Day 2 Saturday 29th June
11 AM on a sunny Saturday morning might be a wee bit too early for some necromancy and occultism but
Crowley
got the day off to a rousing start with a powerful (Metal) Hammer Horror inspired show. You could probably hear singer Lidya Balaban all over the Lowther Hills and as far away as Carlisle – what a belter of a voice she has got, with enough power and volume to wake the dead and the undead. The band’s invocation also did a great job of rousing the half-deid looking campers, vanners and pod-dwellers, some of whom certainly seemed to have had a great time the previous night after Day 1 of Wildfire. Crowley have definitely got a strong witchy vibe going – not in a fluffy Stevie Nicks kind of way either - and their wickedly good set, including the ear wax-loosening ‘Hell Hath No Fury’ and ‘Pyre’ was a great way to start to the day.
It’s also never too early for a bit of keytar and that’s where Northern power-metallers Skies Turn Black
come in. The band burst back into life last year with new band members and good comeback songs like ‘The Skies Are Falling Down’ and ‘Playing with Fire’. They sound a bit like Dragonforce played at normal speed but they also add a frisson of Steel Panther relish with songs about kinky sex and a dodgy wardrobe featuring blouses, headbands and leopard-print trousers. They played some especially-splendid as-yet-unreleased songs featuring electronic trickery and a bit of dub-step amongst the rock and it was all great fun.
The most colourful band of the day were Violet Blend
from Italy, who all sported matching violet-coloured jackets at the start of the set. The band have been playing their eclectic brand of modern alt-metal for a few years but only came to prominence in the UK last year after winning Great Music Stories’ Band of the Year accolade. They are currently on tour and have helpfully produced a ‘Band of the Year Special Edition’ CD to bring us up to date with their best songs, including ‘Rock DJ’ and ‘Voices in my Head’. All of the band share vocals on ‘Funeral of Love’ but mostly the singing falls to the enchanting Giada Celeste Chelli who delivers an eye-catching and theatrical performance, including a version of Verdi’s ‘La Donna e Mobile’ from the opera ‘Rigoletto’. The set highlight was probably ‘My Head is Broken’, which has a touch of Evanescence about it with a vocal contribution from singing drummer Michel.
It is never possible to catch all of the bands on the bill, so unfortunately, I missed Skinny Knowledge, a pop-punk band from Bournemouth, and Glasgow’s Those Made Broken on the Saturday. From what I was told, the top bands on Friday included an emotional farewell performance from A Ritual Spirit, US rockers Carbellion, who have been getting rave reviews on their UK tour, Edinburgh prog-metallers Tiberius, and a fine headliner set from Oli Brown and the Dead Collective. Fortunately, I’ll get a chance to see the last two at the Rockinburgh charity gig in Edinburgh at the end of September so I’ll look forward to that.
Jack J Hutchinson
is a familiar face but this time around he’s less hairy and less overtly bluesy after a recent haircut and having recorded some great melodic songs for his new album ‘Battles’ in America. New tunes like ‘Don’t Let the F*ckers Get You Down’ and ‘Constellations’ really shine but reassuringly, we also still get some old favourites from previous albums and there is still Charlie Rachael Kay on bass.
It was something of a ladies’ day at Wildfire on Saturday, with seven of the twelve bands featuring ladies, including five female-fronted bands and four lady bass players, but surprisingly no women playing drums. There were some fantastic displays of girl power and musical excellence on-stage all day and it was a joy to see and hear.
Syteria
have three very fine ladies in the line-up, including Julia Calvo on vocals, Steph Dawson as one of two left-handed bass players on the day, national treasure and rock goddess Jax Chambers on guitar, plus Julia’s brother Pablo Calvo behind the kit. They were good fun as usual; bouncing around and playing musical statues on ‘I’m All Woman’ and running through a whole host of bouncy numbers. Their next single ‘Chasing Dreams’ was bright and breezy like a Scottish summer should be.
I was looking forward to seeing Ward XVI
as I had not experienced them before and they did not disappoint. I mistakenly thought that their show might be what you would get if you ordered Alice Cooper’s ‘Welcome to my Nightmare’ on Temu but it turned out to be a great in-your-face shock horror extravaganza that is best experienced up close, but not too close. It is important to emphasise that underneath all the character acting, disembowelling, gore, dream sequences, gimp suits and ritual slaughter, there is actually a really good industrial prog-metal band playing out a full-blown series of concept albums telling the well-worked story of the fictional killer Psycoberrie, so their music is also well worth a listen. Apparently, the band have received complaints that they traumatised some bairns at a festival down south recently, but you would have to ask what kind of dipshit booked them to play on the same bill as The Lighthouse Family and B*witched in the first place!! Fortunately, the kids at Wildfire are made of sterner stuff and merrily joined in with the mayhem, wielding inflatable chainsaws and taking part in Scotland’s highest ever circle pit at the end. Great stuff.
Once they had mopped up the last of the fake blood on the stage, it was time for NitroVille. There wasn’t even any time lost, in fact, the handovers ran like clockwork and to timetable all day, so kudos to the organizers and the bands. It’s that kind of festival really – everyone gets looked after and the bands seem genuinely pleased to be there.
NitroVille
came all the way from London to play a brand of hard-driving southern-tinged rock which fairly shook the tent pegs of the marquee venue. Although the band all hail from the capital, none of them are originally from there. There is a German-Scottish guy on guitar, a handsome hairy French drummer, an energetic Italian bass player and Grizzy Rose Lee from God-knows-where but no one looks more like a proper rock star than he does. Together they make a mighty fine rock noise and it is all delivered in fine style with the formidable vocals of Anglo-Scottish singer Tola Lamont of Clan Lamont up front. Highlights included ‘Louisiana Bone’ and ‘Tell it Like It Is’ but they’ve got a couple of under-rated albums full of great songs. If you like no-nonsense hard rock, you will enjoy this band a lot.
Wanlockhead is well known for lead mining and famously is the highest village in Scotland; high enough to boast great views, a skiing centre and a golf ball-shaped radar station, but still close enough to the border and well connected to the M74 that punters from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Cumbria could all enjoy the scenery while day-tripping back and forward to the festival. BBC’s Countryfile recently visited and their show focused on the area’s fine tradition of gold panning. In a way, that’s what festival promoter Dave Ritchie does; scouting bands from all over the country every year, often in conjunction with Guy Bellamy, to procure a line-up of under the radar or as-yet lesser-known talent and give them a platform to become somebody’s new favourite band.
The Saturday evening session featured three bands who had won the hearts of the very loyal and discerning Wildfire regulars last year being promoted to the top of the bill. The first of those was Blue Nation. They might look like the cast of ‘The Inbetweeners 3: The Hippie Years’ but they are very likeable lads and they also now possess a good cache of well-crafted songs. They have forged an emotional connection with the good folks on top of the hill, not least through highly relatable and touching songs like ‘Echoes’; dedicated as always to those impacted by mental health issues and performed within range of a bucket collecting for Samaritans. The band have been on an incredible journey since last year’s Wildfire, and as Neil said; “we’re just three Brummies having the time of our lives”. They deserve it and there is much more to come, not least with a UK tour alongside Dom Martin later in the year, so don’t miss that. The roar at the end of their set was one of the loudest ever heard at Wildfire.
I defy anyone not to smile when they’re watching This House We Built
– they truly are a joy to see and hear and very solid musicians to boot. Scott Wardell is definitely a force of nature. He looks a wee bit like Malcolm Young but when he’s in full flow on stage he gives off a bit of a Steve Marriott vibe with the vocals, especially on ‘Nobody’s Fool’, which was the best song of the weekend last year and it was again this year too. They are seasoned players and a really tight band, especially with the harmony vocals. Andy Jackson has got a lovely touch for a big lad and he sings on a few songs too, including his own self-proclaimed “soppy one”; ‘There She Stands’. They definitely know how to rock out but when they do a love song you can really feel it “in your under-carriage” as Scott said and there is never a dry eye in the house when they do ‘Fly Me Up to The Moon’. Their cover of ‘The Voice’ is awesome and there must be more to come as they played a new song which cleverly incorporated the name of the band into the lyrics. If you’ve not heard of them before, your Rockfiend-prescribed homework is to play their self-titled album ASAP. You can thank me later.
Dead Writers
closed the Saturday show this year after a fine but short set last year. I don’t know exactly where the name came from but I think we can safely assume they are not named for Dame Barbara Cartland or Lord Jeffrey Archer (who sadly isn’t even dead yet). They do look suitably Byronic though and their image is of suave, elegant rock & roll new romantics with a gothic and sexy twist. Paul Shine is a mesmeric front man, giving off high-camp vibes like Luke Spiller of The Struts or even Freddie when he sits down at the piano, all while crooning dramatically and passing out roses to the crowd. The rest of the band look and sound good too, including the effortlessly cool Naomi Boschetti; the second left-handed lady bassist of the day. They don’t have all that many songs yet but the ones they do all seem to have a gossamer beauty, such as ‘Lisa’ and fan-favourite ‘Among Spirits’. They did play some new songs and it will be interesting to see how far they go once they have enough material for an album.
Day 3 Sunday 30th June
By the time I arrived back on-site from Edinburgh it was mid-afternoon and I’d missed a lot of good music, but band that everyone was talking about was
Alabama Crow, who weren’t even added to the bill until the last moment so they’re not even on the back of the t-shirt, which is a shame because it was a cracker with an angry badger on the front. There have been some fine bands with Alabama in their name. Alabama Shakes are actually from there but surprisingly, neither Alabama 3 or Alabama Thunderpussy are. It’s the same with The Crows; they are from the Dundee area and are probably really gutted that the Thunderpussy name was already taken. Their chatty and engaging singer Billy was on-site all weekend making new friends and influencing people. He is an engaging wee geezer and is actually from Kirriemuir. He might not be the best or most famous singer from Kirriemuir but he is probably in the top two! The band only got together earlier this year but they are already making a name for themselves and are aiming for a sound somewhere between Biffy Clyro and Big Country with a wee bit of southern too. Check them out when you get the chance.
I had heard great things about
White Skies
after their recent shows with Ten and it was easy to see why. The band are all experienced professionals with a background in “great but didn’t quite make it” melodic rock bands like Angels or Kings and Double Cross and some of them have played in Dante Fox, Ten and Samson, so there is a real pedigree there. They’ve decided that now is the time to get together and make some more first-class music and their album ‘Black Skies’ is UK AOR out of the top drawer. They definitely tick all the boxes and their highlight might be the obligatory big 80s movie-style power ballad ‘Kiss Me (as I Say Goodbye)’. If you like a bit of FM or similar, you will love these guys.
At the other end of the age range,
Zac and The New Men are young and serious in that way that young folks can be these days, but they are also seriously good and confident with it. After their last song ‘Off to The Moon’ they did band introductions and I was relieved to discover that the front man is called Zac, so that I avoided any “by the way, which one’s Pink?” moments.
There were two bands with “liberty” in their name playing on Sunday evening. Fortunately, neither of them were shite popsters Liberty X, but
Thieves of Liberty had to work just a little bit to get here in time after a late-night bevvy session at Bannermans in Edinburgh the night before, which apparently went on until 4AM. Singer James Boak looked like he might still be suffering but what a singer he is. He gives off a bit of an Andrew Strong from The Commitments vibe and that fits the band’s hard-driving but bluesy and soulful style. They were great here a couple of years ago and the additional seasoning has done them no harm at all.
Presumably
Shape of Water
got their name from the weird but Oscar-winning fish-fingering film of the same name? They are a UK-based Italian eclectic and avant-garde electronic art-rock duo who present music which is both visually and musically striking. The main men present a real ying and yang contrast. Rox Capriotti is an exotically pale and slender peroxide-haired creature who looks like he might have been beamed down from another planet to the save the Earth, whereas Luca De Falco has a muscular, tanned and inked presence with a man-bun and a brooding intensity. Together, they make what might be described as complex sonic tapestries from heaven or hell, with throbbing bass and a sometimes-falsetto vocal. It’s almost-danceable prog, but also bombastic and dynamic, so I suppose Muse might be a potential comparison point and their cover of The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’ is also an attention-grabber. I’ve certainly never seen or heard anything like it but I’m definitely up for some more. They’ve got a new sexy single called ‘Naked’ due out at the end of this week that might get attention for both the music and the almost-gynaecological arty cover too.
They say that if you want to be a rock & roll star then you should look and act like a star and fake-it-until-you make-it.
The Karma Effect certainly look the part as all five of them sport shades, beards, great hair and shoes, and exposed hairy chests. They were the only band that went off after the brief sound check to come back on stage to an intro tape, and one of the few bands to have live keyboards to back up their groovy tunes which are all swagger, oedipal swear words and fantastic harmonies. But the absolute best thing about The Karma Effect is that they came to Wildfire as a current UK top-20 chart-topping act on the strength of their brilliant new album ‘Promised Land’. They don’t need to fake it anymore as they’ve officially made it to rock & roll’s promised land, and deservedly so as they put on a fantastic set in which every song was a winner. They are very professional, in fact, one of my favourite things of the weekend was their attention to detail and fan consideration. At the end of their show, they handed one of their set lists off the stage to a friend of mine and it turned out that they had actually written the songs on the back of an A4-sized signed band photograph. Well played lads. The Karma Effect have their own UK tour booked for September of this year, so make sure you get on board with them.
The honour of closing the festival went to Sons of Liberty, who actually looked like they should have been called ‘Dads of Thieves of Liberty’ after sharing a bill with the young lads the previous night, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was them that wrecked the youngsters after the show. Their brand of southern rock is well-established now but they seem to have been through a few singers. The current incumbent is a man with rock & roll royalty in his DNA; Russ Grimmett, and he has brought some youthful-ish vigour and a great pair of lungs to the band. He even had everyone jumping around, and after three days up the hill, I fear some folks will be feeling that on Monday.
That wasn’t the actual end of the festival though. Former festival favourites
Theia are calling it quits with a farewell show in about a week’s time, but they also made a last pilgrimage up the hill to say their goodbyes to the Wildfire faithful with an after-hours show in The Wanlockhead Inn. It’s that kind of festival really.
Early bird tickets for next year’s Wildfire on 27-29th June 2025 are already on-sale at the ludicrously good value price of £70 for 3 days. You can expect around 35 bands again, so, as festival legend Monty told me on Sunday, “that’s about £2 a band” and that includes camping and all the facilities at the Community Centre and the Inn. Black Spiders are headlining on the Saturday but you can be sure that you’ll also be finding some of your future-favourite bands too. Long live Wildfire.
