Live Review : Call Of The Wild Festival on May 31st 2025

After a sensible amount of afterpartying for some and a slightly less sensible evening for others Saturday dawns bright and breezy. It’s an early start, the first band is on at 11.10am which leads to some rather bleary-eyed punters making the short walk from the campsites to the arena.  

Fortified by bacon and a beverage of choice they are soon woken up by Syteria though! This is a side-project of Girlschool guitarist Jackie Chambers, and it gives her a chance to show off the lighter side of her paying and writing. The music is in keeping with the weather, it’s cheerful and happy, and you can almost see the hangovers begin to dissipate as the ladies (and drummer Pablo!) ply their trade. Indeed, singer Julia is already regretting her choice of a rather nifty pair of red leather jeans as the sun continues to shine…… The harmonies are good, the playing is tight and if the crowd was a little thin it was more because of the previous night of partying than any lack on the part of the band.  

Next is Austin Gold who give us some bluesy funky rock with a strong keyboard presence. It’s a retro sound, a little reminiscent of the likes of Free, and the overall performance was good and mellow - not too heavy for the time of day but not so light that you lost interest either. Their 2024 album “Ain’t No Saint” managed to bother the charts a bit, which was pretty cool, and several of the songs from it featured in the set. 

Midlanders White Tyger followed them. and took things a bit deeper and heavier. They like their Metallica these boys, and they produced an energy-filled set of potential anthems. No longer just a covers band they managed to convey an air of menace that was only offset by their happy grins and note-perfect performance.   

Kite Thief bring us an ethereal alt-metal performance. There are female vocals and some of the songs, despite the depth and darkness, are quite catchy in a doom-laden manner. They're very reliant on backing tracks, so there’s quite a bit of swirling atmosphere alongside the obligatory growling voice and complicated time changes. They describe themselves as “sweet but gritty” and I really can’t argue with that!   

This House We Built change the sound and the atmosphere again – they have a happy vibe and a cheerful demeanour. Musically it's classic rock played and sung well. They cover John Farnham's ‘The Voice’ and the crowd join in with gusto. Perfect for a sunny afternoon, it's all upbeat and fun with great harmonies and some eye-watering jumping and capering from frontman Scott. It's bopping rock, they don’t take themselves too seriously and are very much enjoying us enjoying them and feeding off our positive feedback.  

It’s back to the gothic with Black Lakes. They play dark alt-rock with big riffs and slow doomy bridges. It’s hypnotic and mesmerizing, The song titles are dark too, encompassing a theme of horror and hidden things. The final song is the title track from the album “Dead Gods” and that's a little more sharp and pointy but overall the atmosphere is menacing even though the band are quite cheerful.  

Oli Brown & the Dead Collective feature smiley Sam Wood from Black Star Riders and Wayward Sons on guitar. They play heavy, atmospheric blues but again there's no bass player or keyboards on stage. Musically everything is spot-on but they are slightly lacking in stagecraft although the set is well-received by the crowd.  

Next we get a bit of nostalgia. Those of us who were regulars on the club/support scene around 10 years ago couldn’t help tripping over Falling Red – for a while they were everywhere. Ultimately they called it a day following the sad death of bassist Mikey Lawless in 2020 after whom one of the stages here at Call of The Wild is named. Life and family meant that although they are all still mates they hadn’t shared a stage together in seven years – until today. I really can’t be objective about this band, I loved them back then and I love them still. Dave, Matty, Rozey and Marc (because Shane fucked up his calendar and had to work this weekend) brought us a set of all their classic songs and the years rolled away as fast as the tears on mine and some other faces.

They powered through all the classic songs from their back catalogue with the crowd hanging on to every note. Rozey’s dad-joke banter still evoked groans, Dave is still the best gurning drummer ever and we danced all the way through. Of course they finished with their epic anthem ‘If You Ain’t Down With The Rock (You Can Fuck Right Off)’ and but for it being an open-air stage they would have blown the Call Of The Wild roof off. Will they return? As a working band it seems unlikely, but after such a rousing and emotional reception surely we can hope for the odd one-off reunion now and again in the future?   

So how do you follow that? Well Bonafide bring their own party style over from Sweden for us. They play 4/4 AC/DC-inspired boogie and they keep the happy mood going. It's not deep, it's easy to move to and the crowd is now bouncing like a field full of jack-in-the-boxes. It’s all good-time and easy to sing along to – well apart from the one they do in Swedish anyway! Standout song ‘Fill Your Head With Rock’, which they wrote for the Sweden Rock Festival many years ago, is still the highlight of the set and their hard-driving yet still melodic music leaves everyone smiling.  

The worst-kept secret of the festival happens next over in the Trailblazer tent but I’ve left it here because, well it’s not exactly a new band. It’s actually Spike from the Quireboys doing an acoustic set with his pal Willie Dowling, and it’s exactly what you would expect from that pair of reprobates. The marquee is rammed, and despite the claustrophobia the crowd is eager to watch this whisky-soaked balladeer ply his trade. The songs are what you would expect, mostly classic Quireboys fare with the occasional Frankie Miller cover. Willie’s piano playing is superb, and perfectly offsets Spike’s usual rambling stories between the songs. It was a laid-back and fun little interlude.   

Back outside we are greeted with Lucifer Star Machine. I can hear you saying “who”? and to be honest – no, me either. Anyhow they turn out to be a tattooed and bequiffed outfit formed in London over 20 years ago but are now based back in their hometown of Hamburg, Germany. They seem to have based both their look and sound on cult British rockers The Almighty.

They are fast and loud, gritty and a little bit sleazy and the initial puzzled stares from the crowd soon make way for some enthusiastic air guitars and headbanging. It’s punky and real, with growling vocals and fast guitars alongside the double-speed drumming. Song titles again are quite dark, they sing about ‘The Void’, ‘A Touch Of Death’ and even ‘Cunt Of Destruction’ although I’m rather hoping I misheard that! They blast through the set like juggernauts, leaving a trail of breathless destruction in their wake. Irreverent, dirty and fun, their set was a real crowd-pleaser. 

Finally we reach the stage of the evening where the sun is setting behind the trees and there is a plethora of comedy moustaches milling around in front of the stage. This is a shame because when Royal Republic bound out of the wings and onto the stage we find that frontman Adam has shaved his off since he last graced our shores. Oops! Oh well, lack of facial furniture makes no difference at all to this band’s exhilarating blend of rock, pop and disco.

I’m also very impressed with the drums, not only are they played expertly by rhythm master Per, they also light up. In different colours! The glitter queen inside all our beating hearts loves this. The setlist is very similar to their last tour so includes the songs that by now are becoming familiar: ‘Boots Off’, ‘Stop Movin’ and ‘Full Steam Spacemachine are all highlights and have the crowd bouncing about like puppets on strings. They still remind me of The Hives, especially when they do coordinated dancing or go full on disco. However, despite their poppy exterior these boys can shred and their hearts belong to rock as they launch into an expertly-performed cover of Metallica’s ‘Battery’ complete with flamethrowers at the front of the stage dancing in time to the music.

By this point, everyone is dancing in time to the music! This is tempered by an acoustic bit in the middle where all 4 band members come to the front of the stage, Adam wields the most dangerous aphrodisiac in the world (an acoustic guitar of course) and for the few minutes it takes to perform ‘Boomerang’ they go full-on barbershop on our asses. I think this is their major strength and why they have gained such a dedicated following over here – they are competent enough to play anything and genial enough to get away with it.

They chuck a hint of Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ into ‘Back From The Dead’ and just generally prance about in an engaging and amusing fashion. ‘Rata-tata’ is the big finish and then the lights go up, the outros start and – they don’t leave! Instead they are having such a good time that they stay on the stage and dance some more, singing along to the outro music and winning over the last few stragglers in the crowd who haven’t decided if they are “rock enough”. A Royal Republic show isn’t just a rock show, it’s an experience and I suspect that now the days of the comedy moustache are over everyone in the field will be sporting their signature attire of a pearl necklace on the shoulder (fnar fnar) next time they visit us!

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Royal Republic + Lucifer Star Machine + Spike + Bonafide + Falling Red + Oli Brown & The Dead Collective + Black Lakes + This House We Built + Kite Thief + White Tyger + Austin Gold + Syteria