★★★★☆

TRNSMT may be known as the festival to hear chart-toppers, but it proves time and again that there’s space on Glasgow Green for genre experimentation and smaller acts. Aside from an impressive roster of headliners, 2023’s edition of the fest played host to London rap, Edinburgh shoegaze, and shedloads of Swiftie-inspired pop. A decent bill, then, but one let down by a lack of female headliners for the second year in a row and a few too many mid-2000s landfill indie lads for this reviewer’s liking. 

Still, there’s no denying that TRNSMT was crammed with exceptional performances. So many, in fact, that we’ve got a bumper round-up of some of the highlights (and a few lowlights) that we saw last weekend. 

The headliners

‘This is what we do for an encore,’ was the hardcore premise for Pulp’s headline set on Friday, and what an encore it was. Emerging from the top of a staircase that would make Fred Astaire envious, Jarvis Cocker was the charismatic master of ceremonies, behaving at turns like a befuddled uncle, a thrusting sex machine and the ultimate idiosyncratic popstar. He read an Alasdair Gray poem, sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Ringo Starr and threw chocolate and grapes to the crowd like a curious host at a vaguely ironic art hang out. His eccentric demeanour was bolstered by the fact that Pulp’s tunes aren’t, unlike other exemplars of Britpop, trapped in the amber of the 90s. The vicious stabs of ‘This Is Hardcore’, the jangly melancholy of ‘Disco 2000’, the righteous fury of ‘Mis-Shapes’, the frantic gallop of ‘Common People’ – if only rock music was as smart, kitsch and powerful as this all the time. At the beginning of the set, the screens surrounding the Main Stage promised a gig we’d remember for the rest of our lives. Cocker and his longstanding bandmates delivered on that promise and more.

In a very different kind of encore, Sam Fender returned to TRNSMT on Saturday for the second year running with his first ever headline show. Without a new album to flog, the result was a set that was broadly similar but noticeably sharper than his last visit to Glasgow Green, the equivalent to upgrading your 32-inch telly to a 4K UHD mega-screen. From the sad-lad indie bop of ‘Getting Started’ to the incredible melancholy of ‘The Dying Light’ or ‘Spit Of You’, a year of experience performing stadium-sized shows has paid off, while Fender’s touching cover of Frightened Rabbit’s ‘Modern Leper’ showed his debt to the UK’s more emotionally ravaging take on indie rock. 

Reviewing Sunday’s headliner poses a problem, and that problem’s name is Matty Healey. His racist and sexist statements have (rightly) hounded him for months, while his shitposting persona is clearly beginning to grate on fans and spectators alike. Your mileage will vary with The 1975 but there’s also no denying that they’re purveyors of sparklingly romantic pop that never fails to rouse a crowd. Even more infuriatingly, Healey himself proves to be a welcoming presence throughout a set filled with tunes that are never frightened to stray from the beaten path, from the glitchy ‘Give Yourself A Try’ to the rousing state of the nation banger ‘Love It If We Made It’. Always romantic but never syrupy, there are few modern bands able to conjure this level of elation. 

The not-quite headliners

A two-hander for the young team on Friday, Niall Horan and George Ezra represent two sides of the same coin; bland boys with guitars playing radio-filler pop. Both are the epitome of ‘nice’, plodding through middling tunes without enough personality to lull anyone from passing interest. In a battle of the Sheeran-alikes, Ezra arguably comes out on top thanks to the ‘so simple anyone can singalong’ hits ‘Shotgun’ and ‘Green Green Grass’. 

Entering the fray on Saturday was Kasabian, a dose of Red Bull injected into the bloodstream compared to Horan and Ezra’s chamomile tea haze. Serge Pizzorno has been amassing festival-ready tunes for two decades and he banged them out with the swagger and energy of a man half his age. Lad rock with a capital LAD, but the chaos Kasabian bring was more than welcome to this packed-out gig.

Still smarting from their disastrous appearance at Radio 1’s Big Weekend, Royal Blood emerged onto the Main Stage on Sunday with the determined attitude of two wallflowers who resolutely don’t want to upset anyone. ‘Is everyone OK?’ asked frontman Mike Kerr repeatedly, like a desperate virgin hoping to please his first-time lover. Much like that virgin, the songs of Royal Blood offer a lot of loud noises and fast pacing, but remain curiously thrill-less. They may have been courteous to their crowd this time round, but a bit of rock ‘n’ roll snarling might have at least distracted from the nondescript mulch of their music. If you want a picture of the future of rock, imagine Royal Blood stamping on a human face – forever. 

The pop superstars

For a festival known for its Radio 1-friendly pop acts, the dearth of headliner female acts is a bit baffling. But the mid-afternoon slot paved the way for female-focused pop. A highlight was rising star Maisie Peters, who hit the Main Stage on Saturday afternoon still riding high from her latest album The Good Witch. These are tunes that lie prostate at the altar of Taylor Swift, featuring more shout outs to her exes than a couple’s therapy session. But a bit of lyrical repetition doesn’t dull the hyperactive glimmer of these tunes, which reel in the crowd with her pitch perfect delivery and tightly crafted singalongs. She may well be headlining TRNSMT in a few years’ time. 

Pulling in a decent crowd on the King Tut’s Stage early on Sunday afternoon was Lucia & The Best Boys, who combined goth pop with art school theatricality to rapturous effect. Lucia Fairfull’s voice was one of the powerhouses of the weekend, exemplifying a seemingly limitless range. Their upcoming debut album Burning Castles, set for release on Friday 29 September, seems worth the wait based on this performance. 

Taking the Main Stage into pop oddity territory was Ashnikko, whose brash sex positive approach to pop combined feminist protest and performance art with fairytale visuals. With discussions of PornHub and vibrators alongside an absurd story about ants and worms entering various orifices, calling her a unique proposition at TRNSMT seems like an understatement. If you get the chance to see her hyperpop live, take it. 

Grabbing the Main Stage by the lapels and giving it a good shake on Sunday was Becky Hill, who flies the flag of 90s dance with pride, wheeling out Candi Staton’s ‘You Got The Love’ as happy hardcore smiley faces populate onscreen behind her. Energetic dancers and a frankly incredible voice raise Hill’s live shows to exceptional heights. 

The hidden gems 

Up-and-coming art rockers Cloth pulled in a decent crowd at the River Stage on Friday, proving themselves to be the coolest band at TRNSMT with their complex guitarwork, subtle harmonics and alternations between minimalism and heavy distortion. Coming a close second in the ‘coolest band at TRNSMT’ category was Swim School, the Scottish noise-fuzz rockers given the unenviable task of opening the Main Stage on Saturday. They rose to the challenge with a gust of energy, coaxing the crowd to form a mosh pit through their shoegaze distortion and effortlessly fun 90s throwback tunes. 

Topping off our hidden gems at the festival is Uninvited, the Glasgow based four-piece who drew a host of bands and PRs to the River Stage on Sunday. The tech issues they claimed to be having throughout the show did nothing to dissuade punters that this was ragged indie rock with freshness and swagger. If they’re playing near you, be bold and pay them a visit. 

Tickets for TRNSMT 2024 go on sale at 9am on Friday 14 July.