By Victoria Wai
For those in the North East of England, you might remember the festival Loosefest of 2023 being cancelled due to the downpours, but this year things were put into place, and the Saturday dance element Trickfest went ahead in the glorious sunshine and the Pop Music heavy element of the weekend, 90s Baby, took over the site on a mainly overcast Sunday, which is what Backseat Mafia was there for.
Setting off in normally good time, I was stumped on arrival with long queues filled with nostalgic gig-goers and their next generation that I missed opening act boyband quartet A1 and a slimmed down version of Blazin Squad, so my day started with the Body Shakin’ trio 911. The backflips may have gone, but the energy of Lee, Spike and Jimmy was impressive with their scaled down break dancing and vocals all in tack for all the Party People that gathered.
There was one act missing from the bill due to transport logistics, but a fine example of the show must go on was one half of Atomic Kitten, as Natasha Hamilton took the stage solo as partner in crime Liz McClarnon was taken ill. To the surprise of many murmurs of just how amazing Natasha’s lungs were, never mind putting that to some dance moves with the four dancers behind her. We were given Atomic Kitten classics of Do It To Me Right Now, along with covers of The Tide Is High and Eternal Flame before the huge singalong of Whole Again, as well as two solo songs that she dubbed as her Ibiza Club Classics.
The bad boys of late 90s pop, 5ive (who are now three), came thumping with their hits from Everybody Get Up to pop bopper Got That Feelin’ and Queen classic, We Will Rock You, which I remember back in the day had the critics stunned as they really do make it their own. A few acts throughout the day commented on how they are just not as young as they used to be, but this trio of Ritchie, Scott and Sean may have been one of the most energetic of the day as they made sure every inch of the stage was covered without a moment to slow down.
Now for the self-indulgent part of the day and the main reason I was at 90s Baby – the comeback and new line-up of R&B-Pop trio Eternal. Fellow photographers commented that they would be surprised if I got any photos as it seemed I was non stop dancing in the pit as soon as sisters Easther and Vernie Bennett took to the stage with new member Christel Lakhdar going straight into Stay.
Yes, I am a huge Eternal fan. I am writing this review cos the original four piece that included Louise Redknapp and Kéllé Bryan with the sisters are the reasons I hold a camera now, so it warmed my heart to see this field full singing along to the ballads Angel Of Mine and I Am Blessed and party hard to Power Of A Woman, Just A Step From Heaven to the summer bop I Wanna Be The Only One. A personal lovely surprise was hearing them sing a snippet of Never Gonna Give You Up from the 4x debut album Always & Forever and a few other teasers from their back catalogue. For the Eternal fans, every chapter of their career to date has been covered for us. Welcome back Eternal.
Coming to us in the year 2000 but welcomed by this 90s line-up, Blue kept the Pop-R&B vibe going with their back catalogue and harmonies so strong with their hits All Rise, Fly By and One Love to belting out the Elton John classic Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word as the rain fell down.
Excitement peaked as a plane flew by with a “We Got You Nick Cater” banner ahead of the solo outing for the Backstreet Boys, and it seemed fitting that the set kicked off with Larger Than Life. Nick took this chance to showcase his influences with a huge 1980s section, which included Tears and Simple Minds, before bringing it back to the 90s with his rock influence of Oasis and their hit Wonderwall. It was all fine and well, but the fans wanted his solo material and definitely more Backstreet Boys hits, and those at the front were treated to I Want It That Way from in the crowd, and the flanking security even enjoyed it.
The festival season meant that penultimate act Peter André was running late from an Edinburgh stint before coming to Newcastle, but that did not deter an action packed set from the early days Flava and ‘that’ jungle song Insania before his R&B tribute medley, which included songs from Blackstreet, Color Me Bad and Mark Morrison to of course crowd favourite Mysterious Girl closing his set.
A quick changeover and Ronan Keating took the headline slot, and keeping the crowd warmed as the rain pelted down, we went straight into Lovin Each Day, then to Boyzone ballad of Words with videos of his band members filling the screen behind. His set was back and forth between solo and Boyzone classics, which pleased the crowd.
Admittedly I have never been a huge fan of either and this set definitely showed doubters like me that there is definitely a natural talent helped by his huge charisma. He even has a few little dance moves in him, which complemented the Comic Relief classic Billy Ocean cover When The Going Gets Tough. Ronan noted that the night had to come to an end and that it was Sunday but made sure the whole of 90s Baby ended on a high as we closed with Life Is A Rollercoaster.
With a few niggles here and there, Loosefest definitely brought back the good times with the Club day of Trickfest to Pop Music nostalgic bliss to the fields of Town Moor, Newcastle.
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