Live Review : Slam Dunk Festival (North), Leeds Temple Newsham Park on September 4th 2021

There’ve been times that Slam Dunk looked like it may have shot its final 3-pointer, what with the date changes close to four times across the pandemic. But the determined promoters kept at it and managed to get the festival, together with a still fantastic line-up to the masses of Leeds and Hatfield. I’m off to the North date, and start by navigating the intricate shuttle bus queuing system in the centre of Leeds (have I just entered Alton towers?). Pleasingly I can see loads of people are ensuring they get there for opening at Slam Dunk 2021.

Live Review : Bloodstock Festival 2021 - Day 5

By day 5 it has all become a bit of a chore. Our hangovers have melded into one, our backs all hurt, and we are all thoroughly sick and tired of being asked if we are overjoyed to have live music back. Look we have had live music back for five whole continuous days, is it home time yet? It is starting to feel less like a music festival and more like an endurance event and there is an increasing hope that when we go through the exits tomorrow morning there will be well-wishers awaiting us with silver foil blankets and medals. But before we dream dreams of flushing toilets, full English’s, and comfy beds, we have Sunday to contend with.

Live Review : Bloodstock Festival 2021 - Day 4

Well it’s day 4 of the festival that never ends. I am already becoming delusional that my permeant home is in fact a canvas shelter in a field and that my adopted family are those people surrounding me. I am struggling to imagine what life was like before I entered the gates on Wednesday. My day beginning with the sludge-tastic Horse called War. With distorted guitars and murky melodies, they manage to blow away the most stubborn of hangovers. Netherhall are progtastic and sound like Marillion fronted by Francis Dunnery (formally of It Bites). Back in the New Blood stage Black Atlas are deftly combining grunge and stoner rock. The result is remarkably danceable, laced with filthy riffs and scuzzy beats. My first visit to the main stage is next for the much lauded Conjurer.

Live Review : Bloodstock Festival 2021 - Day 3

Friday morning finally sees the main stage splutter into life. By this point we have already had two nights under canvas and are beginning to feel like we are in some Kafkaesque nightmare where we are perpetually doomed to roam the wastes of Catton Hall. It may well be quarter to eleven, but Foetal Juice are determined to make as much nasty primal noise as humanly possible. This is metal at its most puerile and putrefied, and they do a grand job of sending all those hangovers packing.

Live Review : Bloodstock Festival 2021 - Day 2

And so onto the extra day, essentially a heavy metal take on the leap year. Thursday is a full additional twenty four hours of metal on all stages bar the main one. The lack of big big draws means that the day is one of exploration as we are given the opportunity to try and test many of the exceptional home grown talent that haunt small venues across the breadth of the country. Sophie Lancaster tent opener Mother Vulture turn out not to be Mother Vulture at all and instead much fancied West Midlander’s Fury (though not the Chris and Luke Appleton fronted Fury UK).

Live Review : Bloodstock Festival 2021 - Day 1

I am not a hugger. At best I find it intrusive and at worst it makes my skin crawl. However over the bloodstock weekend I hugged, I hugged and I hugged. I hugged people that I consider life-long friends, I hugged people I have only ever seen at a distance and I hugged complete strangers. And it wasn’t just me, everyone was hugging. It was like some well-behaved orgy, where everyone kept their clothes on. Bloodstock was emotional and a celebration, but it was also normal. By about band three it felt no different to other years at Catton Park and the idea of not being able to be near people seemed preposterous. Though the one evident difference was the length. Five days of unrepentant Metal at the start sounded like manor from heaven but by the end it felt like you were jogging through custard to get to the finishing line. In fact, I was expecting silver blankets and a medal as I exited the site, like I had finished some endurance event. However, we need to start at the beginning….

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas18 August 2021Bloodstock 2021, Amakim, Ward XVI, Beholder, Onslaught, Raised By OwlsComment

Live Review : Steelhouse Festival 2021 - Day 3

Much to everyone’s surprise, Sunday at Steelhouse actually did dawn bright and sunny, and the mood as we trooped into the arena for the final day was very definitely on the up. We scatter onto the grass to bask in the sub and soak up the atmospheric sound of our opening band Empyre.

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 : Steelhouse Festival 2021 - Day 1

It’s been a long 18 months, hasn’t it? Since Covid kicked us all in the face in March 2020 our lives have changed so much, possibly forever. For those of us who love our live music our hearts have been torn out as we have watched gig after gig, festival after festival fall to the dreaded “Covid Rules”. There have been glimmers of hope here and there with a smattering of socially-distanced and sanitised events and some online streams, but they have been few and far between and, while better than nothing, they haven’t really been able to replace what we have lost.

Why Bloodstock 2021 will be super special!

Yes, Bloodstock is always special. It’s Christmas for metalheads for Lemmy’s sake. But this year it will be extra special sauce special. This year will be the Metal party to meet all Metal party. And here are the reasons why..

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas23 July 2021Bloodstock 2021Comment

Bloodstock 2021 Countdown : 30 Bands not to Miss

It’s just 30 messily days until we are reunited on the hallowed ground of Catton Hall. Thirty days until Bloodstock 2021 is go. Here at ROCKFLESH towers we are always delighted to tell you about the bands we are excited about and this year is no exception. So, as we enter the thirty-day final countdown expect lots of Bloodstock related stuff as we all get very over-excited about five days of beer, rum and heavy bleeding Metal (even his satanic majesty has cracked a sort of semi smile). Did we mention how excited we are? Let’s start with our 30 “to watch” list.

FleshtivalsAuthor : Stewart Lucas12 July 2021Bloodstock 2021Comment

Download Festival : Why do I love Download?

It is sometimes hard to actually discern why we all hold Download in such high regard. Its infrastructure has on numerous occasions left a lot to be desired (putting the second stage in a car park in 2008, those bloody one way systems, last year’s bar queues from hell, I could go on…). It has made a number of questionable headliner decisions (Lost Prophets in ’08, Biffy Clyro in both ’12 and ’17)

Download Festival : Top 10 Performances

The big story of 2010 was of course meant to be the fact that AC/DC were headlining. A band that had seemed to have become far too big for mere festivals, was lowering themselves to join the rank and file of Aerosmith and Rage Against the Machine. The actual story turned out to be the disruption that the Aussie juggernaut appearance brought to the festival. They refused to be listed …

Download Festival – Top 10 Sets

By Sarah Cummings – Download veteran and well-known idiot.

If you are looking for in depth critiques of musical brilliance, this list isn’t for you. This piece flows from a place of emotion and memory, and I would struggle to define my love of Download any other way. Download has always been about the experience as a whole for me and I wanted to take the time to reflect on that with my Top 10 Download sets.

Download 2020 : The Review of The Festival That Never Was

In some parallel universe I am currently taking my tent out of storage. I am pensively looking at the weather forecast and I am getting stressed out about the number of senseless crossovers there are on Clashfinder. You see somewhere in the vast multiverse Download 2020 is actually happening. Somewhere out there in the quantum world they have just released the timetable and we all, with cries …

Live Review : Damnation @ Leeds University Union on November 2nd 2019

John Peel used to describe The Fall as always different, always the same. I'm going to appropriate the phrase to illustrate how I feel about Damnation Festival. There is a wonderful familiarity about the place. After seven years, Leeds University Union feels like a home from home and every nock and cranny is filled with memories. As I enter, it does feel like only yesterday that I was last ...

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 ...

Stranger in paradise, Bloodstock from an outsider's perspective

Here at ROCKFLESH we believe pushing the boundaries and this year we felt it would be interesting to get perceptions on Bloodstock from those who are not its usual clientele. So you have had Jo's glam queen at a Metal fest confessional, now we give you an indie kids perspective.... Yes, you heard right! Indie kid.....

Bloodstock 2019 : A sorry tale of a glam rock queen lost in a sea of Proper Metal!

This is my first ever time at the UK’s premier Metal festival and I am nervous. I’m so far out of my comfort zone here musically that it feels like being in a foreign country, but at the same time there are a couple of bands on the bill that I’m really looking forward to so tally ho! Marshall the troops and all that, and lets get down to the mayhem.

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.