Review | Tonic Fest 3, headlined by Imperial Leisure at The Wedgewood Rooms: 'A long, strange trip'

The Portsmouth-based charity Tonic Music for Mental Health began as a direct result of founder Steph Langan losing a friend to suicide.

It was therefore no surprise that the charity would want to help – and money raised from this day-long event is going to three families of those who died.

The day was also to raise awareness for their new Never Mind The Stigma programme which seeks to widen the conversation about suicide to people in all walks of life, not just those connected to the music world, and as the name suggests, destigmatise it.

As such, the 12 acts performing are all sympathetic to the cause. A mix of local and national touring acts, it’s an eclectic line-up.

Unfortunately unable to make it during daylight, I arrive just in time for the hip-hop collective South Coast Ghosts. Performing tonight without a live drummer does lose them that human element on the beat, but the other seven are on raucous form. Their standard closer Straight Outta Southsea is a brilliant ode to their home turf.

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Next up is former UK beatboxing champion, The Petebox. Watching him build up complex rhythms and sounds using just his voice and loop pedals is endlessly fascinating. In among the original numbers he drops in a range of covers from a singalong The Fresh Prince of Bel Air to a bonkers version of MGMT’s Kids and an exhilarating take on Pixies’ Where Is My Mind.

We get an stripped down Will and The People, so it’s just Will Rendle and his brother Jamie on acoustic guitars. Sometimes daft, but always heartfelt, the brothers’ songs have a nagging way of lodging in your skull. And as they prove on opener, F Yesterday, it’s not all sunshine and light.

Headliners Imperial Leisure have a well-earned reputation as a party-starting band capable of packing festival arenas. So it’s slightly weird and disappointing to see the audience has dwindled to just a few dozen by the time this sprawling band takes to the stage at 11pm.

However, they take it in their stride with frontman Denis Laurence turning the somewhat intimate crowd into a virtue. He is soon down at the barrier, and then over it – getting up close with the faithful. He then manages to perform a painful-looking roly-poly back over the barrier, landing on the floor between it and the stage. But if it hurts, he doesn’t show it as he’s immediately leaping around again.

With a five-piece brass section, two keyboards, a guitarist, bassist and drummer they are not designed for subtlety. It’s a bit ska, a bit rock, quite funky – and all good fun.

There’s Prosecco sprayed over the audience, numerous outfit changes from Laurence, and by the final song Landlord’s Daughter, he’s climbing on a fan’s shoulders and taking men’s T-shirts off as they all dance bare-chested.

Full marks too to the day’s MVP – Teddy Trumpet, who if he isn’t already part of the band onstage anyway, cameos with most of the other acts who play as well.

For those who’ve been in all day, it’s clearly been a long, strange trip. And I shall wear my new Never Mind The Stigma T-shirt with pride.

For more information about Tonic go to tonicmusic.co.uk.