Calling Festival: your ultimate weekend itinerary
Walk this way! Which way? To Clapham Common, obviously. Calling brings a flock of rockers to SW4 this weekend, and we’ve got the stage times – so you don’t have to miss a thing…
SATURDAY
3pm: Radkey
Three young brothers from Missouri who come across like a gobby mixture of Misfits and Queens Of The Stone Age. Just the thing to kick off seven hours of rock ’n’ roll action!
4.10pm Richie Sambora
Once the feather-haired guitarist for Aerosmith’s stadium-slaying rivals Bon Jovi, Sambora’s a solo act right now and will be unleashing his riffs on Clapham this afternoon.
6.35pm Joe Bonamassa
Smoky-voiced soft-rock guitarist Bonamossa cites Clapton, Beck and John Mayall as his key influences, and can solo like nobody’s business. He gives great White Dude Blues Face too.
8.20pm Aerosmith
Power chords! Rad licks! Haircuts that wouldn’t look out of place on Sarah Palin! Steven Tyler’s absurd lips! When the Bad Boys from Boston roll up you can expect all of the above, hard rock classics galore and enough new material to allow plenty of bar and toilet breaks.
SUNDAY
3.15pm Michael Kiwanuka
You’ve probably got a sore head from all that sweet rock ’n’ roll, so kick off Sunday with Mercury-nominated singer-songwriter Kiwanuka, who channels Bill Withers and others of that gently funky ilk.
4.30pm Paloma Faith
The eccentric Hackney glamour girl mixes up electropop beats with vintage soul vocals, plus entertainingly scatterbrained stage banter.
5.50pm Jack Johnson
Aloha! Pacific summer vibes wash over Clapham as shoe-shunning Hawaiian strummer Johnson drops in for a singsong. Grab a beer and join in the easygoing fun, grumpy.
7.45pm Stevie Wonder
With over 50 years’ experience as a recording artist, Big Stevie should know how to put on a show by now. He’s more than capable of bashing out hit after hit after hit (including his song ‘Another Star’, probably, since the BBC are using it to plug their World Cup coverage) and if you’re really lucky he might even have packed his keytar.
See this year’s full Calling Festival line-up here. Looking for more music festivals in the capital this summer? Check out our music festival calendar.
By James Manning