Bloodstock 2011

Whenever I told people that I was going to Bloodstock, they thought that it was a clever combination of Woodstock and , err, blood(Heavy Metal)

My preference is to believe that Bloodstock is more linked to the farming concept of Bloodstock-your herd that you hope will become champions.

Bloodstock’s basic setup is that there are around 12,000 fans, 4 stages, and bands that only the most ardent of Metallers would have heard of(With a couple of notable exceptions, such as Motorhead)

It really is a place to hear music that you can’t hear elsewhere, check out some new bands, like them, love them, hate them.

The reason that I thought of going was that I had followed Primitai through a battle of the bands, and they had won a slot on the new blood stage. Given that they were the main reason that I was there, I didn’t slavishly go from act to act, instead, it was more a time to chat, drink beer and chill.

On Friday I went to see Beholder, a band who I hadn’t heard before, but knew because the lead singer was the judge of the Battle of the Bands competition that Primitai had won. They were good! The judge has a right to be a judge simply because he knows his craft-great singer, great stage presence-the fans loved him.

After Beholder, beers with Primitai, and to bed.

Saturday was a more full on day, I went to see Primitai on the new blood stage. They did their usual storming show…

I then wandered off to the main stage and saw Tarot. Good band, the singer was barking, however! Each track was introduced by a long rambling paragraph that didn’t make any sense, and bore very little relevance to the song. Well, I suppose it caused me to remember them…

Now, there are certain things that just don’t work, perfectly. They are possible, but they use the wrong tool for the job

• Ploughing a field with a Ferrari
• Building a motorway using a teaspoon
• Flying by strapping bird feathers on your arms
• Primitai playing an acoustic set!!

Yep, due to a booking cock-up, they were also playing on the Jaegermeister acoustic stage. It kinda worked, but only kinda.

After, Primitai, I watched the Devin Townsend Project, that guy is really really good, great vocalist and guitarist, very tight band.

After that to the Saturday headline act, Immortal. They were good, very tight, great stage show.

There were the usual collection of oddities and weirdness's at the festival on Saturday!

And, I was amazed to find out that out of 12000 people, over 300 were media gatherers-Photographers, video guys, reporters etc.

High Voltage-Saturday and Primitai

Well, I did say that this is the festival season, so off to another festival we go. This time it’s High Voltage.

High Voltage is a London based(Victoria Park) Rock festival for those who don’t really do festivals. No camping, no mud, and even the toilets smell nice.

I went on Saturday as a VIP guest of Primitai, and on Sunday under my own steam.

This is the story of Saturday.

Primitai were playing at quarter past 3. so I decided to get there more or less as the festival opened at Mid-day. The journey there was a bit problematic as the Circle/District and Hammersmith and City lines were all down for maintenance, so the remaining tube lines were as bad as a Monday Morning, but a quick blast down the Bakerloo and Central lines dropped me off, a little hotter and more crushed than I would have hoped for, but hey, so what

A short walk got me to Victoria Park, where I picked up my VIP wristband from the box office. Into the site itself-quite small (Around 30,000) people and a nice atmosphere.

One of the band members Dad’s, Bob Chilcott was there and I’d got his telephone number from his son. I thought I would give him a call to see if he fancied a pre-gig beer. What happened next was pure male logic..

When I phoned him he was listening to one of the bands so couldn’t quite hear me. But he got that some random guy was asking him for a beer, to which, of course, he said “Yes”, it wasn’t until he’d walked away from the stage and could properly hear, that he found out that it was me. Male logic-always say yes to a beer, then work out who it is after!

Primitai were the first band that I went to see. I think that the sound guys really hadn’t got their act together as Primitai were doing their usual good stuff, but, the mix really wasn’t good, you could hear it was metal, but it sounded more like metal shavings being dropped on a rusty can!

Even with the sound problems they did a great job, really got the audience of around 1500 people going

Primitai having wowed the crowd it was time to see some other acts…

More on that tomorrow…

Forged by Fire

There are some benefits to being an old geezer. One of them is that you have offsping who have grown up, and can stop you getting older(If you get the tautology of that!)

At the Ozzy concert last year, James kept talking about the guitarist, Gus G. I didn’t really get what he was on about until Ozzy did “Mr Crowley”, and a bloke with long hair(How unusual), did an amazing solo. The person was Gus G, a greek guitarist who, as well as having his own band-Firewind-was also Ozzys lead guitarist on the  Ozfest tour.

Anyway, time passes, and James told me that Prinitai were the intro act, supporting , Breed 77, and Firewind at the Relentless Garage gig in London. WOuld I like to go-of course.

The Relentless Garage is a really good venue-great lights and sound, professionally organised, and relatively large – 700 people.

Primitai were good, and did a great job of getting the audience energised.

The act that followed thm, to some degree, is difficult to explain. Let me try…

Try taking Spanish music, add some middle eastern influences, now dollop on a huge amount of shred and metal-and you have Breed 77. They were really good, but I wish I’d done my homework beforehand, as it would have enabled me to “Geddit” a bit earlier on.

The headline act was Firewind. Driven by Gus G’s stunning solos, the band metaled their way through some great numbers to a very enthusiastic audience. Really really good, I just don’t get why Gus isn’t better known than he is. he is really amazing.

The fans doing the “Metal Salute”

Gus G looking every bit a star that he is

Gus, and Firewind are Greek, and a number of the fans knew that

Primitai-3

Guy and the lads have just come off a tour supporting White Wizzard. These are some shots taken at the last gig in Camden. I tried to focus on the relationship between the audience and the band.

Nocturnal Hordes

I went back to see Primitai at the Purple Turtle in Camden. It’s a pretty “intimate” (AKA small!) venue, but the guys managed to light it up!

Guy jumped into the Audience, and the guys looked really relaxed and focussed on the stage. Even Srdjan managed a smile or 2!

Anyway here’s some shots that I took…

 

 

I’m going back in a month or so to see them playing in The Underworld, Camden – it’s one of the prime venues in London, so it should be a good gig.

The Craft

As well as the ol’ rockers that I’ve been to see and photograph this year, I’ve been to see some up ‘n comers as well. One of them is Primitai website here

I’d known about them for some time as the drummer is a good friend of James (They’ve known each other since they were 5!), and I had heard that the band had won the “UK battle of the bands” competition in the summer. In 2009 over 12,000 bands around the UK entered the national battle of the bands ‘Surface Unsigned Festival’.  Initially an application, and example of the music was submitted, then on the basis of that each band were then invited to play at the first round in regional heats The winners then went through 5 further heats which were all live gigs leading up to the London final, which then culminated in the national final held at Indigo @ the O2 arena in London. 

The scoring was based around text votes, audience reaction, and the judges vote.

So from 12,000 bands and a lot of sweat, Primitai won! and netted around £60K’s worth of goodies! So they were on their way.

I said to Chris, last time we met up, in my best “Snatch” voice, “If I ever find out you have you have played within 20 miles of Reading, and don’t tell me, I will cut your fucking Jacobs off” - he was a bit taken aback, as he didn’t know it was a quote!, and took me a bit too seriously, but he got the message. Anyway, they played in Reading last Sunday, and I went to see them.

They are really, really good, and I can see how they got to win the competition.

I took some shots at the gig, they aren’t that brilliant, but the lighting was so feeble that trying to capture them was not an easy task.

Here are some of the shots

 

These first 4 I put on my photoblog link here

And here are some that never made the cut

Somehow, the lead singer, Guy, found the shots I had put on Aminus3, and made contact,he seems quite happy with the shots, so I’ll go along to their next gig, and take some more when hopefully there will be a bit more light-which will make it a whole load easier to do some of the whole band together.

Guy also asked if I could mention that they are looking for a 1000+ facebook “likes”. They are doing a free promo where in return for registering with your e-mail address. you can down load a track from their latest album, so if you do that, and you like what you hear, why not click on the “Like “ button- you can claim to have helped them to Stardom!!