Live Review : Wayward Sons + Muddibrooke + White Lightning @ The Tivoli, Buckley on April 18th 2025

Tonight is a contrast in times. Headline frontman Toby Jepson was something of a rock superstar in the late 80’s. His band Little Angels bothered the UK charts many times before dissolving acrimoniously in the early 90’s. Toby went on to a career as a minor actor before re-discovering his love of writing and performing music, and a short but lucrative solo career morphed into Wayward Sons, a band that has been entertaining us with classic rock sounds for some nine years now. In the meantime, support acts Muddibrooke and White Lightning are snapping at his heels with Muddibrooke taking us on a more 90s-focused journey whilst White Lightning, despite their tender years, are firmly rooted in the 80’s that Toby emerged from. 

You may have read about White Lightning in these esteemed pages before. We discovered them lurking in the cellars of Liverpool, their youthful enthusiasm and ripped clothing making a marked contrast to the usual sharp-suited Beatles tributes to be found there. It’s good to see them emerge from those depths, cool (or lost) shades notwithstanding, to stand in the glare of proper spotlights on a much bigger stage. This is a band that may have started as a covers band of songs stolen from their dads’ record collection, but they are starting to become something of a tour de force as they introduce their own compositions to the mix. “We are White Lighting, and we play Heavy Metal!” yells singer JJ with an impressive vibrato scream, and indeed they do.

The set opens with the self-named, self-penned ‘White Lightning’, and it’s all uphill from there. These boys have the mid-80s hair metal scene down to a T, and for us older (ahem) crowd members it’s like stepping into a time machine. Loud twin guitars, solid rhythm section, in-your-face vocals, posing and swaggering – if attitude sold records these boys would already be at #1 in the charts. As it is, they are sleazy and fun. They revel in the cliches, frolicking like puppies through songs that they have crafted to perfection. There’s not a note or a shaggy hair out of place. Yes it may err a little on the side of cheesy but they pull it off because they believe in it. They now have enough original songs (although they have borrowed some titles – Fly By Night? No, not that one. Killer? No, not that one either!) that an album is in the pipeline, which is exciting news. Behind the swagger there’s a whole lot of promise in this band, and hopefully this is just the beginning of their rock journey.

With Derby’s Muddibrook we move firmly into the 90s; the sound is raw, grungy and spikier. They are a little like a female Nirvana (apart from the drummer of course who isn't female!) The sound is stripped back and basic but still manages to hold a lot of melody. This is because singer and guitarist Brooke has a great voice, and bassist Anna counterpoints it rather than harmonises with it leading to a sound that varies from ethereal to guttural. They can do slow and bluesy as well as loud and shouty, and the lyrics seem to cover the angst of the alternative culture that they are paddling in.

The songs are raw but in an emotional way rather than a musical way. They're just out of the studio from doing their debut album which is being produced by Luke Morley of Thunder, so some new songs are debuted. ‘Full Heart’ is a standout, heartfelt yet harsh. In the slower more melodic parts the inner brain is saying “don’t say Stevie Nicks”, but then the guitar screeches, the vocals become harder and now it’s moved to “Don’t say Courtney Love!”  They finish in a crescendo of loud with a cover of Lesley Gore’s ‘You Don’t Own Me’, and manage to make a song that is already familiar to everyone in the room somehow entirely their own. You go girls, and if you don’t mind we’d like to tag along for the ride!

After some years in the solo-or-fronting-other-bands wilderness during the early 2000s Toby had finally had enough and, with the backing of his record label at the time, decided it was time to go back to a project where he was in charge. Thus was born Wayward Sons, a band of people who didn’t really know each other but it turned out all had the same vision of where they wanted to go both musically and personally. Step forward long-term friend and bass player Nic Wastell (best known for his years in Chrome Molly), followed by drummer Phil Martini and finally the smiliest guitarist in the world Sam Wood. Together with Toby’s friend ex-Little Angels and songwriting collaborator Dave Kemp they entered the studio together in 2017 and immediately realised that they had something rather special.

Wayward Sons are still not a household name, but by dint of three albums, an ep and a constant touring schedule they are becoming a reliable name on the rock circuit. This is a really tight band, and they back up their musical prowess with a performance of songs that have been crafted to provide both melody and classic rock. They start with ‘Alive’, which gets the crowd squishing to the front ready for a bit of a singalong. They are not disappointed -  Toby looks like he's really enjoying himself and he plays the crowd like an instrument. The hands are already in the air by the second song and it’s obvious that this band enjoys nay thrives on the audience participation.   

The backing vocals are competent and complementary and every now and again Sam gets to come to the front and shine as brightly as his smile. It seems that Toby has played here often since way back and always loved the venue so he gives a shout out to the owner and staff which goes down well. He also brings his crew up for a bit of a cheer, another nice touch.

The songs are catchy and span the whole back catalogue, even including the title track of the first album ‘Ghost of Yet To Come’, although the song is simply introduced as ‘Ghost’. You can tell that Toby is a radio DJ as well as a musical artist these days, his between-song patter is spot-on and keeps things moving with no pauses or awkward silences. There’s a lot of joy in this music, it's not heavy metal it's happy metal! There's even a snippet of The Banana Splits theme tune which makes everyone smile. La la la, lala-la la! 

Toby is very comfortable and at home in this band, it seems his wilderness years are well and truly behind him now. Covid got in the way of their third album so they wrote the song ‘Downfall’ to fill the gap and gave it a bit of a Thin Lizzy vibe. For someone not familiar with the recorded output the songs can occasionally get a little samey, but these moments are fleeting and Toby is so engaging that we forgive them and the energy soon ramps up again. There are deep cuts aired (‘Something Wrong’ is apparently a huge live favourite) and the set even ends on a medley of Little Angels songs with ‘Small Talk’ and ‘Young Gods’, and we all get to do the woah-oh choruses with them.

That isn’t the end of course, but the dressing room at the Tiv is upstairs and Toby isn’t sure his knees are up to it so they stay on and give us a 3-song encore including ‘Feel Good Hit Of The Summer’ which apparently they have opened Download with. So there we go, another night of happy rock and roll complete and a bill where all three bands gave a grand performance. Who would have thought when Toby was leaping around on Top Of The Pops all those years ago (at about the same age that White Lightning are now coincidentally) that he would still be here nearly 40 years later, still doing his thing with a smile even if his knees are killing him? It’s a funny old world, but what goes around comes around and tonight we have seen three different sides of the retro coin and enjoyed all of them.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Wayward Sons + Muddibrooke + White Lightning