Live Review : Voodoofest on October 19th 2024

Tonight is something of a bittersweet experience. Yes, it’s a carefully curated evening of local and international bands to delight and entertain us, but it’s also the last-ever show from headliners King Voodoo. After several years of touring, including with some pretty big names, the Lads From The Vood are going their separate ways. It won’t be the last we see of the individual members but for now, it’s a farewell party. King Voodoo being the band that they are means that farewell or not it will be a hell of a party!

Live Review : Call Of The Wild Festival on May 26th 2024

So here we are at the final hurdle, and even a slew of breakfast margaritas are not breaking through the very British weather y. We have sunshine, then showers, then sunshine, then thunder and lightning with a touch of hail – you know that song “four seasons in one day”? Well, that was Lincoln showground on the final day of the festival.

Live Review : Call Of The Wild Festival on May 25th 2024

Saturday arrives and the weather is threatening us with rain. However, with the spacious layout of the arena and the fact that the bar is in a tent, impending downpours do not dampen the spirits of the attendees

Live Review : Call Of The Wild Festival on May 24th 2024

There are some things in life that are inevitable. Never mind death and taxes, the important thing is that the open-air festival season in the UK gets going in May no matter what the weather brings. For some of us that means a trip to the badlands of Lincolnshire and a weekend in the company of Call Of The Wild Festival. Since 2019 this tenacious little independent festival has somehow clung on despite the pandemic, and as I park the Moho up and crack the weekend’s first drink I can’t tell you how glad I am to be back.

Live Review : RockWich Festival on August 27th 2023

Sunday morning and it’s raining, a lot. This doesn’t affect the festival though as it’s indoors, and the lovely people at the venue even put on breakfast for the somewhat soggy campers. Let’s be honest, everything is better with bacon, right? (Veggie options are available!) Being indoors, rain cannot stop play and before we know it it’s lunchtime and the main event is kicking off.

Live Review : RockWich Festival on August 26th 2023

t’s been a couple of years since I last made it to Rockwich, for various reasons. Prior to that it was a regular fixture on my summer festival schedule, for the simple reason that they somehow always managed to get hold of the best new rock bands JUST before they started to take off and hit the big time. The venue is great, a grass pitch for tents, and plenty of hardstanding areas for campervans and general parking, and it’s just 10 minutes off J19 of the M6 so easy to get to.

Live Review : SOS Festival on July 1st 2023

Saturday starts for me with Scarsun, a fairly generic alt metal female fronted band. They are doomy and gothy and it turns out this is only their second gig with this singer. She's actually really rather good and it's not bad at all in a gloomy melancholic sort of way.

Live Review : SOS Festival on June 30th 2023

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 o

Live Review : Call Of The Wild Festival on May 28th 2023

Sunday is another bright and sunny morning, but as I already have a nose that’s bright red enough to see from space, the first thing I do today is make sure I’m wearing A Hat. And sunscreen. That was a crap song but a great message! Anyhow, over in the arena……..

The day starts with LaVire who are good, loud and powerful thrashy rock with a female vocalist. I find them quite similar to Ukrainian outfit Jinjer so if that's your thing check them out, I think you'll be impressed.

Live Review : Call Of The Wild Festival on May 27th 2023

Refreshed by a good night’s sleep and bacon, I return to the fray of the arena wondering what surprises today may have in store for me. The sun is shining and so is my nose (dear reader, wear sunscreen!) so armed with factor 50 and a hat I sally forth into battle.

The day starts with Shadow Smile who are a good wake up band there's nothing like a bit of metalcore in the morning to blow away the cobwebs! They are competent and fast, and although the music is slightly out of my comfort zone it's ok.

Live Review : Call Of The Wild Festival on May 26th 2023

The sun is shining as we stumble from our tents and vans into the arena for an 11am start. Bleary-eyed from the VIP welcome party the night before, we wonder who on earth thought it was a good idea to start a festival this early? To be fair they kind of had to, as we have a packed schedule today with many bands to see and many friends to greet.

Live Review : Steelhouse Festival on July 31st 2022

It’s Steelhouse Sunday and the weather has cheered up which in turn cheers the crowd up too. We start with Merseysiders Ashen Reach and I know who they are this time (in joke!). They are not bad at all, I like them quite a lot. They do melodic alt rock and remind me a bit of Papa Roach.

Live Review : Steelhouse on July 29th 2022

Actually it’s kind of day 2 because those of us in self-contained campers are now allowed to drive up and get settled on the Thursday night. No facilities, no bands, just a chance to chill with your mates and celebrate most of us getting our various vehicles up the mountain without mishap.

Live Review : Steelhouse on July 30th 2022

Saturday starts rather drizzly and the first band up are Mother Vulture. They are heavy blues and I was prepared not to like them but wait, what’s this? They have the worst pants ever but they move, they dance, they fall over - it's all a bit mental but it's also kind of fun. Musically they're average but visually they are superb

Live Review : HRH Viking - December 5th 2021 at the O2 Academy, Sheffield

By Mjolnir the mighty hammer of Thor I am out of my depth here! Due to other commitments I am only able to do the one day at Hard Rock Hell’s annual beard and helmet fest, and I have no idea what to expect. I mean it’s (supposed to be) Scandi-rock Jim, but not as I know it…… only of course it’s not. This is a rollover from 2020 and due to the dreaded ‘rona the line-up looks very different from the one originally booked. It’s all UK bands and I have no idea if they fit with the Viking theme as I’m a fish out of water here – I only know two of the bands playing. So let’s just play it by ear and see what happens right?

Live Review : Rockin The Bowl (Forged In Fire & Steel) – Sunday September 12th at Don Valley Bowl, Sheffield

Sunday starts not with a bang, but more of a splat. There is an Issue with the toilets, namely that the company that was supposed to come and clear them out on a regular basis over the weekend hasn’t turned up. This has led to a bit of a crisis, as those of us camping are faced with (literally) brimming cubicles, and the arena can’t open for health and safety reasons. Thankfully after frantic ringing around a replacement pumping company is found, and the situation is relieved. As are the campers!

Live Review : Rockin The Bowl (Forged In Fire & Steel) – Saturday September 11th at Don Valley Bowl, Sheffield

It’s an early start after a late night as we trundle along the M62 in the campervan. The weather is looking promising, and we arrive in plenty of time to get settled in before the bands start. This event has expanded from one day to 3 this year, to make up for having to roll over from 2020, and the campsite is busy but well-organised. You can pitch your tent next to your car (which is handy) and those of us in vans just park them up in an available space. Everything is compact, it’s a very short walk to the arena, in fact there are several places where you can sit outside your tent, car or van and both see and hear the main stage pretty well.

Live Review : Steelhouse Festival 2021 - Day 2

Saturday dawned bright and…… nah. This is Wales. The wind got up a bit overnight, the rain came in and Saturday morning was wet and blustery. Much re-pegging and such was done on the various campsites as people woke and surveyed the havoc wreaked by the unforecast gales. Thankfully casualties seemed to be minor, and it was soon time to head into the arena to see what the second day would bring.

Live Review : Rockwich @ Witton Albion FC, Northwich on August 24-25th 2019

Rockwich Saturday is a bit of a strange beast. Technically Rockwich was (is?) a one-day festival, The first one was part of a town-wide initiative and was intended to be very much a one-off event. But organisers Promethius Promotions had other ideas and having secured themselves a venue they set about organising a few years of what have turned into killer line-ups. This meant that, as word got ...

Live Review : SOS Festival, Prestwich on July 14th 2019

Day 3 starts with a stonking set from Atlas. I reviewed them at some length fairly recently so I won’t bore on about them too much. Suffice to say they were just as good as last time, Craig still has a fabulous voice, I still think they would be improved with more backing vocals and I enjoyed them very much. My friend said that although their songs are good they have not yet written their That Song, and I kind of agree.