RockNess makes some noise for Paolo
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ON Sunday night Paolo Nutini proved critics of his place as RockNess mainstage headliner wrong with a singalong set that showed why he bagged 2010's festival feelgood act of the year.
And with Highland Freetime granted an onstage spot alongside invited guests, it was easy to see why the storming reaction of the RockNess audience has been wowing artists all weekend.
With a packed crowd all the way up the hill to the festival’s big wheel – easily matching the massive turnout for Saturday’s Chemical Brothers slot – Paolo opened his 90-minute set with first album favourite Jenny Don’t Be Hasty.
With Pencil Full Of Lead – chosen by Irn Bru as the sunny-sounding soundtrack to their summer TV ad campaign – building to the end of the main set, the whole performance from Paolo made for a sunshiney finale to a weekend that was often cold and wet.
Being up onstage meant seeing just how much energy Paolo puts into his performance.
A four-song encore brought Paolo back to the stage to end the festival’s mainstage bill.
And as he launched into his cover of MGMT’s Time To Pretend, being up close and personal meant you could witness how good it was feeling for the musicians too.
“I love this song,” one trumpeter grinned at the other, as the brass section powered up.
The crowd sang along for most of the set, maybe in best voice for second-last number Last Request.
But as everyone from Example to Ms Dynamite and Glasvegas had said to their audiences throughout the weekend, the RockNess crowd deserved to make some noise for themselves.
From up on the stage, with a Paolo’s eye-view, the festival punters were a star turn in their own right providing fireworks of their own before the traditional display closed the festival.
