Leeds Festival 2009
A certain air of theatre was amply applied to Little Boots’ entrance which saw five figures walk onstage covered in black robes. Underneath one popped a euphoric Victoria Hesketh in a Flash Gordon style white pullover suit, shining like an angel amidst a dimly lit stage for opener ‘Earthquake‘. Unlike many of her peers, Hesketh prefers to organically create her delicious loops onstage using a Japanese electronic instrument known as a Tenori-On for the likes of ‘Meddle‘. An endearing quality and one that should have worked in her favour yet the track seemed too quick for its own good with Hesketh herself struggling to keep up. Her quaint vocals again battled with the bustling electro her backing band created, certainly for ‘New In Town‘, backing vocalists or not.
She need not have worried, this was a home crowd of sorts as Leeds provided Hesketh with a university education and the locals proved appreciative of ‘Click'. Even the formulaic electro of ‘Mathematics’ gained a sizeable reception before a meltdown of synths bled effortlessly into ‘Symmetry‘. Admittedly without Phil Oakey’s duet, the track remained hollow despite Hesketh’s best efforts yet current top 10 hit ‘Remedy’ enthused those to bellow the uplifting, saccharine chorus. Then the moment the performance will be remembered for. No, not the gorgeous closing rendition of ‘Stuck On Repeat’ but Hesketh bringing on younger brother Henry for the crowd to sing him a Happy Birthday. Cheesy but at a festival such situations can be excused, especially when the sibling encouraged an only too obliging crowd to pogo along.