Imagine a music festival featuring Queen, Oasis, and The Jam in the heart of Ipswich’s Christchurch Park.
That’s what fans of some of the greatest music of the last century were treated to on Saturday night – almost!
The Fake Festival brought some of the best tribute acts to the town to entertain hundreds of music fans of all ages – from grandparents to families with young children.
The Jam’d, Oasish and Flash (Queen) rocked the marquee that proved there is a great appetite for well-played, well-presented great music.
Fake Festivals are held all over the country with a three-day event near Nottingham in September – but this was the first time such a great line-up had been brought to Ipswich.
With an outdoor area for the audience to circulate between acts and an afternoon session giving a showcase to newer, local, bands the whole event was a great addition to the town’s summer music calendar.
The headline act at the end of the evening was Flash. As a huge Queen fan – after all they did make the greatest rock/pop track of all time (fact, not opinion) – I’ve seen a couple of tribute acts, but have always been left feeling disappointed.
They’ve got the music right, but somehow failed to convey the showmanship. That’s not the case with Flash. Lead singer Scott Maley IS Freddie Mercury. The sound, the look, the stage presence. Their performance was pure genius. The crowd loved them.
I saw Oasis on concert at the V Festival in Chelmsford 12 years ago. I was at the back of the crowd. They were specks on the stage but I could see them on the big screens and hear them clearly.
I actually preferred seeing Oasish at the Fake Festival. In a smaller venue the performance had much more of the rawness that makes their music so special.
Like Maley’s Mercury, Paul Higginson’s Liam Gallagher is spot on – but then he has been doing it professionally since 2004 and has everything about Gallagher’s sound down to a fine art.
They worked the crowd brilliantly.
The Jam’d brought to life the music of a band I had seen as a student. This was not so much an actual impression of the look of the original band as the others that we saw – but again the music was spot-on and lapped up by the audience.
The opening band often has to work harder to get the fans going – but The Jam’d gave us a great show to kick-start the evening.
In any show like this with three 75-minute sets, some people are always going to feel disappointed that their favourite tracks aren’t included. But that really should be something to celebrate – it means there will be something fresh for them to play when they return next time!
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