By Desh Kapur, Rock At Night Manchester

Venue: COTTON CLOUDS FESTIVAL 2019 – SATURDAY 17TH AUGUST – w/ THE WAILERS, TIM BURGESS, REVEREND AND THE MAKERS AND MARK RADCLIFFE

Heading down to the very picturesque village of Saddleworth in Oldham to cover the Saturday of the award nominated bespoke 2-day festival that is Cotton Clouds.

As I previously stated I was only covering the Saturday, but the festival had been kicked off on the Friday with Peter Hook and Ash headlining. Today I was going to be catching Mark Radcliffe on the decks, Reverend And The Makers on the main stage, Tim Burgess in the Tim Peaks tent and The Wailers, from Bob Marley and The Wailers fame who will be bringing the festival to an end back on the main stage.

As I entered the festival grounds I was initially struck by the vibe and age demographic of the people in attendance. The festival had this very relaxed, fun feeling to it; there were lots of young children racing around, having fun with parents and siblings, teenagers hanging out, 20 – 60 year old adults, people in fancy dress, people relaxing in deck chairs, people dancing in the field, people dancing in tents and people going off in front of the main stage. There were bars, street food, wood-fired pizzas, fire-dancers, a grand parade and plenty of toilets. All in all it was a very beautiful thing.

As I wandered to the main stage, on bounded Reverend And Makers. From that moment on they never stopped bouncing and neither did the crowd who were packed in front of them. The Revs play their very own brand of Ska, danced-infused indie rock and it goes off, high energy, a tight band and a front man who is up for it from the first note to the last. My personal favourite is most likely their biggest hit “Heavy Weight Champion Of The World” Reverend and The Makers were truly awesome on the night and the crowd ate it up.

A few steps to the left of the main stage, Mark Radcliffe had packed out the Tim Peaks tent with his set off nostalgic Indie bangers.

A wood-fired pizza and a beer later and I was back in the tent, watching legendary Charlatans front man Tim Burgess deliver a set of his own style of indie pop, sweet and catchy and served up in a way that only Tim Burgess can. The tent was overflowing and most people at the back could only see the legendary blonde mop top. I really enjoyed his set and so did everyone else.

Then it was time for the legendary Wailers; these days only made up of two original members, but that made no difference, playing banger after reggae banger, it was a total love in. The crowd were singing and dancing as one, and all the classics flowed from the stage, “No Women No Cry”, “One Love”, “Stir It Up”’ “Buffalo Soldiers”’ “Jamming”’ to name just a few, Just close your eyes and let the legendary spirit of Bob Marley take you there. His music was and still is spiritually uplifting; singing about peace, harmony, love, equality and the world needs more of that. There is a message here if we take the time to listen – “ONE LOVE” indeed!!!