Vintage By Hemingway
Each evening the RFH main auditorium hosted a one-off, themed ‘Vintage Revue’ – a concert featuring some of the world’s greatest performers coming together to create a one off genre specific revue. Vintage has a policy to curate a line up that sets it apart from other festivals and actively works with artists to create memorable “I was there” events.
Friday’s Electronic Revue featured new and old interpretations of the groundbreaking genre. On Saturday the Soul Revue revisited those ‘60s touring shows with contemporary vocalists alongside iconic performers. A plethora of great songwriters celebrated 60 years of British songs on Sunday.
To gain exclusive access to Royal Festival Hall, simply book a pass for Friday, Saturday or Sunday (£60). If you’d also like to attend the stunning Vintage Revue in the evening, book a Friday, Saturday or Sunday Pass + Revue Show (starting from £75). Clickhere for further details on these limited passes.
AN ELECTRONIC PHUTURE
FRIDAY 18:30 - 21:30
Curated by Mark Jones and Martyn Ware - An ‘80s electronic revue with cameos from new artists and legends from the day.
Thomas Dolby
Heaven 17 & Guests
Recoil - Alan Wilder (Depeche Mode) & Paul Kendall
Motor
Mirrors
Hosted by 6Music’s Back to The Phuture’s Mark Jones, the Vintage Electronic Revue brought together legendary ‘80s electronic icons alongside key innovators from today’s electronic scene and adds a touch of ingenuity and an unexpected guest or two.
Thomas Dolby revisited his classic hits, including ‘She Blinded Me With Science’ and ‘Hyperactive!’ as he fronts his four-piece band presenting a unique audio visual experience with a pin prick sharp sound.
Heaven 17 added mysterious special guest vocalists to their line up as they played the hits – ‘Temptation’ and ‘Penthouse And Pavement’ - alongside some unexpected tunes all treated to the Sheffield outfits multi-layered wash of sound.
Recoil (featuring Depeche Mode’s Alan Wilder and Paul Kendall) presented a unique specially created sound piece set off with a startling visual show that dips into the Depeche back pages and travels way beyond into a musical soundscape of their own.
New York’s Motor tookthe hard-edged and darker moods of Recoil and takes it into a sharp new focus with incisive and brooding textures building to a complex and invocative sound, while the UK’s Mirrors, a sharp dressed four piece who’ve been hailed as “a modern twist on Kraftwerk”, took electronic music into a totally new space.
SOUL REVUE
SATURDAY 18:30 - 21:30
Curated by Eddie Piller - An array of guest vocalists including Soul legends, contemporary talent and the occasional ‘curve ball’ performed Soul classics with an orchestral backing.
In the style of the great Motown and Stax Revues that visited the UK back in the 1960s, Vintage created an eclectic mix of soul legends backed by The Third Degree who charted a couple of years ago with their own earthy version of Duffy’s ‘Mercy’.
They celebrated the genius of Atlantic soul legend Percy Sledge, the voice that broke a thousand hearts with the aching ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’ which featured alongside his bittersweet take on Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham’s ‘Out Of Left Field’ and the tearjerking ‘Dark End Of The Street’.
The blues-based king of Hammond-led instrumentals, the inspirational Booker T was also on hand to lend some authentic Memphis soul with a brace of hits from his Stax back pages and the voice of Rose Royce, the incomparable Gwen Dickie performed her soul classics such including ‘Love Donʼt Live Here Anymore’ and ‘Is It Love You’re After’ as well as the anthemic disco groove of ‘Car Wash’.
The sweet sound of British soul was represented with Jimmy James who performed three of his barnstorming ‘70s soul classics including his massive 1976 hit ‘Iʼll Go Where The Music Takes Me’ and the super sweet vocals of The Average White Band’s Hamish Stuart with his emotive ‘Let’s Go Round Again’, not to mention the funky stew of ‘Pick Up the Pieces’.
The Motown stable was represented by producer Norman Whitfield’s favouite vocalist, The Undisputed Truth’s Joe Harris whose ‘Smiling Faces Sometimes’ remains one of the great psychedelic soul ballads of the 1960s. And, the evening was completed by the multi-harmonies of the legendary Flirtations whose evocative love breakdown tunes won’t leave a dry eye in the house.
It was a night of legends and great voices, classic tunes and soulful grooves.
HIT PARADE
SUNDAY – 18:30 - 21:30
Curated by Bob Stanley – Celebrating the legends of British song-writing with special guest vocalists re-imagining great British tunes with an orchestral backing.
Adam Ant
Sandie Shaw
10cc
Jodie Prenger
David Mc Almont
Garry Christian - The Christians
Linda Lewis
Anthony Strong
It’s 60 years since the first Hit Parade (or The Pop Charts as we know it) was announced. And over six decades that institution has delivered snarling anarchists, pouting soul stars, glittering pop Svengalis, Euro visionaries, invading Americans and a procession of culture-changing idols.
Pop music created teen culture and an in turn became the soundtrack for that first date, that first kiss and the party of a lifetime.
At The Vintage Festival a procession of great British singers celebrated their own hits and their favourite tunes from the last 60 years. It was the night of a lifetime staged in the wonderful legacy of the Festival of Britain that is the iconic Royal Festival Hall.
Sandie Shaw, after her first appearance in almost 25 years at last year’s Vintage Festival returned to relight the ‘60s with her iconic ‘Always Something There To Remind Me’ and the exotic romanticism of ‘Trains And Boats And Planes’.
10cc dusted off their ‘70s songbook with the evocative tearjerker ‘I’m Not In Love’, adding a nod to their heroes The Beatles, while Linda Lewis delivers the earliest incarnation of Brit Pop performing her own hits as well as Nat King Cole’s immortal ‘Nature Boy’ from the late 1950s.
From the soulful north, Garry Christian rekindled the spirit of the mighty Isley Brothers with the gorgeous ‘Harvest For The World and pays tribute to George Harrison who died ten years ago this autumn with his euphoric ‘Here Comes The Sun’.
David McAlmont dipped into his own song book for one of the most intelligent hits of the ‘90s, ‘Yes’ and the spine tingling ‘Falling’ as stepping back into the ‘70s to pluck out one of his favourites.
Wogan and Michael Parkinson-tipped jazz crooner Anthony Strong was on hand to embrace Cole Porter and the sounds of the 1950s, while Andrew Lloyd Webber-approved Dorothy star Jodie Prenger was crossing the decades with her own personal selections.
The Vintage Hit Parade Revue, complete with strings and plenty of melodic memories promised to be an epic journey through the highlights of pop music.
Find RFH Auditorium on our Vintage Venue Plan
