Live Review : Firevolt Festival on August 9th 2025

Saturday starts with Jack J Hutchinson in the barn having a bit of a jam session. He’s not on the proper stage so it’s semi-acoustic and although he starts with his own band doing his usual bluesy stuff he soon gets people up from the crowd to strut through some well-known covers. Names have been picked beforehand and there’s a couple of ringers (looking at you Matt from Ransom!) and it turned out to be a happy, hum-along session. Jack is an affable, likable chap and despite a couple of technical issues they blow through a handful of rock standards really nicely. Another little niggle pops up though, Jack starts just after 11 yet none of the bars on site open until after 12 so the larger than expected crowd are a bit muttery – they can’t bring a drink over with them and they can’t buy one there either. Stalemate! 

The Heavy Souls opened the Saturday proceedings proper and gave us blues rock with a hard edge and just a touch of funk. They had a decent amount of time to get people nodding along and some of the guitar solos were particularly impressive. 

I overheard someone say that Juliet’s Not Dead are a really good Twister covers band and it made me smile because of course this band rose from the ashes of Twister. I’m not sure why the name changed, probably contractual bollocks (it usually is!) but in the meantime Stevie, Jack and the boys gave us a set chock-full of melodic rock with just a touch of alt.metal. The songs were commercial and radio-friendly whilst maintaining just enough rawness to stop them being boring. There were a couple of standout tracks; the song ‘Monroe’ was recorded during Covid and raised a significant amount of cash to help keep venues alive. Final song ‘64 White Lies’ was a bouncy anthem that had the whole crowd singing along. It was polished, professional and really enjoyable, hopefully this performance will open even more doors for them. 

Brave Rival too were happy and upbeat. Their female-fronted, cheerful blues rock was a little retro and gave off Free vibes. It even came close to early Whitesnake in places but they snuck in a seque of ‘Paranoid’ in tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne, a recurring theme during the weekend.  

Back on the Grand Central stage Sustinere were also competition winners and gave us a set of happy fuzzy blues. They brought a lot of movement and threw in a Green Day cover just to confuse everyone. The rest of the set had a leaning towards the progressive rock spectrum, but despite that watching them from a haybale in the sunshine was an enjoyable experience.  

Over to Trooper (with an empty glass!) and Tailgunner were still channelling the spirit of 1980 musically but looks-wise they have moved on a year or two. Whilst definitely eschewing the glam hair-metal era their outfits are definitely showing a little more sparkle and pzazz. Studs and even a sneaky rhinestone are now de rigeur, and very nice they looked too. The sound remained the same, twin-guitar fuelled NWOBHM based traditional metal with fierce yet melodic vocals and loads of widdly guitar bits. The bulk of the set still came from debut album “Guns For Hire” but a couple of promising new songs sneaked their way in and gave singer Craig the further opportunity to channel his inner Bruce. Alongside their own songs they threw in a medley of ‘Breaking The Law’, ‘Paranoid’ (for Ozzy, natch) , and a random Maiden tune. The guitars soared, the vocals soared, even the bass was doing its best to fly. They were massive crowd favourites and drew a riot of air-punching and singalongs. Yes it’s a little cliched, but who cares? It’s a homage to a bygone era and there’s nothing wrong with that.  

Another sprint over the hill to Grand Central gave us another competition winner in the erm shape of Shape Of Water. They too were a bit bluesy, until they veered off in a totally different musical direction. Then took another right-angle and turned somewhere else. Prog? Undoubtedly. Rock? Inescapably. Undefineable? Very definitely! They drew the biggest crowd of the weekend to the littlest stage, and pretty much everyone seems to be predicting bigger and better things for them. Watch this space for sure! 

Back to Bludsuker for the inestimable Blaze Bayley. We all know Blaze’s history, picked from the relative obscurity of his garage band Wolfsbane to front Iron Maiden, feted all over the world for a short while and then dropped like a hot potato when Bruce wanted to come home – throughout all of this Blaze has remained sanguine and a genuinely nice chap with a genuinely decent voice. He was ably assisted by his usual band (who are essentially Absolva) and powered through a set of his own stuff with an inevitable Maiden Moment towards the end. He’s currently touring the 25th  anniversary of his concept album “ The Silicon Messiah” so that made up the bulk of the set, but the crowd didn’t seem to mind. He was a huge favourite and although it’s not the sort of music you could pit to a decent amount of head-nodding and air guitar took place throughout.  

On Trooper another legend in his own lunchtime was warming up. The Quireboys can change line-up as often as Spike changes bandanas, but to paraphrase the mighty Led Zeppelin the songs remain the same. And indeed from first Yee-hah to the last dying note we got a romp through some of The Quireboys’ finest back catalogue. The world could end tomorrow and I swear the remaining cockroaches will be dancing to “7 O’Clock” and the tattered remains of Spike will be asking for a cider and trying to ponce a cigarette off a passing punter. The songs dance us through the years like Spike’s twinkling eyes, and while Luke Morley is more taciturn and stuck to throwing shapes and belting out solos Spike has a rival in goofiness from keyboardist Willy Dowling, whose sharp-suited gurning perfectly complimented the main man’s usual chaos. Everyone was there, everyone enjoyed it, and no matter how many times you see them The Quireboys somehow always manage to bring the party and are also always the last to leave it. Pure silliness, pure musical excellence, pure Quireboys. Nuff said? 

We took a moment between bands at this point. The moon, which had been shining down on us every night so far, was suddenly conspicuous by its absence this evening. Undeterred, we barked at it anyway. God bless you Ozzy wherever you are, you meant so much to so many and hopefully you enjoyed Firevolt’s little tribute to you!  

So we finally reach the end of the evening, and headliners Reef were a revelation. Whilst definitely not any kind of metal band, their 90s-infused danceable anthems definitely rocked. Not for them the sadness of failed pyro, not for them an expensive and expansive stage set. No, they just bounded onto the stage with unbridled enthusiasm and set of so many songs that caused your internal monologue to go “Oh, I remember this one!” For a band whose music I had assumed I was mostly unfamiliar with (apart from That Song obviously) there were a whole heap of tunes that seemed hauntingly familiar. ‘Place Your Hands’ actually appeared pretty early in the set, and was greeted with rapture (and a forest of foam hands!) by the crowd. Looking around, it seemed that I was a minority of one as a big chunk of the audience were singing every word to every song and dad-dancing fit to burst all around me. There was a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’, there was a ballad that apparently got them an appearance on Top Of The Pops, there was a charm and likeability to them that over-rode their non-rock credentials and just made everyone groove along with them. It was fun.  

By the time they finished the moon had reappeared but it was too late to bark so as some made their way to the barn for more live music at the afterparty (featuring local lads Losing Light) the rest of us headed to bed to get ready for whatever Sunday would bring.  

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Reef + The Quireboys + Blaze Bayley + Shape Of Water + Tailgunner + Sustinere + Brave Rival + Juliet’s Not Dead + The Heavy Souls