FESTIVAL REVIEW: Bloodstock Festival 2023 Part 3 


 

Friday:

A challenge of being a concert photographer is seldom experiencing a full set. Often, I dash between stages, trying to capture each band as if on a Pokémon quest – though “gotta shoot ’em all” has a different ring to it. Nonetheless, the silver lining is I often witness a good portion of every set over the weekend. Here are my top picks and suggestions from Bloodstock’s two smaller stages, showcasing their stellar support for the underground scene and nurturing emerging metal talent in the UK and beyond.Continue reading


FESTIVAL REVIEW: Bloodstock Festival 2023 – Part 2


 

SATURDAY

With the weather nothing like the crispy oven-cooked hellfire of last year’s Summerpocalypse, Bloodstock is a much happier place this year, and not even the first downpour of the weekend can dampen the spirits. Especially as today is Corpse-paint Day where everyone is invited to daub themselves in black and white make-up and become angry badgers for the next few hours.

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FESTIVAL REVIEW: Damnation Festival 2022 Live at BEC Arena Manchester


Crowd at Damnation – Credit: Rich Price Photography

Following the highly successful 2021 post-lockdown return of Damnation Festival to Leeds University, 2022 sees the event move back to its original home city of Manchester, now expanded to take place in the 6000-capacity BEC Arena.

 

The move, whilst probably inevitable, was always going to be something of a gamble. Some of the smaller rooms at the Leeds, Damnation were getting dangerously crammed, and the festival’s repute, ticket-buying demand, and band-booking clout had outgrown its former venue. But, on the other hand, many had come to regard the Leeds University Union, for all its quirks and eccentricities, as Damnation’s home.

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CONCERT REVIEW: Dystopian Future Movies – Din of Celestial Birds – Civil Service Live at The Wharf Chambers


 

Dystopian Future Movies – 2022 – Credit: Rich Price Photography

Leeds’s The Wharf Chambers is an interesting little venue, a worker’s co-op pub and music space which at first was a little bit difficult to find. But once you do there’s a feeling of going back in time, not only in feel but also prices, 70p for a pint of diet coke no less. I’m coming back here, definitely. 

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CONCERT REVIEW: The Soap Girls – Felicia – Live at The Den, Harrogate


 

Walking into The Den in Harrogate I was initially convinced I’d gone to the wrong place. This was a sports bar; the football was on. Double check, no this is the right place. Spotting a few of the bands by a stage in between pool tables, I must be in the same place. 

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CONCERT REVIEW: Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls – Pet Needs – Truckstop Honeymoon – Mash P. Live at  Manchester Academy 1


 

Frank Turner – 2022 – Credit: Rich Price Photography

 

Entering Academy 1 just after doors and those of us early attendees were in for a surprise treat, added a few days ago on the tour was an extra support act in the form of Mash P. Introduced by Frank Turner himself who told the story of how he first met Mash in 2017 in Freetown, Sierra Leone where he was living on the street, and visiting the way out arts charity to find his art and his voice.

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CONCERT REVIEW: VOLA – Voyager – Four Stroke Baron Live at Rebellion 


VOLA playing at Rebellion Manchester Credit: Rich Price

Opening up tonight were Nevada three-piece Four Stroke Baron, a band who are difficult to classify. Heavy slabs of groove-laden prog smash funkily across a packed audience. The set is marred only by the fact that in a couple of songs the singer notably loses his voice and the band without missing a beat goes on to deliver their first instrumental set from the dark smoke-laden stage of Rebellion and its notoriously bad lighting. Handling an awkward situation very well indeed they still delivered a solid and enjoyable set that had the audience’s heads bobbing along in time. 

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CONCERT REVIEW: Church of the Cosmic Skull – The Happy Soul – Club Academy, Manchester 


The Happy Soul were aptly named, as they exuded a chilled-out happiness on stage at Club Academy in Manchester. With a psychedelic backdrop of them looking happy and smiley to add emphasis to their live feel. Not much movement on the cramped stage and not much banter they very much let their music do the talking, they seemed too busy smiling to be honest. 

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CONCERT REVIEW: YOB – Hidden Mothers -Live at Academy 3 Manchester 


Now, I’ve been looking forward to this gig since I first saw the poster and immediately begged the editor for a photo pass. I’d been meaning to catch Sheffield’s Hidden Mothers for a while, and headliners YOB are a band I would never consciously pass up the chance to experience live. 

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CONCERT REVIEW: Igorrr – Otto Von Schirach – Club Academy, Manchester 


Heading up to Club Academy, for the first time in a number of years and I had forgotten how cramped the stage was. The seating around the venue though is a welcome change from most of the other academy venues, it is the most intimate of them, although down in the bowels of the building the phone signal was non-existent. 

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