Sunshine on Bents Park South Shields

With a line up that consisted of Beth Macari, Rod Clements Lindisfarne and The Proclaimers and a day bathed in bright sunshine this promised to be a fun Sunday afternoon and all for FREE!

Arriving early Sheelagh and I got to enjoy the delight that is a long, winding queue to get in. We actually debated whether we should head off and come back later, we no longer feel the need to be 'right at the front', but hearing from others in the queue that the gates were closed for the previous free gig we decided to stick it out.

After close to an hour we began the slow move towards the main gate eventually getting in to the park around 1.30, some 45 minutes later the gates were closed as the capacity of 24,000 was reached.

A quick note on planning, this was pretty much a spur of the moment decision so we were certainly in the minority arriving without portable seats or picnic! Next time we'll make sure we are suitably prepared, the on-site catering and drinks were basic to say the least - limited to Burgers and Fish 'n' Chips and the obligatory sugar rush that is the doughnut stall (not great for a a diabetic!). £4.00 for a pint or glass of wine, pretty standard for this type of event but £7.00 for a glass of Prosecco was a joke.

Any hows we hadn't come to eat and drink, we'd primarily come to see The Proclaimers who we'd recently gained some new appreciation of after watching the movie, Sunshine On Leith (well worth seeing by the way).

Just before 2pm on came Beth Macari, now I'd seen this girl a few years earlier when she played a sound plagued set at Stanley Festival. I'm going to be honest, I don't think the open air gig was the best place to listen to Beth's soulful vocals and sadly she failed to impress, lost in the endless chatter of other people at the gig.

Next up were  Rod Clements Lindisfarne who, to put it mildly, were dreadful. Even though they probably played all the songs you would want to hear they were distinctly lack lustre, the harmonies never meshed and the vocals were flat and disinterested. Yet afterwards, hearing people talk about them, I heard the word 'brilliant' used to describe their performance, I'm left to conclude I need my hearing tested or my definition of 'brilliant' is out of step with the majority of those at the gig!

Finishing off a sunny Sunday afternoon were The Proclaimers, easily the loudest cheer of the day greeting them as brothers, Charlie and Craig Reid, arrived on stage and they played a set full of classics. Best song, probably 'Letter from America' although, not surprisingly the loudest cheer was for 'I'm gonna be (500 miles)'.

The Proclaimers were, tight, on form and proved you cannot beat a good solid live performance to bring a  smile to your face.

To be honest it was The Proclaimers that rescued what was turning in to a rather uninteresting day and left me wondering at what point, if there's only one original member, do the band (Rod Clement's Lindisfarne) effectively become a tribute act!