The Scottish rockers, and iconic Jazz-funk sophisti-pop legends, join an incredible 2022 line up, already starring Friday headliners Belinda Carlisle & Scouting For Girls, Alabama 3, Dreadzone, Skinny Lister, Cut Capers and more
Having enjoyed a triumphant return in 2021 after a COVID-enforced hiatus, the Queens Award-winning Watchet Festival will again return to its beautiful West Somerset site in 2022. With full weekend camping tickets costing less than £100, Watchet Festival remains one of the very best value festivals in the UK. Saturday night headliners The Fratellis are a Scottish indie rock band from Glasgow. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Jon Fratelli, bassist Barry Fratelli, and drummer Mince Fratelli.
Over the course of their 17-year career they have enjoyed three Top Ten albums. Their numerous Top 40 singles- include the iconic “Chelsea Dagger”, which has also become a beloved anthem at The Darts. At the beginning of their career, Sunday headliners Level 42 were squarely a jazz-funk fusion band, By the end of the 80s, however, the band whose music is instantly recognizable from Mark Kings thumb-slap bass technique had crossed over to the point where they were often classified as danceable sophisti-pop, equally likely to be placed in the context of Sade and Style Council. The bands commercial peak came in the mid-80s with two iconic albums World Machine and Running in the Family (which spawned hit single “Lessons in Love”, which reached number three on the UK Singles Chart), but they have continued to record and tour for more than 40 years!
Making her debut appearance on the festivals hallowed main stage, Fridays headliner is none other than 80s pop legend and recent Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame inductee, Belinda Carlisle. With a career spanning over forty years, covering stints in both the Go-Gos (one of the most successful all female alt-bands of all time), and as a hugely successful solo artist, Belinda Carlisle will dazzle the Watchet Festival crowd with hit after hit, including the utterly iconic, Heaven Is A Place On Earth.
Returning to Watchet due to massive popular demand are Fridays co-headliners Scouting For Girls. Scouting For Girls are responsible for a huge number of indie-pop classics such as She So Lovely, Elvis Aint Dead and This Ain’t a Love Song.Theyve sold over 2,000,000 records and have been nominated for no less than four Brit Awards and an Ivor Novello.
Also returning to Watchet after barnstorming performances in previous years are the mighty Dreadzone; the self-titled Greatest Show On Earth (in tank-tops) aka the Bar Steward Sons Of Val Doonican; and Alabama 3, the Brixton-based acid-country band best known for writing the legendary theme from The Sopranos.Acts joining the always eclectic Watchet line up for the first time include Bristols very own hip-hop & funk infused 8-piece brass band Cut Capers who will bring the festival to a close, headlining the Udder Stage on Sunday night.Folk-punk troubadours Skinny Lister will tear up the main stage on Saturday evening with the same blast of high octane energy that has powered them for hundreds of live shows across the UK, Europe and the US including a prestigious slot at Coachella.