Review by Tina Hart

At the scandalous hour of 6.45am on Sunday I dragged my pasty legs and puffy eyes aboard a coach to Weston-Super-Mare ready to hit the annual coastside tune-fest that is T4 on the Beach.

Well… wow. As one of the privileged, able to mill around backstage and hang out in the golden circle, I have to say that in addition to being overly excited about the sand and songs, I was quite surprised at how ‘really’ sexy everyone was. My top hotties of the day include a topless Jason Derülo, stunning Esmée Denters and JLS (swoon) but I digress slightly…

Kicking off the festivities on the main stage was the Pineapple Dance Troupe, with their devilishly short shorts, cropped tops and toned tums, followed by the national treasure that is Dizzee Rascal ‘bringing the sunshine even though it’s a bit cloudy’ courtesy of the mental Bonkers. At this point I was pretty sure I’d be deaf by the end of the day as the screams of nearly 47,000 people erupted into the loudest noise I’ve ever heard. Nonetheless, my inner 17-year-old came out and I joined in.

Ellie Goulding was next up and looking very glam as she sailed through Starry Eyed and Guns and Horses. It was getting windier and greyer as we were told that some ‘guests with high hair’ were going to appear later…

Tinie Tempah and Labrinth sent the crowd absolutely wild with the bass bumping Frisky (I was troubled by how many young’uns were singing to this one) and Pass Out. I couldn’t help but be distracted by Labrinth’s strange choice of attire which looked like a denim catsuit.  

Looking fly in a smart shirt and low slung jeans was Professor Green, who performed his current hits alongside Ed Drewett and a pretty brunette (although not Lily).  Also accompanied by a pretty brunette was swaggerlicious Chipmunk who was joined by Esmée Denters for their smash single Until You Were Gone.

After tearing myself away from the main stage, I walked past JLS as they arrived backstage and I nearly passed out – they really are the fittest boy band in the universe. I then bumped into the lovely Ollie and Merveille aka JJ and Thomas from Skins as we wandered across site to check out the other two stages and myriad of amusements.

On the T4 Sessions stage I caught a bit of funky house guru, Donae’o and then had to wait too long for adopted-presenter-for-the-day Gok Wan re-doing an interview with a beehived Diana Vickers, so I returned to the main area to find the highly anticipated N-Dubz had arrived backstage and were having their pictures taken with the Skins lot.

Both pulling some wicked moves on the main stage were Jason Derülo who went shirtless at the end of his set (swoon) and a very trim Alexandra Burke singing her upcoming summery single, RedOne-produced Start Without You.

I then missed out on Jedward, where Edward took a tumble on stage and after soldiering through the performance, ended up in hospital.

Across the way at the Rimmel Celeb Disco JLS were causing a mini stampede, so I went in the other direction to find DJ Ironik on the Sessions stage showcasing his new single, Falling in Love, with singer Ny. Proceedings were running late here so I had to sacrifice Plan B and Skepta to head back for N-Dubz.

The sky was very grey but dressed in black and white, the trio raised the tiring crowd with their medley of hits and got us singing Number One acapella which sounded amazing.

Diana Vickers stood in for the absent Faithless and belted out pop-rocky Once and her new single The Boy Who Murdered Love.

My new favourite pop-dance tune is Dynamite by Taio Cruz. He went all out on his set with flags, dancers and tons of confetti and streamers and kept the crowd singing along during a spurt of rain during Break Your Heart. 

I was told off for putting up my umbrella so got drenched whilst dancing to Kelis with her timely new single, 4th of July (Fireworks). 

The heavens dramatically opened and I got absolutely soaked witnessing the mighty JLS wrap up the day on the main stage. Ab-flashing, flips and frenzied screams galore, the UK’s favourite boy band showed off their skills to perfection. Number-one-bound single The Club is Alive got the soggy crowd jumping and the guys braved the pouring rain like true professionals.

Despite the weather I had an awesome day, topped off by chatting to Skepta backstage. He finally broke the mainstream top 20 on Sunday with Rescue Me (which we’ve been waiting for since April), charting at number 14.

All in all T4 on the Beach was an epic day out and the line up really did feature the cream of the pop crop this year. I’m a little disappointed I didn’t get to see everyone because of scheduling clashes across the three stages but like me, if you missed it, you did miss out but I’m sure we’ll be catching up with the highlights on TV.