Rockinburgh Festival Edinburgh Friday 29th September

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Part One

Review and Photographs Linda McDermott

Oh, I do love a great wee rock festival. There’s something exciting about catching up with like-minded people enjoying the same thing, and if that includes supporting a charity, all the better. Rockinburgh is run by Andy and Gill Cowe to raise funds for a charity they set up called Rockin’ for Tots, all monies raised go towards various neonatal units and bereavement charities. You can find out more information about the charity and how to donate at the following website https://rockinfortots.co.uk/about/

With an array of rock bands lined up to play we were in for a great time. The festival kicked off early on Friday evening with four bands on the bill at La Belle Angéle, Edinburgh which is a great venue for live music.

First was Nothing Speaks and according to the band they aim to provide ‘head-banging riffs and shredding guitar solos’ and they warmed the crowd up nicely on that score with some impressive tracks with a grungier edge to them. I particularly liked ‘One More Day’.

Although the guys have been together for four years, they haven’t released anything up to this point, but this is about to change so watch out for them on the usual platforms.

Meantime they have another gig coming up on 19th Oct at the Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh if you want to catch them live.

They are-

Blair – drums

Evan -vocals/rhythm guitar

Joe – bass

Zak – lead guitar.

Next up was Scottish Borders band Wildfire who have been gaining a name for themselves over the past couple of years. Their ‘Buried Deep’ EP is a cracker and worthy of a listen.

They are:

Mikey Roberts-vocals

Liam Roberts-drums

Keir Ballantyne-guitar

Nick Smith-guitar

Lewis Stanners-bass

With five songs in their set, they got down to business, only stopping to offer a swig of Jack Daniels to those at the front of the stage and to light fireworks on Nicks’s guitar, which has become a bit of a tradition at their gigs.

Their third song, ‘Stronger’ is a favourite of mine because I know all the words to the chorus. As Mikey encourages the crowd to join in, they take up the challenge and everyone is singing the chorus along with me, Whoa oh oh! which gets louder and louder as the song goes on, the audience loves it.

Setlist

Undercover

Gimme a Kiss

Stronger

Slide it Down

Screaming for Mercy

The band have a few dates in the diary supporting Tailgunner on part of their tour so if you want to catch them, they are playing on:

Oct 17th Trillians, Newcastle

Oct 18th Bannermans Edinburgh

Oct 19th Audio, Glasgow

Up next was She Burns Red and if you’ve not heard of them yet, where have you been? Hailing from Scotland and Italy, She Burns Red released their debut album ‘Out of Darkness’ only two weeks ago on the 15th of September to rave reviews, I’d suggest you check that out because it is outstanding.

Playing to a packed room they started off at a blistering pace and got a great reception for their own brand of rock music with influences coming from the likes of The Foo Fighters and The Deftones

She Burns Red

Andy Moore – Vocals/Guitar
James McCulloch – Vocals/Bass Guitar
Naz Scanferlato – Guitar
Scott Hanlon – Drums

Singing all nine songs from their album, only interrupting them with the brilliant ‘Copernicus Falls’ they had the crowd eating out of their hands. The singing from the audience was very impressive especially when ‘Crosshairs’ and ‘Heavy is the Head’ was played. Having had over 88,000 streams in the first few days of ‘Out of Darkness’ being released it doesn’t surprise me one bit that there were a lot of people who had come to the festival especially to see them.

Set list

Touch

Rise and Fall

Killing Time

Copernicus Falls

Crosshairs

Heavy is the Head

Stronger

Run

Crack the Sky

Out of Darkness

She Burns Red are touring extensively over the next few months in both supporting and headlining roles with more dates being added all the time. Playing from London to Brighton and Blackpool to Bathgate and everything in between there’s a gig for everyone. Check out their gig dates on the link below.

http://sheburnsred.com/gigs/

Bad Touch

Bad Touch is a five-piece rock band that originally formed in 2010 when the guys were still at college. They started off performing covers of rock classics while writing and composing their own material. They have a new album due for release on 10th November 2023 called Bittersweet Satisfaction which will be their fifth album to date.

They are:

Stevie Westwood – Vocals

Rob Glendinning – Lead Guitar

Daniel ‘Seeks’ Seekings – Guitar/Vocals

Michael Bailey – Bass

George Drewry – Drums/Vocals

Starting the set with the title track from the forthcoming album they got stuck right in with their bluesy rock songs that had the crowd foot tapping and swaying along.

Delivering a great set with some new and old songs and a sprinkle of ‘Hand in my Pocket’ by Alanis Morissette their die-hard fans were lapping it up. Doing a two-song encore they played an acoustic version of ‘Nothing Wrong With That’ which is their latest single, released in July, followed by the last song of the night ‘99%’ taken from their 2016 album ‘Truth be Told’.

Set List

Bittersweet Satisfaction

I Get High

Strut

Lift Your Head Up

Wise Water

Good On Me

Dressed To Kill

See It To Believe It

Spend My Days

Let Go

Hand In My Pocket

Come A Little Closer

Nothing Wrong With That

99%

Gig information can be found

Links to Video ‘Nothing Wrong with That’

And that wraps up a fantastic Friday night at La Belle Angéle with four fantastic bands giving the crowd a taste of what was to follow tomorrow.

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