Event Reviews

As yet another old saying goes, “All good things must come to an end”, so bleary eyed we headed off to the main stage for the final day of Wildfire Festival in more glorious sunshine. Another 11am start and opening band, Sheffield based trio Silverjet faced a packed out tent …

Saturday! The second day of Wildfire and the sun has put his hat on, as the old song once said. At the unholy hour of 11am, first band on the main stage were Leeds based The Idol Dead who were the perfect opener for the change of weather with their …

Wildfire Festival, previously known as Les-Fest in recent years returned in 2015 with an extra stage with over fifty bands spread out over three days, thus making the event in Wiston the place to be! The brain child of Dave Ritchie, his towering presence could be seen throughout the weekend …

A rare sweltering hot day in London again, yet the Boston Rooms still pulls a crowd of metal heads melting in black and leather but more than happy to be there for a metal show, and we really were in for a treat! Up first we have 4 piece heavy …

Tonight was one of just three UK dates on the current Primus tour.  It’s a tour that see’s them without a support act – instead, Primus play two sets. The first set was a fairly normal set (well as normal as Primus get anyway), with songs taken from their various …

“I told you we’d be fucking back!”  It may be somewhat unusual to start a review at the end, but drummer Brann Dailor’s closing remarks to the audience are important for contextualizing what had happened over the previous hour-and-a-half or so.  You see, it had only been a little more than …

It’s Sunday lunchtime and the punters have crawled out of their beds from across the city of HELLsinki to once again descended on Suvilahti for the final day of this year’s instalment of Tuska Open Air Metal Festival. The carnage of the Saturday night after-parties is evident on the faces …

Tonight’s gig was ZZ Top’s only UK show, which would normally be more than enough to make this a gig not to miss, but to make it even better, the support act was Thunder, so two great bands on one bill. Coming on stage to the sounds of the ACDC …

It could be argued that, although they hail from the Midlands of England, Diamond Head share an affinity with Belfast:  after all, it was they who helped shape the sound of the nascent Metallica – a place in history they share with a band from this neck of the woods, …

The final day of Download, and it’s sunny, rejoice! Well, it isn’t for long, but the optimism of a better day of weather than before really pulls people through. What is in store given the barnstorming set that Muse put on the previous night is anyone’s guess, but let’s find …

Download 2012’s horrendous weather had led to the year being described as ‘Drownload’, and as Saturday morning breaks it seems likely that this would head the same way; the rain isn’t as heavy but it’s no less relentless. That being said, the arena is open with time to spare before the …

Ahhh, post-festival blues, don’t you just love ’em? Download Festival 2015 has been and gone and for the 80,000 or so punters that attended, it’s back to society and the grindstone. But for those of you who can’t quite let it go yet, here’s the first day of the madness relived …

The venue for this evening’s long-awaited return to Belfast by Pat McManus – it has been almost exactly a year since ‘The Professor’ last graced a stage here – is the basement of a pub situated in Belfast’s oldest known building, McHugh’s Bar.  Built back in the 17th century it, like …

Tonight’s gig kicked off with a set from the Dave Hanson band.  They’re a four piece band from Leeds, fronted by Dave Hanson on vocals and lead guitar, and play music that is fairly laid back – a mix of blues and funk.  It’s very good but did feel a …

Back in 2004, I had the pleasure of visiting Finland on vacation. On the night I arrived in the Helsinki hostel, I noticed a larger than normal number of heavy metal fans arriving back after a show. I asked one what gig they were at. The answer.. DIO at TUSKA. …

Ah well, here we are… it’s a Wednesday night here in Belfast and it’s officially the start of the week;  well, as far as Team PM is concerned anyway, with the prospect of six gigs over the course of the next five nights, starting with tonight’s long overdue return to …

Die No More a young four piece NWOBHM band from Cumbria formed in  2011, since then they have impressed people with their energetic live shows. They released self-financed, four track, début EP ‘Blueprint’ in 2013 which led to them being signed by Rocksector Records with whom they released their debut …

It’s an earlier kick-off today at the Tuska Open Air Festival and even though the heavens opened and spilled their disapproval over Helsinki a few hours before the gates opened, it has cleared up and another pleasant day in the concrete cauldron is assured. First up, death metal “open-door supergroup” …

Summer is here and, as usual, Northern Ireland’s weather just doesn’t know what to do with itself, one minute it’s like being in the Bahamas, the next the Heaven’s open up.  This weekend in particular was a special one, with both Father’s Day and the Summer Solstice happening where thousands …

It hardly seems like less than six months ago that the Gasoline Outlaws came roaring out of nowhere and propelled themselves on to the Northern Ireland rock scene with furious intent.  A series of increasingly impressive live shows later, the quartet have now released their debut album, the massive sounding …