A short drive from Oxford (through the picturesque village between us and Reading), sits the Englefield Estate, complete with a sprawling mansion that has popped up occasionally in films. And this weekend Heritage Live has landed to turn it into the perfect start of summer holiday music festival. For those of us who can’t sustain a full weekend of festival fun, these quartet of evening shows offer us music to soak up the (fingers crossed) fun.
It all began with a cavalcade of indie survivors, headlined by sing-along maestros The Wombats. For three of the bands on the line-up, 2025 marks a big anniversary for their debut albums. The Wombats’ A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation was released 18 years ago. And for the support acts it’s been 20 (Hard-Fi) and 25 years (Doves) since they came to the scene. So, there is a hint of emotional elation to the evening, as hard working acts reflect on still being able to perform live music.
But we began with the more youthful Alfie Templeman, who offers an energetic, enthusiastic set. Templeman has been recording for nine years (and is still only 22) and as we saw on Thursday, he is an act that surely will only go up and up as his musical credentials flourish.
Hard-Fi followed, a swaggering forty minutes that mixes charisma with punchy songs. Leaning more into their first album, Stars of CCTV, the band know what the crowd want to see and flourish in front of us. But there’s still room for both new music and songs from other albums (‘Suburban Knights’ goes down a treat). As much bravado as there is to this band’s song, they also come with a line of urban malaise, the struggle of modern life as potent as it was two decades ago. But this never gets in the way of a good time and by the time the set ends with ‘Living for the Weekend’ they’ve worked parts of the crowd into a mosh pit.
The final support act is Doves, a name familiar to any of us whose musical tastes were forged in the 00s indie music boom (this critic certainly was). They come with some hits but the sense that their deep, melancholic sound perhaps doesn’t fit a summer festival. But certainly, I’ll be revisiting them after tonight.
But this is The Wombats evening, and they come to the stage with a smile and ninety minutes of sing-along bangers. Starting softly with terrific new song ‘Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come’, it’s a work that sounds great but, perhaps, hasn’t embedded itself into the fanbase. This changes as they surge into two much-loved numbers, sung loudly by the audience, in ‘Moving to New York’ and ‘Cheetah Tongue’ and the pace rarely drops as they spend 90 minutes ping through their discography, building to an end quintet that is simply outstanding.
The Wombats have never gone anywhere, consistently releasing works with at least a handful of outstanding songs on each. They are relaxed and charming this evening, playing off each other and never taking themselves too seriously. They even bring on a wombat with a horn to play through one of their songs. It helps create an end-of-school summer disco vibe and charms us all the way to ‘Let’s Dance to Joy Division’. I’ve waited a while to see this band live, desperate to see the likes of ‘Greek Tragedy’, ‘Kill the Director’ and ‘Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves)’, and it all went down a treat.
Heritage Live itself proves to be a charming little festival, nestled in beautiful surroundings. Thursday had a warm, friendly atmosphere, aided by summer sun breaking through the clouds. Also there’s plenty of food and drink options; I had a scrumptious (if messy) Yorkshire Pudding wrap. With three more gigs over this weekend, you can check out the likes of The Beach Boys, The Jackson 5 and Ministry of Sound Classic.
But we do have to end on a downer once the music had finished and it came time to exit the site, which was pure chaos, taking well over an hour. It didn’t ruin the evening but did leave a sour note to things. Still check out Heritage Live but factor this in for getting out.
And yet, Heritage Live was, for the most part, a terrific evening. So live for the weekend and dance to Joy Division (and celebrate the irony).