Wednesday 22 June 2016

BEACON FESTIVAL // REVIEW

L B W

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T W E N T Y S I X T E E N

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M U S I C

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Aloha, Ahoy

It's only been three days since I went to Beacon Festival, but it feels as though it has been a month! I've been planning upcoming adventures, checking out events and listening to lots of new bands to share with you all over summer.

Then I was told by an awesome blogger collective that I've been chosen as their blogger of the year, & named as 'The Nomad' for my adventure posts and sharing music from across the globe.
This is a massive honour!
I'm really excited to share the feature & interview with you all next month too!
It was summer solstice and this year at the same time, an event that occurs per 70 years, the strawberry moon was present.
This was the view of the last of the daytime, from near where I live.


Then I got sick, like man I've never felt as knocked out as I have the last two days.
When I haven't felt as though I'm running at 200 degrees in a misty fog, I've not had the energy to utter an inch from my bed.
Doctors order sleep, sleep is what I did. I don't like to sleep, I mean I love sleep, but my lifestyle doesn't leave a lot of time for sleep. There's normally emails to reply to, people to keep updated and music to checkout, I'm definitely not complaining, but when I am offered a chance to sleep, I will sure as hell take it.

Zz

As you can imagine i'm now a little behind schedule with all things, so tonight I'll share my Beacon Festival features with you & then you'll have a new bands feature to check out & tomorrow an Introducing feature too!

This weekend there's no gigs as I'm heading out on the road but I'll be bringing you an extra cool feature for a band I've been talking about for the last few months and featured a while back.

So Beacon, what can I say? I mean I survived two whole days at Download (check out the highlights with Sky Arts this weekend) with the metal & rock hall of famers' and came away standing. I spent half a weekend at Beacon and came back completely broken.
Thank you to Chloe for her Friday coverage, you can read her post on her blog shortly, links to follow.
 So BEACON FESTIVAL you were awesome and I had a wicked time. I saw many good bands, drank many ciders, ate tasty food & relaxed under the sunshine in the Oxfordshire countryside.
And thanks to the friends & family of Kamikaze Test Pilots who danced with me, drank with me & invited me to hang out with them.
(You can read more on the band later).
Thanks Fiona MacAulay for the photo!
So Beacon festival; well if you missed this years, you really did miss out & you should absolutely one hundred percent go next year! I find myself in a conundrum when finding awesome places because the beauty of some places is that no one knows they exist.
However that being said when it comes to festivals, the artists and organizers deserve for the world to see their spectacular event.

T H E // B A N D S

The bands were great, some real talents! My absolute favourites were Callow Saints - Ruby's vocals are way beyond her years & whatever the magic this band have captured is, I am urging them not to lose it! I wasn't sure what to expect from the bands & when I listened to Callow Saints set, I knew the bar had been set high.

You have to listen to this band, then probably join me at a show and I promise to all you that you will see more of this band on LBW.


Do go and show this Aylesbury band some love because they are awesome and you do need to listen to their music.

After Callow Saints, I switched stages to watch Rushkeeper who were great, really lovely selection of songs, well played and the band certainly captured the attention of the ever growing audience.
After the set, I moved a little further back as I decided cider definitely needed to be next on the agenda.
I had just picked up a pint of Black Panther and was about to return down the hill to the stage, when I could hear some inexplicably good flamenco cover of rock, coming from the Hilltop stage, just next to the bar.
Who on Earth were this band? The guitar sounded excellent.
I swung on my heels and edged in to the crowd in front of the stage, to find not a band, but a boy.
ONE BOY.
If you haven't been lucky enough to see this artist live, I recommend you go scrawl the internet and upcoming festival lineups, looking out for the name



Dude was like fifteen years younger than me or something and can play the guitar like I've never seen.
Classical guitar never sounded so lively.

Hume followed on from Billy and I really liked the acoustic tunes from the Hilltop stage.
I think a lot of you will like Hume and while it's different to the normal stream of Metal & Rock that I write about, I have to say I too was quite taken by Hume.


Everyone I spoke to at Beacon was friendly, there was a real community feel to this festival. Kids playing, workshops going on, the sun was shining and the rolling landscape provided the perfect backdrop to the day.

The next band I watched were one that I last saw on the south coast around a month ago. My friends and I thought they were good the first time. Those of you who read the blog regularly will have been listening to Dinosaur after the band were in my Introducing feature earlier in the month.
A definite genre change from the acoustic tent, I headed down the hill and came to watch the Kamikaze Test Pilots.

Photo belongs to Neil Wetherall
I remembered a bit of the boys set from before and knew it was going to rock, but what I did do was misjudge just how much. The energy from the band to the crowd and back was incredible.
I think the entire audience was tapping along at one point. People were up dancing, others jumping, while the rest watched on mesmerised by all the rock emanating from the stage.



The bands mixture of stop start rhythms, mind shattering riffs & rocky vocals create the perfect music cocktail for songs that should be played loud. 
The boys combine their tastes in music to create a unique sound, varying each song from the one before. I like watching this band because there's no time for boredom, they are here to play and you will rock - no messing around.

It's sure something, huh?

Red Crow followed on and their tunes were a delightful capsule of summer sunshine & long weekends with friends, entwined with explosive melodies & catchy lyrics.
If you like your indie bands with a difference, this is definitely the band you need to be checking out out over the summer.


You really should be heading to Beacon Festival next year, because you truly are in for a treat. I'll be sharing more of Callow Saints & Red Crow with you on LBW in the coming weeks.

Keep a weather eye on the horizon for more reviews and music here at LBW.

Love & Peace

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L I T T L E B E A R W O L F - KG Ⓒ 2016 -

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