SOS Festival has moved since last time I was able to attend it, and now takes place at Whittles in Oldham. This gives them better staging, but overall slightly less space, and I’m still undecided on if this is a good thing or not. On the plus side,: there is a cheap bar, a food van, plenty of merch space and even room for a couple of traders. The minus is that one of the two stages is outside, meaning that the lovely English summer weather can make or break the event. Previously there used to be a main stage and a smaller, acoustic stage so that the acoustic acts got 15-20 minutes each between changeovers on the main stage. Now each act gets to deliver a full set no matter what stage they are on. Pros – more time to enjoy them, obviously. Cons, it got a bit crowded indoors sometimes!

The whole event starts this year with Shape Of Water, a new band to my ears. Inner jury is still out, they start with shades of Big Country and early U2 which I quite like. There’s a “device” on the bass and I'm not sure if it's making the guitar make weird noises or if it's actually some kind of instrument in itself. The band do have a heavy reliance on backing tracks and in places it very much heads into Muse territory. I like that they are different but the music isn't really doing it for me, it's a little bit too modern progressive for my taste. They're getting a huge crowd response though, going down really well, and they seem to be nice people.

Yesterday's Gone are southern rock. It's ok, not special but ok. They are certainly competent. Overall it’s bluesy with some heavy bass. The vocals are decent, a little bit similar to tonight's headliners Gorilla Riot. The music is not really grabbing me but I've definitely heard worse. There's plenty stood out in the rain to see them though so they must be doing something right! There’s a song about whiskey (of course there is!) and I strongly suspect that they may go down to a river at some point in the proceedings? In any event, they were very much a party band and they made me smile.

Battle Born sound just like I expected them to – they are power metal in spades. They have pointy guitars and flying hair and I absolutely love it. Oops, they broke the microphone at one point but they just carried on regardless. They do all the 80’s NWOBHM stuff and it’s awesome. There’s nothing here I’m not expecting, they have a bad case of Harris Foot going on, and the look matches the sound perfectly. The problem I find with them is the first track I'm fairly sure was called ‘Battle Born’ and then it sounded like the second one was called ‘Battle Born’ too? I mean having an eponymous track is all well and good, but slipping the band name into all your songs seems just a little OTT! They have an album out with a title involving steel, and I would expect no less of them. Reader, I bought the album anyway. Band of the day for me for sure, especially when they do a drinking song that may or may not have been called Battle Horn……

Twister is like déjà vu, it seems everywhere I go at the moment Twister are playing. This isn’t a bad thing, although they haven't brought their splendid amps with screens in this time they are always worth a watch. Their energetic modern rock is played to a soggy but enthusiastic crowd today. They manage to be melodic but still heavy, with songs that are both catchy and riff laden. There are some technical issues (The rain probably got into something!) when the bass broke and then there was some squeaky feedback but they ploughed on through it and gave us a set of fun up-tempo party rock. Some of their newer songs lean towards the pop-punk end of the rock spectrum, with nods to Fall Out Boy and their ilk. It's not easy to listening but it is easy to listen to, and this new line-up seems to have stabilised nicely for them since I saw them last.

Fahran have been off my personal radar for a while, lockdown seemed to have sent them scurrying into a bit of a hole and I can’t actually remember the last time I saw them play live. Turns out that they have been working on a new album which is due out later this year, and their sound seems to be a bit heavier and more intense than I recall from days of yore. They confirm that this is their first live show in well over 12 months, and they're all flying hair and flying fingers. Soundwise they’re quite metalcore, with influences from BFMV and similar. It's all about the twin guitars and Matt’s soaring vocals. It's slick and polished but also kind of brutal. They finish with ‘State Of Mind’ off the last album and it's a perfect slice of heavy rock goodness.

Friday headliners Gorilla Riot have had a little bit of a lineup change since I last saw them, they've lost their third guitarist but they now have a backing singer with a tambourine to fill the stage-left space so it’s all good. Arjun’s gravelly blues voice still stirs me, I'm not normally much for blues but there’s something about the way these boys do it that reaches something primal in me. The style goes a bit Aerosmith in places and one song reminds me of something – in my notebook I have written dada dada doo doo doo which means nothing to anyone, does it? The sound is definitely thinner and lighter without that third guitar and has a 70’s vibe in places but they still managed to carry it off. It gets a little hippy (far out man!) and the word groovy appears several times in my notes as well. Sadly the weather has put a lot of people off although the crowd who stick it out are enthusiastic despite their dampness. Their last song morphed into ‘Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be’ which just happens to be my favourite AC/DC song and is done really really well. Overall it was an excellent performance from an excellent band.