Let's Rock retro festival with Soft Cell, Heaven 17, Kim Wilde and more at Southampton Common | Review

We arrived to the strains of Slim Jim Phantom pounding out Stray Cats hits with gusto. Jim thanked the fans for being the first to embrace the band on the way to worldwide stardom.

I must confess Neville Staple looked rather frail when he walked on stage, but then again he is approaching 70 years old so I guess all those years of running round the stage will take it out of you. But there is more than a glint in his eye when he delivers a hit-laden set of Specials and Fun Boy Three classics

Heaven 17 were the one band was looking forward to most and they didn’t disappoint. Keys player Martin Ware did look somewhat incongruous in an outlandish purple suit and stetson but lead singer Glenn Gregory looked fit and stylish with aviator shades. Opening with old Portsmouth Poly favourite We Don’t Need This Fascist Groove Thing (once banned by the BBC), quickly followed by Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry. However the biggest cheer, naturally, was for their biggest hit Temptation.

Former pop princess Kim Wilde was up next. Touted as Britain’s answer to Blondie she never quite had the 'cool' but boy did she have the hits. Still looking great, the band launched in to her cover of The Supremes You Keep Me Hangin’ On which topped the American charts in 1987, but it was debut single Kids In America which provided the greatest pop moment of the weekend.

Just lately, and unusually for these 'pop' retro festivals, punk/new wave bands are creeping onto the bill. While The Undertones played Exeter on this touring festival’s run, tonight The Boomtown Rats are here in all their ragged glory. Sir Bob Geldof, resplendent in fringed jacket and skinny jeans, has by his own admission had a few too many 'lemonades.' Coming across as a mixture of Oliver Reed and Mick Jagger he somehow gets away with it, with a canon of great hits to choose from – Rat Trap and She’s so Modern hit the spot but predictably I Don’t like Mondays gets the biggest response

A lot was expected of headliners Soft Cell. A few years ago they played their 'final' show at a sold out 02 arena, but like a lot of bands they couldn’t resist the temptation to carry on. Swathed in a blanket of dry ice up on stage sometimes resembling something out of The Hound of the Baskervilles, diminutive lead singer Mark Almond peers out in dark shades and black mac. 'Thank you for sticking around,' he offers meekly. I think most people wish they hadn’t bothered as they performed an underwhelming set of dark electronica.

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye? A lot of people certainly did as they headed for the exit.