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When Jamie xx took to the stage for the second night of Lido festival, this was probably not the weather he had in mind: relentless rain, the best of the British summertime, which had doused Sampha, Panda Bear and John Glacier’s performances throughout the day.
Not that it was going to stop him. The man himself, real name James Thomas Smith, took to the stage twice – first for his much-anticipated B2B with Skrillex, then with Nia Archives – before his own headline slot that evening.
And although the downpours saw many festivalgoers running for cover or hastily pulling on ponchos, little was going to deter most of those 25,000 people from making their way to the main stage to see one of London’s best-loved DJs work his magic. And as luck would have it, the clouds parted just as Smith made his way on stage with no fanfare other than the roar of a delighted, if damp, crowd.
Manning the decks, Smith eased into the set with the ethereal Wanna before transitioning into the groove-infused Treat Each Other Right, which got the crowd moving. From there, the 36-year-old had the crowd in the palm of his hand and kept them there for the next hour and a half. What Smith demonstrated to his audience was excellence, electrified.
No one seems to believe in letting the music do the talking quite like him. In fact, he didn’t speak a word for the entire set: the focus of the big screens and an elaborate four-sided LED cube which encased the DJ was firmly on the audience. Cameras swept the crowd and honed in on individual dancers, shots of whom were projected around the stage and supercut in time with the music. It was a neat trick, and one which turned the muddy Victoria Park turf into a thriving dancefloor, complemented by a dazzling light show which played over the trees.
Among the faces picked out in the crowd were none other than Smith’s fellow xx bandmates Oliver Sim and Romy, who provided perhaps the moment of the night when they stepped out from the fans to the stage to perform hits including the vibrant SeeSaw, Loud Places (both from his album In Colour, which celebrated its tenth anniversary on May 29) and the floor-filling, garage-flavoured track Waited All Night.
Next up was a thrill ride through a host of the DJ’s most arena-ready offerings, fused together. A remix of Razzy Bailey’s I Hate Hate was followed by a high-impact rendition of All You Children before the double whammy that was Life (sadly, Robyn didn’t make an appearance for this one) and Baddy On The Floor. And how about that twisted, acid-infused version of Gosh; surely one of his best remixes ever. The rain was back by then but if anyone noticed, it didn’t matter. The crowd was enraptured.
As the set wound to a close, Smith turned down the tempo for a mellow rendition of Daffodil. Then he was gone. Just like that – walking off as if oblivious to the tens of thousands cheering after him. Away from the spotlight again, just as he likes it.
Lido Festival continues on June 13; lidofestival.co.uk