lifetime, and nobody was here,” she said.
At All Points East, the flawless vocalist was fortunately met with the kind of crowd she deserves, but was still treated poorly: without warning or obvious reason, her set was suddenly cut off early, meaning that many of her biggest hits never saw the light of day.
Since leaving Little Mix in 2022, Jade Thirlwall has carved out a solid artistic identity: dancier, campier, and slightly more experimental than the output of the best-selling girlband. Though a cluster songs from their back catalogue made an appearance – Shout Out To My Ex, Sweet Melody, Woman Like Me, Touch, and Wasabi – JADE’s solo material felt brighter and fresher, particularly her sprawling brilliantly bonkers pop-opera Angel Of My Dreams.
On the other hand, South African star Tyla, who fuses fluid R&B with the dance genre amapiano, played it much safer during her UK festival debut - giving a lukewarm performance that not even a surprise appearance from Wizkid (doing a rendition of Dynamite) could heat up. At least, in terms of choreography and energetic dance breaks, she put on a show.
Stepping in for Doechii at the last minute, FKA twigs added a final hometown show to her acclaimed Eusexua tour, and put on a headliner-worthy gig that was mesmerising from start to finish: veering from harsh, industrial dance-pop, to towering vocal-led performances. For standout Cellophane, the whole field fell silent for a fraught and intensely moving performance of the soaring ballad, which left twigs with a single tear rolling down her cheek.
And closing out the day was left to Raye, who used the festival’s merch stand to slyly announce that she’ll soon be back with a new era: presumably her second album’s lead single, Where Is My Husband? is due on September 19, but fans at All Points East were treated to an advance glimpse of the single, a tongue-in-cheek, immediately hooky, brass-laden stomper.
With a retro-styled stage set up similar to her Glastonbury production, Raye brought a dose of classic, big-band glamour to Victoria Park – and revelled in how grand it was. “Band, can I get a C?” she requested at one point, a huge smile on her face. “It feels sooooo good,” she joked. “I’d really recommend it”.
Though Raye’s pure pop beginnings did get a look in (her Jax Jones feature You Don't Know Me was shoehorned into a medley with David Guetta and Joel Corry collab BED) she seemed entirely more confident in the more distinctive sound she’s carved out alone – a fact Raye has continually been honest about. “I know I bang on about this a lot, but seven years is a long time,” she said, of the time she spent feeling creatively unfulfilled with her former major label. Still, as she then points out, that journey brought her here. “Every cloud has a silver lining,” indeed.
