By Richard Derbyshire

IT was a time for heroes on day one of Victorious Festival as The Libertines headlined on Southsea Common after sets by Kaiser Chiefs, Shed Seven and Lightning Seeds.

Brilliant apart and outstanding together, frontmen Pete Doherty and Carl Barat, along with bandmates bassist John Hassall and drummer Gary Powell, showed why they are topping the bill at some of the biggest festivals in Britain this year.

And it wasn’t only fans who were making the most of what could be one of the band’s last appearances for some time after they revealed plans to work on other projects, including a new album, after this summer.

At the end of their set, which included Can’t Stand Me Now, You’re My Waterloo and Don’t Look Back Into The Sun, Carl appealed for one more song, but his request was thwarted by the organisers’ strict curfew.

Before their set, Carl and Gary joined Radio X’s Johnny Vaughan as he broadcast his 4pm-7pm show live from Victorious and entertained a stoical rain soaked crowd in the Strongbow Yard for more than three hours.

The DJ, who later did his own Sex Pistols cover with a full band on the Radio X stage, quizzed the two Libertines about their recent sponsorship of non-league Margate F.C. and their new Albion Hotel venue in the same town.

Lightning Seeds took to the main stage with a big early crowd defying heavy rain and winds gushing from the Solent to see these Liverpool legends.

There was no Three Lions anthem this time, but the simple beauty of other songs like Pure, Change and Perfect, show why this band are still at the top of their game, nearly 30 years since their first album.

Optimistic, yet often with an underlying current of melancholy, songwriter Ian Broudie’s tunes make him one of the great storytellers of English Life.

Life of Riley, a song about Ian’s young son, will have been remembered by some in the crowd as the theme to the goal of the month competition on Match of the Day 25 years ago. Now, all this time later, Riley Broudie is an accomplished rhythm guitarist in the band.

Shed Seven are riding high after releasing their first studio album, Instant Pleasure, for 16 years and favourites like Chasing Rainbows, Going For Gold, Standby and She Left Me On Friday, were as popular as ever at Victorious.

This band, who had more hit singles than any any one else in 1996 and sold out Bournemouth Academy last year, are still influencing up and coming acts today, as well as playing the big stages themselves.

Next week, they return home to Yorkshire as one of the headliners at Bingley Music Live.

Kaiser Chiefs know how to put on a show. They have the songs – Ruby, Angry Mob, This Is The Modern Way, I Predict a Riot - and few frontman can get a crowd bouncing more than lead singer Ricky Wilson.

After their own hits they finished with a electrifying cover of Pinball Wizard by The Who, a band they supported in Hyde Park in 2014.

The Libertines could have had no one better as a penultimate act.

Saturday and Sunday see the return of the Castle and Seaside stages as well as other tents and platforms.

Today (Saturday) continues with headliner Paul Weller, Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson, Sleeper, The Bluetones Gaz Coombes, Happy Mondays, Paloma Faith, Everything Everything and Trampolene. Plus Gordon Smart broadcasts live from the festival on Radio X today (and tomorrow) between 1-4pm.

Tomorrow (Sunday), acts include headliners The Prodigy, The Amazons, Embrace, Reverend and the Makers, The Bluetones, Years and Years and Southampton’s The Collision.