Tonight is something of a bittersweet experience. Yes, it’s a carefully curated evening of local and international bands to delight and entertain us, but it’s also the last-ever show from headliners King Voodoo. After several years of touring, including with some pretty big names, the Lads From The Vood are going their separate ways. It won’t be the last we see of the individual members but for now, it’s a farewell party. King Voodoo being the band that they are means that farewell or not it will be a hell of a party!
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So here we are at the final hurdle, and even a slew of breakfast margaritas are not breaking through the very British weather y. We have sunshine, then showers, then sunshine, then thunder and lightning with a touch of hail – you know that song “four seasons in one day”? Well, that was Lincoln showground on the final day of the festival.
Read MoreSaturday arrives and the weather is threatening us with rain. However, with the spacious layout of the arena and the fact that the bar is in a tent, impending downpours do not dampen the spirits of the attendees
Read MoreThere are some things in life that are inevitable. Never mind death and taxes, the important thing is that the open-air festival season in the UK gets going in May no matter what the weather brings. For some of us that means a trip to the badlands of Lincolnshire and a weekend in the company of Call Of The Wild Festival. Since 2019 this tenacious little independent festival has somehow clung on despite the pandemic, and as I park the Moho up and crack the weekend’s first drink I can’t tell you how glad I am to be back.
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Sunday morning and it’s raining, a lot. This doesn’t affect the festival though as it’s indoors, and the lovely people at the venue even put on breakfast for the somewhat soggy campers. Let’s be honest, everything is better with bacon, right? (Veggie options are available!) Being indoors, rain cannot stop play and before we know it it’s lunchtime and the main event is kicking off.
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t’s been a couple of years since I last made it to Rockwich, for various reasons. Prior to that it was a regular fixture on my summer festival schedule, for the simple reason that they somehow always managed to get hold of the best new rock bands JUST before they started to take off and hit the big time. The venue is great, a grass pitch for tents, and plenty of hardstanding areas for campervans and general parking, and it’s just 10 minutes off J19 of the M6 so easy to get to.
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SOS Festival 2023 (30th June to 2nd July 2023 at Whittles@Tokyo, Oldham) – Is it a local event for local people?
Well no, not really. In these days of austerity and the cost of living crisis it’s always handy to have a reasonably-priced festival with a good selection of bands available pretty much on your doorstep.
But what is SOS? Where did it come from? What does it offer? Pull up a chair and get comfortable, and I’ll tell you all about it.
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Saturday starts for me with Scarsun, a fairly generic alt metal female fronted band. They are doomy and gothy and it turns out this is only their second gig with this singer. She's actually really rather good and it's not bad at all in a gloomy melancholic sort of way.
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SOS Festival has moved since last time I was able to attend it, and now takes place at Whittles in Oldham. This gives them better staging, but overall slightly less space, and I’m still undecided on if this is a good thing or not. On the plus side,: there is a cheap bar, a food van, plenty of merch space and even room for a couple of traders. The minus is that o
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Sunday is another bright and sunny morning, but as I already have a nose that’s bright red enough to see from space, the first thing I do today is make sure I’m wearing A Hat. And sunscreen. That was a crap song but a great message! Anyhow, over in the arena……..
The day starts with LaVire who are good, loud and powerful thrashy rock with a female vocalist. I find them quite similar to Ukrainian outfit Jinjer so if that's your thing check them out, I think you'll be impressed.
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Refreshed by a good night’s sleep and bacon, I return to the fray of the arena wondering what surprises today may have in store for me. The sun is shining and so is my nose (dear reader, wear sunscreen!) so armed with factor 50 and a hat I sally forth into battle.
The day starts with Shadow Smile who are a good wake up band there's nothing like a bit of metalcore in the morning to blow away the cobwebs! They are competent and fast, and although the music is slightly out of my comfort zone it's ok.
Read MoreThe sun is shining as we stumble from our tents and vans into the arena for an 11am start. Bleary-eyed from the VIP welcome party the night before, we wonder who on earth thought it was a good idea to start a festival this early? To be fair they kind of had to, as we have a packed schedule today with many bands to see and many friends to greet.
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It’s Steelhouse Sunday and the weather has cheered up which in turn cheers the crowd up too. We start with Merseysiders Ashen Reach and I know who they are this time (in joke!). They are not bad at all, I like them quite a lot. They do melodic alt rock and remind me a bit of Papa Roach.
Read MoreActually it’s kind of day 2 because those of us in self-contained campers are now allowed to drive up and get settled on the Thursday night. No facilities, no bands, just a chance to chill with your mates and celebrate most of us getting our various vehicles up the mountain without mishap.
Read MoreSaturday starts rather drizzly and the first band up are Mother Vulture. They are heavy blues and I was prepared not to like them but wait, what’s this? They have the worst pants ever but they move, they dance, they fall over - it's all a bit mental but it's also kind of fun. Musically they're average but visually they are superb
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Unfortunately, what I thought was a Sunday morning hangover turned out o be a bit more than that, and I missed a handful of bands at the start of the day as I struggle to surface on day 4. I’m not sure what the festival equivalent of Dheli belly is, let’s just say it’s the opposite of a rock block and leave it there. Anyhow, I wasn’t my usual sparkly self on Sunday and quite a bit of the day managed to pass me by. Johann was out and about with the camera though, so we have some decent galleries of the bands that I didn’t see even if there are no words for them.
Read MoreSaturday dawn is fresh and bright and today’s openers were Rxptors, metalcore times Maiden so you kind of got two for the price of one. Proper heavy if you like that sort of thing but it wasn't really for me.
Men In Black were also thrashy as anything but had hipster beards and side shaves. Competent, but again not really my thing.
Read MoreI realise as I am going about my morning ablutions that looking at the schedule there is no way I am going to be able to catch every band over the next 3 days. It’s already a late start for me (because bacon) so I decide to just roll with it and see as much as I can. Those I’ve missed, I will try to catch you elsewhere later in the year.
The first victims of the Bacon Incident are Steal The City, who sounded okay from the campervan! So the first band of the day for me was Twister. They play melodic hard rock and are from the north east.
Read MoreWhat have you missed most during what we are now thinking of the Lockdown Years? When you were sitting at home, doing your duty to your fellow man, where did you really want to be? For me it was this. Call Of The Wild entered our lives in a blaze of glory in 2019, and although small it was so well=organised that I was waiting eagerly for the following years where it would grow exponentially. And then? Boom. The world stopped. Festivals got postponed, rolled over. The brave people at Call of the Wild tried their best for us, we thought we might be able to get back here last October but sadly it wasn’t to be. So as I pull my (t)rusty campervan onto the site this weekend it seems impossible that it’s been 3 long years since the last one. 3. Long. Years.
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By Mjolnir the mighty hammer of Thor I am out of my depth here! Due to other commitments I am only able to do the one day at Hard Rock Hell’s annual beard and helmet fest, and I have no idea what to expect. I mean it’s (supposed to be) Scandi-rock Jim, but not as I know it…… only of course it’s not. This is a rollover from 2020 and due to the dreaded ‘rona the line-up looks very different from the one originally booked. It’s all UK bands and I have no idea if they fit with the Viking theme as I’m a fish out of water here – I only know two of the bands playing. So let’s just play it by ear and see what happens right?
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