Festival Review: Kings of Leon - BST Hyde Park, London 30/06/2024
With the sun shining and the England football game looming – indie-royalty Kings Of Leon roared as they took over London’s Hyde Park for their special day at British Summer Time.
The first time I saw Kings of Leon was about twenty years ago, and lets just say there was a lot more facial hair back then. They debut album had just come out, they were the buzz band of the moment. Fast forward to now! Armed with banger after banger – they command any audience they perform in front of and today was no different!
As we walk into the field hosting the festival in Hyde Park – we were greeted to the end of Cannons’ set – powerful pop that hits hard. Despite the small introduction, it left a lasting impact. Grabbing ourselves a festival pint at the pretend pub called ‘The Kings Head’ located up by the Rainbow Stage – we decided to give Red Rum Club a go. We have heard lots of things about these lads, tearing apart pretty much every audience they perform in front of. Their set started strong, backed up with a big brass sound to strengthen their sweaty indie sound, we felt that maybe being perched so close to the entrance and sources of alcohol – their set mildly flew past people. Great energy but would of preferred to have seen them in your true environment – in a warm, sweaty venue getting truly involved with their audience.
Up next was the darlings that are the Vaccines – the London band always put on a great show. An ideal warm up for the evening ahead, lead singer Justin Hayward-Young had the audience in the palm on his hand. Cheeky sing-alongs throughout – he injected a new level of energy into the crowd.
Personally as much as I love Kings of Leon, I felt Paolo Nutini could handle his own day at British Summer Time – and after his performance today I can say her certainly deserves it. With four chart-topping albums to choose from – her definitely has the arsenal to stand tall at an event like this. His extraordinary voice shone through – despite clashing with the exact moment Jude Bellingham’s bicycle kick went in for England – he was left unphased by the situation. Drawing his set to a close with his amazing ‘Iron Sky’ – he definitely left a lasting presence on that stage.
It was now that time of the evening, the sun was just starting to set and the beers were certainly flowing in full swing. On walk Kings of Leon….
With so many tracks and albums in their back pocket now, how does a band of this nature kick off a headline festival set? Playing for just under two hours – the band rolled into ‘Ballerina Radio’ – met by a huge cheer from the crowd. Taken from the new album – it shows that the band can stand the test of time. They could of easily picked one of their bigger numbers to start strong – but this shows the band hits many generations of fans now.
Despite playing a fair amount of new material – their still made sure they banged out the hits. Adding tracks like ‘On Call’, the classic that is ‘Molly Chambers’ and the anthem that is ‘Sex on Fire’. With Nathan Followill proudly sporting an England football shirt – you could clearly see the band were enjoying this one! With Caleb telling the crowd - “I was hoping we’d have fun tonight… Didn’t have any idea we’d have this much fun”.
Ending their night with ‘Use Somebody’ – the band joined the audience in a mass singalong that echoed all the way to the back of the field. This performance proved that despite it being about two decades since their debut album – the band still have the ability to throw their audience’s world off it’s axis.
Words by Ant Adams
Photography provided by Outside Organisation
