THE sun always shines at the Isle of Wight Festival… or so it seems. The outlook wasn’t particularly promising as Squeeze warmed up the early birds on Thursday night, but by the time the festival kicked off proper, things were looking rosier – especially the faces without sun cream.

As the stragglers arrived on Friday, football fever should have spread across the festival as Ian Broudie performed a version of Three Lions.

Sadly, this fell flat on its face thanks to technical gremlins... I hope it wasn’t an omen.

Doves sobered the party atmosphere with a low-energy set, which picked up towards the end with Here It Comes. In contrast Calvin Harris got the crowd jumping with dance favourites like Acceptable In The 80s, Weekend and I Get All The Girls.

The fabulous Florence and the Machine were up next and in scintillating form. Humbled by the crowd’s support, her set built to a crescendo with an epic rock instrumental, which turned into Kiss With a Fist followed by You’ve Got the Love and Rabbit Heart. Jay-Z had a tough act to follow and he didn’t disappoint. His rabbit-out-the-hat came in the form of Kanye West, who joined him on stage for Run This Town.

His raw, antagonistic set had a rock flavour with a tribute to Hendrix’s Purple Haze and the set closer, Numb – his Linkin Park collaboration.

England’s opener against USA dominated conversation on Satur-day, although Bombay Bicycle Club momentarily took minds off the game, as did Paloma Faith, who blew the crowd away with a show sounding almost as good as she looked.

A quiet Vampire Weekend struggled to make an impression as the crowd decided whether to watch Biffy Clyro or England (sorry Biffy). The Saturdays and N-Dubz also had the impossible task of tempting people away from the footie.

Memories of Green’s calamitous ball control faded with a corking set from Blondie – Atomic and One Way or Another proving they’ve still got it – before their fellow New Yorkers, The Strokes (together on a stage for the first time in four years) gave everyone a reason to like the Yanks again as a seemingly drunk Julian Casablancas led the band on a romp through their hits, Last Night, Room On Fire and Juicebox providing the set highlights.

Sunday afternoon’s pedestrian line-up (The Courteeners, Spandau Ballet and Editors) did little to shift the hangover, although Reef tried with a lively set, with most leaving after Place Your Hands. But a blistering, circus-themed performance from Pink impressed everyone – especially when she zip-wired on stage from a box suspended above the crowd. She finished her vivacious pop set with acrobatics on wires above the audience. Fantastic.

Before Paul McCartney there was a little window to catch Ocean Colour Scene, who pulled in a sizeable crowd with ’90s classics like Day We Caught The Train and Riverboat Song. They seemed to enjoy it as much as we did.

And so to Macca, who treated us to two hours of solo material, Wings numbers and of course, Beatles classics. Live and Let Die was played to a fireworks display, while Let It Be, Yesterday, Day Tripper and Helter Skelter spoke for themselves.

The set was lively and often touching, the classics interspersed with anecdotes from the former Beatle who was on top form, coming back for two encores, which ended with Sgt Peppers. Shame the only shower of the weekend came halfway through his set – perhaps it was John trying to tell him something.

THANKS to Wightlink ferries (0871 376 1000 www.wightlink.co.uk) for squeezing Gavin onto a ferry at the very last minute. Without their help it wouldn't have been possible.