Call Of The Wild Festival 2025
- Rock Metal Machine
- Jun 12
- 26 min read
Artists: Various
Venue: Lincolnshire Show Ground
Date: 30 May-1 June 2025
"Once again it’s a drama free event. I didn’t see a cross word amongst anyone in the crowd or those working at the festival at any point on any day, in fact it was big smiles all around each and every day from morning to night. The bands played their hearts out and absolutely no one was taking anyone for granted, what a joy!."
So it’s Call Of The Wild again, a festival I have now been at for six consecutive years. It’s lovely to see it grow and keep the family feel, but also get more polished and executed with cutting edge professionalism. It always takes a couple of years for a festival to get going and it’s now on a roll. It’s getting more diverse now, not solely Glam Sleaze, it embraces heavier and Goth bands and the Saturday night headliner is usually a crossover mainstream band. For those into their Glam Sleaze, however, Sunday this time has been almost totally devoted to that and that’s a rare thing to see these days. I have noticed that, moving with the times, my precious Glam Sleaze genre has become a featured day rather than the dominant theme. I hope this creep doesn’t go too far. There were clearly a huge amount of fans of my genre there and I hope there’s enough of us to keep that going as a valuable and significant part of the festival always! As long as that remains the case I’ll carry on coming. With new blood band-wise in the genre there’s no reason for it to fade and this is one of the only festivals that does it. If you’re a Glam fan get out there and support it. It was still loud and proud this year!!
Friday
After a fun interview with Sister’s Doll the Australian boy band sensation, I catch Greyfox Conspiracy, lots of fun with their Old Wild West themed regalia, raccoon tail festooned mike stand and gigantic bible for ‘Preacher Man’. Donning war paint for ‘Crazy Horse’, the singer commands the attention of the crowd with his lively expressive engagement. Luckily, while there was heavy rain at the beginning of their set, it soon eased off and the crowd, there whatever the weather, enthusiastically embraced the drama. A man next to me spontaneously said “they were really good” and the crowd expressed disappointment when the band announced their last song. Interestingly it was more of a Metal vocal delivery, rather than Southern Rock, but heavier seemed to meet with audience approval. A good start to my musical journey!
On the Trailblazer stage Jehenna ranged from a Nu-Metal style with melodic female voices and a heavier back end, to more poppier numbers a bit like Blondie. There are a troop of cowboys with stetsons and hobby horses in the crowd, thrusting them up and down with the beat, and one not so token Native American. One man with a long staff like a pike leads to some “we love extra long” jokes from the band. The band went down so well the crowd were demanding albums at the merch stand and cheers went up when the skater style singer announced that they are about to record an EP. It was great to see a keyboard player managing to dance and engaging the crowd at the same time as playing. A young band still developing, they were ideal on this stage for emerging bands.
Phoenix Lake were a Gothy band in the Nightwish vein, with a distinctive looking singer with black and red hair. An energetic, long black-haired Metal guitarist kept them heavy, contrasting with their high female vocal and romantic lyrical content. Not my thing, but they pulled a decent crowd.
Heartbreak Remedy on the Trailblazer stage were a three piece with Stephen Jackson from the Chris Holmes band on drums, and I could hear the W.A.S.P. influence still coming out loud and clear in his driving drumming style. Their guitarist in black hat and sunglasses dynamically filled centre stage with guitar hero poses and Lynyrd Skynyrd style solos which sat over a much heavier back end, and their imposingly tall bassist delivered a vocal to songs about working man’s blues, tequila and getting high, which were a bit more Lemmy than Ronnie Van Zant.
Lesbian Bed Death, at the core a Goth band with a high female voice, insistent bass beat, Hammer Horror inspired lyrics and tongue in cheek style, hit differently with their dancer who bore a passing resemblance to Georgina Baillie and came on dressed as a sexy nun making rude gestures with her crucifix (and who soon threw off her habit like a façade to reveal brightly coloured hair). So effective was she with her props, such as drinking blood red communion from a chalice and dancing in see-through leotards with a bright yellow stuffed toy snake that looked pretty real from a distance, that she stole the show. The crowd enthusiastically sang along to chanting mock Satanic lyrics and vampire themed drama. Referring to ‘Goth Girls Are Easy’ as a silly song, they stopped playing for a while, but started again by demand from the paying clientele, they hammed it up with that highly popular ditty and finished with ‘Pretty But Mental’, complete with Goth cheerleader á la South Of Salem.
Starting as they meant to go on with explosive pyro, Sister’s Doll went all out to provide a stadium quality performance (equal to the fact that in Australia they have had five No. 1 Rock chart singles). It’s a band of brothers in real life with the family name Mileto, and newest and youngest brother Sage gave the bass some shapes with boy band style professionalism. Bryce the drummer is one of the most proactive, crowd-pleasing drummers; thrashing like a madman, constantly standing up and stick twirling and amping up the crowd Tommy Lee-style with loud calls to the crowd from the back of the stage. The songs ran from across their pretty long career of over a decade, from the very Glam ‘Strut’ to the heavier ‘United’. Singer Brennan with his mop of curls is reaching for the stars, clearly inspired by Paul Stanley with his banter between songs, exhorting the crowd to be louder and dancing and bending backwards with his guitar. Although their image is less overly Glam now compared to when they started out, they still believe in bringing the party with their performance and with their energy and drive worked to elevate the energy up to the highest so far of the day. They are busy building a brand with one of their oldest songs ‘Welcome To The Dollhouse’ inviting the crowd to all join the club and telling them all to tell ten friends. Very KISS-like, they are intent to make sure the audience have a good time and end with a crowd singalong to their song ‘Good Day To Be Alive’ and an explosion of pink confetti. They clearly intend everyone to be thinking along the lines of KISS as they did their bow and photo to the actual KISS track ‘God Gave Rock ‘n’ Roll To You’. They think big and like to entertain and are clearly having a great time doing it. It’s their first UK tour and festival and they have managed to make a splash!
The Soul Revival on the Trailblazer stage are an older band with lots of widdly guitar playing and deep, rich, high-quality vocals. The singer is a friendly Brummie who likes to chat between songs. His heart appeared to be more in their songs like ‘Show Me The Right Way’ which are indeed soulful, echoing the band name and showcasing his voice. His band, however, are more into their hard rocking big riffs with the occasional Deep Purple sounding end to songs. Joking that they are paying homage to the Rock Gods with lots of dry ice and their song ‘Rockstar’, which was old school Heavy Metal with self-confessedly cheesy lyrics, the band did seem to be pulling in a different direction to him. We’ll have to see what happens.
Dendera were a much heavier band, with a singer with a floppy Mohican and two full tattoo sleeves. They interestingly combine the lower voice of their singer with a slightly demonic higher pitch backing vocal, which was an interesting and unusual combination. The lyrics seemed to have a bit of a grandiose bent, making me think they are like a 21st Century successor to Dio.
Tom Killner headlined the Trailblazer stage with a Country and Western Rock set which veered a little towards The Quireboys at times. There was a honky-tonk looseness to their keys that I liked, kind of imperfectly perfect, the way Rock ‘n’ Roll should be. Lots of guitar shapes and western hats made them more entertaining visually than I remembered them previously.
Jayler were heavily Zeppelin inspired, with a singer in James Bartholomew that still looks in his teenage years, being a cross between a young Leif Garrett and Robert Plant in the seventies, with lashings of blonde curls and a voice that sounds like it may not quite yet have broken. With a floral shirt open to the navel, a large silver and turquoise belt buckle and stack-heeled shoes, he clearly plays homage to Plant, but his voice is so high, that although he does invoke Plant when he sings bluesy lines which end in screams, when he reaches the very high note there’s also a little bit of an element of Jimmy Osmond in there too (which made me wonder if his voice will deepen as he gets older). He does seem very mature in his stagecraft though, talking easily to the crowd in a slightly Californian hippy way about musical journeys and connections between people, and they make some of the most effective use of dry ice I have ever seen (with the plumes coming up behind them so each band member could be clearly seen), but the smoke gave an ethereal effect, great for photographs. In ‘Riverboat Queen’ he does make a very good fist at some Plant-like vocal style screams and extension of words acrobatically over a number of notes. His jerking forwards with the microphone lead across his body also recalls Plant, and since it had been raining and the stage was slippy some of the jerking was I think to keep his balance (which he did with the skills of someone on a tightrope). ‘Over The Mountain’ was about conquering obstacles, and with songs about Greek Gods of the sun they are clearly not lacking in ambition. The singer played harmonica and also at the end did some pretty nice noodling on guitar, bluesy licks with nice tone and playing behind his head. What I saw had a lot of potential. I would definitely look forward to seeing them again and would be interested to see how they develop in the future.
Everytime I see Asomvel I am a bit mesmerized by how much their singer looks like Lemmy. Sadly this time I don’t get long to gawp, as soon as I have finished photographing I have the serious business of an interview with the headliner The Commoners (see below).
Tailgunner are unashamedly totally old-school Heavy Metal: leather studs, Flying Vs, curly perms, synchronised guitar swinging, harmonised twin guitars, lots of shredding and a relentless beat. With lots of Viking-style open-mouthed shouting, pointing and fist pumping, it’s a ballad free zone. They try to mix it up visually with a huge Tailgunner logo mike stand and Tailgunner branded Union Jack flag, kinda Maiden style. Their male guitarist also looks like a young Steve Harris. They apparently played COTW three years ago which was their very first show with white Flying V-sporting guitarist Rhea Thompson, who plays super fast (as do they all) and they have since apparently done over a hundred shows showcasing a new drummer tonight. Their set is so relentless I do find myself wondering if they wore out their last drummer through sheer use. They introduce their encore with the cry “Wanna hear some more Heavy Metal?” and there are indeed three more hard driving headbangers on offer. The cowboys with their hobby horses are back and they form a ring of thrusting totems along the front of the stage, which are suddenly drowned in red and white streamers out of stage cannons at the climax of the show.
The Commoners were a complete contrast with their soulful Rock ‘n’ Roll and more tone and feeling. Singer Chris Medhurst reminds me in his stage moves a little of Danny Vaughn of Tyketto, although his voice is more Joplin-esque. Great songwriting like ‘Gone Without Warning’ combines Rock ‘n’ Roll riffs with stylish, bluesy rolling rhythmic licks, and ‘Too Soon To Know You’ touches on the Gospely sublime. It’s the guitarist Ross Hayes Citrullo’s birthday and the crowd sing ‘Happy Birthday To You’. Expressing that while life on the road was hard sometimes, Medhurst said that nights like this reminds the band why they are here. It’s the first time that band has headlined a festival and they acquit themselves well. Not only well deserved, it’s testament to the quality of the band that they have achieved this in three short years from when the band started. ‘Restless’ showcases the fine vocals over an acoustic guitar. Finishing with fine compositions like ‘See You Again’, ‘Find A Better Way’ and ‘Devil Teasin’ Me’, this is a serious band that plays with a very straight bat (this came through in my interview with them earlier in the day). Nevertheless, the sheer quality of their songs and playing meant they easily rose to the headline slot without the need for any gimmicks or novelty, just sheer fine songs well-delivered.
Saturday
After an interview with charismatic French Glam band Harsh, my first stop is White Tyger who are on so early they’ve gone for a less glammed up look than I have seen previously. Singer Nip Turner looks like he’s on a serious mission to rock, giving a no compromise performance ending with ‘No Fucks Given’. Bassist Stephan Timmins, doing his trademark move of throwing his bass right forward across his body and back seemingly at every turn while still not missing a beat, shows off his muscles. I assume this move is difficult as I don’t see any other bassists doing that move and it looks so good on stage. It’s intense and hopefully they are earning their stripes (see what I did there) to get higher up the bill next time.
Kite Thief from Bristol are fronted by a friendly, Glam-looking girl with black hair with a white streak, and have a distinctive looking bassist with very super long ginger dreads shaved at the side and a beard. There’s a row of pirates arcing round the back of the audience, complete with waist borne cardboard pirate ships and Jolly Roger flags built around them so they look like a little flotilla dancing at the back. This band are a bit heavy for me and deliver self confessed “angry songs”.
I make a move to the Trailblazer stage to catch Retsecrows and was very glad I did. They are essentially a teenage band with the singer sporting old-school, long Metal style hair to his waist at thirteen. His mother and father are giving out QR cards with links to their socials and I learn he started at six years old on drums, which means he’s been doing this for about seven years already! They do a really decent version of ‘Enter Sandman’ by Metallica and he looks confident and comfortable on stage, raising his arms and really engaging the audience with smiles and poise beyond his years. With social awareness beyond his youth, he thanks all the people organising and working at the festival. They deliver originals too, medium heavy Hard Rock and better than some adult bands I have seen on first listen. He explains they are from the Midlands and asks if there are any Black Sabbath or Judas Priest fans in the audience, before delivering a rocking version of ‘Breakin’ The Law’. Seeing owner of the festival Raz White in the audience, he gives him a shout out for giving them a chance on the Trailblazer stage, but Raz has a good eye and there’s no doubt that they deserve it. A great version of ‘Nothing Else Matters’ follows. If there’s a weakness they’re a bit short on guitar solos at the moment, but it’s really polished and the crowd are amazed that this group of small kids on the tertiary stage are making such a great sound. Their final original is their new single ‘Blood Sea’ which is quite Punky and heavy, and I think it sounds a bit like Nirvana. They obviously know that, as the last song is a great version of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, a witty choice to end given their ages, and even though he didn’t seem to know or maybe forgot some of the words it was pretty incredible. The crowd loved them and they were very good for a new band, irrespective of their age. People were shouting “One More Song” and crowding in for the photo at the end.
Wanting to stay for the above, I am a bit late for This House We Built and I catch a commercial sounding cover of John Farnham’s ‘You’re The Voice’ followed by “a singing and dancing track” ‘Nobody’s Fool’. The singer has a great melodic voice and the bassist constantly engages the crowd to keep up the energy. The pirate women are dancing and it’s an easy-going contrast to quite a lot of heavier bands on the roster this festival.
Whilst I try to stay focussed on the music primarily, inevitably I see people I know pretty well in the audience and I end up having entertaining chats with Stephen Jackson, the drummer of the Chris Holmes band, and Dave and Sophie from Star Circus who are on posters all around the site advertising their new release. While not enough to judge overall, I do however catch some jammin’ from the Oli Brown Collective with smiley Sam Wood from the Black Star Riders.
I next catch some Sham 69-style old Punk from the billed Trailblazer stage headliners Crashed Out, who also do some Motörhead songs like ‘Ace Of Spades’, before I cut across to catch Falling Red with their big Rock choruses. They are without Shane who apparently “forgot he was working this weekend”, and the crowd join in with a lively chant of “Shane You Stupid Twat” which I’m sure Shane would have enjoyed if he was there. They move some of the crowd to tears after they remember their dearly departed bassist Mikey Lawless, but lift the mood and raise a laugh, explaining that Shane’s last minute replacement was met “on a crazy night out involving Dave’s mum” - say no more! They do a lively cover of Bryan Adams’ ‘Run To You’ that I hear from inside the toilets (it’s hard finding time to go with everything going on) and emerge as they are thanking everyone for turning out for “the chaos that is Falling Red”.
Bonafide start off with a couple of tracks from their new release, ‘Are You Listening?’ and ‘Hero To Zero’, and are their usual combination of Status Quo and Bad Company with melodic great choruses and lots of great guitar shapes. I have to cut and run early, however, as I have heard on the grapevine that the secret headliner of the Trailblazer stage is none other than Spike of The Quireboys with Willie Dowling from The Grip!
Spike appears steaming from the off. They are on time, even though they are a bit late due to a few impromptu visits to the pub on the way! He embraces me and when I tell him photographers are only supposed to shoot one song each, due to the small pit, he insists that I take as many pictures as I want, saying some lovely things that made me glow! What a privilege, as it was actually one of the best times I have ever seen him, he was in such a good mood, making the crowd roar with laughter with his very un-PC one liners about the size of the manhoods of men from Newcastle (that’s my polite version of what was said) and having mock arguments with Willie about what was supposed to be happening on stage. Asking him about which song to play next, “What do you want to do Willie?”, the retort is “Go home!” (The opposite of The Sweet’s Willie I guess). The crowd loves it when he says “I know you’ll know all the words to this one as you are all so old!” and roared with laughter when he told all the girls to think of him later on when they are with their men (more than once!) throwing in the advice “Never get with a lass who doesn’t know who Dick Emery is”. He announces they are the first band since 1979 to release stuff on 8-track for all the men in the audience with Ford Cortinas, and explaining all the extra banter tells the crowd “Sorry I have been up… I haven’t slept since 1989”. All this is like catnip to the crowd and while they are singing and dancing to the tracks from the new album and old favourites like ‘Roses And Rings’ they take the roof off when Spike and Willie do a cover version of The Animals ‘House Of The Rising Sun’, probably letting everyone at the main stage and those in surrounding towns know all about it. Ditto with ‘I Don’t Love You Anymore’ and ‘There She Goes Again’.
Spike suddenly notices the drum kit behind him... “Can anyone play the drums?” He picks someone out of the audience but it’s too packed and the stage is fenced in so the guy can’t get onstage, and as Willie explains “There’s no snare, no sticks and no will to do it!” to which Spike retorts “That didn’t stop the Beatles”... and follows up with “How do you know a drummer is knocking at the door? They start slow and speed up!” After some harmonica and a brief snippet of ‘You’ve Gotta Move’ by The Rolling Stones (Mississippi Fred McDowell originally), they rocked the crowd with ‘7 O’Clock’. To be honest this performance made the whole day for me and I ended up afterwards in the dressing room for photos being regaled by many more tales, none of which I can tell you here!
I am therefore, despite best intentions, a bit late for Royal Republic which to be honest are not really my genre, but I catch enough to get the sense that the crowd loved their Glam Rock inspired big choruses and dance numbers, and little kids are seen aloft on dad’s shoulders wagging glowsticks to the tunes. The singer informs the crowd that two of them, including himself, used to have hair down to their navels, but they cut their hair for the band; “We wanted to be Metal but we figured out we kinda like money too”. Not really sentiments I warm to, but they were clearly charismatic and loved by the crowd. They stayed on stage for a while, jiving away after their photo. John Derek from the old Brummie scene tells me, “They weren’t really my kind of thing, but they were really good”, and I reckon had I seen the full set that’s probably what I would have said too.
Sunday
It’s Sunday, the most Glam focussed day, and it doesn’t start badly bumping into Michael Monroe who was here super early before anyone to scope out the stage and artists’ green room area. An artist who really cares about everything he does and it shows.
I still manage to get over to see first band Spider Byte who have pulled a lot of people, given that it’s 11 am on the third day of the festival and also a Sunday. It’s a bit early to be singing Glam anthems about spellbinding ladies and the like and to get the crowd to participate, but their enthusiasm is undimmed, the crowd are with them and their bassist still managed some of the biggest black and pink Tigertailz bouffant hair of the day, all before the noon day sun!
Deadfire from Aberdeen are heavier, with an imposingly tall singer with a shaved head and ubiquitous tattoos and a guitarist that looks like a bit like Chris Holmes (if he had grey hair) with over the shoulder tattoos like Ozzy. They also are going all-out to make an impression despite the time of day. Their driving music knocks off anyone’s cobwebs and they brought along the Rocket Queen dancers for instant Rock ‘n’ Roll debauchery, who happily bump and grind along as if it was 2am (not 2pm). There’s certainly no lack of crowd engagement and they finish with everyone headbanging along to ‘Ace Of Spades’.
Bobbie Dazzle is inspired by seventies English Glam and combines it with modern Power Pop, with songs like ‘Revolution’ and ‘Time Machine’ recalling the days of Marc Bolan and the like. She looks fantastic in a top-to-toe snake-print spandex flared body suit and has a cracking voice, deep and rich like Ann Wilson and plays the flute like her too! She happily announced they’ll be supporting Alice Cooper, Vixen and ELO in July which she’s obviously very happy about, and who wouldn’t be. She’s got a good friendly stage presence and everyone in the band seems to have a great voice, producing some fantastic harmonies, and they’re wearing seventies-style peaked cloth caps to complete the band’s image. There’s an ABBA cover, with the keytarist commenting that “everyone in a battle vest is an ABBA fan”. No one seems to argue with that. They had a debut album out in October and Dazzle pulls on everyone’s emotions with a story how she inherited her father’s record collection, and a bunch of papers containing songs he had written when he was about seventeen fell out of a Bob Dylan record, which she subsequently completed as ‘Lightning Fantasy’, the last song of their set which has a noticeably heavier turn. She has an absolute siren of a voice and can belt out the hard rockers too. All the band are dancing, and one loses his cap with gay abandon as he shakes his head. They have a pretty large crowd and pack quite a punch.
I only have time for a couple from Paradise Sins on the Trailblazer stage. What I heard was some quality melodic Hard Rock from a tall, long black-haired singer with mirrored shades who seemed to quietly reflect with his head down like a monk before singing lines for dramatic effect. The short haired guitarist was lively with his shapes, and the drummer looked like a longer haired Rufus Taylor with smudged eyeliner. They have a polished sound that suggests a lot of practice behind the scenes.
Harsh from Paris made an impact last year on the Trailblazer stage and are excited to be back on the main stage this time. They look very striking, with the tall singer Albert Arnold’s very long black and white hair and most of the band sporting different coloured leopard print jackets or trousers, with the drummer going for black and gold stripes. Arnold was a guitarist before he was a frontman, meaning that like The Darkness the emphasis is very much on the guitars with commercial Hard Rock and choruses designed for crowd singing. Word has got round from last year and they have a large crowd who are primed to go, meaning we get the first crowd-singing competition of the day with prizes by way of a t shirt and CD. There’s also a sort of guitar duel on stage with Arnold playing Classical, sometimes Yngwie like solos, and the other guitarist Julien Martin finger tapping and shredding super-fast. Bassist Leo Lowenthal does one of the most melodic bass solos I have ever heard, with Arnold encouraging the crowd to cheer after every salvo. They then announce a song about “something very important” which turns out to be beer, the crowd cheering in approval. The band then produced a massive bottle of Jack Daniel’s with a bar serving nozzle, and after each band member taking a healthy swig Arnold jumps down to the barrier and starts delivering it to willing members of the crowd. After introducing the band (he has known the bassist since they were four!) they finish with a triumphant version of the dance hit ‘Maniac’ which is a great Hard Rock version and has all the crowd bopping and singing along. A very old school Rock show and the crowd lapped it up. Bit of a triumph really.
I take in a few Suicide Bombers with their fast Punk Rock sound, and a very striking Velvet Revolver sort of looking singer with a red military cap, red and white polka dot shirt, the tightest black spandex, Chelsea boots and a t shirt about a DILF, the first word turning out to be doll! They have recently been on tour with the Continental Lovers and The Trench Dogs who are both on the bill today! They are not for the faint hearted! I would have stayed longer, but I needed to see the next band in the trailblazer tent.
Silveroller are completely new to me, but I have been warned they are something to behold, so I am sure to take in their whole set and they do not disappoint. The singer Jonnie Hudson, who has a very fine shag hair cut like early Rod Stewart, can give Paul Rodgers a run for his money vocally and has a sort of David Coverdale early Deep Purple driving/ leaning into his mike stand schtick, throwing it around on stage for a very cool while dynamic look. He works in the Beatles Museum in Liverpool apparently, so obviously knows his music history. An early cover of ‘Hard To Handle’ by the Black Crowes was superb, and actually I think they are more interesting than the real Black Crowes to watch! Even though I don’t know their original material it’s really accessible, and their guitarist Aaron Keylock, apparently from Boston Massachusetts, is great too, really glorious solos! They’re still only in their early twenties I reckon, and cute as a button! The keyboard player Ross Muro is apparently from Sao Paolo Brazil and can manage some real Jon Lord-style headbanging organ solos. You know when it feels like a whole band works like a unit to produce something that seems to be transcending the stage, literally rocking the joint off its chassis, yeah that! And to top it off for me their album is called ‘At Dawn’, which is quite amusing as their album is quite literally aimed at people like me! The crowd are roaring applause and if this band can manage this in a tent mid-afternoon I’d like to see them on much bigger stages!
Next up are The Headhunters with Ozzie and Birchy from Gunfire Dance delivering their hard hitting Punky Rock ‘n’ Roll with infectious choruses. Word needs to get out a bit more about these guys as the crowd is a little thin at first, but they literally play like no one is watching and by the end of the set have pulled in a crowd to the tent literally by the most excellent sound echoing around the showground. Being familiar with their material the set flew by for me. It’s always lovely to hear the old Gunfire Dance numbers, but they’re writing new material too which stand shoulder to shoulder with it. Maybe they need a spot on the main stage to get their new name on everyone’s lips.
The Continental Lovers are next on the big stage. They have really come on with the last couple of shows I have seen, with less sentimental ballads and now look like they really mean business, concentrating on the Punky Rock ‘n’ Roll reflected in harder-edged lyrical content involving exotic dancers and the like. It makes for a more energetic and exciting show and the guitarist now jumps around like Andy McCoy in a way he never used to, meaning that every member is busting a gut to deliver excitement to the crowd, and this has resulted in their continuing appearance at this festival getting higher up the bill. There’s a peppering of musical references, such as an intro of ‘Do You Love Me?’ by KISS morphing into one of their originals, and a dash of ‘My Sharona’ to engage even those in the crowd new to their material. I like the direction they’re headed, which is an altogether full-on, more rounded, entertaining show.
Knock Out Kaine are up next with their catchy Hard Rock, and there’s a lot of feelings on stage, with Dean Foxx clearly emotional to be playing the old songs again and to be doing it onstage supporting Michael Monroe. He also always comes up with great one liners like “On the count of four make it look like it’s Wembley!” At the same time there’s a commotion with people virtually fainting to the right, as Michael Monroe is in the signing tent!
The Trench Dogs are another band that are climbing up the bill, now main support to Michael Monroe. They are one of the only bands still sporting the OTT Glam look with singer Andi Hekkandi’s enormous purple hair, and every one of the band channelling early Hanoi Rocks. It’s actually quite rare now and the crowd can’t get enough. But they also bring their own take on the genre. Hekkandi very much has his own character, a kind of eccentric Rock ‘n’ Roller, die-cut like that from birth and not learned or affected. His own chaotic dance style and distinctive high-pitched tone tips a hat to Faster Pussycat, but really isn’t like anyone else. He is sporting a very nice grey Georgian style coat that he says was left behind by a fan in Nottingham, but no one comes forward to claim it and I have to say it seems to have found its true home. ‘A Little Overdressed’, about dying and getting to hell dressed for a Rock show, gives you the picture. He’s clearly well trained in gaining his balance after a stagger, and when he tripped quite heavily over a mid-stage monitor he managed with jerks (of the order of those induced by a cattle prod) to stay upright! Their new single is ‘Cobblestone Waltz’ and I am just beginning to realise that it is probably about keeping your balance staggering home on the ancient paving of Stockholm. While the band are from Sweden, Hekkandi is from Australia and he gives a shout-out to a fan bringing the Aussie flag. People are following this band around the UK so I guess it’s a mini cult! In recognition of their long-time fans they play some really old material alongside the new. Accordingly, ‘The Gin Beat’, a song about getting “shitfaced in Stockholm and playing Rock ‘n’ Roll together” ensues, a punch out to the side twice from Hekkandi suggests a ruck or two was had at that time! Back to the newest album with ‘Skuldug And Headsick’, and in the mayhem the bassist Daniel Ekholm loses his hat and Hekkandi picks it up for him so he can carry on playing without missing a beat. We get a nice bit of harmonised guitars while Hekkandi jumps up on the drum riser to make space at the front. With lines like “sorry mum and Jesus” I hadn’t noticed they had quite so many songs about apologising before, which kinda makes sense if you know them personally – I do and love them all! But they have nothing to apologise for today. With Hekkandi’s friendly manner between songs and quirky personality, and the whole Rock ‘n’ Roll cartoon charabanc speeding around corners with sparkly scarves flying while somehow keepin’ it all together, the crowd are kept engaged and it’s fun to watch. They finish with the super Punky ‘Homesick Parade’ and The Suicide Bombers and The Continental Lovers and a girlfriend or two invade the stage for a gang vocal and a group piccie!
This leaves the one and only Michael Monroe to wow everybody with his energetic stage presence. As usual he attacks the stage and has done the splits during the first three with ‘Dead, Jail, Or Rock And Roll’. Pausing for breath (as if he needs to, he’s as fit as a whippet) he tells the crowd he was onstage at 6 am in his pyjamas checking it out and, noticing the Finnish flag was a little askew, got right up and fixed it so it was higher than any of the others! Quite right too! We get some more splits in ‘Last Train To Tokyo’, so the band is not lacking in energy. The crowd, however, might be! Most people have been here for three hard days, many partying at the late-night Rock disco long into the night. After commenting “it is like Sunday church in here”, he’s not taking it lying down and it’s not long before he has the crowd whooping and hollering, throwing his mike stand over his shoulders, getting down to the barrier and sitting and lying down on the stage to get his face closer to the band to compel their gaze. During ‘Old Kent Road’ he climbs onto the high PA at the right hand side where everyone in the arena can see him, running across to sing with Sami Yaffa, his old mucker from the Hanoi Rocks days, before sitting down with legs splayed to the crowd, all in the last minute of the song. The newer fast-paced classics keep coming, such as ‘Trick Of The Wrist’. In ‘78’ Monroe climbs high up the rigging to the top, about twenty feet in the air, and hangs off it while singing several lines.
It might be called the Michael Monroe band and he inevitably steals most of the limelight, but he does everything he can to make sure his newer boys get their due. For ‘The Ballad Of New York’, for example, Steve Conte gets to feature prominently, having written that song. It’s a huge Rock anthem and by now the crowd are roaring the words along without a prompt. Diving back in history we get a Hanoi Rocks classic, ‘Don’t You Ever Leave Me’, with guitarist Rich Jones (who writes a lot of the newer songs) providing the cockney accent for the spoken words. It’s a very long time now since Razzle’s death and it’s great to see Monroe can now sing this song with a smile on his face. Again, the crowd are singing all the words and it was personally a real trip down memory lane. With Monroe literally can-canning the high kicks, the Demolition 23 tracks ‘Nothing’s Alright’ and ‘Hammersmith Palais’ are up next. Over the years, despite them being on a fringe album for a project that didn’t last too long, they have become essential flagship songs in the set.
The sax comes out for the second time for ‘Malibu Beach Nightmare’, probably the quintessential Hanoi Rocks song, and they finish with the Clearance Creedwater Revival song ‘Up Around The Bend’ which they made so much their own that many think it’s one of their originals. It’s a great party song and a good choice to finish. Monroe throws out several signed and customised red and white Japanese fans that he hand-customises himself to the crowd, leaving everyone on a high.
Year after year Call Of The Wild is a super special festival. Raz White, who selects the bands, has a great knack of giving amazing young bands a chance to get known, and I always discover someone new. One thing I noticed this year is despite some rain and wind the whole event went literally without a hitch. That doesn’t happen by accident, and I well appreciate all the hard work of the crew and organisers to make sure it’s the case. Once again it’s a drama free event. I didn’t see a cross word amongst anyone in the crowd or those working at the festival at any point on any day, in fact it was big smiles all around each and every day from morning to night. The bands played their hearts out and absolutely no one was taking anyone for granted, what a joy!
Review: Dawn Osborne
Photos: Dawn Osborne
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