Sigrid © Carolina Faruolo 2025
Tramlines Festival – Sunday (also see Friday and Saturday)
Sheffield Hillsborough Park
25th-27th June 2025
The elements were once again kind to Tramlines Festival as gangs of teenage music fans enjoyed their local festival. Paul Clarke enjoyed some top quality pop acts in the blazing South Yorkshire sun.
Back in the day when Spotify was a new thing, many naysayers were predicting the end of live music as young people became obsessed with playlists and wouldn’t listen to albums. Judging by the number of gangs of good natured teenage fans roaming from tent to tent, those digital luddites were dead wrong. What Spotify and other platforms like TikTok have actually done is introduce younger music fans to both new music and songs their parents enjoyed.
Tramlines are wise to this, so the Sunday bill had more pop/rock feel than the other two days which saw triumphant headline sets by local legends Pulp and Rotherham’s The Reytons. And that was no bad thing, as artists working in the pop space are hugely popular, and they’re not too cool to engage with people who had paid good money to get in.
This was proved by the long lines of teenagers working hard to find space in the T’Other Place tent to see rising star Luvcat, fresh off a support slot with Sabrina Carpenter in Hyde Park. Sophie Howarth was first noticed by The Verve’s Simon Mason, releasing three acoustic EPs before forming her band named after The Cure single. Working with other musicians has led to a more electro pop sound, like the punch of Matador and Vicious Delicious, the latter the title track of her debut album due to be released on Halloween. He’s My Man is about falling in love in a Liverpool bar, and the personable Howarth showed her range with torch song, Dinner @Brasserie Zedel. Luvcat are destined for the outdoor stages in the not too distant future.
CMAT © Andrew Whitton 2025
It’s not often you see a future Tramlines main stage headliner in a tent but that’s what CMAT – aka Ireland’s Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson – was, as teenagers knocked their elders out of the way in their desperation to share in a joyful show that really spoke to them. CMAT is a natural performer so full of joie de vivre that you couldn’t help but be swept along with it. A caustic The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station was a riot as CMAT bounced around the stage and was one for those who aren’t keen on the cheeky TV chief. The reaction to the opening bars of Take A Sexy Picture Of Me left CMAT mouthing ‘wow’, and her message about the intense pressures on young women to look a certain way would have struck a chord with her younger fans packed into a roasting tent.
There was time for a group hug with her band, who clearly have totally bought into CMAT’s vision and smiled their way through Running/Planning as their leader belted out the words. CMAT invited all of us to do the Dunboyne Twostep during I Wanna Be a Cowboy, Baby! and it was a beautiful moment of community, as hundreds of people across the generations gently stepped from side to side from the front to the back of the tent. Stay For Something is simply a massive pop song, as an energised CMAT dived into the crowd to bask in the love. If the Tramlines bookers weren’t waiting for her offstage with a contract for 2026, then they’ve really missed a trick.
The Last Dinner Party © Andrew Whitton 2025
This might not have been an ideal crowd for the The Last Dinner Party, but they managed to won them over with a combo of great songs and being a really, really tight band. They are probably in the last cycle of plugging their excellent debut record, but they went out on a high as the charismatic Abigail Morris, in her trademark floaty dress, weaved around the Roman columns of their set though Caesar On A TV Screen, and the pin sharp close harmonies of Second Best. Keyboardist Aurora Nichevci took lead vocal on the folky Gjuha, and by a pugnacious Sinner the crowd were grooving with them, so they took the chance to urge people to donate to Medical Aid For Palestine. Morris noted the bittersweet My Lady of Mercy was about going to a Catholic school, and there were plenty of folk dancing along. The harder edge of live favourite Big Dog was driven by Emily Roberts’ always interesting lead guitar, and they showed a nice sense of fun as they did a Shadows style dance move across the stage to Mirror. New track This Is The Killer Speaking suggested the next album might have a less baroque feel to it, and their breakthrough single Nothing Matters, with its wonderfully sweary chorus, was still an absolute banger.
I’ve always had an aversion to turgid dad rock so I swerved Kasabian, and opted for the exuberant fun of Norwegian pop export Sigrid who was playing to a less than full T’Other Place. This was criminal as Sigrid was a ball of relentless upbeat energy who proved she is a hugely skilled pop writer. She’s been away for a while in the studio but, dressed in her regulation t-shirt and jeans, she opened with new track, the more pop/rock orientated, Always Be Your Girl before cracking through the bitter sweet Burning Bridges, and undoubted pop majesty of Sucker Punch. Unlike other ‘artists’ who think writhing round an empty stage and using autotune is a show, Sigrid doesn’t rely on tech, and is back with her regular full band who really added to her typically intelligent new songs like Do It Again and Jellyfish.
A piano was wheeled out for a solo Home To You which showcased Sigrid’s strong, clear voice. She kept the energy high bouncing around the stage to It Gets Dark, Mirror and Strangers, ending a weekend full of special homecomings with a highly entertaining Scandinavian pop flourish.
© Matt Higgs 2025
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Words by Paul Clarke, you can see his author profile here.
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