Bestival, 2010 Preview

September's second weekend sees the unofficial end of the festival season, with the Rob Da Bank-curated Bestival taking over the Isle of Wight for four days and nights. Roxy Music, The Prodigy and Dizzee Rascal head up a line-up that features the best of Da Bank's Radio 1 show.

From the Big Top to the Bollywood Bar, here are some of highlights to look forward to.

1. LCD Soundsystem

With their (supposedly) final UK dates penciled in for November, it's left to James Murphy to seal a summer of festival dates in Sunday's Big Top. Expect a typically raucous set of funk, punk and disco, more than likely peaking with All My Friends, already a shoe-in for track of the weekend.

2. Hot Chip

On the road with LCD this summer, Hot Chip touch down in Robin Hill Park to showcase the soaring electro of latest bestseller One Life Stand.

3. Phil Selway

The Radiohead man may have left his bandmates behind, but debut solo LP Familial proves right his decision to step forward from behind the drums. An unexpectedly rich vocalist, Selway's first live shows look set to stun and surprise in equal measure.

4. The Antlers

Redefining 'emotive', the New Yorkers' third album Hospice tells the stirring story of destructive domestic abuse. On first impressions it's hardly standard festival fare, but when the one-dimensional likes of Mumford and Sons have long disappeared, you'll be glad you did.

5. Here We Go Magic

Already boasting a track of the year in Collector, the fidget-folk five-piece are as a gloriously unhinged onstage as on record. Their euphoric krautrock pitches them somewhere between Fujiya & Mijagi and Sparklehorse.

6. Caribou

A highlight of August's Reading and Leeds Weekend, Dan Snaith's driving percussion channels Four Tet and Flying Lotus and gradually unfolds into a warm funk. Gorgeously subtle.


7. Gil Scott Heron

Scott-Heron's live show draws on a 40-year career in spoken word, poetry and rap, and makes for remarkable viewing. This year's 'An Evening With.' tour was one of political polemic and comedy, and a vocal ability that hasn't wavered since the days of the The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.

8. Gilles Peterson

The don of world and jazz returns to Bestival with a DJ set sure to contain the spoils from his Radio 1 residency and Brownswood Recordings label. Expect trip-hop and tropicalia, dub and acid.

9. Delphic

Live, the Mancunian trio's brand of Depeche Mode-esque electronic indie is reimagined from sleek post-punk into a driving trance-rock when put on stage. The likes of Red Lights and Counterpoint slip and shimmer into expansive, arena-filling dance music.

10. Wild Beasts
Having been on the road for what seems like forever, the Kendal band finally complete the victory lap for Mercury-nominated second album Two Dancers this month. A heady mix of warm, melodic pop and near-operatic vocals, the Wild Beasts set is sure to be an ideal early-evening soundtrack.

Will Orchard