Call Of The Wild Lincoln Showground, Lincoln

May 29th – June 1st

Review By Smudge Smith Photos By Paul McWilliams

Saturday – The sun decided to make an appearance. First up at the unrock n roll time of 11am were Yorkshire punks Syteria. Girlschool’s guitarist Jax Chambers was every inch the rockstar in her skintight leather jump suit and singer Julia Vocal decided she should have worn shorts instead of her leather trousers.

They mixed it up between the punky opener ‘Guilty’ and ‘All Woman’ which introduced some female dancers before we got some disco punk on ‘Hit Me’. ‘Plastic Fantastic’ saw the dancers return and Calvo do things with a mirror I’ve never seen done before. It’s always difficult being the first band on but Syteria got the crowd up and moving.

Austin Gold took the stage next and gave us some good old classic rock before Whyte Tyger. Jeez did they bring it – large. Huge nasty riffs, a growling bottom end and a beast of a drummer. They rattled through the first two numbers, the second of which was a total banger before launching into ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ – not that one – and boy did they attack it before their single ‘Vanilla Circus’ brought a ton of early Skid Row before the proper heavy ‘No Fucks Given’. Final number ‘Fire’ was another bruiser.

I saw This House We Built play this festival a couple of years ago but today they took it beyond the next level. Kicking off with ‘Addiction’ they rattled out ‘Fairweather Friend’ before the genius move of John Farnham’s ‘The Voice’ which got everybody singing. ‘Nobody’s Fool’ was stunning and raised the goose bumps with the harmonies. ‘Walk The Line’ was heavier then another goose bumper in ‘Fly Me Up To The Moon’ got the lighters raised. Guitarist Andy Jackson took the lead on the beginning of ‘My Old Friend’ and proved the band have two superb singers before the awesome ‘I’m Coming Home’ which took us down south.

I felt sorry for Black Lakes brought their dark metal which was at odds with the sunny weather and having to follow This House We Built was a tall order. They did their best as did Oli Brown and the Dead Collective who brought their doomy psyche which again was at odds with the sunshine and the perpetually smiling Sam Wood on guitar. Falling Red came on with their punky metal hybrid and gave us Bryan Adams’ ‘Run To You’ to get the crowd onside.

superb.

My exposure to Royal Republic has been virtually non-existent so I was interested in what they would bring. I was stunned. They put on a proper show with amazing lights, neon lit guitars and a whole load of cheesy pop metal anthems like ‘My House’, ‘LoveCop’, ‘Fireman Dancer’, ‘Tommy Gun’, ‘Full Steam Space Machine’ and the simple and catchy ‘Stop Moving’. They also brought some blues with all four members singing beautifully. What a fantastic end to the second day. I will be seeing Royal Republic again when they come back in February ’26.