Solid support
Note to all big bands planning a headline tour in the next year or so: sign up Feeder as your main support act. Fresh from a triumphant headline slot at this year's Download and a main stage appearance at the Isle of Wight, Feeder took to the stage in the early evening sunshine and Hyde Park was immediately lifted a notch or two.
It was an all too short set of only forty five minutes but in that time they rattled through their armoury of hits, although they didn't venture any further back than 2001. This meant the R.E.M faithful missed out on the usually ever-present fans' anthem 'High' from 'Polythene'. They didn't appear to see this as a great loss though, as even the most determined of gossipers were drawn in and fired up for the main event by the end of the set.
Feeder opened with 'Come Back Around', which was followed up with 'We Can't Rewind', which you'd imagine had been a single given the root it has taken up in the Feeder set list and the fan response each time it's played live. 'Just The Way I'm Feeling', 'Buck Rogers' and 'Feeling A Moment' followed, all of which are perfect for the warm-up slot role, as they are all well known, catchy and most importantly, rock big time.
The second half of the set featured a couple of tracks from the current album 'Pushing The Senses', not least the title track and most recent single. Sadly though, just as we were getting used to the idea that we were watching the well oiled machine that is the Feeder live show, Grant Nicholas was declaring "what an honour it was to be sharing the stage with R.E.M" and "that this would be their last one". This last one, as anyone who's seen Feeder in the past couple of years will have guessed, was 'Just A Day'. Returning to the point at the start of this review, any band worth their soul will hire Feeder to get their crowd buzzing; with an adrenalin rush track such as this as a way to end, they fit the bill perfectly.
Although the crowd were here to see R.E.M, and it wasn't for Feeder to upstage them. Hopefully those in Hyde Park on this night that haven't already done so, will check out a Feeder gig for themselves, or at least furnish their music collection with some of their back catalogue, and may I recommend 'Echopark’ as a good place to start.