Mayor’s Fest 2026, Wolverhampton

Friday Night – The Stu Hunting Stage, The Giffard Arms

For the Forsaken

We’re big believers that size matters over here. But stick the gritty, sludgy, circle-pit-demanding-but-sadly-not-yet-getting, hard rocking For the Forsaken boys in whatever size room you’ve got and they’ll play it like it’s their last. Upstairs at the Giffard it’s small, it’s sweaty, it’s packed – and it’s the best we’ve seen them play. ‘Welcome to our fucked up family,’ smiles lead singer Dan, who’s documented his battles with addiction in many of the songs in tonight’s set, which hits hard in the gut and in the heart. ‘Hole In My Soul’ takes away the tempo and replaces it with hefty doses of doom. Dan’s ultra touching and honest vocals scrape the depths of his soul while his son Jack unleashes hell on the guitar. The crushing drums and triple vocal attack of ‘Take Me By The Hand’ clatter around the room as the boys crush their set. For The Forsaken are raw yet so damn polished.

Regional One

Bringing sleazy, blues-soaked, theatrical goodness with a pinch of stadium rock and punch to the face basslines, Regional One possess the Stu Hunting stage. Lead singer Simon has that endearing frontman energy that we love so much over here. His vocals soar, facial expression implores and the whole damn show is sheer eye-widening entertainment. Delightfully unsettling cinematic ‘Bedlam’ is blitzed with guttural vocals and a demonic laugh. ‘Chosen’ is drenched in both riffs and emotion, and while it slows the set’s pace our hearts are still beating fast from the spell this band have cast. Regional One’s set feels gloriously hedonistic and a little forbidden. And that is an intoxicating blend.

Beth Blade and the Beautiful Disasters

The princess is in the photo pit trying to get her left contact lens back in and her camera to focus, but the Queen is on stage flanked by her finest men, notably the legend that is Dirty Berty Burton on bass. Beth Blade and the Beautiful Disasters bring the feel good weekend vibes everywhere they go. Although idyllic carefree rock and roller ‘Never Let Go’ could make a Monday feel like a Friday night to be fair. ‘Give It All You Got’ continues the classic rock, hooky guitar goodness fronted by Beth’s gorgeous cut (whiskey) glass vocals. Her lyrics ring out around the Giffard and the banter between band and fans is easy. These guys and gal make music you wanna fill up your glasses and hold up your hands to. ‘Down The Front’ is a vintage power track cowbell extravaganza made for nights like this. When Beth introduces ‘Damage’ by telling the audience they are loved no matter who or what they are, the emotion and strength in her voice doesn’t just make you believe it – you know it. ‘Limerence’ is a heartfelt, hedonistic juggernaut and ‘Tonight I’m With You is joyous. ‘Jack And Coke’ is a fist pumping, hand clapping anthem. Tonight’s set leaves ears ringing and hearts full.

Saturday – KK’s Steel Mill

Seize The Void

Chunky, chugging riffs courtesy of Seize the Void don’t just open the main stage at KK’s – they could well demolish it. Digging down into the depths of heavy, these boys churn out huge grooves and grisly vocals. Swinging from slower tempos with reflective lyrics through to slap you around the face shout you into submission hard rockers, Seize the Void start off Saturday with an admirable amount of clout.

Paradise Sins

Who you gonna call when The Soul Revival* have a man down and can’t play the Mayor’s Fest acoustic stage? The second best band in the business, that’s who. Sadly they weren’t available either so Paradise Sins got involved instead. Ha! Just kidding. I know these boys, and lead singer Luis still holds the admiral title of ‘Most Hungover Man I’ve Ever Seen In My Life’ from when I interviewed them at Call of the Wild festival. Unplugged they still cannot be tamed. Luis’ voice manages to shift from perfectly rough to mellow yet menacing in their set, which also features drummer Zack on the, erm, shoebox. A band that blaze up the stage when they’re plugged in, Paradise Sins also shine playing stripped back like this.

*Sad there was no Soul Revival? They’re playing Roxoff in Norwich on Saturday, May 2 xxx

Alabama Crow

Kick ass country blues rock n fuckin’ roll, which is louder than lead singer Billy’s trousers, Alabama Crow combine bonkers, brilliant, crowd-drawing , battle-ready barnstormers. And almost zero tops. The boys throw the doors to their acid house hoedown wide open for all to enjoy. And enjoy it we absolutely do. Highlight blistering ‘True Colours’ heads into the realms of classic British heavy metal. Alabama Crow are noisy, non-stop genre-screwing entertainment.

FangSlinger

Riding on in with their vampiric, redneck, undead country cocktail mixed with crisp and cracked vocals and catchy choruses, the utterly unique FangSlinger mesmerise and enchant. Throwing down songs including ‘Bloodsucker Blues’, ‘As the Crow Flies’ and the epic ‘Life Eternal’ this band were always gonna come across well when acoustic, but this set was something else.

Doomsday Outlaw

Bad attitudes, bad shirts, massive tunes – Doomsday Outlaw dominate the stage. Sleazy guitar solos, drums worth the price of admission alone, all in front of some dodgy looking dude with a moustache yer girl’s far too young to remember (Tom Sellek, Magnum PI – I asked my dad). These boys give KK’s exactly what they want. Their cover of Duran Duran’s ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’ is fucking awesome (that’s the technical term right there). The acapella intro to ‘Tale of a Broken Man’ comes straight from the heart. Taking no prisoners but gaining new fans, they rattle through their high rolling set of whiskey swigging hard rockers. And Doomsday Outlaw are worth the hangover.

Black Lakes

The seductive darkness of everyone’s favourite goth boys descends and lures in the damned. Which means most of the folk here have sold at least some of their souls because the room is filling. Charismatic and chilling frontman Will relishes every second on stage. He rolls his tongue around each lyric, and when Black Lakes’ dark rock dripping with electro and emotion needs his full attention, he communicates with his knowing eyes and wicked smile. ‘Dissident’ echoes around the room and ‘Verity in Flames’’ chorus soars even higher thanks to the participation of Blake Lakes’ fans who are here in full force. With papercut precision this band’s songs hit nerves and leave a delightful sting.

A’priori

Tony Lang is possibly the only frontman in the world who doesn’t need to ask his crowd to scream for him. Because it’s the standard response when the A’priori boys smoulder onto the stage. Is this intentional pyro? Or is it just the sparks that Tony, Mouse and Mark naturally generate. The set???? Oh yeah… silly me… So, after it’s pointed out the KK’s photo pit is not just at peak capacity, but also at its fullest since records began, and that absolutely no underwear is to be thrown on stage, A’priori launch into ‘Turn It Up’ – a tune that immediately gets the crowd moving and in the mood for more, as well as being a solid piece of advice. ‘Nah Nah Nah Nah’ demands dancing and fan fave ‘Voodoo Love’ heats things up further. By the time the boys end on ‘Making Love to the Devil’ Mouse is a flurry of hair, arms and power, Mark is having to wipe down his keyboard and Tony is in the photo pit guitar solo-ing away. A’priori never disappoint.

Blade Edwards

Buzzsaw Radio’s Blade Edwards is without band and armed only with an acoustic guitar to belt out gleefully sweary songs which are heavy on the humour and laced with societal observations. Self-depreciating songs like ‘Superheroes’ (‘My body count is zero/Cos I like superheroes’) and ‘Ballad of an Anarchist’ are listen to the lyrics, laugh out loud, have a little think stuff. This is stripped back punk spirit at its finest.

InMe

Melodic rock bruisers InMe have had decades in the business. And while they’ve seen more of the shit side of life than they’d have liked, the path they’ve travelled has brought them to KK’s tonight – and their light is shining damn bright. Frontman Dave is either singing, chatting or getting his steps in, but is constantly thrilled to be up on that stage. And the fact there’s an audience watching fills him with more joy that a Labrador who’s been accidentally given his tea twice. For ‘Confession’, written in 2023 after coming out of rehab, the now proudly sober Dave lets the song do the talking. His vocal gymnastics come out to play and they’re not going back in their cage. ‘Otherside’ starts with a scream, middles with more of the same and drifts into a rich and technical soundscape. Five piece InMe have enough firepower to cause carnage. Instead they use their powers for good, inciting (literal) lighters in the air moments. ‘Firefly’ is everything. Fuck, these guys can write a tune. This set was a treat.

South of Salem

Hurtling around the stage like they’ve been let out of Hell for one night only before being assigned back into the realms of fire and brimstone, South of Salem are intense and intent on showing KK’s the time of their lives. Curated as though they’ve crawled out of the low down depths the boys are hyped up, high energy, horror rock gods, storming into the room with anthem of the damned opener ‘Let Us Prey’. Lead singer Joey prowls and pings the length and breadth of the stage, engaging constantly with his crowd - whether he’s in the pit with them or on the platform above them. It’s a two way relationship with this band and their fans. They feed and feast off each other. Literally? Wouldn’t put it past them… The toxic tunes keep coming. ‘Jet Black Eyes’, ‘Static’, alt love song ‘Pretty Little Nightmare’ and absolute headbanger ‘Left For Dead’ which is soooooo heavy live. ‘Vultures’ is a highlight along with the boys’ cover of Savage Garden’s ‘To The Moon And Back’. All Joey’s personalities come out to play tonight. Demonic rough vocals, charming frontman, sweet singing of all those smart little lyrics that play cleverly on words. No one is still – neither the fans nor the band, with Dee, Ed and Callum in constant motion backed by drummer James doing untold amounts of damage to his drums. You can’t always see him thanks to his beyond animated bandmates continually catching your eyes - but you can hear him – and feel his relentless beats in your chest. It’s a frenetic set which cannot get any better. Except it does. Will from Black Lakes joins the South of Salem boys for ‘Hellbound Heart’ and KK’s is tipped over the edge. Black Salem has been achieved. Ending with an encore of ‘No Plague Like Home’ and ‘Cold Day In Hell’, the lights come back on, we shield our eyes and catch our breath. Tonight South of Salem are absolutely electrifying and are still the very best bad habit.

Sunday – The Stu Hunting Stage - The Giffard Arms

Sam Millar

No way can you fault any band coming on to the Top Gun Anthem. Synthtastic Sam Millar look like they were heading to a Cannibal Corpse concert, took a wrong turning, ended up at an 80’s night and never looked back. And we are, frankly, delighted by this. Blending (amongst others) Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Van Halen and, erm, Kenny Loggins and topping them off with heroic guitar solos, pumping basslines and a key board used to full and dramatic effect, if you’re still reading this review, I feel like that means we like the same music. And you’re gonna frickin’ love this band.

Kit Trigg

Pouring his heart and soul into every single performance is standard for our fave purveyor of irresistible grooves and free and easy vibes Kit Trigg. The blues heavy ‘Trouble’, beautiful tribute ‘Grow With The Flow’, and blazing ‘Light At The End Of The Tunnel’ shake the floor while Kit’s warm and gentle persona fills the room. Kit captivates wherever and whenever he plays and could probably lead a cult of compassion and kindness as a side hustle if he so wished. We’d be on board. Because it is impossible not to love Kit Trigg.