Day two we caught: Pleasure Inc, Arthur Black, Brooke Combe, Ashley Singh, The Lemonheads, October Drift , Reverend and the Makers, The Rosadocs , The Lathums, The Clause and main stage headliners, Courteeners – plus some amazing circus acts.
Here we are then, day two…We had a fabulous time yesterday (Thursday) on day one of the first ever Rock N Roll Circus to be held in Norwich. Great weather, excellent lineup and some fab performances. Plus the circus stuff was a thrill to watch. Friday’s offering was just as much fun and enjoyment.
McFly, Thursday’s headliners brought their ‘A Game’, for their last gig until a big arena tour in October, November and December this year. Last night, Courteeners were headlining and on form, and a strong supporting lineup.
It really is one of the UK’s most distinctive live events this summer, with Rock N Roll Circus bringing its Big Top and festival village to Earlham Park for three days of top music acts and all the fun of the circus – running from Thursday 14th to Saturday 16th August.
Blending first class music acts with circus performances, workshops, market style street food, bars, family experiences and local artist showcases. The main stage is under cover in the Big Top tent, so unlike most UK festivals, there is no need to worry about the weather! Both days were dry and warm. Fingers crossed for Saturday.
Lovely green and compact site and just two stages to navigate – with no clashes of any bands and artists you really want to see, being on stage at the same time. Alternating the acts between the two stages worked well and were next door to each other. The second open air stage is hosting local and emerging talent across all three days.
5,000 capacity per day, Thursday was just under capacity and Friday was slightly less, but the big top tent was still maybe 85% full for the headliner. Still a nice number for that site and a chilled vibe. Lots of families with young kids and lots of young Courteeners fans. [We hear that Saturday is going to be sold out].
Friday is for the indie lovers. Led by Manchester indie rockers Courteeners, and joined by The Lathums, Reverend and The Makers, The Lemonheads, along with one of our favourites Brooke Combe, The Clause, The Rosadocs, October Drift, Pleasure Inc., Ashley Singh, as well as hometown names Arthur Black and Gabby Rivers.
Saturday will close with Olly Murs, and the likes of Pixie Lott, Artful Dodger, Scouting for Girls, Jamie Lawson, Sam Fischer, Charlie Floyd, Afterdrive, Macie Nyah and Nina Arya.
Rock N Roll Circus features 30 live circus performers in and around the Big Top, including the internationally acclaimed Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, Ellis Grover, Gem Vaudeville, Andy Wakeford, and Silvia Pavone, performing high-wire routines, cloud swing aerial acts, acrobats, contortion and fire performances. Lots of circus themed acts on entering the site, with various performers on stilts, jugglers etc welcoming people.
The OAK Circus Centre offers free fun drop-in workshops, including juggling, hula hooping, basic acrobatics and cradle swing activities.
Lots of variety of popular local food vendors, and cocktails at the Rocktails bar; and self serve drinks via Box Bar units. A good bar and food in the VIP area; and posh loos. VIP upgrades are only an extra £35 to normal ticket prices, which includes: fast track entry, access to front-of-stage areas, exclusive bars and private seating, luxury toilet facilities, Zaks Burgers from Norwich’s well known burger maker, and a VIP zone open until midnight, one hour after general access.
The Music Republic Magazine team go way beyond the call of duty, and today, they “tested” ‘Curly Cones’ – a local Norwich business selling a doughnut-type treat with optional fillings. Blinking lovely. A family run business and very enthusiastic that this was their first festival as a vendor.
Day one big queues for entry and at the bars and for ice cream. Far less people around daytime today, most coming in later maybe after work, which meant good news for daytime revellers who were there: no queues!
With some hay bales and a few benches for people to sit on across the site, most plonk themselves on the dry grass to soak up the sunshine. The optional VIP area will get you access to a separate area with more benches and comfortable bean bags. In there is an area for circus performers, posh loos, a bar and the food truck. There is a small area for kids to try out some circus skills, attracting a few early birds with their kids.
Today’s headliners Courteeners – who have been around since they formed in 2006 in Manchester – have pulled in many of their fans, some who seemingly have come late just to see these boys. There’s a real buzz in the tent…
The crowd chanting the band’s name before they have come on stage, and the excitement is helped by the warm up music coming out of the PA: “Morning Glory” by that obscure Mancheser band, Oasis.
As soon as tonight’s headliners, fronted by singer Liam Fray, kick into the first song and the fans suss which song it is, the place goes off…… Beers flying through the air and a couple of flares being let off in the crowd .
The crowd singing every word and every last person moving to the pulsating bass line. They opened with the banger, “Are You In Love With A Notion'”. Then “‘First Name Terms”, “No You Didn’t, No You Don’t”, and the mega, “Pink Cactus Cafe”, among others big songs.
The Lathums -formed in 2018 in Wigan – are a reliable festival act and always deliver. Which they very much did in Norwich with a full big top tent. Opening with “Stellar Cast”, “No Direction” and “Say My Name”.
Singer Alex Moore asking the crowd if they are enjoying the festival, prompting a raucous unanimous cheer of approval, before the band ripped into “The Great Escape”, “How Beautiful Life Can Be”, “Heartbreaker”, and “Sad Face Baby’…
Brooke Combe is an artist we have been championing for the last few years. Scottish singer and songwriter, Brooke has a fabulous voice, with a mix of aggression and passionate vocals combined with a soulful sound.
She tells the crowd how hot it is on stage and jokes that “you can take the girl out of Scotland…” as she wipes herself down, including her armpits, with a towel.
Brooke talks about how she has been doing music since the Covid pandemic five years ago, and with her fees from gigs she has saved up and finally able to buy a house. Thanking her fans for their support as the reason she is now a home owner.
At the end of her short set, Brooke thanks everyone for watching, and says it was well worth the traffic jam, even if it was five hours to get to the festival site for a 30 minute set, and now she faced five hours to get home again. She closes with the title song, “Dancing At The Edge Of The World”, of her current album which was released in January this year.
Check out our interview and exclusive photo shoot with Brooke, here: https://musicrepublicmagazine.com/2022/06/brooke-combe-place-your-bets/
The Clause packed the second stage as soon as The Lathums finished in the big top. It was a cracking set, opening with “Nothing As It Seems”, “Fake It” and a great cover of the 1989 Technotronic global smash hit, “Pump Up The Jam.”
The crowd really got into these guys and for us, they were they were the best band of the day. It’s been a big year for this Birmingham band, and they are soon to be releasing their debut album [October 17th] “Victim Of A Casual Thing”.
Singer Pearce Macca asks the crowd: “Norfolk, should we play you a song from the album?”, which gets the response the band relied upon, as the next song on the set list is the current single “Elisha”. Superb song.
They will play their biggest headline show of their career in December in their home city, at the 3,000 capacity 02 Academy. Go see ’em. Future arena fillers. Get to the bookies and stick a monkey [ or a pony if you are skint] on their debut album to hit # 1 – probably even straight in at the top spot. It is their year.
Sheffield’s finest, Reverend and the Makers have been around a long time – since 2002 – and are great value for a festival. Frontman Jon McClure is full of energy, jumping around and hyping up the crowd. He says he regrets his choice of outfit – black two-piece suit and long sleeved striped shirt – due to how hot it is. Looking more like an office bod than a band leader.
He gets the crowd on their feet and jumping along from the off; and Jon wants to see everyone’s hands in the air, from the front of the big top to the very back, and if they don’t bounce along he’s coming into the crowd to get them! Needless to say, that threat worked!
A brief issue is fixed by a sound tech’ when Jon’s microphone packs up and is swapped for another one, prompting his quip: “Don’t shop at Currys!”
During the superb set, Jon talks about the band’s career and the phases they have been through, and how things have picked up again for them recently, and like Taylor Swift they are in a new Era.
BBC Radio 2 have them on the playlist and they were recently live on BBC TV’s The One Show, performing their new single “Haircut” on which Jon shares the lead vocals with top actress Vicky McClure [no relation].
The crowd at Rock N Roll Circus cheering loudly as they began that song, and a big reaction to “Heavyweight Champion Of The World’. It was a fun and energetic performance and proves this band are not done yet after 23 years.
UK alt’ rock quartet October Drift pulled in a good crowd for their second stage set. Towards the end, the band’s guitarist came down into crowd and disappeared into the sea of heads as a mosh pit opened up , and he joined in with the head banging moves. Cool band, cool songs, cool performance.
But, sad news…after 11 years together since forming in Somerset, the band are calling it a day and splitting up by the end of this year. They have two more festivals this summer; In Portsmouth and The Netherlands, and then their final three shows in November and December 2025 -Bristol, Manchester and London.
The Rosadocs. Came across this band at a festival in Nottingham in summer of 2022, tucked away on a small stage with no signage, so here were many folk who had no idea this stage existed. So the band played to a small crowd, but they were excellent and performed like this was an arena gig.
Three years on, the Sheffield outfit are still delivering a mighty performance and have matured well. Singer Keelan Graney tells the crowd: “You may have noticed we are extremely Northern. Hope that’s ok”. He says it took them more than five hours to get there.
The sun going down now and creating some much needed shade after a second hot day running on this site.
The crowd have come across from the big top main stage after fellow Steel City band Reverend and The Maker’s super set, and seem to still be on a high after that performance, so they are well up for a singalong and shaking their bits to the Rosadocs. A young band well worth checking out if they are new to you.
The Lemonheads had a mixed reaction to their set. The frontman Evan Dando seemed to be a wee bit ‘tired and emotional’ and had various tech and sound issues he wanted sorted out during his set.
He spent some time muttering and going into a rant, in between singing. Now, here is a sentence I never thought I’d one day be writing in a live performance review: About a guy in a band on stage at a festival calling actress Jennifer Aniston “a b*tch”. Go figure!
But the crowd didn’t seem to mind this American’s somewhat erratic “artistic personality”. He performed three solo songs with his battered guitar – Gaffa taped to the strap. He walked on to the stage smoking, before putting it out in the floor, performing alone before being joined by a drummer and a guitarist.
Local act Arthur Black we came across at Latitude Festival in July – gracing the second stage here in Norwich on day two with a very decent performance.
Ashley Singh [26] from East London on the second stage plays to a modest in number gathering, but every single person is listening to his every word and chord of his acoustic guitar.
He jokes about the running theme through his songs all follows the different stages of a relationship break up. He has catchy material and a very pleasant voice and is one to watch.
- In our coverage of Thursday, we commented that if this event returns here in 2026, they should add lots more lighting on the park for the exit to the car parking. Hey presto, the organisers did not wait until next time; it was sorted just a few hours after we published that suggestion, in time for people leaving the site on Friday after dark. Top job Rock N Roll Circus crew.
* SEE OUR COVERAGE OF THURSDAY & SATURDAY *
Photos by Liam Battersby
Words by Kerry Louise & Rowena Edos
