The View - Kendal Calling 2012 review

'Life with The View has never been smooth running'

Jamie Barker - 29 July 2012

It's easy to dismiss The View as yesterday's news. None of their recent singles have set the charts alight and the commercial success they did have was clearly spearheaded by certain media outlets and was never reflected on as wide an 'everyman' scale as you might think.

Still, they find themselves several years (and albums) down the line still able to command a high billing on a festival main stage. As they launch into their set the crowd in front of the Kendal Calling main stage is bigger than it's been for a non-headliner all weekend.

Their reward for the support is a face full of precipitation as the rainfall that's been threatening all day finally unfurls itself onto the masses. The set begins with a clutch of early material and the debut album remains a firm presence throughout the set. As soon as other material is aired, their reliance on this release becomes obvious; nobody knows the words.

That's not, necessarily, to say that the material is weaker but there's a clear message about when most of these people stopped caring about new material from The View and, unfortunately for the band, it wasn't far beyond the clutch of early singles.

Regardless of indifference elsewhere, there are a clutch of supporters at the front toting a Scottish flag who give it 110% from beginning to end. The band appear to be enjoying themselves as they lead a raucous singalong of 'Superstar Tradesman' which makes it even more of a surprise when they stop.

With over twenty minutes left of their allotted time and without so much as a goodbye, the band trundle offstage leaving a combination of appreciative cheers, disgruntled heckles and a whole lot of people looking at their watches in their wake. Life with The View has never been smooth running but the climax of today's set really feels like an unnecessary own goal.

Click here for our full Kendal Calling coverage.

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