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BRIAN DEADY ★★★★
Rankin's Wood
The biggest thing on the stage is Brian Deady's voice. Wrapped around the kind of deep, vintage southern soul grooves that sound remarkably box-fresh in his hands, the Corkman has vocals for any age. Digging into songs about personal troubles and strife from his recent Non-Fiction album, Deady and band demonstrate much swing and sway. The frontman is the showman, though, and it's those vocals and those chunky, infectious tunes which stick in your mind as you depart the tent.
In three words: The real deal
Jim Carroll
WYVERN LINGO ★★★
Electric Arena
During the mid-afternoon slump, if the coffee has failed you, you need a band that both warms your heart and gives you a kick up the arse. Bray trio Wyvern Lingo are just that. Their soulful pop gets you through the worst of it, and mashing up Tame Impala's The Less I Know the Better with Destiny's Child's Say My Name is an inspired choice.
In three words: Cans, tunes. Grand.
Louise Bruton
MOTHERS ★★★
Cosby Tent
There's a hopelessness to Mothers' music that makes your blood freeze. Verging on ghoulish, the American band use minimal instrumentation, allowing the hollow vocals of Kristine Leschper to dominate. Tripping between shoegaze and notes of grunge, it's as mesmerising as it is daunting.
In three words: Haunting, grungy voodoo
Louise Bruton
GIRLS NAMES ★★★★
Rankin's Wood
It's amazing how quickly a tent can fill when a big enough noise starts roaring out of it. And Girls Names make big noises, starting loud, getting louder, and staying louderer – serving up stage-rattling rock that's straightforward in the most unpejorative sense. Volume aside, Girls Names continue to display an uncanny knack for belting out riffs that sound like they'll be old standards someday. Sometimes bigger is just better.
In three words: Up to 11
Seamas O'Reilly
SAMPLE ANSWER ★★★★
Other Voices
Sample Answer arrives on stage – and every stage – fully formed. The crowd at Other Voices gets it. The woodland church is jammers, with heads nodding along to his impassioned tunes that veer between singer-songwriter stuff and rap, a gorgeously gruff Irish accent catching the tail-end of his cadences. Other Voices is blessed with the best sound in Stradbally, and every nuance cuts through. "I just want to make you proud," he sings, and he does that, for the woods, for the stage, and for his parish too.
In three words: Great hair, dude
Una Mullally
HARE SQUEAD ★★★
Little Big Tent
Hare Squead are three teenagers from Dublin whose brand of poppy dancefloor hip-hop is positioning them to become an Irish answer to Rae Sremmurd, and this early showing from them suggests they may not be too far off. From the metal-scented click-hop of Loco to pop banger If I Ask, they show a range that belies their tender age. The latter track, which boasts the rare, club-ready polish of a machine-produced super-hit, is rapturously received twice in a row, perhaps a necessary fillip to a very short set. It should be said that the set would be shorter still were it not being interrupted perhaps one too many times by earnest commands that the entire crowd pose for Instagram shots. Such forgivable ebullience is doubtless caused by the trio's evident and deserved pride at packing such a huge crowd. After this they'd better get used to it.
In three words: Loco, loco, loco
Seamas O'Reilly
WHITNEY★★★
Cosby Tent
Whitney's smooth sounds power through the Cosby tent to a gang of blissed-out fans. These are break-up tunes, but there are big grins in this crowd and onstage. Julien Ehrlich draws adoration from the crowd, none more so than when he's pounced on by bassist Josaiah Marshall for a passionate kiss early on in their set. "That's my brother," he jokes. His yearning vocals carry the songs sweetly alongside a tender trumpet line whose rare solos steal the show. Whitney are just having a lovely time, and so are we.
In three words: Good clean fun
Aifric Ni Chriodain
GAVIN JAMES ★★★
Main stage
Gavin James' late-afternoon set is a very chilled affair. The crowd take advantage of the hazy sunshine to lounge in deck chairs and on picnic blankets in the main stage sprawl. Children play cards in a corner. A cover of "What a Wonderful World" adds to the sense of snooziness but luckily he picks up the pace soon after. The younger fans use the extra space provided to bop joyfully to his perkier numbers, and the sound claps to them. Two Hearts is pumped out with passion and the energetic teens up in front lap it up, followed by a fairly generic take on Dancing in the Dark that brings a wild, arhythmic chorus of claps. It's a grand start to the evening for this crowd, who have shaken off the morning's rain and are ready for a long night. Gavin thanks "Dublin" and takes a bow, happy with the reanimated finale.
Three words: nice sit down
Aifric Ni Chriodain
DAITHI ★★★★
Cosby Tent
When nighttime starts to fall, you need an act to announce that it's now time to get rowdy. Step up Daithí. Playing filthy house that gets right into the tissues of your lungs, his name is now synonymous with a damn good time. He makes every set his own when he whips out his fiddle to add some screeching reverb to an already pulsating set.
Three words: DAMN, he's good
Louise Bruton
NOEL GALLAGHER'S HIGH FLYING BIRDS ★★★
Main Stage
A known known: Noel Gallagher talks a great game. Scratch any music journalist and they'll tell your fantastic tales of Gallagher the raconteur. He's one of the few bold print names who seems to actually relish the process of being a big wig. The problem is, though, Gallagher is better known as the guy from Oasis with the eyebrows who is not his kid brother with the eyebrows. Here's a test for you: name me a Noel G song which is not an Oasis one without resort to Google. The hardcore fans might know the score but the vast majority of punters are largely nonplussed.
That's where we jump in tonight. The songs sound right - Gallagher knows his onions when it comes to throwing psych-pop and classic rock shapes as he's showed with a string of songs during the 1990s - but they don't have the populist touch and magnetic form required to get a field of Saturday night festival fans engaged. Grand songs rather than supernova anthems don't energise the common people. It's when Gallagher goes back to the Oasis mothership that everything clicks and the gig totally changes form and direction. When he dusts off these classics, it's a whole other ball game and suddenly, a Co Laois field shakes off the years and relives the good old days. That's why Gallagher is at the sharp end of the bill.
Three words: missing the brother
Jim Carroll
DYLAN MORAN ★★★★★
Comedy Tent
Entering stage with crow's nest hair and a shirt that's gone through some cruel parody of ironing, Dylan Moran only gets more unkempt from there, ending up looking like he's wrestled his way out of an ill-tempered wake. By now, the more scatty affectations of Moran's presentation should be a well worn, even irritating, trope to his schtick but every shambolic gesture only adds to the potency of his material. And Moran's material needs no such help, whether describing the Hemingway-level gravitas of a dead family hamster, or the sad, lowly nature of father's day gifts - one desultory example being "Jonny Cash's back catalogue boiled inside a ham". Treading through subjects like marriage, kids or Irish identity, Moran habitually treads through material that would be hack in any other hands, but finds the new in every corner and the laughs are ruthlessly placed through a brisk and fluid set. The spell doesn't break even in those moments when the shambles is briefly revealed to be entirely real, such as him abandoning an emergency scroll through his phone to find a forgotten bit, or his declaration near the end that he had forgotten the show's climax entirely. Whether real or faked, Dylan's crumpled charm is a comedic wonder and something we should jealously treasure.
Three words: dishevelled but delightful
Seamas O'Reilly
