Rewind South 2025 live review: " The power of love shines through Henley"

As Rewind North and Scotland were on hiatus for 2025, 80s pilgrims made their way to Henley-on-Thames for the best weekend of the year.

Whilst the festival is predominantly a space for music lovers of a certain vintage to relive their teenage years, Rewind has continued to attract a host of younger fans who want to enjoy the friendly atmosphere and sing their hearts out to some classic songs. This year was no exception; there were 60th birthday celebrations, 20-year-olds attending their very first Rewind with family and even a young girl who knew every word of Midge Ure’s set! 

After Basil Brush and compare Jenny Powell duetted in a rendition of ‘Purple Rain’, it was time to get this party started. Saturday jumped into life with some old-school hip-hop in the shape of The Sugarhill Gang and the Furious 5. These guys were at the forefront of hip-hop before it became a global musical phenomenon. Their dope set included ‘Rapper’s Delight’ and ‘White Lines’. 

In recent years, Rewind has dipped its glittery toe into the next decade. This weekend heartthrobs Boyzlife treated fans to some of the hits of Boyzone and Westlife, including ‘Picture of You’ and ‘World of Our Own’.

The South returned and performed some crowd-pleasers and Rewind newbie, Junior, performed a terrific version of ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ and conducted a sing-a-long of his hit ‘Mama Used to Say.’ Hopefully, we will see him returning to the festival.

Kid Creole and his glamorous backing singers and dancers—the Coconuts— put a jazz and Latin-infused swing into Saturday afternoon, playing hits ‘Stool Pigeon’ and ‘Annie, I’m Not Your Daddy’. Kid Creole was having such a great time that his set overran, which meant that Tom Bailey had to cut his set short. Despite some fans feeling short-changed, he put on a stellar performance alongside his equally talented female band.

Saturday afternoon was packed with more 80s favourites as everybody prepared to have fun tonight, and everybody did indeed Wang Chung tonight; slough their set that was more rock than new wave. Cutting Crew were also a popular choice, and it was great to hear ‘(I Just) Died In Your Arms Tonight’ really resonating with the crowd and get them all singing along.  Go West always go down a storm at the festival, as do ABC — surely it’s about time they did a headline slot!

Synth pop legends, Soft Cell wrapped up Saturday with their only show of the year. With dim lighting and plenty of haze, the duo turned Temple Meadows into a basement club for their career-spanning set. They kicked off with ‘Memorabilia’ and ‘A Man Can Get Lost’ - two non-charting songs from early in their career. They did perform their more well-known hits like ‘Torch’ and ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’, but much later in the evening. This didn’t appeal to some Rewinders who were used to the more festival-friendly solo spots of Marc Almond at the festival. Needless to say, the niche set had mixed opinions from the crowd given that it wasn’t a Soft Cell audience. Perhaps they’d have been better off introducing some hits earlier before deep-diving into their back catalogue, which may have broader appeal. Setlist grumbles aside, Marc was once again in fine voice and it was terrific to see Dave Ball on stage again after recent health issues. A pleasure to see these synth heroes at work: together in electric dreams.

Sunday hotted up, and that was just the weather! Roachford got things cooking with his soulful set that included his biggest hit ‘Cuddly Toy’. The Selecter had us all skanking to tracks like ‘On the Radio’ and ‘Three Minute Hero’. Pauline Black always puts on a mesmerising performance, and it’s a reminder of the huge influence two-tone had on popular music.

Rewind favourites Haircut 100, sizzled. Nick Heyward led the band into a pleasant early 80s retrospective. Their set was packed with perennial bad mood-busters like ‘Fantastic Day’ and ‘Favourite Shirt (Boy Meets Girl)’. 

T’Pau’s Carol Decker took us into the late 80s, singing hits from the ‘Bridge of Spies’ album. Younger festival goers may know her from The Masked Singer TV show, but today they got to see her in full swing with ‘Heart and Soul’ and ‘Sex Talk’ being a highlight.

Chesney Hawkes was joined by his son, Indiana, in a rockier set that included a cover of ‘Stacey’s Mom’ by Fountains of Wayne, some new material, and his hit, ‘The One and Only’. He paid tribute to his best friend, Vic, who passed away earlier this year, by performing the moving new song ‘Loud’. It’s really a treat to see Ches releasing some new music. Now he’s back in the UK, hopefully he’ll be at Rewind more often.

Another wandering minstrel that has now found himself back on terra firma is Smash Hits pin-up Matt Goss. He performed several of Bros.’ number ones, but in the swing style that he’s latterly been known for. A sizeable crowd appeared in the VIP area after his set as Matt took his time to meet fans and take selfies, allowing many to meet their first crush - although thankfully without the screaming and fainting that went with Brosmania.

Jumping forward a few decades was a vocal group that had hearts thumping with their hit-packed set. Blue - still with all the original members - proved that they still had the vocal prowess and stage presence, and were much more than just 2000 era pin-ups.

Edward Tudor-Pole of Tenpole Tudor fame, brought some raucous punk spirit into the early evening. Heaven 17 are also a popular choice and never fail to put on a spellbinding set.

Midge Ure has been busy over the last few months with the 40th celebrations of Live Aid. Recently he announced that he was cancelling some shows due to health reasons; thankfully, he was still playing Rewind. He was certainly one of the crowd’s most popular choices. Starting his energetic set with ‘Hymn’ and performing ‘Fade To Grey’ - a song he wrote for Visage, and of course ‘Vienna’. We wish Midge a speedy recovery and hope to see him back onstage soon.

Holly Johnson has also been touring to mark the 40th anniversary of 'Welcome to the Pleasuredome’. He appeared onstage in a mist of neon lights and a cheering crowd as he performed ‘Warriors of the Wasteland’, ‘Americanos’, ‘Relax’ and other hits.

As the night drew to a close, Holly reflected on the sad passing of his partner of over 40 years, Wolfgang, with a moving rendition of ‘The Power of Love’. It showed the importance of music to be cathartic and to heal. It was humbling for Holly to share this heartbreak with the Rewind family and a memorable end to the weekend.

Rewind South is officially over for another year! It’s been a blast, filled with laughs, tributes, and tears. As The Doctor, our Sunday Master of Ceremonies, reminded us, we live in a binary world, and we all need to spread the love that Rewind brings us into the big wide world.

So let’s do just that, and give back a little bit of the joy from Rewind. So, grab those leg-warmers, turn up the walkman and dance like nobody’s watching!        

Review by Cathy Clark

Photos by Gerry Driver