SOSFestival

Whittles at Tokyo, Oldham

Day One

Silk Spinster

Managing to look like warriors of past, present and future while sounding like a rumbling, thrash, metal, rock monster, Silk Spinster lead SOS Festival into battle. Guitars ring out in triumph from the indoor Skull stage, while bassist Will Styan leaves it to venture out into the wild of the pit. Percussion is taken to the next level in ‘Midnight Life’ when lead singer Kye ‘Kyrantula’ Coulson produces an axe and whacks the cymbals with it. The band’s covers of ‘Hot Stuff’ and ‘La Vida Loca’ are brave, bonkers and bloody brilliant.

The Soul Revival

‘Who’s up for a good weekend?’ asks Soul Revival’s chief microphone slinger Ste Stetson. When these boys are in town it’s guaranteed, thanks to those soulful, splintered vocals of his. Behind Ste are drumming acrobatics, dirty grooves, and fast moving sticks, hair and fingers. ‘Kick Me To The Dirt’ is an opportunity to dad dance and mosh all in the same song. ‘Raised By The Fire’ is an absolute crowd-pleasing banger about the good old days before tech took over. The Soul Revival are hard rock heaven.

Anchor Lane

These Glasgow ragers have got a packed room to corrupt tonight. Anchor Lane are hard rockers at the best of times, but tonight they are weighing in even heavier. The trio aren’t afraid to give into melodies now and then, and can keep it clean and sweet -ish. But they can’t contain themselves for long, and start back with the instrument smashing pretty sharpish. ‘Choke’ is a spikey stomper that gets the blood pumping. Anchor Lane finish on ‘It’s The End, My Friends’ (what else?!) and the crowd start clapping straight away – because they know what’s coming. And that’s a towering tune with a headbanging breakdown to give us all something to remember.

Juliet’s Not Dead

Running onto the stage, ready to bring their high voltage hard rock show, headliners Juliet’s Not Dead are incoming. Kicking straight off with ‘Sinners and Saints’ - trademark cabs lit up behind them and a big crowd in front of them, the boys tear through a set of older songs and newer tracks. They stop for a bit of frontman Stevie’s banter with the crowd, but apart from these little moments of fun and hopefully not fact (surely there is no underwear for sale at merch??? Surely bassist Josh Fodden, who is celebrating his one year anniversary with the band, is not a fucking idiot???), the boys bring their nonstop northern firepower to Friday night. The band’s big choruses are constantly sung back to them, but it’s ‘Open Fire’ that crackles with the most energy. Every weekend should start like this.

Beth Blade and the Beautiful Disasters

Guts and glory in sparkly shoes (a music AND a style queen – goddamn) our best girl Beth Blade is BRINGING the rock show tonight. Gorgeous, glorious ‘Never Let Go’ is a one-life-live-it song to lose your inhibitions to. ‘Give It All You’ve Got’ is not just a song title tonight. Self-explanatory ‘This Bitch Bites’ is a smouldering headbanging session. Carefree lovestruck ‘Tonight I’m With You’ makes you wanna spin in happy circles - and the lyric ‘I don’t want this night to end my friend’ rings out crisp, loud and true.

Day Two

Promethium

Anyone so minded to start a circle pit at 1.40pm on a Saturday afternoon has come to the right place. Full of crushing beats and foreboding riffs, contrasted with friendly banter, head nodding and fist pumping is not just compulsory in this set – it’s involuntary. The vocals could leave the most peace-loving of places war-torn. Promethium have got tunes in there too though. Big, catchy, British heavy metal middles that command crowd participation (notably shouting back ‘murder’ in ‘Murder Inc’). Gotta heart condition? You have by the end of this set…

The Dead List

Getting three songs in and having no notes written by yer girl is a good sign. It means no genre can contain The Dead List. There are too many musical thingamybobs doing the job. And as their lead singer says, ‘We do whatever we want’. ‘Never Apologise’ is good advice given with clean (ish) vocals. ‘Acid Reign’ starts with a growl so deep it could strike oil. This is nu metal, death metal, all the metals – including some unique to The Dead List. ‘Voices’ is snarled in the crowd, on a table and with a blank stare and tortured voice. The warning was probably in the name of the band…

Cry For Mercy

Blissfully bluesey, soulful rock n roll from trio Cry for Mercy. They’re clearly not gonna trouble the crowd by launching themselves into us. Nor will they be demanding screaming, bouncing or anything else that could cause regret by the time Monday morning rolls around. They do, however, let their tunes do the talking, and bring big, bar room songs – and a touch of class to proceedings.

Wailing Banshee

This. Is. Power. Power metal, power stances, power vocals. No band member is still for a second – apart from one sneaky little freeze bringing a short-lived halt to the heft. Wailing Banshee hurl out classic guitar howling heavy metal which comes with the most intense stares and hair slinging from the boys and gal. In forty minutes they deliver a massive set, but even if was four hours long that still wouldn’t be enough time to take in all the sights and sounds of this fast-ascending band.

Godsticks

NOT, as described by their lead vocalist ‘the novelty Welsh act’. Godsticks are more like the most intricate, sonically intriguing band of the day. What noises will come next? Shall they be prog? Funk? Groove metal? The band play guitars like harps and drums like enemies. They carve out a kaleidoscope of sound with complexity at its core.

Dead Zebras

Welcome to the jungle… Kings of sleazy Saturday night songs Dead Zebras’ wild brand of hair metal and glam always gets the crowd going. The boys treat SOS to the debut of new song ‘Get Me A Drink’ which is classic good time Zebra style with a gritty guitar breakdown. ‘Picture’ is sung back loud which implies a lot of the crowd have seen the boys before – and have come back for more. Smart. And brave…

Katie and the Bad Sign

Hard blues rock tinged with a tiny hint of prog hits the Skull stage courtesy of Katie and the Bad Sign. Katie is so softly spoken that when she opens up her full vocal throttle, that husky, whiskey soaked vox can’t fail to get the point across. She absolutely roars the word ‘revolution’ in the song of the same name. Never before has such an impassioned lyric been given so much screaming emphasis by a musician wielding an acoustic guitar. Apart from Alanis, that is, natch. This is a mesmerising set.

Rhabstallion

No fancy introductions or walk-on music needed here. Just Rhabstallion’s guitarist yelling ‘2,3,4’ and the boys are out their cage and tearing into SOS Festival with little regard for the fact we are still recovering from (and may never fully do so) being fucked by Dead Zebras. There’s some operatic metal vocals and massive guitars going on here. So why do we all seem to wanna dance around rather than raise our horns? Maybe it’s because Rhabstallion don’t frighten you – their music kinda fixes you. It’s classic metal infused rock that has the nostalgic sound of when things were a touch more simple. The band throw in some protest lyrics, a little satanic dabbling and a song called ‘Bat Shit Crazy’. Which are not red flags. Rather they are all recommendations as to why you should got see the Rhabstallion boys play.

The Rattlebacks

Our fave nasty lil aggy punks are back with their feral live show. And on stage is where we love to see them most. They prowl, pace and run across it, using it as a platform to spin, snarl, scream twitch and shout, and treating the audience like their toys. ‘Boys and girls, we’re here to rip your heads off!’ yells ringleader Alex Martucci. And The Rattlebacks are true to their word. The band’s sludgy, blistering tracks buzz around the crowd’s skulls. ‘Are you alive SOS?’ demands Alex. Not for long.

Thieves of Liberty

The Thieves of Liberty boys have been making their hard/classic/blues/rock fusion for a little while now. Their performances have always been full of confidence and swagger. That’s not increased – they’ve always had more than enough self-belief to go around. And rightly so. What has got bigger however is the size of the crowds that come to bear witness to their shows. And tonight’s sees several band members everywhere but the stage at one point. This performance is the boys at their best. Tight, sharp, sung with power and sounding like its being played by musicians a few decades older than James Boak and his boys.

King Kraken

It’s a squash and a squeeze inside as the squid-inspired lads turn the venue green and the volume up. King Kraken can open Stonedead and play high up (if not top) on the bills of outdoor festivals with ease, but the Welsh Warriors sound best on nights like tonight. Chucking out chugging riffs, kick ass, crazy speed guitar solos, and braincell melting low end madness in a packed room with little air con, full of their fans. Lead singer Mark Donoghue wields the microphone and belts out Kraken classics (‘Berserker’, ‘Chainsaw Saviour’, ‘March of the Gods’) along side new neck-breaker ‘Call to War’ with his legendary lung-bursting vox. Tonight they sound as dangerous as the sea monster for which they’re names. The Kraken conquers once more.

The Karma Effect

Dirty minds, filthy lyrics. What more recommendation do ya need? The Karma Effect ooze modern blues with a bang. The riffs are relentless, drums just keep on comin’ and the keys are slick, soulful and delightful. It starts to rain. The dancing, great music and good times don’t stop. ‘Wild Honey’ stomps and smoulders,  ‘Ride or Die’ rings out raw and feral, and the hip-grinding groove of ‘Doubt She’s Coming Back’ is almost too much to bear. Noone wants to call time on this set anytime soon.

 

Day Three

Vazon

‘SOS! Are we ready to get rowdy???’ demand insanely loud duo Vazon. We love it when the bands on early in the day are intent on doing the most damage – to necks and eardrums. Thoughts on Vazon??? In. Our. Element. Noise, noise and more goddamn glorious noise. The boys create dystopian soundscapes, are possessed by Royal Blood, Nirvana and Muse, and at one point sound like they are playing their instruments with razors. ‘All You Ever Say’ is bouncy. Their cover of Britney’s ‘Toxic’ is brutally brilliant. The vocals may hit true-ish to the original angelic highs, but there is nothing clean about this pair.

Rare Breed

Rare breed? Raring to go. Imagine Black Stone Cherry plonked in the middle of Oldham minus a member but more stomping, with sass, class and more groovesome. More wholesome? Doubtful. Rare Breed play power blues by the truckload, sprinkled with bass solos and a blast of military beats. To say this is a set of classic rock songs would be an injustice as well as a complete lie. Because these guys play their own unrestricted brand of rock.

GANG

Proper new wave of metal comin’ atcha from Frenchmen GANG – complete with leather, studs, denim, sunglasses worn indoors… the lot. With their full-throttle, lights flashing, drums smashing, classic horns up heaviness, the GANG erm gang bring arena sound and stage presence to the room. They have the best banter and introductions to songs. Everyone – band included – are having an absolute ball.

Death Valley Knights

Public Service Announcement from Death Valley Knights… ‘We’re not going to talk cos we’ve got a lot of heavy metal to get through in 40 minutes.’ Following this mythology, fantasy and an off the scale capacity to cause sonic chaos and destruction comes across with full ferocity and little mercy. And all from a band of battle ready bruisers who actually look like they’ve been granted temporary leave from Valhalla to play SOS today.

Aethoria

2026 Stonedead openers Aethoria haven’t gigged for a bit, but the SOS crowd get them straight back into the game. As always, Mecia’s soul-stirring, octave attacking voice is incredible. One of the best band leaders about, she’s up there loving life with the microphone in hand. And it’s infectious. The band give their all to Aethoria’s alt hard rockers which serve elements of nu, melodic and old school metal. New song ‘Popcorn’ shows a poppier side to the guys and gal, but it still has that trademark Aethoria breakdown. Mecia uses this show to announce their debut album, ‘Fool’s Gold’ is coming on August 29. *makes note in diary*

We Three Kings

Power trio Rich, Pete and brains and talent of the operation Bonesy come on to a Christmas carol (you don’t need us to tell you which one 😊) and blast SOS almost as far as the festive season with their guitar/drum attack. We Three Kings have got that blitzkrieg punk rock spirit with catchy choruses and punchy tunes. And a hint of danger. They’ve got the crowd too. Lots of their merch is being modelled, and it’s a job to grab a chat with the boys because they’re so damn popular. Pure, unfiltered rock and roll played by two boys and a skeleton. What more could you ask for on your Christmas list?

Kit Trigg         

Kit Trigg cheered yer girl up. And she didn’t even realise she was sad. This is the band’s first festival stage headline, and even though they always give every performance all they’ve got, tonight feels extra special. The band’s chilled yet warm, positivity aplenty songs are like big ole rays of sunshine, played by three outstanding musicians. They bring the beach to central Oldham, with surf/skate soaked vibes (‘Making It’, ‘I Gotta Red Strat’ ‘Going for Glory’) and a bit of bite with ‘Snake in the Grass’ and new song ‘Free ‘N’ Easy’). Kit Trigg (band and human) make everything feel better and brighter.

Apriori

Frontman and guitarist Tony Lang is many things. And tonight he is the first 6ft man ever to throw a pink tambourine into the crowd at SOS Festival, thus crowning tonight’s Tambourine Queen and signalling the start of spikey little hate song ‘Nah Nah Nah Nah’. The crowd is big, Apriori’s songs showcasing their unique take on hard rock is bigger. The boys close down SOS Festival 2026 but leave mouths wide open with their guitar god (and drum and keys gods too, of course) stances, songs and old school/new wave rock fusion fireworks.