As the sun came out again over the Isle of Wight, it was a big day for local band - for Jimmy’s Big Fish, opening Day Two and playing to a bigger audience than they had probably imagined - it seemed that everyone had arrived early for maximum sunbathing time.

Jimmy's Big Fish

JBF's catchy tunes, cheerfully delivered set the mood for the day. Countermine followed on and kept the pace up with a solid performance.

The John Butler Trio were one of the highlights – "we’ll take you on a bit of a journey, see you at the end of it."

And quite a trip it was – the only double bass on stage all weekend set the scene for an adventurous, eclectic foray into some fantastic Deep South blues, flamenco rhythms and even a massive battle of the bongos – watch for out for these guys!

The Basement kicked off with their set with a hillbilly, bluesy sound with the Northern Irish youngsters soon moving into blues rock in the finest traditions of Van Morrison. But in the grand scheme of the day, they were sadly the band who you'll forget were there and didn’t make that much of an impact.

The Raveonettes

The Raveonettes from Denmark did make an impact though, although it wasn’t a particularly good one – starting with an unusual rendition of Buddy Holly's Everyday (complete with somebody tuning a bass guitar backstage which probably got the sound men running.)

Despite being the only female on stage for the whole festival (which is arguably something which really needs to be looked at before it becomes completely blokey), when announcing your final song gets the biggest cheer of your set, you know you need to re-think the strategy and learn a new chord or two.

Justin from the Darkness

The Darkness however, grabbed us, brought us back from the brink and gave us a rockin' good time. The lads from Suffolk play every gig as if it's Wembley Stadium and are unashamedly a fantastic parody of themselves. They are completely unafraid to go for the pure unadulterated 80s power rock, complete with big hair, thunderbird bass and every position from the Freddie Mercury Guide to Outrageous Rock Posturing.

But don't let the cod rock showmanship distract you from the facts of their great musicianship (notably on their amazing cover of Radiohead’s Street Spirit) and a really engaging personality in Justin, their lead singer who packs a mean falsetto.

Just when we thought it was too hot a day to be cavorting in a spandex catsuit, Justin popped backstage and emerged in his favourite zebra patterned number - Spinal Tap would have turned green with envy.

Sadly, Hell is for Heroes did take themselves a little bit too seriously and didn't really get the crowd going. Despite being packed full of energy, their set lacked a bit of diversity and didn't really grab the festival crowd.

Counting Crows

Hopefully they stuck around to get some lessons from Counting Crows. The buddies from Los Angeles had come to the Isle of Wight via Sweden, and ripped things up with a real country rock twang. With a string of hits - Mister Jones, Big Yellow Taxi and the incredibly moving poetically lyrical, Round Here. They left the stage, somewhat bizarrely to the sound of the Mamas and the Papas' California Dreamin on tape.

And that left the stage free for the festival headliner - Bryan Adams had flown in and had the festival crowd in the palm of his hand in a moment.

Bryan Adams

Banging through up-tempo hits like Summer of 69, Run to You and out came the cigarette lighters and glo-sticks for the acoustic Everything I Do - last dance at weddings.

Star spot of the weekend goes to Lindsay from Scarborough who Bryan brought on stage to do the Melanie C 'bit' on When You're Gone - and she immediately upstaged Bryan by dedicating it to her Hubby, and putting in a pretty good performance.

With Bryan Adam's endless greatest hits reverberating, we headed back to the ferry to nurse our sunburn.


What did you think of the Isle of Wight Festival? - Who were the turkeys and who really rocked? - Have your say on our IOW Festival Message Board.