Pharrell & Kanye West close out Friday at Wireless Festival 2014

Wireless Festival returned to London to host another set of superstar artists at this ever popular UK Festival.  Taking place over two locations this year, the other being Birmingham, the 2014 edition of Wireless organised a huge set of headliners including Kanye West, Pharrell, Drake, Bruno Mars and Outkast.

However due to a last minute cancellation, Wireless fans were disapointed to learn that Canadian hip hop mega star Drake was not going to perform to due health reasons preventing him from travelling to the UK.  Not to worry however as Kanye West agreed to headline both Friday and Saturday in London whilst Rudimental would play an extended performance in Birmingham.

London turned on the weather for Friday and the main stage hosted Foxes, Iggy Azalea, Tinie Tempah, Pharrell Williams and Kanye West.

Kanye West's return to London drew a sellout crowd in the new home of Wireless, Finsbury Park.  The sound of barking dogs signals “Black Skinhead” from West’s latest album Yeezus.  As the sun began to set a silver masked Kanye appears on the stage with the crowd giving him a huge cheer.   Taking control of the stage, Kanye moves straight into hits “On Sight”, “I Don’t Like” and then his massive anthem from last year “Mercy”.

Photo courtesy of Wireless Festival – Andrew Whitton

It wouldn’t be a Kanye performance without a bit of banter and a message to the crowd stating that the media are unfair and portray him in a negative way.  As the boo’s start to arise through the crowd, he says to the Wireless crowd “You guys are my clique” and then belts out “Clique” immediately drowning out the boo’s with the crowd singing his chorus.

Going through his back catalogue, notable tracks, “Stronger”, “Nigga’s In Paris”, “Run this town” and more keep the Yezzy fans happy as the sky turns grey and a few drops of rain start to fall.

Kanye’s pulling power and popularity is notable visible as the majority of the 40,000 crowd watch his set, but his mid performance rants don’t help the festival crowd and you visibly notice that they start filtering out.  Kanye will head back to the Wireless Main Stage tomorrow so lets see what he has to offer up then!

Before Kanye took to the stage, Pharrell performed to a massive crowd whist the sun was shining down on London town.  Complete with his trademark hat, white tee and jeans, his performance is well received performing numerous tracks from his latest album Girl and a number of collaborations he has done through the year.  Kicking off with “Lose yourself to dance”, Pharrell had the crowd singing the whole hour and it was only appropriate that he ended with “Happy”.  The similes of the fans said it all, well done Pharrell!

Pharrell Williams Wireless Festival 4th July Tracklist:

  • Lose yourself to dance
  • Come get it Bae
  • Frontin
  • Hunter
  • Larilyn Monroe
  • Hot In Here
  • Jump Jump
  • Rockstar
  • Lapdance
  • She wants to move
  • Beautiful
  • Drop it like its hot
  • Know who you are
  • Hollaback Girl
  • Blurred Lines
  • Get Lucky
  • Happy

Photo courtesy of Wireless Festival – Scott Salt

Tinie Tempah also gave an explosive set, but what else do you expect from one of the UK’s biggest artists.  Tracks performed from both Disc-Overy and Demonstration showed that there is a reason this is Tinie’s fifth appearance at Wireless.  He takes control of the stage and gives the crowd just what they need in a crazy hot day in at a summer festival, some great tunes to dance and sing to.

Friday’s Wireless has come to an end but this is just the beginning of the weekend and we look forward to seeing  the likes of Rudimental, Wiz Khalifa, Labrinth, and more!  Lets just hope the weather plays nice and there isn’t too much rain!

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