Headlining, Ocean Colour Scene, The Human League, and Tom Jones

You can’t beat an outdoor music festival in the summer. It just seems to cheer everyone up and if you get the weather, well, that’s a bonus. 

The Discovery Festival in Dundee is one I always like photographing. It’s smack bang in the city centre and for three days it just seems to bring everyone together.

People come from all over the country to this festival. The town is buzzing, the pubs are packed and everyone’s out in their new festival gear, and just for a few days or hours… you can forget all your troubles, and that what the power of music can do.

Day One of the festival kicks off with Scottish singer Cammy Barnes followed by White Lies, The Fratelli’s and headlining the opening day are Ocean Colour Scene. 

The Birmingham band formed in 1989 have five top ten albums under their belts, including a number one with “Marchin Already” in 1997.

The band took to the stage at 9 30 and with seventeen top 40 singles including, “The Riverboat Song”, “The Day We Caught the Train”, and “Hundred Mile High City”, the fans had plenty to sing along to as the first night comes to a close. 

Day Two is 80’s Calling and it kicked off early with a one o’clock start, and I have to say you could tell straight away that this was going to be a mad day in Dundee. 

As I approached the entrance it was just a sea of people waiting to get in. The 80’s party goers were in full party mood with fancy dress the theme of the day. 

Everyone made an amazing effort to dress for the occasion. You had everything from George Michael, Madonna, Adam Ant, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Madness, Bart Simpsons, Hi De Hi, 80’s themed t-shirts and large beach balls to throw around the event area.

As TPAU took to the stage at 1.45 you could only see thousands of people stretching all the way back to the beer tents. 

Claire Grogan and her band Altered Images followed on from TPAU. Grogan interacted with the crowd throughout her set and announced to the fans that she went to the hairdressers in Dundee to get her hair done for the gig. When asked by the hairdresser what she was up to today, Grogan’s reply was… “I’m playing across the road at Slessor Gardens”, which brought a laugh from the crowd as she said the hairdresser looked stunned. 

As the sun beat down on the revellers, security had to pass out water throughout the event to keep people well hydrated. 

Toyah wowed the crowd with her energetic set list with her hit songs Mystery, I want To Be Free and a couple of surprise cover versions of the songs from Billy Idol “Rebel Yell” and Joan Jett “I Love Rock and Roll”.

Big Country and The Christians followed on from Toyah and by now the night was getting a bit cooler as the sun started to go down, giving many people some light relief in what was a long day in the sun.

ABC’s Martin Fry entered the stage wearing a smart pink tailored suit and quickly got the fans dancing to hits “When Smokey Sing”, “Poison Arrow”, and “The Look of Love”. 

As darkness fell over Dundee, The Human League would close day two of the Discovery Festival. I didn’t really know what kind of performance I would get from the band as I hadn’t seen much from them in a while. 

At the start of the performance two members of the band appeared on stage and stood in front of the crowd playing a few cords of “The Sound of the Crowd”. 

It all looked very futuristic as Phil Oakey energetically moved about the stage to the bands vast catalogue of hit songs, “Mirror Man”, “Open Your Heart”, “The Lebanon “, “Love Action”, “(Keep Feeling) Fascination”, “Don’t You Want Me”, and ending what can only be described as a magical 80’s gathering for the Dundee crowd with “Together In Electric Dreams”. 

As Day Three got underway, it seemed a slow burner as I felt the previous days 80’s Calling gig would take some beating, but this was Tom Jones Day. 

Kerr Mercer, King King and Ward Thomas were support for Tom Jones on the night.

It was a slightly quieter crowd, an older crowd from the previous day yet it still had a lot of younger fans scattered throughout the gig which was nice to see.

As Ward Thomas finished their set you could feel a change in the crowd. The excitement from the hardened Tom Jones fans was gathering, as women of all ages started waving knickers around in the air. 

There were also cardboard cut-outs of Tom Jones weaving it’s way through the crowd to the front of the stage. 

As Tom took to the stage at the early time of 8.30, I turned to look at the emotions of the fans. It was like a modern-day boy band had just taken to the stage. I could see so many people with hankies, wiping away tears as the legend went through hit after hit of “Sexbomb”, “I Who Have Nothing”, “Thunderball”, and “Love Me Tonight”. 

This was an amazing three-day event right in the heart of Dundee City were thousands of people gathered to enjoy all different genres of music, and to top it all off, it was announced that the event would be returning to the city in 2026. Bring it on.