Lanarkshire festival goers descended onto Edinburgh’s Royal Highland Centre Showgrounds last weekend for an incredible three days of live music.
Connect returned to the festival calendar and brought a refreshingly good line-up with it, featuring alternative acts from the likes of Idles, The National, Mogwai and Ride who certainly pulled in a maturer, albeit tamer, crowd than its TRNSMT counterpart.
Showcasing the very best of British talent as well as some exceptional international acts across four stages, Lanarkshire Live highlights included Mercury Prize nominees Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler blowing fans away in the first of many soulful acoustic secret sets at the Tiny Changes x Garden Cottage stage on Friday.
Switch to the main stage on Sunday where bold North London rapper Little Simz and her seamless live band lived up to the hype giving the crowd a masterclass in effortlessly cool melodic lyricism.
A mention must also go to political activist and social commentator Darren McGarvey who gave a taste of his recent Fringe show to a packed Speakeasy tent.
The Scots rapper [ Loki ] had festival goers in stitches as he regaled instructing First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to "have a word with herself" after sliding into his DM's to congratulate him on his debut stint on Question Time .
But it was 90s dance heavyweights The Chemical Brothers whose perfect blend of nostalgic big beats and epic festival smashers set to the backdrop of spell-binding visuals whipped this somewhat reticent crowd into a frenzy.
The atmosphere was electric on Saturday night as their classic steely itchy-footed track Block Rockin' Beats echoed out into the night followed by an onslaught of nostalgic bangers from Go, Hey Boy Hey Girl and Do It Again to a mesmerising cover of New Order's Temptation and the staple emotive unifier Star Guitar .
Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons were dwarfed on stage by a sensory overload of smoke and strobes in their ever impressive lightshow which even saw two giant toy robots fire lasers from their eyes during techno banger Under the Influence .
Chants of Don't Hold Back reverberated around the airfield as the encore Galvanise triggered a shower of giant colourful balloons to the delight of ecstatic revellers below.
No one can deny the staying power of The Chemical Brothers whose universal appeal and constant evolution transcends generations.
Reviving the original Connect - which boasted Bjork and the Beastie Boys on its bill - with such an iconic act was a master stroke for DF Concerts who have given this much needed Scottish festival the go ahead for 2023.
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