Orlando Weeks doesn’t chat much between songs. Usually it’s The Maccabees’guitarist Felix Whitewho does most of the bantering and hyping. So when the singer speaks towards the end of their jubilant festival headline return in London’s Victoria Park, his words hit hard.
The Maccabees @ All Points East 2025
“All Points East said we should do this. And then all of you bought tickets. You gambled. You thought: ‘Yeah, we’ll go and see that, they haven’t played for ages.’ It’s unbelievable that you took that risk, that you paid that money, you put the faith in the love that you had for our band and the love that you had for the occasion that this might be… It’s not lost on us and I want to say a huge ‘Thank you’ to you for being the gamblers that you are. Thank you for taking the chance.”
The reunited band’s gratitude isn’t just apparent in Weeks’ outpouring. It’s in their euphoric performance, honed to perfection over several summer shows. And it’s in their thoughtful personal curation of the day’s line-up: something like 30 bands across five stages in the space of eight hours. Fantastic, but that’s a lot of potential clashes and a lot of potential FOMO, which — if you’re not careful — can equate to a lot of walking, a lot of dust inhalation in an especially dry park, and a lot to absorb.
All Points East 2025
One minute you might be watching Katy J Pearson and her band (including a trumpeter and violinist) perform the breezy Talk Over Town and dreamy Long Range Driver, the next Tasmin Stephens of TTSSFU take off her devil horns and drop into the audience to sing amongst them, or a focused Hamish Hawk stare down the crowd or move with intensity as he spits out the lyrics of Caterpillar (with its refrain of “testing”).
Or you could wander from experimental post-punks Sorry, playing against a backdrop that reads “You were empty enough to be filled with myth”, give their all to an urgent Echoes or drop in a vocal sample from American Pie, to a stage featuring an assortment of vintage radio-tape decks where Youth Lagoon’s Trevor Powers is inexplicably holding a baseball bat while singing.
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The Maccabees @ All Points East 2025 (Ethan Jones)
But ultimately it’s better — less walking, more engagement — to take a stand and watch sets in full. The Murder Capital open theirs with The Fall and singer James McGovern demanding “Let’s see some fucking energy!” The fans do just that by moshing to the frenetic drumming and fast, desperate vocals (“We remember why we die”). McGovern corrals that energy into support for The Mary Wallopers (silenced at Victorious Festival) and Palestine before slipping into the emotive set high point Love Of Country, accompanied for the most part by a single strummed guitar. A stormy That Feeling and heavy Words Lost Meaning follow; they may be louder, but neither match its intensity.
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The Maccabees @ All Points East 2025 (Ethan Jones)
Everything Everything, in turn, are a far sunnier proposition. Their outfits (white or black T-shirts underneath pastel shirts) give off the same feelgood tropical vibes as their music. It’s perfect for a beautiful late-Summer afternoon; little wonder they pull the first big crowd of the day. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Get To Heaven, the Manchester band’s set leans into their third album: from the opening rush of To The Blade (immediately showing off Jonathan Higgs‘ falsetto and knack for pairing dark lyrical themes with bright melodies) to plaintive closer No Reptiles (“Just gimme this one night/ Just one night to feel”). Highlights along the way include the technicolor Pizza Boy (with its big synth groove and handclap beats), the motorik Violent Sun, and hip-hoppy dance fest Distant Past (“I want to go back”).
Walking on to Aztec Camera’s Somewhere In My Heart, The Cribs keep the good vibes going by blasting straight into Hey Scenesters! as the crowd shout along spontaneously. I’m A Realist gets a similar response from the get-go, with the audience even chanting the opening riff. Shimmery new song Summer Seizures anchors a quieter mid-set run, before Moving Pictures gets everyone jumping and Men’s Needs gets everyone singing. A punchy Mirror Kissers and communal Be Safe send the Jarman brothers off on a high.
Reaching even greater heights today is CMAT. Backed by an expansive band (including lap steel guitarist and violinist) all dressed in white tops, black shorts or skirts, and ties, the artist born Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson puts on one of the performances of the day. She crowdsurfs. She gets her band to line-dance. She throws her belt into the audience after it gets in the way of her exaggerated ’80s-aerobics-workout-video dance moves. She pauses the show to have a communal cuddle with her musicians. She sings while lying face down on the stage. She has her band freeze in awkward positions. She struts and pouts and high kicks. She chats with the audience as if she’s known them forever. She tries to get the security guards to do the two-step.
But her good-time theatrics and self-deprecating humour would amount to nothing without a fistful of fantastic, meaningful pop songs delivered by crack musos and a spectacular voice. Understandably there’s quite a lot from her brand-new album, EURO-COUNTRY, including bouncy opener The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station, which takes a swipe at the celebrity chef (“That man should not have his face on posters”) before getting rather confessional (“Let me try to explain myself in a few words”). On the surface, When A Good Man Cries is a beautifully crafted love song; she undersells the message of the instantly hummable Take A Sexy Picture Of Me as “women: good, internet bad”; and the cinematic title track is dedicated to all those in the audience living in London because there’s nothing for them at home. Of course, the old favourites aren’t overlooked. Honkytonk hoedown Have Fun! is still, well, fun; Stay for Something really showcases her powerhouse vocals; and I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby briefly turns Victoria Park into a Nashville dance party.
Almost as celebratory is Bombay Bicycle Club’s performance, which plays out against a backdrop of red curtains and “MY BIG DAY” spelled out in gold balloons. As if the streamers at the end of a bounding Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You) don’t reinforce the festive tone, singer-guitarist Jack Steadman’s steady grin forces it home. Obviously thrilled to be playing just their fourth gig of 2025, he announces: “We’re very happy to be here. We haven’t played a show for such a long time, so thank you guys for coming out and watching us.”
The audience do a lot more than watch: they cheer, they dance, they sing along as the group (complemented by a keyboard player, backing singer, and three-piece brass section) rummage through their back catalogue and pull out one gem after another. There’s Feel‘s mariachi madness, afro-folky jam Always Like This, an utterly joyous Shuffle, the choral bliss of So Long, See You Tomorrow, and even glitchy orchestral drum ‘n’ bass outing Rural Radio Predicts the Rapture (featuring the return of CMAT, clearly intent on being today’s MVP).
But, try as she might, the day undoubtedly belongs to The Maccabees. Their first big London show since that farewell at Alexandra Palace in July 2017 begins, fittingly, with videos and photos from their past on the huge screens, before cutting to live footage of them walking out. The black and white coverage, mostly shot from the stage, continues for the first few minutes and creates a sense of intimacy. The first few songs — short, urgent bursts of energy from debut album Colour It In: Latchmere, Lego, X-Ray—performed in rapid succession, create a sense of immediacy.
As their set progresses, they add dashes of elegance with the likes of Feel To Follow and Toothpaste Kisses, moments of light and shade with Can You Give It and Grew Up At Midnight, and snatches of drama on Kamakura and Silence. But they never lose momentum, frequently diving back into the urgency of songs like Love You Better, Precious Time, Spit It Out, and especially Marks To Prove It (featuring an enthusiastically welcomed guest appearance by Jamie T, who sticks around to lead the band through his own Sticks ‘N’ Stones).
The epic Pelican ends The Maccabees‘ epic return, which, judging by Felix White’s next-day Instagram post, was as important to the band as to “the gamblers” in the audience: “Last night at @allpointseastuk was like living out a childhood dream, but being old enough to actually take it in. Still not sure what else to say about it, other than thank you.”
Live review of All Points East 2025 featuring The Maccabees @ Victoria Park, London on 24th August 2025 by Nils van der Linden. Photos by Ethan Jones.
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