Wolves Don't Sleep: Hope won't set you free

With no new songs released since 2016, it's seemed the Wolves have been resting. But no more, with a build up getting everyone waiting upon August 3rd, when they claimed to be releasing their new song, Hope won't set you free, they surprise everyone with an early release of their song with the lyric video on YouTube three days early!
And of course I had to check it out instantly!
After their feature on Deal Radio: Rock out radio show on Monday, Distorted Sound Magazine decided they wanted to release the Premier of the song, to which the Wolves agreed.


After giving the track a listen and giving the lyric video a watch, I can honestly say the guys exceeded my expectations! With guest appearance from JJ Spencer of AZAZEL the song contains a mind blowing intensity that is what you look for in Metalcore bands! I can honestly say I can't wait to see what else they'll bring to the scene in the future!

Catch Wolves Don't Sleep at Macmillan Festival on the first of September!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI4dL_BJXnY Hope Won't Set You Free lyric video

https://www.gigantic.com/macmillan-fest-2018-rescue-rooms-2018-09-01-13-00 Macmillan Festival Tickets

The Half Eight at Nottingham Pride 2018

I had heard the name 'The Half Eight' get mentioned a few times around the streets of Nottingham, but never went to the effort of looking them up. I even went to one of their gigs but only to see the support act and left before they came on. I now look back and regret that decision a lot.
Pride often has some amazing singers performing but it's very rare for there to be someone I'm overly into on stage. However, a close friend of mine had told me how much she adores The Half Eight and how great they are live, and how I have to come see them perform at Pride with her.
I agreed to and I do not regret my decision one bit. They certainly stole the show with their upbeat tunes that had the whole crowd moving, their eye catching outfits and their whole presence on stage. The audience loved them, including me!
I have a certain soft spot for singers, if a band hasn't got a great singer it's unlikely I'll be a huge fan. The Half Eight however take it a step further with three amazing singers, who not only sing well, but all three of them make amazing front men as well!


The Half Eight, you definitely gained a new fan from that stunning performance and I can't wait for the next opportunity to see you.

Splendour Festival 2018

I’ve been looking forward to splendour as soon as the line up was announced, and just proceeded to get more and more excited when some of my favourite artists such as Ashfields and the Dandylions were added to the incredible list.

First act I saw was the Dandylions on main stage as the winners of the competition held by nusic: future sounds of Nottingham. The Dandylions are a band that have never failed to impress me; with their pink and yellow stage outfits, their incredible stage presence, their connection with the audience and their catchy songs that get stuck in your head for days after, what’s not to love? I happened to be coming to splendour with a personal friend of the guitarist Dan, and we had a nice chat about the band right before seeing them play.
One thing the Dandylions have never failed at is getting the audience excited, they sure know how to make everyone move (probably something to do with the sugar in the sweets that get thrown at the crowd every time). Whether you know the words to the songs or not, you will catch on quickly and be singing along for the rest of the song, they’re just that catchy.

After the dandylions had finished, I made my way over to the confetti stage, where I saw Don’t Forget Rupert. They are a band I’ve been meaning to listen to for quite a while, I was aware they were at Dot to Dot festival this year and are doing a headlining show at Rescue Rooms with the Mockingjays to support, but I had never got round to actually listening to them. I must say though, I regret not listening to them sooner, because after a performance like that, they could really become a band I grow to love! Majority of the band came off stage at one point and just ran through the audience, while taking photos with fans. The energy the audience had while they were in was magical.

Ashfields came on after Don’t Forget Rupert, and they have been one of my favourite bands ever since I saw them support The Sherlock’s last year at Rock City. Not only did they steal the show back then, but they also did at Splendour. One would not believe they only started out 4 years ago, with their shows you’d be expecting a decade worth of experience within them. They’ve come so far in such a short amount of time and are now getting ready to go perform Y not festival on Saturday!
With so much energy, so much talent, and so much passion for what they do, it’s no wonder they’re doing as well as they are.
I spend some time backstage with the band after their set and got to spend a few hours with them watching the other acts from the side of the confetti stage to watch Peace and Embrace, which I must say, was incredible.

After embrace, I left the backstage area and went to watch the Charlatans finish their set and then see Paloma Faith. The Charlatans added a nice chill vibe after a very hectic day, and allowed to audience to sit back and enjoy the music before getting to their feet for the headliner. Not only was Speldnour celebrating their 10th birthday but Paloma was also celebrating her birthday that day, so the whole crowd sung happy birthday. It was a beautiful performance which got everybody dancing!

This has been my favourite year of Splednour yet and all i can hope is next year is just a good!

Notts local: Distant Blue and the Mockingjays

With Distant Blue's release of Whirlpool on the 15th June, which is their first new song release since November, they've just been going up from there. Starting with a headlining show at Rough Trade that night, which was packed and easily their best show to date and then with the release of their music video which got better viewings than any of them expected.
Whirlpool shows a whole new side of Distant Blue, for anyone who knows their older stuff, you'll know their music used to be a lot more pop-punk, whereas whirpool is much heavier than anything else they've released, with an incredible breakdown which the crowd goes crazy during, as you can see in their video for whirlpool which shows clips from their Rough Trade gig.


https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/whirlpool-distant-blue/ef82i3kildxra

Their close mates in the Mocking Jays released both their song Edge of your knife and a video for it the other day on the 13th, which got incredible feedback from fans. Edge your the knife is a lot catchier than either Sex on the beach and take you home, trust me, you won't get it out of your head for days.


https://us.7digital.com/artist/the-mocking-jays/release/edge-of-your-knife-8025322

Just last Saturday, the 14th July, both the Mocking Jays and Distant Blue played a gig at the Maze in Nottingham, where both bands got to perform their new songs and had the crowd moving. Distant Blue amazed me as always, they always seem to know how to get a crowd moving and keep everyone entertained and on their feet. Distant Blue I have seen over a dozen times, however this was only the third time seeing a full Mocking Jays set, and I must say, it was a personal favourite of mine. They definitely lived up to being "sexy, funk, dirty, pop. Everything you want to hear and more.

Click here to see Distant Blue's new video for Whirlpool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxD3ZqVx0r4

Click here to see The Mocking Jay's new video for Edge of your Knife.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T64IzX-BID4

Check out The Mocking Jay's instagram and watch their Insta TV to see a live video of Edge of your Knife from the Maze gig on Saturday.
https://www.instagram.com/mockingjaysband/

DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL 2018!

Every year, everyone expects the exact same thing from download festival: floods.
To everyone surprise this year, we didn't feel a spot of rain, and had beautiful sunny, hot weather that reached temperatures of 23 degrees.
obviously everyone took that as a sign it was going to be a good year, which I can confirm, was the case.
Nothing beats download atmosphere: drunks sipping alcohol out of some questionable items; insane outfits; complete strangers acting like life long friends and a lot of loud music.
I feel more at home in donnington park during the second weekend of June than I ever do in my own bed.
The feeling when you arrive cannot  be beaten, as all the excitement rushes through you all at once. This was my first time camping and I had been highly recommended the blue camping area, which I am about to highly recommend to anyone reading as I met some of the coolest people in that camp area.
Boston Manor was the first band I saw after arriving and they definitely set the standards high with their memorable performance.
It was great seeing Blessthefall live on the Friday as they were a band I got into when I was younger, I got the chance to meet them back in 2015 but had never seen them perform till download. It was brilliant seeing songs I used to listen to when I was younger, I was fully releasing my younger self into those pits.
Stray from the path was a very memorable performance from that day as not only did I loose my bandanna, but, my friend lost her nose piercing in the pits! It was eventful and has made an impression on me as I had never heard of them before.
Although Marmozets are a very close second, the highlight act of Friday had to be Bullet for my valentine! I've never been a huge bullet fan, but after seeing a performance like that, I can honestly say I'd love to go see them again. Not only were the band themselves so good but some of the people I met in BFMV's crowd were some of my favourites that I met during the entire weekend.

There were two very important lessons I learnt that first night at download. Lesson 1: If you want to see the headliner, do not go back to your tent first. After that long walk to the camping area, you will not want to go back to the arena. Despite the fact we wanted to see Avenged Sevenfold, we went back to the tent first and once we had sat around our tents, we knew there was no way we'd be walking back within the next 40 minutes in time to see them.
Lesson 2: Do not get too fucked up in the evenings unless your willing to cope with it in the mornings. We had a blast Friday night. Once we had had a few drinks of jager, we decided to go to the rides. We went on all the biggest rides and the fastest rides, someone we had met took an open can of beer on the biggest ride and we all passed it around to drink once we had gotten to the top. It was all a lot of fun until Saturday morning.I felt like death. I barely saw any bands Saturday due to how deathly my hangover was.
Bands I did see included Black Stone Cherry, part of Guns and Roses and Neck Deep.
Black Stone Cherry is one I had never heard of before but their songs are so catchy I had them stuck in my head for days
Guns and Roses was one that when first announced I couldn't believe it! When was I ever going to get the chance to see them again?! Closer to the date I realised how long their set was, and said I'd see the beginning, go Neck Deep then come back to see the end, because that'd still be 2 and a half hours of Guns and Roses. It wasn't till they were actually on stage that I realised I don't quite care abut Guns and Roses as much as I thought I did. Their guitar solos are definitely impressive, but when they do a ten minute guitar solo during each and every song I find myself just chatting to the people nearby and paying no attention to the actual band at all. So I did see the first bit of Guns and Roses but after neck deep came of stage I returned to the tent.
Neck Deep sure loved the fact they had a crowd of people that'd rather see them than Guns and Roses. Not only did they start to the entrance of Sweet child o' mine, with the Guns and Roses logo saying Neck Deep instead as the background, but they also sold a shirt that got banned after a few hours of selling it because it was a copy of a Guns and Roses album cover of  use your illusion, but in different colours and with their name on. Safe to say, some people were not impressed.

Now for Sunday. The best day of my entire life. After getting up nice and early, I went straight down to the Kerrang! signing tent and waiting close to the front of the line to meet Black Veil Brides. I had brought a car sticker from the merch stand which said  "howl if you're horny" and Cc howled at me! I swear to God my heart skipped a beat. This was my third time meeting the band, 5th time meeting Andy and honestly I never get bored of it, they are genuinely some of the nicest guys in the world.
After meeting Black Veil Brides, I went to see In This Moment, which have been one of my favourite bands for years yet I never got the chance to see them live before. No word of a lie, Maria Brink is a Goddess and the best front woman I have ever seen. Their theatrical performance was magical and s inspiring.
Lucky me getting Black Veil Brides come on straight after, and I couldn't have been happier, the grin on my face could not be wiped off. I don't know whether it was the best I've seen them play or not but it was surely one of the best to say the least.

Now one of the most inspiring artists for me personally has to be Marilyn Manson. This was my third time seeing him perform and it was easily the best performance I've seen from him yet. One of the most memorable bits had to be when he started playing "I don't like the drugs (but the drugs like me)", stopped the song, said "That's bullshit" and lit a spliff on stage before starting the "Dope show". Something that has always been on my bucket list has been to crowd surf at a Manson gig so as soon as the adrenaline hit me hard enough I went for it. It was a beautiful show and I'd give anything to go relive it.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlists/marilyn-manson-bd6a522.html

Finally I got to see the last act of Download 2018, the legend himself Ozzy Osbourne. The only headliner I stayed for the whole set, and it was so worth it despite the fact nobody I was with stayed to see him so I spent the whole time alone, it was still brilliant! Anyone that says he hasn't got it anymore clearly is too critical because he had more energy up on that stage than majority of younger front men I've seen. It was the perfect way to end the perfect day.


https://www.nottinghampost.com/whats-on/music-nightlife/download-2018-sunday-review-ozzy-1661555

After the experience I had, I have to say I will find any excuse to go download as often as I possibly can because it actually feels like a family and the time I had there could not be beaten.