No, that’s not the opinion of Kier Starmer and the Daily Telegraph, it’s the openers of the Woodsies Stage on Saturday. For anyone not in the know, Fcukers are officially the New Yprk duo of Shannon Wise (on vocals) and Jackson Walker Lewis… and today a full backing band of musicians.
Speaking of in the know, if anyone can tell us how they’re announcing this at home on the BBC coverage let us know, because you literally pronounce it Fcuckers.
It’s apparent from the start this is a high energy way to start the day, with sinuous grooves, scratched samples and vocals like extremely alcoholic honey. It’s funny really, because Fcuckers are a very cool band in the year of 2025, but they sound exactly like a very cool band from the mid 90s and the mid 00s because their class of all styles (thrown together hip hop, rock, electro, big beat) brings to mind the megaclash acts of those eras who seem to have dropped away from the musical landscape. If I wasn’t enjoying this so much I’d google what genre that is, because it surely has one, but as a fan it’s great.
So what does that mean in sonic terms? It means you have literally no idea where these songs are going to go next. We imagine if you saw Cast during their forthcoming Oasis shows you’d have a solid idea of what they’d do, but Fcuckers are a real trip. They’re simultaneously perfect for a hot summers day and at home entirely in glorious everlasting lost nights and that can be due to one perfect electro squiggle as anything else.
The set continues almost as one long flow with few discernible ‘song changes’ and we party along with it, time travelling far more effectively than the recent seasons of Doctor Who has ever managed (although we heard one of the best Doctors of all time, Peter Capaldi, was on a stage near here yesterday).
By the time they have to stop I have completely lost track of time, I couldn’t tell you if this was 30 mins or two hours, but if you want to see a old school sounding set, catch this lot live when you can.