Weller Wows the maddening crowd

After a week of near constant rain, Summer Madness looked like it was going to be a washout, fortunately however, on the day the rains finally left and despite a strong wind and a slight sponginess to the ground the weather was good.

Summer Madness is set in the fields behind Carisbrooke Castle on the outskirts of the Isle of Wight's county town of Newport. As the one-day festival enters its second year there were few changes to the site, however there was noticeably less stalls this year, and last years beer tent has been replaced with the more traditional style of festival bar, which helped cut down the queues that quickly grew last year for drinks. This year limited numbers were able to buy themselves into the VIP area for an extra £25, although a quick trip in to see what this offered left us confused about the advantages as, apart from the flushing toilets, what you seemed to get was overcrowding, a longer queue for the bar and an oblique angle to watch the stage from.

The festival takes place when the Isle of Wight hosts one of the largest scooter rallies in the UK. So it is no surprise that the line up is tailored to appeal to them. Last minute problems (apparently the ramp on one of the two entrances to the site was judged to be too steep an angle and needed to be blocked off) meant that the site opened almost an hour later than advertised. First up on stage were The Moons, who gave us a solid if uninspiring performance. The band are normally seen around the pubs and clubs of London and seemed slightly lost on the larger outdoor stage. They were followed by Saint Jude, last minute replacements for the billed Twisted Wheel. Lead vocalist Lynne Jackaman has a vocal style that is strong and powerful, but surprisingly soulful at times too. Their musical style brings to mind the 60s rock bands such as Free and The Who, and when they occasionally drift into the psychedelic sounded like Jefferson Airplane too.

After the late start, the day had almost managed to get back on the published schedule, however technical problems meant that local band The Bees were almost half an hour late getting to the stage. They are a band who have had a turbulent few years, after early critical acclaim and three very strong albums they were dropped by their record company and all but disappeared from the music scene. But with a new album out in October they are keen to remind people who they are and have had several festival appearances over the summer.

The band still has a strong fanbase on the Island and there was a noticeable swelling in numbers in front of the stage when they finally appeared. Musically they are as good as ever - the band are all multi-instrumentalists and regularly swap instruments and vocal duties between each other. The new songs such as 'I really Need Love' were as well received as their previous hits, but the biggest crowd reaction was for two of their more playful songs: 'Chicken Payback' and 'A Minha Menina', two songs probably best known for the adverts they were used in.

Imelda May seemed a strange choice for a mod-oriented festival, something she admitted on stage telling the crowd "I hope you mods are up for a bit of rockabilly – am I brave or what?" Luckily for her it turned out they were. Imelda's performance was pretty near flawless and one of the highlights of the day, she quickly had the crowd eating out of her hand. The music was bold and although rooted in surf-guitars and rock and roll, had a punky edge to it that made it sound very modern and edgy. She finished an all too brief set with a cover of Soft Cell's 'Tainted Love', not an obvious choice for a surf-rock makeover, but one that worked surprisingly well.

Brand New Heavies were introduced to the stage as "The greatest British soul band of the last 30 years", a title they were more than happy to live up to. Famous for hits in the early '90s such as 'Dream on Dreamer' and 'Midnight at the Oasis', the last 20 years has not diminished their talent as a band. Lead singer N'Dea Davenport's voice is strong and clear, and she quickly established a rapport with the crowd, who danced and sang along, despite the unfamiliarity of some of the tracks to them. Because of the earlier technical problems their set was cut short, something that obviously rankled with guitarist Simon Bartholemew, who even though the rest of the band had left the stage and roadies were dismantling kit around him, stayed on stage and started to play Survivor's 'Eye of the Tiger', sadly only making it half way through the iconic intro before they pulled the plug on him.

Another band who suffered a shortened set were The Coral, and lead singer James Skelly ended the set by apologising to the audience, saying "We did have more songs for you but we've run out of time." Fortunately this was after just over half an hour of excellent indie-pop. The Coral, like most Liverpudlian bands always have spectre of the Beatles hanging over them, but the band are able to live up to, and at times exceed, the expectations laid on them by their forbears. Despite the short set the big hits such as 'Dreaming of You' and 'Pass It On' were present, and their relaxed sound made a perfect background to the sunset slot.

After some frenetic set changing, headliner Paul Weller managed to be the only act of the evening to arrive on stage at the correct time. Given the large number of mods in the audience, the modfather was never going to get a bad reception, but the energy from the crowd was noticeable. Weller for his part responded in kind, and was clearly in a mood to rock, from the opening song 'Peacock Suit' he and his band attacked the songs at a blistering pace. Even some of the slower songs had a new found energy - the normally mellow 'Pebbles on the Beach' given a gospel-esque makeover, with Weller drifting into 'Oh Happy Day' halfway through. 'You Do Something To Me' was the only ballad on show tonight, and gave the audience a change to catch their breath before we were back into the rock again.

Normally Weller is reticent about his previous bands' catalogue, only throwing in the nominal Jam song at the end of the performance, however tonight he relented and played three Jam songs ('That's Entertainment', 'Pretty Green' and 'What You Give Is What You Get') and even gave The Style Council's 'Shout To The Top' an airing – to the obvious delight of the crowd. Having seen Paul Weller several times over the past 20 years, I have to say that this was easily the best I've seen him – after the introspective and mellow side he's shown of late he seems to have re-found the snarling punk edge that made The Jam such a big hit 30 years ago, and he's certainly better for it.

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