MTV well and truly ‘crashed’ Plymouth last night with Kaiser Chiefs, Example, The 1975 and Kiesza performing to a sell-out 20,000 strong crowd on the famous Plymouth Hoe.
The crowd were brought to fever-pitch when Kaiser Chief’s front man Ricky Wilson leapt from the stage and climbed to the top of the stage speaker stacks overlooking Smeaton’s Tower Lighthouse before entering the main crowd over the barriers and taking selfies with patrons, but the crowds got over excited and nearly ripped his shirt off completely and had to be rescued by security. During the band’s storming set they had the crowds in a frenzy with classic tracks “Everyday I Love You Less and Less’, ‘Ruby’ and ‘Oh My God’.
Earlier in the day, Ricky, a self confessed ‘lighthouse obsessive’, had climbed Smeaton’s Tower to pay homage to the tower’s Leeds architect, John Smeaton who built the lighthouse in 1759. The same lighthouse is referenced in the band’s classic chart topping track, ‘I Predict A Riot’ with the line:
A friend of a friend he got beaten
He looked the wrong way at a policeman
Would never have happened to Smeaton
And old Leodiensian
I predict a riot…
To help ease his fear of heights, the Canadian chart topper, Keizsa joined him at the top.
Even the Royal Navy got in on the action when one of their submarine’s surfaced in the bay in front of the Hoe to get a better look at the stage. The crew then made the most of their ring-side seats and proceeded to have a BBQ on deck as they soaked up the sunset over the town.
Kiesza kicked off the night with ‘No Enemiesz’, filling the stage with her massive dance moves, to huge applause from the crowds, and finished the set with her recent hit ‘Hideaway’. The trained ballet dancer and yachts-women felt entirely at home in the Ocean City and broke into a free-styled dance routine mid set.
Manchester group The 1975 arrived to mind-blowing screams from every female fan in the crowd, with lead singer Mathew Healy trademark moves, twisting and turning round the stage and then leaping forward onto the main speakers at the front to get closer to his audience. The finished up with crowd pleasing hits ‘Girls’ and ‘Chocolate’
Example had the sunset slot and said “I’ve just been all over Europe and I swear this is the best view I’ve seen” as he belted out hits like ’Will be coming back’, ‘Changed the Way You Kissed Me’ and ‘Kick Starts’ across the crowd and fairground and the horizon.
As part of a series of events to commemorate the city’s three towns 100th anniversary they have partnered to create the sold out event, MTV Crashes Plymouth. The event will be broadcast on MTV’s flagship UK music TV channels MTV Music and MTV Live HD and subsequently across its other music channels, showcasing Britain’s Ocean City in over 35 countries with some electric live performances on Saturday 9th August.
Check out the clips below:
