Loyle Carner gets BBC 6 Music Festival off to a flying start

"I've gotta try my best for this entire show not to swear," Loyle Carner tells the audience as his words are broadcast live on the radio. The British hip hop sensation was the first act to headline the BBC's 6 Music Festival at O2 Victoria Warehouse on Friday (March 24).

Now named its permanent home, the festival returns to Greater Manchester this weekend for the first time since it launched in 2014. But the 28-year-old was here just last month, performing at the very same venue in the shadow of Old Trafford just four weeks earlier.

Support act Wu-Lu brought energy to the stage with his band bouncing about throughout their set and gradually becoming shirtless. But something about the sound was off and the energy that was evident on the stage did not seem to translate to the audience.

READ MORE: BBC Radio 6 Music Festival lineup, tickets and all you need to know as it returns to Manchester

That was until DJ Jamz Supernova summoned the south London rapper to the stage. Hood up, the poet's performance starts with perhaps his most powerful song, Hate,a rage-filled track which features at the start of his latest album released last year – 'Hugo'.

Plastic - a song that takes a swipe at the broadcaster hosting the event - came second, and was dedicated to Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker. It follows the former footballer's stand off with the BBC over his tweets which criticised the government.

Like Lineker, Carner could not care less about offending the Conservatives. After inviting Athian Akec onto the stage to recite the speech he delivered in Parliament as a youth MP in 2018 which features at the end of Blood On My Nikes, he made his views clear.

However, rather than putting his time and energy into negativity, he'd