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Taylor Swift – Wembley 2024: REVIEWED!

August 22, 2024 by Anna Hyams

Image credit: TAS Rights Management

Taylor Swift – 19^th August 2024, Eras Tour London, Wembley Stadium

Right. I’m going to be brutally honest with you here, and caveat this with a plea to Swifties not to rain fury down on me for being an imposter in their midst… but I am categorically not, a Swiftie. Yet here I am, dressed in a very loudly pink floaty skirt and heart shaped handbag, covered in hastily acquired bead bracelets, masquerading as one.

All things considered, I have a very eclectic musical taste which leans more towards rock and metal than anything else. That said, I do like a good pop song and have enjoyed many of TSwiz’s hits (I even own the Fearless album on CD, give me a gold star immediately). Believe it or not I am even wearing a Taylor tee, though in order to assert some kind of childish pushback it is one with her name made up in black-metal lettering, I couldn’t resist.

Having made it down the M1 and queued to get into the Wembley red carparking, we traipsed our way over to grab our tickets, following a trail of fans taking photos in front of all the Taylor themed backdrops dotted around the arena. Upon grabbing said tickets we discovered that we would be in the left stage standing area, and didn’t really realise what that meant at the time – more on that later.

The process of getting into the arena itself is really straightforward and easy, head to your colour coded entrance area, scan your ticket and push through the turnstile, quick bag search and get your wristbands (including a very cool light up one specific to the tour). After that the concourse is yours to inspect the merchandise shops (lots of small ones about instead of one massive one, really helps with the queue situation). As we were running a little late we headed down to our entrance and launched ourselves out onto a set of steps, and the absolutely breathtaking view of thousands upon thousands of people and one of the biggest stage set-ups I’ve ever seen in my life.

First support act Maisie Peters modifies her song ‘Lost The Breakup’ to include “er… I’m kinda busy like, I’m with Taylor tonight!” in a starry-sequinned white mini dress and stompy black boots. Having seen her earlier this year at Hyde Park, I knew to expect a good set and she did not disappoint – her lyrics are fun, she has a beautiful voice and her songs are ultimately singable. What’s not to love.

Tennessee punk-rock royalty Paramore are up next, representing the other side of the girlhood-coin with a barrage of loud and rowdy songs. Talking Heads cover ‘Burning Down The House’ is a consummate banger (I love the original too, to be fair…) but we are whipped into a frenzy by the epic anthem ‘Misery Business’. Hayley Williams, wearing a slinky black punk princess dress – even comes to visit us at the stage side and I kid you not, I could reach out and shake her hand we’re so close. I don’t though, because that would be super weird. It’s a cracker of a set, albeit short.

As Paramore’s amazing transparent orange drum-kit is forklifted from the stage, I am already in awe of the slickness of production that has gone into this. The stage is cleared in what seems like seconds, a *ahem* Swift turnaround if you will… we are suddenly staring at a countdown clock on the enormous stage screen, and the crowd erupts in the most deafening scream I have ever heard in my life. I’ve been to a lot of rock shows, but the pitch range is a lot lower – this is the force of 90k soprano shrieks entering my eardrums at speed.

The screaming only increases as the countdown finally ends and giant billowy silk-sheeted petals fan out from centre stage, on the backs of cat-walking dancers. They remind me of something you’d see on Pandora from James Cameron’s Avatar, but that’s probably not the kind of thing normal people talk about at a Taylor Swift concert is it. Anyway the nice leafy things make their way to the centre diamond of the runway and flop down on top of each other in a circle before popping up to reveal the queen herself, resplendent in a pink bedazzled bodysuit and matching boots.

Starting off with ‘Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince’, she is lifted skyward on a centre riser, making her visible to every eye in the audience which obviously, elicits yet another wild scream. Ending the first song with a strong power stance, Taylor shouts “Of all the wonderful sights you could come to London to see… I’m sure this view I’m seeing right now is absolutely the best one!”. Taylor then spends a little time pointing at various sections of the crowd to get them hyped up, before ‘holstering’ her gun-finger at her side with a wry smile. It is at this point that my sister and I both opt to jam loop earplugs in, I refuse to go deaf over teenage fanaticism.

Now wearing a pink sparkly double breasted suit jacket, she says “Wow, I can feel it immediately going to my head… the way you’re making me feel tonight… a sold out show for 92 thousand people… you’re making me feel like I’m The Man” leading into the namesake song, where she climbs an abstract office building set up on the stage. The dancers are incredible, I know there’s such a thing as stage clothing but anyone who can do that in a full suit gets my admiration.

“London what a delight, and an honour, and a privilege… London welcome to the Eras Tour!” yells the pop princess on this penultimate night of the European leg of Eras, now standing centre stage holding a pink acoustic guitar. She spends a minute thanking Maisie Peters, who she credits with amazing songwriting skills, and then Paramore, stating “We grew up together as teenagers, and now we got to travel Europe together”.

‘Lover’ features dancing couples overtaking the stage, including same-sex pairings – I will always applaud platforming inclusivity on a large scale, particularly with the state of the world at the moment. The song is gorgeous I have to admit, but the transition into ‘Fearless’ means I am finally at a part I really know and I’m… ready for it. You see what I did there right?

With an incredible downpour of firework rain from right across the top of the stage, Taylor reemerges in another bedazzled fringed bodysuit and a matching sparkly guitar, her signature red lipstick in stark contrast. “You wanna go back to high school with me?” is the herald into ‘You Belong With Me’, and then ‘Love Story’. I actually know all the words to these ones, I think I’m doing an excellent job of fitting in frankly.

Onto the next section with barely a pause, red balloons signal the beginning of Red with ‘22’ and Taylor wearing a t-shirt saying “This is not Taylor’s Version’, and the iconic black hat. I am reliably informed that every Swiftie has been awaiting the drop of ‘Rep TV’ which for quite a long time I thought was some kind of weird streaming service she was launching. No, they of course mean Taylor’s Version of Reputation – the re-recording of her earlier works to eclipse the contract-locked originals. Anyway, is this t-shirt she’s wearing an easter-egg of epic proportions for an announcement, or is she just trolling you all in the funniest way? Answers on an Eras postcard.

The iconic 22 hat is gifted to a rather small girl who is crying her eyes out and shouting “I love you so much” repeatedly, which is too cute not to shed a small tear at, but the bit I’m enjoying the most is all the giant cheerleading megaphones and the confetti cannons, it feels like a proper party now. The t-shirt is whipped off (thank you Chippendales for bringing velcro clothing to the people) to reveal a black and red ombre sparkle outfit for ‘Never Getting Back Together’. Apparently the enigmatic dancer known as Kam, says something different in the refrain each night, but tonight it is “Are you havin’ a laugh?” in a Cockney accent.

‘Trouble’ blows up with giant plumes of smoke erupting from the stage every time she hits the high notes, and Taylor stops for a breather to chat. “Are we enjoying the Red era London? This show is my favourite I’ve ever gotten to do… better crowds than I ever imagined I’d play for in my entire life. You have every song memorised, every lyric. This is a dream crowd”.

The black diamante encrusted matching trench coat and guitar is absolutely the number one thing I want to steal from the Eras closet, imagine how good I’d look swishing round Download festival in that thing. However, 10 minutes of ‘All Too Well’ is a little past my threshold, so we take a chance to go grab some water. Here I have to mention that there are free water points all along the barriers of the standing areas, with cups being constantly replenished. The standing areas as well, although sold out – are not overcrowded at all. You can comfortably move and stand without being on top of anyone, something I find seriously unusual and at the same time, fantastic about this show.

Speak Now’s ‘Enchanted’ might be a standalone, but it does feature a delightful Cinderella-esque ballgown, before being swapped out for it’s antithesis aesthetic – a one legged black jumpsuit covered in red snakes, to match the writhing snakes on screen. Red and white lights adorn our pulsing wristbands to welcome Reputation to the chat with ‘Are You Ready For It’. I think I like this Taylor best in terms of aesthetics, she’s in her zero fucks era, her clapback era, I love that for her – but especially with the caged Barbie dancers in ‘Look What You Made Me Do’.

Eventually the snake on screen slithers into a firefly lit, serene woodland, signalling the beginning of the Folklore/Evermore portion of the night, featuring a giant swamp shack set-up and some really weird trees that have grown directly from the stage. Apparently this is known as ‘The Folklore Cabin’ but as this is my least favourite album you’ll forgive me for not being up to date on the history. Taylor is kind enough to fill me in anyway though, “The folklore cabin is the imaginary cabin I pretended I lived in while I was writing this album, during the pandemic… confused and isolated… but I still wanted to connect with people”. Explaining that, during this album she deviated from autobiographical songs to write about characters as the narrator, she flits through the light, airy songs to arrive at the moss-covered piano for Evermore. Unfortunately a technical issue slightly tarnishes the mood “Um ok, this is in the wrong key… how do I get into here?” Taylor asks a techie who comes out to fix the problem, inadvertently showing us all that the grand piano is in fact merely a house in which an electronic keyboard sits. Slight chink in the armour there, but she recovers quickly.

We however are starting to feel the halfway mark of being on our feet, and take a trip to the barrier for a sit-down during the slow stuff. Another huge kudos to the arena staff here as we were repeatedly asked if we were ok, and handed water whilst we were sitting down. You can even see most of what’s going on from there thanks to the enormous screens.

No respite from the fan-screams though, even Taylor takes a few minutes to stand in awe of the constant wall of noise after she finishes; “That might have been the loudest sound I’ve ever heard in my entire life”. ‘August’ has all the Folklore girls swooning and swaying (they’re all dressed as elven forest maidens – some of whom have fallen backwards through a bush, but in a cute way).

The sun has finally gone down on Wembley and the light up wristbands are really coming into play. The dark blue forest backdrop and blue tinged soft lights of the bands for ‘Willow’ are so beautiful. On stage sparkly dementors are swishing some glowing orange balls about, and appear to be summoning something, but I personally am watching a pair in the crowd next to us who have done the absolute genius cosplay of bringing a yellow balloon each, and using their phones to light them up and join in. Bravo niche-Swifties, good work.

Back to the party stuff with 1989, Taylor hits the stage in a sparkly miniskirt and top for ‘Style’, ‘Blank Space’ and ‘Shake It Off’ while the wristband lights flash orange and blue to match her split outfit.

‘Bad blood’ is accompanied by huge bursts of fire from pyro cannons around the stage and on top of the lighting rigs, before we swap over to newest release The Tortured Poet’s Department. Taylor is resplendent in a white dress and microphone with black sparkly gloves, the floor is decorated with projections of stained glass windows, and ‘Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me’ is sung with wild abandon by every single voice around us. She zooms around on a silver robot platform during ‘Down Bad’, laments and swoons on a giant bed set with typewriters and then throws on a white military dress jacket to march the stage for ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived’.

Ending lying on stage with the remnants of a burned white flag, the theatre of this show is unmatched. After being posed on a broken heart couch by two tailcoated helpers, she is made to move like a marionette and re-dressed in a silver ringmaster set to absolutely crush ‘I Can Do It With A Broken Heart’ – the wormiest earworm of all her new material. I won’t lie, a lot of the most recent album feels quite samey to me overall, but this is a total hit.

Next up, purple lighting and another outfit swap for the much anticipated secret songs section, which turn out to be a ‘Long Live’ and ‘Change’ mashup, then ‘The Archer’ mixed with ‘You’re On Your Own Kid’. I’m really out of my depth here, but it’s clearly important because everyone in my vicinity is hugging and crying, while she plays on a floral painted piano.

We’re two and a half hours in at this point and I’m not sure how she has anything left in her. She’s barely had a 30 second breather between playing, singing, dancing, talking and costume changing – and she’s got to do this all again tomorrow. In answer to my disbelief, she takes a running jump into a stage pit, and then projections of her swimming down the length of the runway pull her towards crashing waves on the screen, amidst the soft deep blue of our sea of wristbands around the arena.

At this point, some very weird paper mâché looking clouds atop rolling ladders are wheeled out, for the start of final section Midnights, with ‘Lavender Haze’. Of course she has an outfit for this – a giant furry lavender coat, that looks like she skinned a muppet to get it. ‘Anti-Hero’ featuring the weirdest line “Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby” if you hear it that way (and I do, every time) but is probably the most audience-sung-song so far. Dancers with umbrellas hide Taylor for a costume change into a sparkly star and moon bodysuit, and chairs are placed on the centre risers for a very saucy burlesque routine during ‘Vigilante Shit’.

Our wristbands flash all different colours during ‘Bejeweled’ and the girl in front of us who has hand sewn giant jewels all over her top, responds by turning the rainbow lights on inside her mesh skirt. 10/10 no notes. Enduring the endless screaming once again, Taylor comes up for air “I cannot believe a crowd exists this loud… but also that you did this on a Monday night!”.

Closing out with ‘Karma’, in yet another pink sparkly jacket, this time with fringing – is deservedly the anthem of the night. I cannot believe she’s made it to the end of this still looking as absolutely magical as she does. Either her makeup artist is a real life wizard, or she is actually the ethereal being she portrays, because I look like a toad who has been zapped back to life and propped upright against the barrier. It even rained tonight and her hair still looks good, TELL ME YOUR SECRETS TAYLOR.

There’s fireworks, there’s confetti, there’s screaming, there’s crying, there’s hugging and dancing. It’s a truly celebratory ending to a mammoth night of entertainment, one that I can scarcely believe has been upheld by a single artist.

So what were my main takeaways from tonight you ask? Well, firstly… someone has to spend presumably aeons sticking tiny rhinestones to every single thing Taylor Swift owns, from guitars to boots to trenchcoats and mic stands. This is fabulous, I’m so down with that part.

Next, Swifties have a seemingly endless reservoir of tears, and will cry at almost anything – including but not limited to, if you give them a bracelet that matches their outfit, or if Taylor looks their way at any point in the night. I now understand the real need for the water refill stations everywhere.

Following that train of thought, the Eras tour is one of the safest and best run events I’ve ever been to (and I’ve been to a LOT). The attention to detail and thought about logistics has been second to none, but more than that – all of the staff members have been genuinely fantastic, helpful and nice. I wish it wasn’t unusual in live music, but it is.

After the show I found out that Taylor Lautner (and I think his partner… Taylor Lautner… who are all friends with… Taylor) was hanging out in the VIP section, alongside TSwiz’s very own parents, and that I could have sidled up there as it was next to our section. Damn it. Where have I been Loca?! Anyway, as we head out of the arena after collecting some confetti to put with our tickets… I sense my sister, who is with me (also a phony-fan), is already on the turn towards Swiftdom – she has given two security guards bracelets, marvelled over the police dogs who have bracelets all the way up their leads, and bought us both tshirts.

So finally, to close this ridiculously long review (which really is an ode to a ridiculously long show) my thoughts boil down to this. Taylor Swift has an incredible voice, clever songwriting, and the ability to back-to-back intense 3 hour shows, in which she never stops. I might not be the kind of Swiftie that can sing all the lyrics, nor the kind who knows the ex-boyfriend lore, or even the kind who talks show tactics on the forums. BUT. When she inevitably comes back around, you can count on me to be there with silly bracelets on singing the same 5 songs I know, at the top of my voice. So long, London!

SETLIST

Intro

(The Alchemy/Fearless/End Game/Speak Now/gold rush/TTPD/evermore/Red/Lavender Haze/Lover/Bejeweled)

Lover

Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince (shortened)
Cruel Summer (extended outro)
The Man (spoken intro)
You Need to Calm Down (shortened)
Lover (spoken intro; extended outro)

Fearless

Fearless (shortened)
You Belong With Me
Love Story

Red

Red – Intro (contains elements of “State of Grace”, “Holy Ground” and “Red”)

22
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (Kam Saunders: “you having a laugh?!”)
I Knew You Were Trouble (shortened)
All Too Well (10 Minute Version; spoken intro)

Speak Now

Speak Now – Intro (contains elements of “Castles Crumbling”)

Enchanted (shortened)

Reputation

…Ready for It?
Delicate
Don’t Blame Me (shortened)
Look What You Made Me Do (extended outro)

Folklore / Evermore

cardigan (shortened)
betty (spoken intro; shortened)
champagne problems
august
illicit affairs (shortened)
my tears ricochet
marjorie (shortened)
willow (extended)

1989

Style (shortened)
Blank Space
Shake It Off
Wildest Dreams (shortened)
Bad Blood (shortened)

The Tortured Poets Department

Female Rage: The Musical (contains elements of “MBOBHFT”, “WAOLOM”, “loml”, “So Long, London” and “BDILH”)

But Daddy I Love Him / So High School
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? (shortened)
Down Bad (shortened; with “Fortnight” outro)
Fortnight
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived (shortened)
I Can Do It With a Broken Heart (extended intro)

Surprise Songs

Long Live / Change (spoken intro; mashup on guitar; tour debut for “Change”)
The Archer / You’re on Your Own, Kid (mashup on piano)

Midnights

Lavender Haze
Anti‐Hero
Midnight Rain
Vigilante Shit
Bejeweled
Mastermind
Karma (extended outro)

Bloodstock Open Air 2024 – THE GIANT REVIEW!

August 15, 2024 by Anna Hyams

FRIDAY

Back to Bloodstock for my 22^nd year, yes you read that right – from it’s humble beginnings in Derby Assembly rooms and my humble beginnings as a baby greebo, here we both are once again. The sun is shining in a menacing sort of way that tells me I’m going to end the weekend a delicious shade of rouge, but I am so ready to headbang my way through BOA 2024’s delectable musical offerings.

Green Lung hailing from London bring their stoner metal flavour to the RJD stage, which is set with an odd collection of Jim Henson-esque monsters for some reason. I really like the furry viking head thing but that horse-raven thing at the side is absolute nightmare fuel to be honest. “This song goes out to anyone who has ever suffered with depression” says frontman Tom Templar, before the band play recent hit ‘One For Sorrow’.

Grand Magus’ set is besieged by technical difficulties early on as the PA appears to be off on it’s own musical adventure when they’d stopped playing, but wow did they recover. Swedish heavy metal may as well be a brand in it’s own right at this point, but I have a theory that bands that unironically wear their own t-shirts – are always great. Next we catch supergroup Haliphron over on the Sophie Lancaster stage for some screamy doomy funtimes with a frontwoman who is possibly of Targaryen descent; “We are honoured to be on the Sophie stage, may she be remembered forever”.

Off for a wander we say a quick hello to local(ish) Tamworth legend SpudMan who is yelling funny things at everyone whilst scooping ungodly amounts of cheese onto potatoes, in the best way. Battle reenactment in the square is drawing a massive crowd of cheers, because who doesn’t want to relive their primary school field trips at a festival? The biggest cheer is reserved for when one from the blue team manages to smack the helmet off a very tall member of the green team (don’t quote me on that, the colours were a blur of shields and swords) as the compare shouts “Aww what lovely long flowing locks he has” just to really dial down the cool-factor.

Next we catch Rotting Christ, who despite their name are actually a band of very nice and friendly looking men doing a lot of shouting and hair windmilling. Black metal in the sunshine really hits different than it does on Spotify I tell you, they’re even *smiling*.

Norwegian metalheads Enslaved come out swinging with their Norse mythology inspired works and runes tattooed all over them, but the tone is immediately sobered as they say “We had some sad news this morning, a friend of ours passed away yesterday” referring to Dave Sweetapple of American band Witch.

Hatebreed up the tempo later on, as the heat of the day finally starts to wane a little, yelling “This is hallowed ground Bloodstock”, “It’s our job to make sure you wake up tomorrow with no voice left” and inciting some giant circle pits. Even the inflatable dinosaurs are up for a crowd-surf this evening, despite them being quite hard to navigate where you’re actually grabbing/passing them above your head…

In what seems like a day of laments, there is also the matter of the Lemmy Forever vigil which is brought to the main stage. A giant bust of Lemmy Kilmister (of Motorhead, in case you’ve been living under a rock for… well, ever) is ceremonially wheeled out onto the stage flanked by the Bloodstock organisers Adam and Vicky, and Phil Campbell. They each take turns to explain a bit about how much Lemmy loved Bloodstock, and what an impact he’d had before the portion of ashes bequeathed to Bloodstock were locked up in a tiny safe inside the bust. It’s quite a cool thing to do really, send parts of yourself to everywhere you loved – what a nice idea. Anyway, during the weekend you can go and ‘visit’ Lemmy inside the BOA art gallery, before he is relocated to Nottingham’s Rock City venue for the next year. If you do visit him, let me know if you also think his bust has very Iron Throne vibes, it’s so cool.

After a brief reprise for a bag of hot donuts, my most-anticipated band Clutch absolutely smash the metaphorical doors off the place with their signature brand of fast paced rock n roll. I will always find it absolutely hilarious that the rest of the extremely normcore coded band stay almost stock still mid-stage for the entire set while enigmatic frontman Neil Fallon wreaks body-contorting frenzied havoc about the place for a solid hour. “I didn’t think I needed sunscreen in the UK, that was a mistake” he jokes, before launching into earworm (and favourite of mine) ‘Sucker for the Witch’.

The awesome cosmic backdrop sadly isn’t on any of their tour merch, which incidentally was almost sold out completely before they ever even made it to the stage, so here’s my petition to Clutch to get it done. In another little stage sound mishap for today; “Hold on the guitar isn’t working… did you turn it off and on again? That’s good enough for rock and roll fuck it” doesn’t impede them for long and we get the excellent ‘In Walks Barbarella’. If you don’t singalong “Weaponized funk” there’s something wrong with you.

On the Sophie stage, The Vintage Caravan look exactly as you imagine they would – sporting the white Stetson, bootcut flares, double denim and jorts style of the US south. Except that they’re from Iceland. Oh. Anyway, I flippin’ love them. Guitarist Óskar Logi Ágústsson may be delightfully twee and joyful to watch, but his work is impeccable clean and complex – straight on my playlist they go.

Operatic all-lady quartet MAB burst the seams of the EMP tent with a huge crowd, but really needed to be elsewhere for the full effect I feel. There’s something slightly janky about trying to contain soaring vocals into an itsy bitsy tent, that is also a bar, that is also surrounded by shops with their own music playing.

Final band of the day for us is main stage closer, Sweden’s premier prog gods Opeth. Now, I will preface this with – last time I saw them I was unenthused. Mainly because I’m not all that into prog, but also because it was daytime and it felt all wrong listening to that kind of music in the blazing sunshine. Tonight however, the crowd is full, the sun has gone down and we are ready for some gloomy good times. ‘The Grand Conjuration’ opens the show and it really is impressive, despite it lasting for around eleventy billion hours. No I’m only joking, apparently the average Opeth song is only (ONLY) 8 minutes and 19 seconds long…

Mikael Åkerfeldt is in a much more talkative mood than last time as well, which is nice because the BOA crowd are feeling a bit heckle-y tonight it seems. “I LOVE YOU MIKAEL” an enormous man in the front row yells, drawing a laugh from the band before someone else shouts “Play Freebird!”. Taking it in his stride, Åkerfeldt shouts back “Freebird? That’s a good song… but no”.

“We have a new record… but we don’t know the songs yet… were gonna come back and play some songs sometime in the UK. Our manager is really angry with me right now for not saying the date but I can’t remember” they joke, but there’s no doubt the new stuff is met with trepidation from ‘Oldpeth’ fans. ‘Deliverance’ for the encore more than makes up for it, it’s a gorgeous, sumptuous show… for Opeth fans. For the rest of us uncultured swine, it’s a litany of lengthy poetry and I am too sleeeeepy.

The Grand Conjuration
Demon of the Fall
The Drapery Falls
In My Time of Need
Heir Apparent
Ghost of Perdition
Sorceress

Encore:

Deliverance

SATURDAY

A showery start to Saturday has us all worrying we’ve brought the wrong clothing, but it soon clears up to be another spicy day in the sunshine, and we’re headed to the Sophie stage to catch the rather beautiful goth goblin that is Ludovico Technique. As the Ringwraiths, ahem, band, make their way to the stage we catch a glimpse of vocalist Ben V swigging something viscous from a plastic cup, that looks suspiciously like he’s downing a blood bag.

The Dementor’s amp up and he creeps into centre brandishing his giant claws at the crowd. I’m really into this resurgence of industrial spooky metal, it has a very MM feel with a bit of a grungy Silverchair esque edge to it. I even like the orc-blood drool (which I guess was the contents of the curious cup).

On the RJD stage, Forbidden are bringing us some classic old school thrash metal, lots of hair and screaming, with Craig Locicero absolutely wailing on the guitar. The dinosaur meet-up on the EMP stage for today’s fancy dress theme, is somewhat of a distraction though. Especially when someone plays a metal version of the Jurassic Park theme.

Mimi Barks is ripping up the Sophie stage with her unique brand of doomy rap over electronic metal beats. Wearing a plastic yellow two-piece with a zip around the entire crotch region, and some impressively scary white-out contact lenses, she looks like some kind of otherworldly futuristic voodoo doll. I dig it, and her music is memorably feral. There’s a huge crowd in here, all going as berserk as she is, which really is the measure of any act I feel.

Unleash The Archers couldn’t be more of a whiplash change of pace, bringing Canadian power metal to the main stage. As you might imagine, they are extremely smiley and nice, but that doesn’t mean they can’t throw down. Frontwoman Brittney Hayes is capable of singing incredible highs AND windmilling her raven black hair at neck distorting speed. Joking about the weather here today, which has now become uncomfortably hot “We recently played rock en seine and it was 40 degrees… So I’ll take this any day” laughs Brittney, despite guitarist Andrew Kingsley being possibly the most sunburn prone ginger man I have ever seen.

Anyhow, I know it isn’t cooool but I enjoy some melodic/symphonic metal and I’d like to see a bigger return to it on future BOA bills.

The chaotically fun Nottingham band Red Rum bring all the pirates to the yard, well tent, for a very silly set of drinking and yelling about drinking. A very sweaty “Open up a circle here bloodstock! No, not for a pit… for a heavy metal conga!” to you all.

On the main stage, Deicide are hotly attended but I wish I could actually hear the guitars over the screaming, and I’m too hot. Whitechapel bring crowdsurfers galore over the barrier, including one lad dressed as a giant inflatable penis, but it’s Combichrist who really up the ante with a scorching electronic set of pure wild abandon. If you’re into NIN and Rob Zombie, Combichrist are gonna be one of your top bands this weekend – and I WISH they’d played the main stage because there wasn’t even an inch of space left unoccupied inside that tent.

Malevolence too go hard the minute they hit the stage, calling for the crowd to split into a giant wall of death, but they are also caught with some sound hijinks like a few other bands so far this weekend; “We are having some technical difficulties but I promise you we’re gonna have a good night together”. After the resolution, vocalist Alex Taylor yells that he wants everyone over the barrier, and the crowd surfers never stop coming.

“We are Malevolence and we’re from Sheffield, but we flew 300 miles to get here because we weren’t fucking missing this” is backed by a crowd-led chant of “Yoooorkshire, Yooorkshire” before an attempt is made at a very silly circle pit. “Show me the biggest fuckin circle pit Bloodstock has ever seen… Hold on make some space. I think I asked for it to go back around the sound desk. Push people out the way. I’m not leaving this stage until it happens”. At this point it occurs to me that they have no idea that there’s actually an ice-cream truck backed up to the sound desk, and very little real estate for any kind of interesting behaviour, but the people give it a go regardless. It looks a bit more like a goth fun-run than a circle-pit but I applaud the effort.

“This is the third time we’ve played Bloodstock, It’s a dream come true to be up here. We hold this festival very close to our hearts” they shout, and leave us with a record breaking 901 count for crowd surfers. Manic.

Sylosis are beset by horrendous technical issues one song in, downing play for over 15 minutes and some very awkward calls for solos. Frontman Josh Middleton (who is rocking a Deicide tee) is visibly beside himself with annoyance as his guitar output goes completely kaput, and refuses to reboot despite several attempts from techies. Eventually he comes back sans guitar and they give us everything they’ve got without it. It’s heavy and the pit is boisterous, but I feel really sad for them to have done it this way.

Main stage headliner Architects blow us all away with their heavy opener ‘Seeing Red’ and a heck-tonne of on stage pyro. “Malevolence earlier had a 901 final count of crowd surfers… we are going to give it shot. Do you have the energy in you? Get on your friends’ shoulders and get over this fucking barrier” shouts Dan Searle before calling Bloodstock “Hallowed ground”.

It’s a strong headline set, but there’s a bit of me that wishes it hadn’t been quite so clinical – a little nod to some of Bloodstock’s history is something we’ve come to expect from bands here, especially UK ones who know what BOA is to the scene, but this felt every bit like a stadium show to me. Regardless, they certainly play tight and the pyro/ticker tape always adds a bit of excitement to a set.

“There’s a guy there with a sign that just says I love anal… I ain’t about to kink shame you brother that fuckin rules” laughs Dan, before some heartfelt shout outs “We would not be a band if it wasn’t for my brother Tom”, Dan’s twin and Architects founder, who sadly died in 2016. “Another person who has really helped this band… Make some noise for Josh from Sylosis” their ex-guitarist who performed earlier today.

‘Doomsday’, ‘Nihilist’ and ‘Animals’ finish up a very respectable set from the Brighton boys, and if you like that Enter Shikari type of sound, they’ve definitely scratched that itch tonight – but I’m hoping next time they’ll feel more woven into the BOA lore.

Seeing Red
Giving Blood
deep fake
Impermanence
Black Lungs
These Colours Don’t Run
Hereafter
Gravedigger
a new moral low ground
Curse
Royal Beggars
Doomsday
Meteor
when we were young

Encore:

Nihilist
Animals

Like any festival worth its salt, the night-time entertainment doesn’t stop at the headliner, but BOA goes one up and has a Sophie Stage headliner too. Finnish folk-metal heroes Korpiklaani take that top spot tonight to an absolutely rammed tent, for a night of Lappish cultural tales dressed up in some downright dirty heavy metal. Frontman Jonne Järvelä is dressed like a Saami Jack Sparrow in a hide-tophat and fringed clothing combo, and he reads as extremely cheeky and prone to hijinks. Ideal.

In a bid to get us grooving, their fiddle and accordion-led music is amped up for ‘A Man With A Plan’ and we can’t help but enthusiastically join in, the constant stream of crowd-surfers over the barrier tell me that everyone in here is having a ball. If all of that didn’t satisfy your needs tonight, Jonne also gets his arse out – so there’s that. 10/10 I love Korpiklaani.

SUNDAY

Onto the final day of BOA and it’s another absolute scorcher out there, lots of extremely pink people are gathered at the main stage for the gorgeously melodic Soen. Billed as Swedish Prog metal, but definitively different to everything else I’d put in that category, Soen are captivatingly soft and sombre, as well as remaining heavy and singable. I’m not surprised they’ve had a big turn-out here, I really enjoyed their set.

In a complete 180, Beast In Black are a gut-busting dose of fast and furious power-metal with an electronic edge. A massive neon Tokyo nights backdrop, retina-burning neon green and pink guitars that would look at home in any Goosebumps episode, and incredible themed outfits are the name of the game and I am here for all of it.

Sometimes you just need a band to come out and BE FUN. Beast In Black deliver across the board – I particularly like their choreographed headbanging/guitar swishing, but there’s no doubt about their musical talent either, the riffs are tight. Frontman Anton Kabanen (who looks like he’s ready to host the cyberpunk Crystal Maze), shouts “Are you ready to travel with us to a beautiful country called Japan? We’re gonna spend one night in Tokyo my friends!” and we are treated to a very cheesy but ultimately very catchy afternoon of metal.

Warpstormer have filled the EMP tent to bursting for their low and slow thrash, and Septicflesh are throwing down the hair-swishing gauntlet in the fiercely strong sunshine. “We are Septicflesh from Athens Greece! Are You ready to move with us?” is met with sword-wielding enthusiasm from the front (no really, one guy actually has a sword) but there are a lot of heat-suffering people trying to muster up the energy around the arena.

Ankor in the Sophie tent bring us stunningly energetic punk-edged metalcore, and I sincerely hope that this is a band we see on a BOA stage again very soon – not least because their pocket-sized drummer is an incredible thrash-Queen and their lead singer can screeeeeam.

The Night Flight Orchestra are a Swedish classic rock band, who sound exactly like the montage part of every 80’s action film ever made. Like if you’re going to drive a sports car around winding roads to get to your next Roadhouse, or spend some time learning how to do a crane-kick – The Night Flight Orchestra have your back buddy. Lead singer Björn Strid (of Soilwork fame) is resplendent in an iridescent cape, his backing singers are dressed as retro air-hostesses and the drummer is wearing a full suit and cravat. I don’t know what to say, but I like it all very much.

“Did you bring your dancing shoes Bloodstock? Did you?” yells Björn, and the crowd screams back at him – it seems there are a lot of NFO fans in the BOA crowd today. Instant earworm ‘Satellite’ sees the entire arena start bouncing, and the band call for a group of people dressed as pilots to join them on stage – “Security we need our people on stage, our crew, get them up here”. After hugging everyone, the fans on stage are instructed to begin a conga line with the air-hostesses, as a matching conga takes up in the crowd.

“This is the very last festival for us, make us proud!” he shouts as they hit ‘West Ruth Ave’ which sounds like it would be perfect for a 70’s cop show. I can’t overstate how much I have loved this entire set, and I love Bloodstock for being able to book something so ridiculously fun alongside the more doomy serious bands – what an epic choice.

I feel much the same about the main-stage placement of Irish celtic punk rockers Flogging Molly – a band I’ve been blessed to see a few times now, and every single time they have been utterly fantastic. Today is no outlier, between Dave King throwing out cans of Guinness into the crowd, and his chaotic running around the stage – it’s hard to scratch a moment to breathe amongst the revelry. ‘Drunken Lullabies’ is the perfect opener for a Bloodstock crowd and ‘Tobacco island’ with it’s piratey sound is very BOA coded. “Fuck I need a drink after that” giggles Dave, “I’m gonna look like a fuckin tomato after this I’ll tell you that. The most beautiful tomato you’ve ever seen”.

“You’re absolutely fuckin’ beautiful you really are”, “One of the great things about being in a band like Flogging Molly is, today we’re playing an amazing metal festival and in 2 weeks time we’re coming back to play Moseley folk festival in Birmingham” they joke, but they’re not wrong – some of the great appeal of Flogging Molly is their ability to genre-cross, and I’d wager most metal fans actually listen to a very wide range of music.

‘Devil’s Dance Floor’ features Bridget Regan on the tin whistle, and has the entire arena up and dancing in a way that sort of looks like Riverdance with cattle prods. In a tribute to Motorhead’s Lemmy, “…so this is a song of friendship, and it goes like this…” we get the soulfully beautiful

‘If I Ever Leave This World Alive’, one of my favourite songs of all time. Another truly epic show today, thanks for booking that one BOA.

Carcass might not be my precise jam, but I did have to giggle at the Evil Nation/Live Nation t-shirt, and in their defence – and awful lot of people were having a thrashing good time with them. For my personal preference, Moldovan metal band Infected Rain over in the Sophie tent are the kind of wild I like. Lead vocalist Elena Cataraga (Lena Scissorhands) has a stunning voice alongside being able to scream like some sort of eldritch horror, their bassist is going absolutely berserk and the tent is a swarm of undulating limbs.

Closing the main stage tonight is the long-awaited return of Sweden’s finest – Amon Amarth. As the black curtain falls from the stage, we are immediately blasted in the face by ten tonnes of viking death metal and so much pyro it makes my eyes explode. ‘Guardians of Asgaard’ is powerfully, enormously fantastic – it’s quite hard to describe the frenetic energy of being right in the midst of it all.

“I don’t know if you know the lore but I’m going to say it anyway… don’t worry about it it’s just the lead into the next song” frontman Johan Hegg (who I have affectionately termed ‘Fire Santa’) leads us into ‘As Loke Falls’ whilst standing directly over a raging smoke cannon. The effect is frankly cinematic, but I’m not sure entirely intended as he quickly disembarks the step.

The giant Viking horn drum set, the towering Hnefatafl-like statues flanking the stage sides, the unrelenting blasts of golden orange flames… what an insanely iconic show, again.“Bloodstock have you had a great festival weekend?” is met with an almighty roar from the crowd, before the much anticipated call “Right bloodstock… bring out the epic viking row!”.

Now this, is a uniquely BOA experience (even commemorated on the back of an Amon Amarth tshirt available this weekend) as it was started here, in Derbyshire. If you ever went to a 90’s school disco, you’ll remember sitting on the floor for some inexplicable reason, to do oops upside your head dance moves in weird columns. So take that image and add it to your mental representation of row-row-row-your-boat; but everyone is grown-up, in varying stages of alcohol toxicity, sweaty, tattooed and wearing black.

Almost everyone in the whole arena complies, sits down in rows and begin to… well, row to the commanding calls from Johan, as an inflatable viking ship bobs happily on the stage. It’s surreal and kitschy and I adore it.

For ‘Shield Wall’ they bring out a heap of Viking reenactment types to hit each other and provide a visual cue, and we all take the opportunity to drain our cups (or drinking horns) as they shout “You’re loud and you’re wild and we love that shit, so we thought we’d take this opportunity to raise our horns to you… bloods cheers… skol!”.

“I think we have enough energy for another one how bout you guys… do you wanna party? Well then I guess it’s time for you guys to raise your horns… sing along!” signals the beginning of the end, but the encore includes an inflatable sea serpent being vanquished by Johan wielding Thor’s hammer, under a curtain of pyro. Epic.

“Until next time, be safe, party on, but most important raise your horns”.

Raven’s Flight
Guardians of Asgaard
The Pursuit of Vikings
Deceiver of the Gods
As Loke Falls
Tattered Banners and Bloody Flags
Heidrun
War of the Gods
Put Your Back Into the Oar
Put Your Back Into the Oar
The Way of Vikings
Under the Northern Star
First Kill
Shield Wall
Raise Your Horns

Encore:

Crack the Sky
Twilight of the Thunder God

Oh Bloodstock, there’s no easy way to explain to an outsider how much you feel like home. This might be a small festival on the scale of iconic metalfests, but you bet your ass everyone knows about it – because the community is impeccable here. I raise a glass of Iron Maiden’s darkest red wine to you all (which was for sale by the glass or bottle here), because every single year this festival exceeds my expectations. Next year is already off to a stellar start with the band announcements, and I’m unprecedently early in my preparedness to have my face melted off by Machine Head… once my currently melted face has recovered from Amon Amarth.

Wychwood Festival 2024 – REVIEWED!

June 8, 2024 by Shôn Douglas

DAY ONE – FRIDAY

Wychwood Festival is one of the first of the season and this year marks the 24^th anniversary of the hugely popular event in Cheltenham. The event is regularly nominated for Best Family Friendly festival and proudly offers an eclectic mix of musical acts.

This is the second consecutive year that the festival site has been further into Cheltenham Racecourse, in between the very top end of the famous course and Hyde Brook, with Cleeve Hill overlooking the site. It’s a very pretty location for a festival and you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a lot further away from a large town when you’re there.

For anyone not driving to site, the local D bus service runs from the train station, through the town centre and out to the park and ride at the racecourse. From there it’s approximately 30 minutes-walking through the grounds up to the campsite entrance.

On day one the first bands start on Sam’s Stage at 2pm, which allowed time for a wander around the revamped festival site to get my bearings.

A word on Sam’s Stage (the main stage) before carrying on.

In November 2023, co-founder of Wychwood, Sam Shrouder sadly passed away. While he had been ill for some time, Sam still MC’d the event from the main stage last year – introducing acts as he had done for 20 years prior. His loss is keenly felt among the Wychwood family and renaming the stage in his honour is a fitting tribute to his legacy.

The site is well laid out, with the main stage at the far end of the arena. Most of the catering options, more of which later, are in the middle of the site, flanked by fair rides and with bars both sides – including a VIP area which guests can upgrade their tickets to access.

This year the Garden stage’s big top was positioned closer to the campsite entry at the opposite end of the site to Sam’s Stage making for a slightly longer walk between the two – albeit still very short by festival standards.

The six months or so of rain that we’ve had this year had definitely taken its toll on the site making the efforts of the set-up crews all the more impressive. Track marks from heavy machinery had caused some rutting in the ground which made for a slightly more “exciting” walk around site, but matting was soon put down to create more easy walking routes.

The weather was also not giving “festival” with a brisk wind whipping through site and slate grey sky making for a murky start to the weekend.

With the sights and smells of the food stalls wafting by and a rumbling stomach we went to sample toasties from Let’s Get Toastie only on their second ever outing at a festival and offering a range of delicious fillings as well as excellent coffee. We went for a classic Ham & Cheese and a Chicken & Pesto, both of which were dripping with gooey delicious mozzarella and cheddar cheese and definitely hit the spot. At £8 each it wasn’t cheap, but with a grey overcast day it was most welcome.

Even more welcome were the folks from Solo Stove who brought their smokeless fire pits to a corner of the festival site and provided some much-needed warmth and a chance to sit down. They offered free s’mores cooked over the pits which were a big hit as well as chance to win your own fire pit.

Wychwood again offered a multitude of workshops teaching all manner of new skills from playing the Ukulele, to wicker basket making and circus skills.

While having a look at the merch tent the series of new designs for the festival shirts featuring drawings of Tigers and Toucans on adult shirts and crocodile/stegosaurus on kid’s shirts really caught the eye. Adult shirts are £25 with childrens’ priced at £20. Hoodies (saving many ill-prepared festival goers) came in at £38 for adults and £28 for children sizes. The largest size of the official festival T-Shirt was XL which was the same case last year and put this heftier chap off altogether. Band merch was also available throughout the weekend.

Stomach and eyes sated it was time to feed my ears, and first up on Sam’s Stage to kick off the festival were The Standard. The ten-piece specialise in covers and launched into ‘Man! I Feel Like A Woman’ with gusto and soon had a music-hungry crowd dancing and grateful for the chance to warm up!

Wychwood was officially off and the next stop was The Garden stage to see Genevieve Miles play her dreamy, indie-pop. Genevieve was one of over 870 ‘Apply To Play’ entries and joined eight other lucky slot recipients to play the festival. Her infectious enthusiasm warmed the crowd’s cockles and meant at least this reviewer didn’t need to make another visit to the fire pits (until much later on anyway…).

Due to the assembly of the tent there was a large structural pillar in front of the stage, right slap bang in the middle. I can only assume the months of rain led to changes being needed to the layout because otherwise it was a bit bizarre having bands split either side of the column or all standing to one side (numbers depending).

Across the festival site to the Mountainside Workshops and Neemus Presents Open Mic Session was giving budding performers a chance to woo the crowd. They hosted three sessions across the weekend and had musicians of all ages gracing the stage, including a little lad called Charlie who got a rapturous response from the audience who loved his rock covers.

Back to Sam’s Stage and Scottish rockers Big Country who welcomed Tommie Paxton of Restless Natives into the lead singer role following the surprise announcement of Simon Hough to leave the band a fortnight ago. You wouldn’t tell the band was reeling from the shock though, as they romped through their set – getting the crowd bouncing. Lead guitarist and longest serving member Bruce Watson (joined on stage by son Jamie) gave it his all, having the time of his life while chiding some of the members of the band including “the greatest bass player in this band at this moment in time”.

I left before the end of their set to catch Jo Hill leading a singalong of “All my girls are Tom Boys” on The Garden stage. Joined onstage by two bandmates all playing guitar and singing, the melodies blended beautifully with harmonies capable of melting even the most flint-like of hearts.

Mid-thousands chart botherers The Hoosiers were next up and immediately brought high energy and fine tailored suits to Sam’s Stage but were also very aware (thanks to their powers of group mind reading) that the notion of playing any new material would be met with outrage.

Even with a back catalogue of bangers, The Hoosiers threw in big cover versions of Backstreet Boys and Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ before ending on ‘Goodbye Mr A’ and literally saying goodbye for the afternoon.

One of the perils of the wind blowing through the site, aside from the chill, was the wafting scent of Raclette from stage left! Despite the allegations, I am only human and so I caved and treated myself to a traditional Raclette with added bacon which came in at a very reasonable £11. The gooey, unctuous melted cheese waterfall combined with perfectly cooked potatoes was a treat and set me up for the rest of the day – which is just as well as there was lots more to come!

Back at Sam’s Stage it was another mid 00’s pop machine in the guise of The Feeling. This year marks 18 years since the band’s triple-platinum debut album ‘Twelve Stops And Home’ landed and they kicked things off with UK top 10 hit ‘Fill My Little World’.

Over their 45-minute slot the band played through the album, throwing in an excellent cover of The Buggles’ ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ and the titular song from West End smash hit ‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’ which lead singer Dan Gillespie-Sells wrote. The group ended on ‘Love It When You Call’ which has been stuck in my head ever since and then it was time for one of the highlights of the weekend…Barrioke!

Shaun Williamson aka Barry from Eastenders has carved a niche for himself with this fan favourite. Howlin’ Pete’s was overflowing with fans craning their necks to catch the man himself in action as he welcomed festival goers on stage to join him in a karaoke sing-along. Bedecked in a shiny gold jacket, Shaun/Barry claimed to enjoy playing Wychwood as it was the only time he left the racecourse with any money in his pocket – a nod to Cheltenham races which he promotes for a well-known bookie.

Heading over to The Garden stage once more and time for Dutch indie band Pip Blom who were excellent! Led by front woman Pip Blom the band played tracks from most recent album Bobbie, including Tiger, ‘Kiss Me By Candlelight’ and ‘Where’d You Get My Number?’. The slinky, sexy, sinister sound was perfect preparation for Corrine Bailey Rae’s performance on Sam’s Stage.

Speaking to Summer Festival Guide after her set, Bailey Rae told us that she didn’t want to be regarded as “just a “heritage act” when you’re sort of playing cover versions of your old music” and immediately dispelled any doubts about that statement by kicking off proceedings with the ‘A Spell, A Prayer’ – the opening track from her latest record, ‘Black Rainbows’.

Black Rainbows was inspired by an exhibition on Black history by artist Theaster Gates at the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago. In between songs from the album, Bailey Rae explained the inspiration behind each track before picking up her Gibson SG and rocking the hell out – nowhere more so than on the frankly epic ‘Erasure’. The sound is heavier than expected and a nod to the Leeds native’s background in indie band Helen which cited L7 and Veruca Salt as influences.

Those members of the audience reeling from the sonic assault, expecting radio friendly pop tunes were placated later on as ‘Put Your Records On’ and ‘Like a Star’ closed out the set – much to the excitement of a woman on the barrier wearing a star covered raincoat!

From stars to sequins and there is no doubt that Disco is one of the great musical unifiers. Even if members of the crowd claimed not to know much of Friday night headliner Sister Sledge’s music before the show began, once they started there was no-one standing still!

Kicking off with Lost in Music, the line-up consisting of Debbie Sledge, Camille Sledge, Tanya Ti-et, Thaddeus Sledge and David Sledge brought disco BACK! A monster set list made up of bonafide hits followed, featuring ‘Frankie’, ‘He’s the Greatest Dancer’ and ‘Thinking of You’. They even threw in two Chic covers with ‘Everybody Dance’ and ‘Good Times’ before bringing day one to a close with an epic ‘We Are Family’ that sent punters off into the night with faces beaming like discoballs!

With the night drawing to a close and despite having shaken my booty throughout Sister Sledge’s set the urge to dance on was as mighty as their vocals, so the Silent Disco was calling!

For those unfamiliar with the Silent Disco concept you get a pair of headphones which have channel options to switch between allowing you to listen to different DJs vying for your aural adulation. To a passer by you hear folks singing along to different songs leading to a bizarre mash up as genre hopping occurs and strained voice fill the night air.

There’s a £10 deposit for the headphones which struck fear into this reviewer’s heart realising an overreliance on digital payments seemed set to scupper a much-anticipated dance. Thankfully, the bar in the tent did cashback meaning dancing was very much on the cards.

After a solid couple of hours bouncing between indie hits, 90’s dance classics and an EMO set (it’s NOT a phase!) it was time to head back for the night to see what Saturday would deliver…

DAY TWO – SATURDAY

WAKEY WAKEY! Saturday morning sleepy heads were roused from their beds by one man positivity machine Mr Motivator who led the crowd through a 45 minute workout to kickstart the day. Speaking to Summer Festival Guide after his slot, the main man told us that movement is a wonderful medicine and “moving the mood” can help improve our mental and physical health – setting us up to feel good “not just for when you’re doing it, but for hours and days afterwards.”

Saturday saw a definite increase in numbers on site as day ticket holders descended on the racecourse for a packed day.

Aside from the music, there are activities galore at Wychwood – especially for kids. The Storybox tent returned, hosting readings from much-loved children’s authors as well as books available to buy and all manner of fun board games to keep the young and older alike entertained.

Speaking of board games, next door Firey Jack’s Games of Days Gone By tent was brimming with ye olde activities including Viking Chess and medieval Jenga, which proved hugely popular throughout the weekend and a fair amount of head scratching on our part trying to work out the rules.

Over at Howlin’ Pete’s with my ears still ringing from the Silent Disco the night before Taskmaster Education had taken over and were putting children through their paces at the whim of the Taskmaster’s assistant, Little Alex Horne.

The busier site meant decision making on food was based more on length of queues than any particular preference, with the Souvlaki, Pizza and Fish and Chip vendors proving particularly popular. Spying a short line at Himalayan Dumplings & Lunchboxes I opted for an Enlighten Your Tastebuds lunchbox consisting of 24-hour marinated beef mince on a bed of steamed rice with three beef dumplings. This came in at a pretty punchy £14 but was very filling and tasted great.

Onto the music and the first performer of the day I caught was Dolly Mavies on Sam’s Stage. Dolly hails from just over the border in Oxfordshire and has supported previous Wychwood performers Mel C and Sophie Ellis-Bextor on their tours. Along with her very talented band, including drummer who was metronomic throughout, Dolly and band filled their half hour slot with polished indie pop and definitely left the stage with some new fans.

The first act on stage at The Garden was Supalung, aka singer-songwriter Sam Brookes. His voice filled the tent up as he worked through songs written under the Supalung moniker as well as those he’s performed under his own name, including ‘Wreck My Body’ a song about being in love.

While wandering across the site I spied a group of men dressed as jockeys in the VIP area. Suspecting a stag do, I then spied a horse spinning around on one of the fair ground rides on site – one of the more surreal images from the weekend but not the most surreal (more on that later). Local Samba group Ola Samba offered drumming workshops and performances over the weekend, bringing a welcome splash of colour to another grey day.

Over in The Garden, Gloucester-based collective Dub Catalyst filled the stage with their ten members and the tent with an audience seeking a good time – and the group delivered. They could easily have played the main stage and had another half an hour in the eyes of this reviewer and more than a few of the audience who were skanking away throughout the band’s set.

On Sam’s Stage, Scottish singer songwriter Callum Beattie brought his uplifting indie rock to a busy crowd with more than a few Scots out in the audience – hardly a surprise with Texas headlining. Beattie has similarities with the likes of Sam Fender, Bruce Springsteen and The Gaslight Anthem – bringing together rousing anthems with a storyteller’s patter. He introduces song ‘Daddy’s Eyes’ about his father returning home from the pub at 8am and taking him to school at 8:30am. There’s nothing new in what he’s doing, but he’s doing it well and Beattie thanks the audience for turning up to watch an act that was unknown to them beforehand. There’ll definitely be some converts after this performance.

Nottingham natives Stereo MCs take to the stage next with a plan to make the crowd dance. With a 45-minute set and over 30 years of music to work through, the group led by frontman Rob Birch waste no time in getting stuck into proceedings and deliver with anthems ‘Connected’ and ‘Step It Up’. Some of the crowd seemed to be saving themselves for the rest of the evening’s entertainment, but those that were dancing did so with gusto.

With a lot of the day left and the Silent Disco’s excesses creeping in I decide it’s time for a caffeine hit and grab a Flat White for £4 which isn’t much more expensive than one of Cheltenham’s many coffee shops are charging.

Energised I head to catch the end of Abbie Ozard’s performance in The Garden tent. Her soaring, sweet vocals have the crowd engaged and she treats them to new song ‘Monster’ before ending with recent single ‘Anything for You’ which is inspired by the compromises made for “them that you love”. She releases her debut album in July and is definitely one to watch.

On the absolute opposite end of new and emerging talent are The Bootleg Beatles. The world’s premiere The Beatles cover band has been entertaining crowds for over 40 years and with such a breadth of incredible material to work through, there was no doubt they’d be bringing a hell of a show with them and boy did they deliver!

Kicking off with an energetic version of ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ and followed up with ‘She Loves You’, ‘All My Loving’ and ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ the Fab Four immediately had the Wychwood crowd singing and dancing along. Speaking with Summer Festival Guide before the performance the band spoke about the challenge of condensing a theatre show down into a festival slot and the limitations it places on them, but a solo performance of ‘Yesterday’ by ‘Paul’ aka Steve White allowed the remaining three Beatles chance to change outfits for the second era of the show. Sadly for this reviewer, a performance of ‘Here Comes The Sun’ didn’t quote force the sun to make an appearance, but in their defence it did show the next day. A singalong of ‘Hey Jude’ closed out the show and drove the feel-good factor up tenfold.

Welsh sextet CVC aka Church Village Collective were on next in The Garden bringing their psychedelic rock and disco basslines to this corner of Gloucestershire. CVC are DEEPLY cool, from the look to their music and multi-instrumentalism – they owned the stage and were a definite highlight of the weekend. ‘Good Morning Vietnam’ from the band’s 2023 Get Real album is an absolute powerhouse of a song, with a pulsing bassline throughout the chorus and layered vocals asking the crowd “Is it okay if I’m yours for the night?”. I think there’ll be more than a few investing more than just the night in CVC from here on.

Psychedelia was back on the menu on Sam’s Stage next with The Coral. It’s22 years since the band’s self-titled debut and since then they’ve released 11 studio albums with their sound progressing along the way. Frontman James Skelly said prior to going on stage that they wanted to “play your best stuff over the years really” and what followed was a greatest hits of The Coral show, covering the last two decades.

Starting off with ‘Bill McCai’ the group went through 16 songs in total, playing hits such as ‘Pass It On’, ‘Lover Undiscovered’, ‘In The Morning’ and ‘Jacqueline’ as well as a cover of The Doors’ ‘People Are Strange’ from one of the band’s favourite films Lost Boys before closing out the evening with ‘Dreaming of You’ as the sun started to set behind the Malvern Hills in the distance.

Before Texas came to stage I went on a mission to find a gluten-free/vegan option to see how people with dietary requirements are catered to at the festival and found Oh Babu to the right of the main stage where I got a delicious Punjabi Meal Box with spiced chickpea curry, saffron pilau rice and salad for £11. It wasn’t the easiest to eat with a fork, but thankfully a spoon was on hand to help and avoid any unwanted spillages (least of all because I was very hungry!).

I took another lap of the festival site to catch a packed tent enjoying The Amy Winehouse Band in action at Howlin’ Pete’s, while The Garden was overflowing with fans trying to watch Peter Hook and The Light. The amount of Joy Division t-shirts on show throughout the day should have been a fair indication that Hooky’s set was going to be popular, and sure enough it was!

With his trademark low slung bass guitar, Hook ran through a mix of Joy Division and New Order tracks including ‘She’s Lost Control’, ‘Transmission’ and ‘Shadowplay’ by the former and ‘Blue Monday’, ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ and ‘True Faith’ before closing the evening with ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ and fulfilling everyone’s bingo card of hits for the evening.

The final act of the day is Saturday headliners Texas. The band is well and truly amongst the legends of pop music in the UK, with a career spanning almost 40 years and a massive amount of material at their disposal. Tonight felt more like a Texas show than a festival, with a massed crowd gathered to see the Scottish band in action.

Kicking off with ‘I Don’t Want a Lover”, front woman Sharleen Spiteri went on to tell the crow that “We’re gonna give you a little bit of everything” and being on stage is their happy place – and on the basis of tonight’s show it was hard to argue!

The front woman’s energy and crowd engagement elevated the performance to a whole other level. Acknowledging that she had “far too much to say for myself”, Spiteri chided one reveller for wearing a gilet – assuring the crowd that “no-one in a gilet can dance!”. This led to the woman removing the gilet, drawing a cackle from Spiteri as she gleefully exclaimed “she took it off!”. In an act of solidarity, the singer removed her own jacket before urging the crowd to get down and dirty and playing ‘Let’s Work It Out’ before segueing into Orange Juice’s ‘Rip It Up’.

From here on out the band was hurtling toward escape velocity with the crowd waiting on Spiteri’s every word. During an acoustic version of “In Demand” she asked the audience to hold up their phone torches, making her feel like she was “in Avatar!” and then it was into the final throes of the show – with a triple whammy of ‘Black Eyed Boy’, ‘Say What You Want’ and ‘Inner Smile’ bringing down the curtain on another brilliant night at Wychwood.

Spitteri and co put on one of THE great Wychwood headline performances and thrown down the gauntlet to next year’s headliners for what will be the festival’s 25^th anniversary. Absolutely 10/10!

DAY THREE – SUNDAY

Finally! The sun has decided to make an appearance and brought with it a riot of colour as festival goers dispense with the practical hoodies and layers and bring out the sparkles, fancy dress, countless football shirts, bucket hats and ice creams.

My day started with a bacon roll from Jolly Hog, who had moved their pitch overnight to be closer to the main arena. It wasn’t cheap at £8, but the bacon was good quality and well cooked and at that point in the morning with nought but coffee for sustenance it was much needed.

This morning’s main stage starters were CBBC’s Hacker T Dog and Kate Thistleton delivering a high energy DJ set which kicked off with a remix of the iconic “We’re just normal men…” line that seems to have been viral since Louis Pasteur’s days! A chaotic three quarters of an hour consisting of dog related songs and chart bangers ensued, but also remixed versions of children’s TV theme songs – the latter of which teed up one of the more bizarre sights of the weekend.

Ahead of their set in The Garden later that day, Dexy’s frontman and all-round music icon Kevin Rowland was warming up with a Qi Gong session, a form of tai chi. The gentle flowing movement of Kevin’s workout coincided with a dance version of the Fireman Sam theme tune, which one wouldn’t normally associate with the meditative act. It may well have been Kevin had headphones in and couldn’t hear what was going on, or alternatively there may be a new Qi Gong anthem on the block!

Crispin was next up on Sam’s Stage. The local lad from “just round the corner” is a former Gloucester Cathedral chorister and despite the band’s sound being somewhat less choral, his sincere ballads and indie rock songs were catchy and set the day up for a guitar band heavy line up of music to come.

In Howlin’ Pete’s tent John Leather’s Swiftie Disco offered a pop tonic to the rock, playing the pop queen’s records for an impressive two and a half hours. It definitely kept restless kids entertained as they danced through eras of Swift’s music, stopping only for a restorative ice cream on the way.

The Garden had a great line-up for the final day, and first up was Thomas Bradley Project. Hailing from Liverpool, the band brought a traditional folk/rock sound with elements of Led Zeppelin in their 70’s influenced sound.

Next up were Scottish band Brògeal from Falkirk. The band brought frantic energy to the stage, a lazy comparison would be like The Pogues but with a Scottish accent – but there were elements more like a Scottish spaghetti western at times, and raucous foot stompers throughout. About three quarters of the way through a breathless set and in between swigs of white wine from the bottle, front man Daniel Harkins – wearing Kappa popper tracksuit bottoms (a throwback to my own youth!) proclaimed “We’re gonna kick it up a notch” which left me wondering how many notches there were!

It wouldn’t be Wychwood without mainstays and local legends Thrill Collins who brought the vibes to a busy Sam’s Stage. Their infectious energy and breathless pop mash ups were the perfect accompaniment to the now sun-soaked festival. Not only are the band supremely talented and fun as all heck, but they’re also modest too – claiming to have written ‘Barbie Girl’ at the end of the summer last year. Sadly no sign of Ryan Gosling joining them on stage – but who knows, the 25^th anniversary may well bring a dose of Hollywood with it.

Indie icons The Futureheads were next up on Sam’s Stage. Having burst onto the scene in the mid 00’s with hits such as ‘Decent Days and Nights’ and ‘Beginning of the Twist’ the Sunderland quartet brought their energetic best to the main stage, rattling through their hits seamlessly before summoning the power of the crowd for their imperious cover of Kate Bush’s ‘Hounds of Love’. Ending with a mighty version of ‘Man Ray’ the ‘heads added headed off to a festival near you!

Across site to The Garden and Welsh group Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard were the heaviest act of the weekend. Matching every member of the audience’s devil horns with his own, shaven headed frontman Tom Rees was the very epitome of rock god and delivered the deepest split I have ever seen a shredding guitarist deploy during one mighty riff. The heat was playing a part, driving some into the welcome shade, but Rees was having none of the pollen count – claiming “pure nasal domination” over nature’s best efforts and leaving this antihistamine powered reviewer feeling a touch emasculated.

For lunch the ever-trusty Souvlaki option was top of my list, with a tasty chicken skewer and fresh salad going down a treat for a reasonable £11. My companion went for a savoury crepe from one of the two crepe stands, opting for ham and swiss cheese which came in at £10. We left suitably sated.

Seth Lakeman and band rocked up to Sam’s Stage next. Lakeman has played the festival a number of times in recent years, and the multi-instrumentalist is clearly at home here having spent the weekend on site with his family.

Lakeman’s band is very tight and delivers the first festival appearance of a mouth harp, which in my humble opinion is a much under appreciated instrument. The highlight of the set was without a doubt ‘Kitty Jay’ which has an almost mid 90’s dance banger vibe to it as Seth plays the violin with seemingly ever-increasing pace.

The next offering from across the border in Wales was Melin Melyn in The Garden. Bizarrely they’re one of the only bands to acknowledge the large pillar in the middle of the stage, even naming it ‘Lucy’, serenading it with a Saxophone solo and hugging it. Charismatic frontman Gruff Glyn greets the crowd by exclaiming that “It’s a pleasure to be here. I wish I was a horse – I think I’d win” before a set full of psychedelic, surfer pop, folk that enchants the audience – that or the band’s synchronised dance moves have hypnotised them…Glyn offered to give members of the audience Welsh lessons for £20 an hour, before haggling himself down to free and dedicated the song ‘I Paint Dogs’ to artists. The set was over in a flash, but the performance was something special.

The sea of England shirts at the festival began flocking towards Sam’s Stage, I’m 99% sure not as a result of Melin Melyn’s presence in The Garden and all became clear when The Lightning Seeds began their set.

As a festival with more than one eye on nostalgia, The Lightning Seeds proved a big draw for the crowd seeking sugar sweet, summery pop tunes in the sunshine. Kicking things off with ‘Change’ from 1994’s Jollification Ian Broudie and band rolled back the years delivering huge hit after huge hit, including ‘Sugar Coated Iceberg’, ‘Lucky You’, ‘Pure’ and ‘The Life of Riley’ before closing the show with a genuinely stirring singalong to 1996’s anthem to perpetual disappointment, ‘Three Lions’. Who knows, perhaps 2024 is England’s year? With a new greatest hits album coming out later in the year it’ll definitely be a big one for The Lightning Seeds – win or lose!

Howlin’ Pete’s was calling and the sound of guitars playing through hits of the 90’s kept the nostalgic feelings coming as The In-Here Brothers from Derbyshire tested every memory bank and sinew of the, shall we say, more mature audience with a riotous performance. It turns out, even 30 plus years after learning the dance to ‘Saturday Night’ at a holiday camp in Dorset, I still know every move. Hooray for muscle memory! The duo apologised for the lack of budget, restricting them to a bottle of Radox versus a full foam party – but I’ll be honest, after an hour of dancing a soak in a muscle easing bath sounded heavenly.

Seasick Steve is a festival stalwart and came on to a sunlit Sam’s Stage, announcing “I’m old now, I’m gonna savour this”. His trademark beard blew gently in a breeze bringing some respite from the baking heat. His story telling rhythm and blues sound is always at home on a festival stage and a large crowd had formed to watch him play.

With a new album coming out, Seasick Steve took his chance to make a sales pitch. He compelled the audience to buy the record, saying “If half of you buy it you’re gonna throw the whole music industry into chaos! Even if it’s just one week and then Taylor Swift will be back at number one!”. For the majority of the set Steve played the more traditional instruments, until the last portion where the DIY instruments came out. Firstly a 2×4 piece of wood with a guitar string attached to it, followed by a hub cap, garden hose, can of beer and burger flipper and ending with a guitar made from a “genuine Mississippi licence plate” to close the show with ‘You Can’t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks’ and ‘Bring It On’ before thanking the audience for having him and leaving stage to fulsome applause.

Hunger struck and I have to admit I once again caved to the Raclette stand. This time a portion of fries laden with melted cheese, pickled gherkins and cabbage which was genuinely excellent.

Recovered from his Fireman Sam interrupted Qi Gong session, Kevin Rowland and Dexy’s welcomed the crowd into The Garden for the last set in the tent of the weekend and brought a party atmosphere to Wychwood.

Rowland shows no signs of slowing down for a man in his 70’s and the audience were lapping it up. Dresed in a colourful outfit and trademark hat, Rowland led the band through covers of The Bee Gees’ ‘To Love Somebody’ and Van Morrison’s ‘Jackie Wilson Said’ interspersed the set full of Dexy’s hits including ‘Geno’ and ‘Come On Eileen’.

Darkness has fallen on the festival site and it’s another chance for the 90’s to shine on Sam’s Stage as Ocean Colour Scene close out the weekend. The Birmingham band’s Moseley Shoals album chartered at number two in the UK when it came out in 1996 – 28 years ago – and was packed with iconic Britpop anthems.

One of these being ‘The Riverboat Song’ which the band started their just over an hour long set with. The song’s iconic riff, most associated with TGI Friday, started and the audience was taken back to that warm summer back in ’96 and nostalgia was rife once more. Simon Fowler’s instantly recognisable vocal filled the night’s sky as Steve Craddock dutifully unleashed iconic riff after iconic riff onto the Wychwood crowd – however the line-up was slightly different for this evening as drummer Oscar Harrison had sustained a “Strange grass injury” according to Fowler and was replaced on stage by Harrison’s son.

The family affair continued with Steve Craddock’s son Cassius also joining the line up to give Sister Sledge a run for their money!

With an earlier start and finish to the last show of the weekend OCS knew a singalong was needed to complete the weekend for people and after a 100 mile an hour version of ‘Hundred Mile High City’ from the band’s third album Marchin’ Already they duly delivered. ‘The Day We Caught the Train’ reached number four in the charts but is definitely number one in the hearts of those singing along with the “Oh-oh la-la” chorus long into the night and after the lights had gone out.

And that was that! Wychwood 2024 was over and it was time for the revellers to make their ways home to bed.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Wychwood Festival is a belter! There were some changes this year, not all of which were universally popular, but the site was heavily affected by the record-breaking rainfall over the last six months and the crews managed to put on a brilliant show on despite that hurdle. The festival has an authentically family friendly focus, with plenty on offer to keep the kids entertained while allowing parents a bit of a break and some fantastic bands. With so many festivals already cancelling this year, we’re lucky to have an event like Wychwood.

Next year will be Wychwood’s 25^th anniversary which is a testament to the vision of the team behind the festival and it wouldn’t surprise me if they bring out the big guns with the line-up. Summer Festival Guide will be all over the announcements as they come, so watch this space!

INTERVIEWED! The Coral at Wychwood 2024

June 7, 2024June 7, 2024 by Shôn Douglas

The Coral frontman James Skelly took time out before their Saturday evening slot at Wychwood Festival to speak with Summer Festival Guide about plans for the future, or lack of, and the different challenge of selecting songs from their extensive back catalogue for a festival slot.

How do you go about putting together your festival set from over 20 years of material?

Well we had a full set for the mini tour we did in the Spring which was about an hour and twenty or whatever, so we then pretty much just knock out the ones that are hardest to play and whatever’s left becomes your festival set!

Or you know, the ones that might not translate without a soundcheck. Sometimes more acoustic ones but you’ll have toms in that you might not hear as well in a festival – so you go for the main songs and then the ones that come across in a live setting if you’re in the trenches in a way.

It’s 22 years since the self titled LP The Coral came out and since then there’s been more of a concept approach to the records. Is that a trajectory for going forward you think?

No – I think the concept is not to do anything for a little bit. But we’ve always had a loose concept to all the albums just a bit more obvious with it on these latest ones.

But not really looking, got no plans for a new album or anything. Just looking to play live and enjoy it for a bit – you don’t want to put stuff out for the sake of it.

We’ve done a lot over the last few years and I don’t think anyone’s going to be that interested if we do one now.

(with a smile) Readdress in 2030 and see where we are then, see where the landscape lies by then.

Do you feel like you’re bringing along old fans with the new music or have they struggled to warm to it?

No, no. Our fans seem to love the new stuff. We turn up we play all the sort of the quote “Hits” or whatever you want to call them, we play quite a few off the first album. We play a good selection because if you like a band like us and you’ve followed us you want a selection over the years so, it’s a fine line. You don’t wanna be a nostalgia band. With playing a festival there are people there who might never have seen you, so you want to play your best stuff over the years really.

INTERVIEWED! The Bootleg Beatles at Wychwood 2024

June 7, 2024 by Shôn Douglas

The world’s leading Beatles tribute act took time out before their set at Wychwood Festival to talk to Summer Festival Guide

My name’s Steve White, I play Paul. My name’s Paul Canning and I play John and I’m Steven Hill and I play George. And we are The Bootleg Beatles!

The Bootleg Beatles well established tribute act and have been touring across the world for years, but how does it differ playing a festival rather than in an auditorium?

SW: From a festival point of view it’s always a scaled down show because we’ve a much more limited slot. So we kind of gloss over as best we can, it’s probably an early era set and then a late set and that’ll be it. Obviously the costume change mid way through – whereas when we’re in a theatre you get several costumes and lots more guitars and so on and so forth. So it’s definitely a scaled down version.

SH: You think it’d be easier wouldn’t you because it’s only an early and a late era show, but you’ve still got to be good! It doesn’t matter what you’re wearing if you’re not playing and singing well it’s bad!

SW: And of course at a festival people are here to see everyone, they’re not just here to see you. So you haved to sell yourselves to everyone, whereas in an auditorium when they’ve come to see your show you’ve almost won before you’ve gone on you have that to think about with a festival.

PC: You do the hits more aswell when you do festivals. In a theatre show you can afford to put some album ones in and the lesser known ones, well they’re all well known – y’know. But the ones we do at the festival are generally more the hits, the singles and the odd not single but still massive song – they’re all good…it’s a good catalogue to choose from…

How do you whittle down that kind of set when you’ve got such a breadth of material to work with?

All: It’s hard!

SH: You kind of know after doing it for so long. You’ve got the hits, the singles and you could do that and people would be happy. But you’ve only got 45 minutes or an hour at some of these festivals so you can whittle it down. As long as you’ve got those main ones, whether it’s Help, Hard Day’s Night, She Loves You – you’ve got to put those kind of songs in and Hey Jude at the end and you’re happy to do that.

It’s easier than it sounds really. And it all depends on your voices on the day as well. If you’re touring for weeks, months on end and your voice is gone you’ve got to try and work around that and sing one that’s a bit easier but still a hit.

Are there any particular highlights from a personal perspective that you really look forward to playing?

PC: I like doing Come Together, that’s a good one to do as John. And I really like doing Here Comes the Sun especially when the sun comes out which ain’t often – but when it does it’s great.

SH: Well I love Help so I’m biased. I love playing Help, it’s my favourite song I think. Not just of the Beatles you know, of anything.

SW: I don’t think I have a favourite. I like them all too much to be able to choose.

PC: He likes doing Yesterday because he’s on his own!

SW: Ah, yes I do!

PC: He’s good at it actually. Gets to play with the crowd a bit and muck about, it’s really good.

Would you say with a festival crowd you’ve got a bit more of that back and forth to play around with?

SW: Oh gosh, absolutely yeah. I mean, obviously when you’re doing an autditorium it’s almost scripted you’ve got to show particular periods that you’re trying to perform. So you have to get a certain amount of information over to the crowd, so there’s key bits of dialogue that you have to say.

When you’re in a festival you have to make other people enjoy themselves and of course building them up for the next act to follow you know? That’s key, keeping the crowd up ready for the next band to take over. Nothing worse than killing an audience and the next bands got to work them up from flat so that’s what we try to do.

PC: Not actually killing them. We don’t kill the audience Steve.

SW: Well I do!

If you were to sell seeing The Bootleg Beatles to people maybe thinking about seeing another band on at the same time, what is it you’d say to bring them to you?

PC: Well you can’t be big headed and you can’t sell yourself short can you!

SH: We pride ourselves on giving 100% at all times and you’ve got to go with the reputation haven’t you?

SW: I tell you what I’d say, if you want to come and see a band where you know all the songs, come and see the Bootleg Beatles.

SH: Yeah you’re not going to be sitting there going “Whats this one? I don’t know this one!” you know? You’re gonna have a good time no matter what – but we do it well.

PC: We’re the world’s premiere Beatles tribute band and there’s a reason for it. Because they’re all great songs but you’ve got to play them well and you’ve got to care about it and the devil is in the detail and we put a lot of work into it.

SH: You’re right you know, you’re gonna have a good time no matter what.

PC: It’s been going since 1980 and people keep coming back to see it because it’s good and the standards high. So come and see it, I would. I do. I’m in it! Bye!

INTERVIEWED! Mr Motivator at Wychwood 2024

June 7, 2024 by Shôn Douglas

The legendary Mr Motivator (real name Derrick Evans) joined Summer Festival Guide after leading a high energy morning workout session for the Wychwood Festival crowd to talk about the power of movement and his top tips for beating the blues.

This morning you’ve been up on the main stage at Wychwood leading what can only be described as a fun filled, energetic performance this morning and so many people coming out of their tents to join in – how does it make you feel getting up in the morning and bringing that energy into people’s days?

You know what, movement is a wonderful medicine and if you do it in a fun safe way then everybody can participate and my whole drive, and it’s been like that since being on television 30 years ago and I started exercising 40 years ago, I know in my later years how beneficial movement is – but it’s got to be fun! And if it’s not fun I say “don’t do it!” that’s why I’m not into doing press ups, star jumps and burpees – yes I’ll do it – but at the end of the day what really gets people going is music it’s the attitude it’s the laughter it’s the stories.

During Covid you did a lot of motivational stuff on socials and you’ve talked openly here about mental health. Beyond the fitness side of things, how important is that mental health message?

About two weeks ago I spent a whole day in a studio having conversations with all these radio stations from all over the country phoning in to talk about mental health awareness.

I think it’s great that we’ve moved the goalposts, that people can feel a little bit easier to talk about it. Because we call need to talk about it. In particular men, and men don’t wear their heart enough on their sleeve. They think “if we cry that makes us weak” but no, when you cry it makes you strong and so my message is to give people little tips they can put in place if they’re feeling stressed or they can’t go on, if you’re feeling like things are really rough, there are a number of things you can think about.

One is every autumn the tress out there lose their leaves, but the tree still stands up tall. Why? Because it knows in the Spring it’s going to flower again. So whatever we’re going through that we think is really bad, it’s only a bad moment it’s not a bad life. And if we’re patient and we talk about our problems and we really deal with it in terms of taking time out or getting away from it we’re going to get the benefits of getting stronger mentally and that is the important way we’re going to deal with life going forward. To get emotionally, physically, mentally strong.

And what are the things for you that if you’re having one of those down days that help you personally?

One of the best things is movement, for me. The moment I move my body – in fact the thing I did when I did all those interviews we talked about “moving the mood”. And it does! It doesn’t mean you have to do what I do, you can be just going for a walk or a swim, riding a bike or whatever it is, that helps you release those happy hormones and make you feel better.

One thing that works for me is the old photo albums. Because if you take an old photo album it’s only ever got good times in there. We don’t put picture which are terrible. And those memories allow you to escape sometimes from the reality of life and when you come back you come back feeling so much better for it. But if you incorporate movement it actually makes you feel good not just for when you’re doing it, but for hours and days afterwards.

INTERVIEWED! Corrine Bailey Rae at Wychwood 2024

June 7, 2024 by Shôn Douglas

Corrine Bailey Rae sat down with Summer Festival Guide after coming off stage at Wychwood Festival 2024.

You’ve just come off stage, how do you feel the reception from the crowd was?

It was great! You know it’s so good to be playing old songs, but also new songs aswell. I really want to share what I’m doing I don’t want to be just a “heritage act” when you’re sort of playing cover versions of your old music – and I would never want to be that.

So I always like it when you can try out new things so you can see what people are into or in a festival you can just see if it’s reacting – are more people at the end or less, and I always love it when you can just see the crowds getting thicker and thicker and denser as the set goes on so I feel like we’re doing the right thing.

Your latest album, Black Rainbows, marks a bit of a departure from what people maybe expected from you in terms of the inspirations, the sound of it – people in the crowd reacting saying they didn’t expect this from her.

How does it make you feel when you’ve perhaps been pigeon holed as a certain type of performer and then coming out with something that’s completely different and drawn from inspiration?

I felt with Black Rainbows it was always going to be a side project you know? I thought I want to feel free and I don’t want to feel boxed in by peoples expectations of me- and then I thought as the time went on how crazy that was that I was internalising these limits for myself and I thought “No”. I will just say that this is my record, I’ve been working on it for seven years or something so really glad to just do more guitar music – that’s where I came from I came from indie, I had this band called Helen and whenever we play jazz festivals we always put in a few spanners in the works or the other way round.

I like to play a festival and do a quiet jazzy ballad or something. I just think it’s important to push out the edges for yourself and make room for yourself I think and not be your own covers band.

Is that a vision you see for the future for the next record? Is it trying to draw on an inspiration and use that as a running theme throughout?

I think that since doing this record I feel really free. My last record before this I felt really pressured to make a certain kind of song.

We really wanted to have a radio song and everyone in my team and at the label said “just do whatever you want for the rest of the record but we need three radio hits” and it was always so hard. By the end I didn’t even have to ask them what they thought.

If I was just starting the song and I thought to myself “this is too slow” or “this isn’t universal enough” or “this isn’t catchy enough” and I felt like I was policing all my own ideas and so many songs were just falling through my fingers and I really didn’t want to do that with Black Rainbows I wanted to have no pressure and just make something creative.

I feel like now that I’ve done that I will always do that because it’s so satisfying not worrying what people think you know? I really think there will always be an audience of enough of a size for me to travel round the world like I get to do and I’ll always have my old songs which already connect with people but I really always want to make sure it’s exciting and real for me and challenging, inspiring.

And how about the rest of the summer and 2024?

Summer 2024 is SO busy and I keep saying to people “what month is it?” because I’ve been planning these last few months for so long!

But we’re playing at Glastonbury, playing We Out Here festival, Latitude – we’re playing a bunch of festivals in the US, we’re going to China. I’m going to Brazil and Mexico in November! I’m doing a lot this summer, doing a lot of festivals so just getting acquainted with the grass and whether it will or not rain and bumping into other artists backstage that you didn’t expect to see and that’s always really good fun. I love festivals for that, they’re a proper testing ground.

Review: ENTER SHIKARI – Nottingham 2024

May 1, 2024February 14, 2024 by Anna Hyams

2024 is emo resurrection year, you can’t convince me otherwise. With a sold out BMTH tour last month, the sneaky reappearance of the skinny jean, and the Download festival line-up stacked with pop-punk, you can sign me up for a summer of giant fringes and sideways stud belts thanks. Tonight we are in Nottingham at the Motorpoint arena to delve further into the early noughties nostalgia with the iconic Enter Shikari.

Up first on the bill is firecracker Noahfinnce, blasting some garage-band style punk rock into our earholes and yelling “Rishi Sunak can suck my sweaty balls” to the unanimous approval of the crowd… obviously. It’s an infectiously fun set, the hooks are catchy enough to sing along and I’m always going to love an anti-tory rhetoric to be honest.

Laughing, Noah claims “Ok now I’m gonna be the big sweary transgender the Conservatives think I am” before ripping into his ‘Impression of Green Day’. Closing with ‘Life’s A Bit’ is proper punk rock simplicity. The lack of over-production brings me back to teenage gig trips to the local dive, and by the end I’m singing along “moral of the story, I’m a bit of a dickhead”, so I hope to see Noah on some future festival stages.

Up next, Cali rock/politipunk band Fever 333 come no holds barred, with opener “Burn It” ringing in our ears from the off. Despite this being the newest iteration of the band after an all-change in members except for lead singer Jason Aalon Butler last year, they sound crispy clean and like they have come to war.

© Anna Hyams for SFG. Do not use without permission.

Guitarist Brandon Davis and bassist April Kae are a force to be reckoned with, heavy riffs and oh so much bouncing around. Drummer Thomas Pridgen’s beats are hard hitting and provide Butler the perfect backdrop to his insatiable need to move, and jump. Lyrics depicting inequality, capitalism and anti-fascism are screamed across an arena of nodding heads, and there’s something really comforting about the fact that there are still bands out there doing this.

Activism and music have always gone hand in hand, but Fever 333 are out there unabashedly pushing forward with a flavour reminiscent of Rage Against The Machine and Napalm Death. Above all else, they are undeniably entertaining – how can you not jump around when every member of the band is going absolutely beserk?

Under their Black Panther backdrop, yelling “Free Palestine”, they perform in white boiler-suits covered in black patches, which I now dub ‘Battle-Scrubs’ with the number 333 appearing repeatedly. 333 represents the band’s three core principles of Community, Charity and Change – immediately apparent in their commentary on misogyny in the music world, as Butler calls out “I want to make one thing clear, women should feel safe, respected and honoured in this venue tonight” before dedicating ‘One of Us’ to their “Queen” April.

For my choice ‘$wing’ goes so hard the entire crowd was bouncing, and if you’re a Ferris Beuller fan the lyrics are incredibly accessible, it’s going straight on my playlists. ‘Ready Rock’ sees Butler leap into the crowd only to be lifted by the feet above the throng of grasping hands. The mic is fed by a line of techs across the sea of bodies so he can complete the song before spin-jumping into the fray. Miraculously he makes it back to the stage to apologise for stepping on someone’s bonce “I’m sorry, if you go to the merch stand and prove a nine and a half converse stepped on your head, you can get an item for free” he jokes, before thanking everyone for making them feel welcome and shouting out “POC Punks, WE SEE YOU!”. I think I’ve found my new binge listening band in Fever 333, this is action music.

As the lights dim once more, there is a palpable electric energy of anticipation in the room. For many attending tonight, this is a long-lived relationship with a band that has spanned 2 decades of the UK rock scene, and I notice a fair number of kids along for the ride with their thirty-something parents as well. Taking to the stage, lit by a single spotlight, lead vocalist Rou Reynolds begins his spoken word soliloquy of ‘System’ like a professor at a lectern, before the lights come up and Enter Shikari absolutely rip into the electronic power of ‘Meltdown’ under screens of scrolling matrix-style code.

There’s something to be said about the sheer performance factor of this band, being able to smoothly direct the flow and energy of the crowd in this way is actually not too common a talent, but they are masters of it. Seamlessly blending techno, dub and trance into metal and punk rock is not the easiest task either, but it gives Shikari an undeniably unique sound that has a cross-genre appeal that I am absolutely enamoured by. With their politically charged lyrics and open defiance of the status quo, it isn’t hard to see why they chose their touring partners in Fever 333 and Noahfinnce – it’s one of the best curated line-ups I’ve seen in a while.

Screaming “Shall we test out this sound system?” Rou bounces enthusiastically into ‘Anaesthetist’. After a little jazz trumpet interlude, Rou gushes “You know what, I am so fucking grateful to be alive on this stage… I wanna dance with you” before pillar beam lights from the front of the stage pierce the darkness to represent prison bars for ‘Jailbreak’. This time the entire crowd is undulating like the sea and hordes of crowd-surfers take the opportunity to glide over the barrier into the waiting arms of the twenty-strong security team.

Rou then scales a ladder alongside one of the two light towers flanking the stage, only to perch on the edge of it, in the beam of a soft spotlight. Like something out of a movie he reaches his hand into the tower and it is displayed on the screen as a dip into a body of water. Yeah, at this point we kinda know what’s coming as he turns his back towards the ‘water’ but it doesn’t make it any less fun, the circus of him tumbling backwards into the tower and showing up swimming on the screen ignites all those little fires of childhood magic awe.

After his stunt he reappears eating a banana, and the band take a mini break to discuss the useful nutritional properties of said banana, before the hard hitting dubstep intro ‘Sssnakepit’. Laughing “Fucking hell I love this venue! I love Rock City don’t get me wrong, but this is so good” Rou comments on the circle pits which have been swirling all night. As if to up the ante yet again, the band are joined by Jason from Fever 333 for ‘Losing My Grip’ and they both run riot along the gangway slopes to drummer Rob Rolfe.

Returning atop the other stage tower, Rou sits for a couple of chilled solo songs with his guitar ‘The Pressure’s On’ and ‘Juggernauts’ before heading into the second part of the show, held on a mini platform in the middle of the arena. It’s the kind of production I expect of giant bands at festivals not arena tours, but I absolutely love that they’re as focused on the atmosphere and feel of the show as they are the music.

While the band run through ‘Gap In The Fence’ Rou takes to the crowd seating area for ‘The Sights’ where he makes his very best attempt to make it around the stands. “They told me I couldn’t get round the venue in one song and they were right” he laughs as he makes it to the three quarter mark, but still makes sure to fist bump everyone he can reach on his way back round to the stage.

‘It Hurts’ into ‘The Dreamers Hotel’ is joyfully bright, another side of Shikari’s multi-faceted musical personality, along with a side of heavy confetti across the crowd, delaying the progress of the little video drones we’ve seen all around the arena tonight from Dirty Dishes Productions – I can’t wait to see that footage though.

For the real encore ‘Sorry You’re Not A Winner’ sees Rou being held back by the pants at the crowds edge, and bassist Chris Batten straight up launching himself into the crowd on his back, still playing. “Christ on a Caribbean cruise” Rou breathlessly says when they make it back out, but he obviously has more to give as he goes hardstyle dancing his way into ‘A Kiss For The Whole World’ to finish up.

Leaving us with “Thank you so fucking much for having us, we’ve been looking forward to this for a very long time” and thanking the security in the pit for keeping everyone safe tonight, is another testament to the ethos and values of Enter Shikari that are alive and present in their music. The sheer number of crowd-surfers over the barrier tonight tells you the impact this band have on a visceral level, the production and the choreography were all almost cinematically brilliant too, but the discourse of the evening, the music – that’s what stays with you.

Roll on Download festival, because the bar is suddenly very high for everyone else.

BST Hyde Park – Take That, REVIEWED!

July 7, 2023 by Anna Hyams

© Credit Dave Hogan / Hogan Media for BST

Back to Hyde Park again this sunny Saturday for some true British treasure in the form of Take That – the band that broke the nation’s heart when they broke up, and then came back as the ultimate zaddies of pop to woo all the mums again.

Before we all get too hot under the collar, Will Young is giving everyone at the main stage a huge wholesome hug. Not my usual fayre by any means but his voice is excellent, the vibes are funky, and I really like his frilly shirt and braces. Though he’s battled through extreme anxiety and more than his fair share of difficult times, Will is possibly one of the nicest men in pop music today. It’s hard not to smile through this performance, particularly when he goes over to hug the Great Oak stage tree, and then says “Hope you’re all hydrating yourselves, it’s hot today!”. Yes Will Young, I will do as you say because I think you’re darling.

Doors cover ‘Light My Fire’ has the whole arena singing along (and I must say it’s a very respectable crowd for this time of day) but ‘Leave Right Now’ and ‘Evergreen’ are the hits everyone came for, and he delivers.

Over on the Cuban Garage stage we witness the joyful beats of South London Samba, and some frankly incredible rainbow feathered moves from the carnival dancers (two of whom can jump drop into a split, amazing) before we grab some much needed dinner. There are a ridiculous amount of options here for a festival this size, but we try out a Buffalo chicken bowl (way spicier than I’d anticipated) and some ginger tofu Bao (faaaancy) – both great.

Sugababes hit the main stage with a set that surprised me, for the simple reason that I had no idea I knew *that* many of their songs. Starting strong with Adina Howard cover ‘Freak Like Me’ they come out looking every bit the pop princesses they always did, and are absolutely owning the stage for ‘Red Dress’. ‘Hole in the Head’ is fantastic, but if you’re a certain kind of person – even hearing the intro to ‘Too Lost In You’ will both make you think of Christmas AND make you irrationally angry… if you know you know.

“It’s an absolute honour to be here! Look at the weather, the sun is coming out!” they yell, before hitting us with classic trio ‘Push The Button’, ‘Round Round’ and ‘About You Now’. It’s a very clean and precise set, I think I’d like to see them loosen up a little but musically – it’s great, and I appreciate their long battle to reclaim their name and their lost music, to get here.

Ireland’s The Script are fun, and there’s a nice roundness to the fact that they used to tour with Take That back in the day too, but I can’t get by the cringeworthy bit that took a full ten minutes out of their set time to orchestrate. “I wanna call someone’s ex! Who right now is crazy enough to give me their phone?” yells frontman Danny O’Donoghue before grabbing one passed up by security. He proceeds to phone someone’s unsuspecting ex-boyfriend, tells them who he is and lets the crowd scream at them before singing ‘Before The Worst’ at him. Following the serenade, he has the whole arena yell “Goodbye Asshole” at the phone, which is just… not that funny and kinda gauche. ‘If You Could See Me Now’ is dedicated to the memory of their guitarist Mark Sheehan, it’s a great song, but they’ve kinda lost me with the stunt if I’m honest.

Heading into the final event, the arena has now swelled with people to the point of bursting. The toilet queues are out of control and stretch halfway around the arena, the bars are all loaded and the merch stalls are still going strong. We catch The Cuban Brothers doing another brilliant set on the Cuban Garage stage, but when heading over to grab a tshirt we find that the BST have racked the price up by a tenner since yesterday. Price gouging isn’t a good look for an event – especially when The Cubans themselves just said the tees were £20 on stage and would be when they hit the online shop. Not cool.

Heading down to the Golden Circle area to find a good place to watch Take That, we are immediately pulled into the throng alongside an excited lady wielding a giant face cut out of Gary Barlow (a little disconcerting) and we can see another woman in a Take That patch jacket down the front. This particular person was spotted last night, camping out in Hyde Park ready to be right there today, the dedication is on point.

As intros go, this one is pretty epic. A hoarde of dancers enter the stage seemingly from everywhere, and set themselves up all over the giant lighted staircase that runs from the backdrop right down to the main floor, in front of which a giant runway ending in a second smaller stage area has been set. The band emerge to ear-bleeding levels of frenetic fan screams all around us. The cacophony of the mums knows no bounds. Include me in that, because I cannot get enough of their fashion ensembles tonight. Howard is wearing something that I can only describe as… Newscaster-school-football-kit-in-the-seventies. It is ochre, striped and flared, and I want it. Gary has decided to come as Morgan Freeman in Bruce Almighty, and Mark is… well Mark is wearing an ostrich. A whole one.

There might only be three of them now (no sign of Robbie despite him also being on tour… boooo) but right out of the gates ‘The Flood’ sounds absolutely brilliant, seems like they’re going to be on top form tonight. Yelling “Good evening Hyde Paaaaaark!” the trio head down the long runway to the middle of the pulsing crowd, “…this is gonna be an amazing night tonight, we want you to sing along and dance along!” and huge blasts of ticker-tape confetti erupt from around them as fireworks go off along the front of the stage. It’s pretty clear they’ve come here to party and I’m instantly all-in.

‘Could It Be Magic’ brings glittery screens and their OG boyband dance moves, and I am shooketh to my core as I myself (ten years their junior) have injured myself getting out of bed, why only this morning. Special guest Calum Scott of Britain’s Got Talent fame, joins the band for ‘Greatest Day’ as he had been part of the reworked song for their film which was released last month, before taking the stage to himself for his cover of Robyn’s ‘Dancing On My Own’.

BeeGees cover ‘How Deep is Your Love’ and ‘A Million Love Songs’ are the catalyst for a whole lot of overwhelmed fangirl sobbing, and my sister who had nipped to the loos at an opportune moment belted back to us to sing “AND HERE I AAAAAAM” in our faces. ‘Shine’ heralds a delightful outfit change, including a fancy white top-hat (which is later thrown out into the crowd, what an excellent bit of memorabilia for some lucky person) for Mark, a green velvet biker jacket for Gary (I would also like to own this) and a tux jacket with golden-winged lapels for Howard. They are taking this photo opportunity very seriously and I love it. Despite the air of professionalism, they joke “We might miss a few of our cues tonight, the runway is way longer than we thought… it takes ages to get back up there” and then mention how appreciative they are of everyone coming back to gigs after some weird years during the pandemic.

Stopping for a quick break to read some of the signs being held up in the front rows, we are treated to the truest representation of the British wit… “This song is older than us” Gary reads as two kids scream holding the sign, and another “I think of you when I shag my husband” with (presumably) the husband standing alongside the woman laughing. “I left my husband in hospital to be here” has the entire crowd in agreement on the state of her morals, but the best one by far was “Today is MY Greatest Day – I made it! F U Cancer!”. Having an arena full of thousands of people cheer you on and celebrate with you must be phenomenal in itself, but when the band dedicate the next song to Laura, holder of the sign, she looks absolutely beside herself with joy. It’s a lovely heartfelt moment.

Telling everyone this is the “Song that brought us back”, we are treated to a little acoustic guitar for ‘Patience’ before a huge singalong for ‘Pray’ and the most incredible original video dance moves, an absolute highlight. ‘Back For Good’ is also brilliant, and I can’t help but dance to Sigma cover ‘Cry’ under an obscene amount of ticker-tape spewing into the air above us.

Another quick outfit change into the most ridiculous giant white furry coats and it’s time for ‘Relight My Fire’ with the actual for-real LuLu, who is sporting some excellent sparkly flared trousers. ‘Hold Up A Light’ sees the crowd holding up phone torches across the arena, but ‘Never Forget’ is the true epitome of Take That-ness and every single person has their hands up for it. “You know the choreography, join in!” hardly needs to be said because we are all totally invested at this point of the proceedings.

Going out in style with ‘Rule The World’ leaves me in no doubt that Take That are making yet another triumphant return, following their performance at the Corrie-Nache earlier this year. Looking over to see my sister and her sister-in-law doing a little cry and singing along, I reckon they’ve gained another confirmed fan in me tonight, it was a bloody brilliant show, so Take That.

SLAM DUNK FESTIVAL 2018 REVEALS ACOUSTIC STAGE

November 18, 2018March 23, 2018 by Sophie Jones

In yet another amazing lineup announcement, Slam Dunk Festival are pleased to reveal the details of this year’s acoustic stage where Speak Low If You Speak Love, Four Year Strong Presents: Some Of You Will Like This, Some of You Won’t, Rob Lynch, Luke Rainsford, PVMNTS, Selfish Things and Cave Town will all be making hotly tipped unplugged appearances at Leeds, Hatfield and Birmingham all over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

Revealed as the acoustic stage headliner, State Champs’ beloved bassist Ryan Scott Graham will be bringing his stripped back project Speak Low If You Speak Love to Slam Dunk Festival, following State Champs appearance earlier in the day. Following the release of sophomore LP Nearsighted in early January, the hauntingly heartbreaking solo performance will be sure to attract an attentive crowd, eager to witness the electro-tinged acoustic spectacle.

Previously announced Slam Dunk Festival legends, Four Year Strong have confirmed that they will be making another appearance at this year’s festival as they settle in to host Four Year Strong Presents: Some Of You Will Like This, Some Of You Won’t – the live performance of their cherished acoustic album of the same name. Promising the very best unplugged favourites, originals and unheard rarities, this spectacle will be a highly regarded set for any die-hard pop-punk fan!

Known for putting a fresh twist on alternative folk and creating heartfelt crowd pleasers, Rob Lynch will be returning to Slam Dunk Festival to deliver his trademark solo sound through delicate tracks such as ‘My Friends & I’, ‘Hawking’ and ‘Broken Bones’.

Birmingham native Luke Rainsford is poised to pick up his acoustic guitar and make his Slam Dunk Festival debut over the May Bank Holiday weekend with energetic yet fragile storytelling and musicality. The hotly-tipped single ‘Sweet Briar’ is taken from the highly-anticipated EP ‘I Just Don’t Deserve To Be Loved’, which is set for release ahead of the Slam Dunk Festival weekend – meaning fans have plenty of time to learn lyrics for perfect singalongs.

Making the transatlantic journey to Slam Dunk Festival will be PVMNTS and Selfish Things, hailing from Los Angeles and Toronto respectively. Teen Wolf star Tyler Posey will be rounding up the PVMNTS gang for a sincere singalong on Slam Dunk’s acoustic stage. Also stopping by will be Selfish Things’ frontman Alex Biro, who is set to stripback their impassioned rock hits for a memorable delicate rendition.

In addition to this great names, Cavetown will be bringing his relaxed bedroom jams to the acoustic stages too.

In the biggest line-up to date, Slam Dunk Festival 2018 is set to play host to an unparalleled exhibition of pop-punk movers and shakers as it welcomes blistering performances from co-headliners Good Charlotte and Jimmy Eat World, reunion exclusives from Thursday (UK exclusive) and The Audition (Worldwide exclusive) as well as highly anticipated sets from the likes of Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, PVRIS, Taking Back Sunday, Creeper, Every Time I Die, Sleeping With Sirens and many more. Whether you’re at Leeds City Centre on May 26th, Hatfield Park on May 27th or Birmingham’s NEC, Slam Dunk Festival 2018 will be the ultimate alternative party of the summer.

FULL LINE-UP TO DATE:

Good Charlotte, Jimmy Eat World, PVRIS, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Taking Back Sunday, Sleeping With Sirens, State Champs, Twin Atlantic, Reel Big Fish, Goldfinger, Every Time I Die, Creeper, Thursday, Four Year Strong, The Skints, Zebrahead, The Audition (Worldwide Reunion Exclusive), Set Your Goals, Real Friends, Knuckle Puck, Northlane, Capdown, Save Ferris, Comeback Kid, Crown The Empire, Counterparts, Trash Boats, ROAM, Broadside, Can’t Swim, Palaye Royale, Sleep On It, Stand Atlantic, Milestones, Chapel, Dream State, Holding Absence, The Faim, Grayscale, The Dangerous Summer, As It Is, Moose Blood, Templeton Pek, Woes, King Prawn, Guttermouth, Astroid Boys, Brutality Will Prevail, The Devil Wears Prada, Loathe, Speak Low If You Speak Love, Rob Lynch, Luke Rainsford, PVMNTS, Selfish Things, Cave Town

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TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets on sale now and are available from http://slamdunkmusic.com/

Cost £49 or £55 including the infamous afterparty. All subject to booking fees.