Hevy Festival has returned for its 3rd
year and the 2nd year here at the amazing setting
of Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent. It’s
no-where near as big as your Sonisphere or Download
Festivals but it’s got a great line up and
an ever improving festival experience which is
a great draw for many people. This year they’re
starting the bands on the Friday, albeit in a
reduced form but it’s still a great extra
for the relatively low ticket price of £89
which also allows you to go to the animal park
and take a look at the wildlife!
 Friday
Arriving at the festival at around opening time
(1pm) we have to queue for a good hour or so to
get in (no-where near the amount of time the general
public have to wait, with some people telling
me they waited 4 hours to get in!) once in we
set up camp and decided to go check out some bands,
unfortunately by the time we were ready it was
about 5 o clock and we had an interview so the
first band we properly checked out was
Straight Lines (3/5) The Welsh rockers from Pontypridd
take to the Macbeth Stage and start my weekend
in style! Nice riffs, catchy tunes and thumping
bass. They play a nice set with great songs such
as Loose Change, Say it For Your Sake and the,
oh so catchy All My Friends Have Joined the Army.
This band know how to handle the crowd with the
normal “you’re from Wales” shouts,
Tom responds with “were sheep shaggers we
are”. Overall a good set played to a moderate
sized crowd who were all tapping there feet and
bobbing there head.
 Flood of Red (2.5/5) This group of Alt rockers
from Glasgow play a decent set to a busy tent.
It’s full of melodic, rocking beats with
nice synth and added percussion. They entertain
the crowd but unfortunately not me. Personally
I think there rather bland, but I’m definitely
in the minority as the crowd gathered here loves
it.
Sonic Boom Six (3.5/5) The happy go lucky, punk/dub/ska
outfit from sunny Manchester gets the crowd jumping
with their unique brand and its fast pace. The
tent is full to bursting, so it’s clear
they’re popular or the Hevy Festival goers
have finally gotten in and settled and want to
pick up their mood. Straight into the second song
in the set they hit technical difficulties with
Barneys vocals failing, they stall with Layla
telling a joke “Whats a sheep with no legs
called?..... A Cloud” the tent erupts with
Boos! “I’m not a comedian I’m
just here to entertain you!” we are then
informed that all this is going out Live on Radio
Leicester! Eventually the sound problems are solved
and they play a great set including songs such
as The Kids Of The Multi Culture, Sunny Side Of
The Street and New Style Rocka.
 Lower than Atlantis (4/5) I already knew Lower
Than Atlantis were good but after interviewing
the lovely chaps earlier in the day I knew I had
to see them properly after last year at Hevy,
missing the start of their set and not being able
to get into the tent to watch the gig properly.
But due to Sonic Boom Six over running I arrived
at the tent too late and once again I could not
get in, it was so packed the artist entrance was
full, the normal entrance was at least 100 strong
outside and inside it was a ball of steam! But
from what I heard they played a great set including
a nice Foo Fighters medley of The Pretender and
Everlong. The bassist Dec Heart lived up to his
word from my interview earlier and scaled the
high speakers and played whilst security push
people down like flies. The crowd loved it and
I wish I was in there taking photos and rocking
out! I did get told the next day that they had
sound problems for 15 minutes or so which meant
there sound engineer had to fight his way from
the sound desk through the filled tent a few times
just to sort things out!
Overall the first day was fun, a little crazy
in parts but I did get to catch a few decent bands
along with Daniel P Carters Dj set which was cut
short, but was decent enough. After all the bands
I went back to my tent to partake in some drinking
which carried on into the early hours.
 Saturday
Waking up around midday with a raging hangover
I try and get myself together for I have interviews
set up set up for the day and there are bands
to go watch.
In between my early interviews I get to catch
a few bands including Bastions and Gold Kids,
who I didn’t see enough of the give a fair
review but what I did see, Bastions where great
and where playing in place of Hang The Bastard,
they had fast gritty guitars with constant screaming
vocals, very upbeat and definitely got people
awake and ready for the long day ahead! Gold kids
where loud and proud with dirty guitars and plodding
bass along with great deep screaming which made
them a band that I’d love to check out in
future.
Spy Catcher(3/5) are a four piece rock band from
Watford who are heavy, punk rock with great drum
beats, screechy guitars who attracted a big crowd.
They’re really raw sounding and this is
great to hear in an age of over produced garbage.
They play some great songs including the catchy
Nobody’s Listening.
 Me Vs Hero (4/5) this great pop punk outfit from
Blackpool are an instant hit, I’ve seen
them a few times over the past year and they always
impress, they get everyone jumping, crowd surfers
‘surfing’ and the tent is heaving!
There sound is great, it’s crisp and clear
and they have great screaming backing vocals.
It’s happy and loud and everyone is involved.
Singer Sam Thompson asks “How you doing
Hevy?” to a great response. If you want
some fun go check out Me Vs Hero and have a dance
to songs such as “Can You Count Suckers”.
 Feed The Rhino (4/5) this band is crazy. They
tear up the stage with they’re hardcore
rock. Band members jump into the crowd and continue
with no problems, they’re here to do one
thing and that’s to have fun! When I first
heard Trash Talk had cancelled I was disappointed
but Feed The Rhino more than made up for it. There
sound is dark but turns into fast and fun, with
great rocking riffs. They want the crowd to move
and go for “the biggest fucking circle pit
of the festival!” singer Lee says exactly
what they’re all about “Its two songs
in and I’m already fucked” that’s
because they put allot of energy into everything
they do, and it pays off!
TRC (3/5) which stands for “The Revolution
Continues” carry on from where Feed The
Rhino left of with their own brand of hardcore
punk rock! The London 6 piece jump around the
stage and then into the crowd with almost infinite
energy. They’re heavy, hard and fast paced
and keep the crowd entertained. Singer Chris Robinson
seems to think Hevy is smaller this year but I
have to disagree, it’s just as big and it’s
even better. TRC play a good set but for some
reason the crowd don’t take to it as much
as Feed The Rhino, but that’s no bother
as up next on the main stage are Ghost Of A Thousand.
 If you went to Hevy this year or even last year
you’ll know they do a nice stage set up
of having another smaller stage next to the main
one, so when the main stage ends local bands (last
year) or Red Bull Bands (this year) play and keep
the crowd entertained and the festival ticking
over until the next main stage band is ready.
Unfortunately this year’s stage was positioned
so it was harder to see from the main stage where
people where waiting for the next bands so I felt
it lost crowd interaction, but never the less
having the Red Bull Stage next to the main stage
is great as it gives the audience the chance to
hear some great upcoming bands, and the first
of these that I check out was…
Page 44 (3.5/5) This great power pop outfit from
Birmingham are positioned rather oddly between
some hardcore bands but in a way it’s a
great break with fun poppy sounds and catchy harmonies,
Page 44 go down well. Singer Adam Vygus says “Here’s
some Disney songs to brighten your day”
which is great because if you can have a laugh
with hardcore crowds then you can handle anyone,
well maybe not Metallica fans but then again not
even Metallica can handle them. Overall fun catchy
indie pop, which must have gone down well over
the festival season, as they are in the final
off the Red Bull Bedroom Jam competition.
 Ghost of A Thousand (4.5/5) there farewell festival
show kicks off with a storm! The band slowly walks
out to cheers to the soft track Small Mercies
but then burst out into Left for Dead. They’re
one of the best live bands I’ve seen, although
when I spoke to them early in the day they were
quite blasé about the final appearance
as they had already played there final headline
show, they still kept on top of things and made
sure they went out with a bang! They played a
great set of all there classic songs along with
an astounding cover of AC/DC’s Back In Black!
They rocked on stage, they rocked in the crowd
and they had a great time doing it. It will be
sad to see the Brighton punk rockers disband but
at least they gave it all they had and didn’t
fade into obscurity!
 The Ocean Between Us (3/5) The Leeds based Post-Hardcore
rockers are playing the Red Bull Stage and have
a tough job of bridging the gap between Ghost
of A Thousand and The Architects but they do it
and they do it well. They’re loud and in
your face, with their grimy guitars and screeching
vocals they rip it up and entertain. They have
a great sound not too far away from Bring Me The
Horizon and singer Judd Wrighton puts his all
into the performance, getting down on his knees
almost gasping for breath and then getting back
up and jumping around.
The Architects (2.5/5) The Brighton based metalcore
band start the set of great with burst of energy
with singer Sam Carter spending allot of time
in the crowd and with the rest of the band moving
and jumping but after the first few songs everything
seems to calm down and unfortunately I’m
not a fan, it’s just too slow I came here
to rock and now I’m getting tired and want
to go back to my tent. I know that they’re
had a bit of a change of direction with their
latest album but you’re at a festival keep
the pace up!
 Now because I can’t be in two places at
once I decided I would go and take photos of Bouncing
Souls and then come back and catch Dillinger Escape
Plan whilst my partner stayed and took photos
of them.
Bouncing Souls (4/5) the New Jersey based punk
rockers have been going for almost 25 years which
I’m sure is older than most of their audience
here at Hevy but because of this they have everything
down to a t. They sound amazing; with their fast
catchy punk pop songs, singer Greg Attonito seems
to be rather nonchalant about being here with
his hoody still on over his shirt and tie, but
half way through their second song Say Anything,
he jumps into the crowd and gets excited only
to get back on stage and carry on as before. This
is a refreshing change to live music, and it seems
that whilst the rest of the band is jumping and
rocking around Greg is calm and is plotting his
next movements. After a few songs I head over
to Dillinger to check them out, but I’m
rather disappointed and so head back over to see
the end of Bouncing Souls set, I’m glad
I did as I got to here Kate is Great and True
Believers. A great band that deserve allot more
recognition played here to a relatively big crowd
but as predicted most people where watching Dillinger.
 Dillinger Escape Plan(2/5) I saw Dillinger back
at Download a year ago so I wasn’t to fussed
about seeing them here tonight when I had the
chance to catch Bouncing Souls, but I decided
to catch some of the set as I know allot of people
will be disappointed if I didn’t review
them. So I headed over after 3 or 4 songs only
to find they hadn’t come on stage yet due
to sound problems. When they finally did arrive
on stage twenty minutes late the sound still sounded
awful, it was distorted and you couldn’t
truly hear Greg Puciato. They were full of energy,
as per normal, but it seems lacking. Maybe it
was the wait to come on stage or maybe they knew
they sounded bad but it just wasn’t great.
The crowd doesn’t seem to mind too much
as they create massive circle pits and mosh like
crazy! I didn’t stay for all there set but
after catching the end of Bouncing Souls I went
back and saw the rest of theirs where things had
improved but not enough to make me forget the
start of the set. Overall maybe on a different
day this would have been amazing but tonight it
was subpar.
Overall Saturday was a busy day, with many great
bands. Ghost of a Thousand where definitely the
stand out band with Bouncing Souls and Feed the
Rhino coming a close second. So as the music drew
to an end I went to have more drinks at the free
bar put on for press, artists and guests. Hevy
really know how to look after us J
 Sunday
Well its really hit me in the past few years how
I can’t hack festivals like I used to, I’m
27 and well I feel like an old man compared to
the younger guys and girls about, who stay up
all night drinking, get an hours sleep and are
away. Whereas myself, it took till Saturday evening
for my thirst for booze came back and then I was
up till 4 drinking and chatting with some bands,
I went to bed before them and yet woke up at 12
completely lagging, whilst they’d all been
up for a few hours and where back on the beer.
I still love festivals, but my body definitely
doesn’t!
But anyway I’m up and I have an interview
with While She Sleeps (which you can read on the
site), I’m pretty hung-over and the world
doesn’t look too pretty, but I head to the
main arena to do an interview and start my day
of rock! It took me till ten past 3 to check out
some bands and the first band was;
 The Headstart (3/5) You may not have heard of
The Headstart, but they are a great pop punk band,
they recently toured the UK with Framing Hanley
and My Passion and have a full headline tour booked
for September. The Headstart are exactly what
you would expect from a pop punk band; fun filled,
cocky, upbeat, and from Wakefield.... well maybe
the Wakefield part isn’t part of being a
pop punk but it sure adds to their style. They
play some really catchy songs and definitely wake
me up and get me ready for ska punk legends
Capdown (4/5) now I had a choice here, go and
watch the newly trending, post-hardcore band,
Touché Amoré or go and watch Capdown
for the 8th time. I chose Capdown, because after
a weekend of checking new bands out I felt today
was the day to stay safe and stick to what I know,
mainly because; 1) It’d help my head get
together if I heard songs I love and 2) I haven’t
seen some of these bands in ages and I wanted
to see if they still had it. In case you’ve
been hiding under a rock for the past 13 years
Capdown are a ska punk band from Milton Keynes
who split up in 2007 and reformed last year for
a one of gig, but enjoyed playing again that they
decided to carry on! As they came onto the stay
I was eager to see how’d they go down, and
they went down brilliantly, they came out to Unite
To Progress which gives singer Shaky Jake the
freedom of the stage to move around and make their
mark. They sound great and play a wicked set including
the classic Cousin Cleotis and ending in the infamous
Ska Wars! I was really impressed with just how
good Capdown still are and how well they went
down with this mid Sunday afternoon crowd. Just
so you know, everyone who I spoke to said Touché
Amoré where amazing!
 Again I had a choice of who to see here, I could
go and watch While She Sleeps, who were nice guys
when I interviewed them and where definitely going
to rip it up or I could see a band who were part
of the Red Bull Bedroom Jam competition, but who
have already been signed up, have a great summer
single playing on Kerrang and Scuzz and who are
definitely going to be massive in the next year.
So I decided to stick with my punk bands for the
day and watch
The Hype Theory (4/5) are a female fronted pop
punk band from Chelmsford who keep getting lazy
comparisons to Paramore thrown at them but who
in actual fact are something completely different.
This band is a happy summer time band, one that
makes you feel like dancing, one that there songs
get stuck in your head! They play a nice set of
upbeat poppy songs which are caked in sweet riffs
and lovely vocals. They give everyone watching
a smile on their face and when singer Katy Jackson
whips out a megaphone for the start of their latest
single Kid At Heart, I get chills down my spine
as this song is brilliant, it should be an anthem,
it should be a song that you put on when you’re
feeling down and want to shake the blues and for
me it is, I just hope that people out there go
and check them out now before they get big, so
in a few years they can say to people, quite smugly
“I saw them in a small club before they
got huge”.
 Zebrahead (3.5/5) these California punksters have
been about for 15 years or so now and have played
around the world. They’re a party band with
great punk songs, with simple slapstick lyrics
and the odd bit of rapping thrown in for good
measure. They came out and jumped write into Rescue
Me and Three Wrongs Don’t Make A Right,
But Three Rights Make A Left which go down great,
with singer Ali Tabatabaee getting the crowd worked
up with his great banter. Then before they play
Jag Off we get to meet the masturbating tiger,
who comes out to his own theme and well…
masturbates (rubs his suit and not get his bits
out) and then starts to squirt the crowd with
a water gun! In the middle of the song they get
the entire crowd to sit down so everyone can jump
up! These things you don’t really see that
often and definitely make it a memorable set.
If that wasn’t enough this feel good set
that puts a smile on everyone’s face gets
better when the band plays new single Ricky Bobby
along with classics, Hello Tomorrow, Playmate
Of The Year and Anthem!
 Hill Valley High (3/5) are a Red Bull Bedroom
Jam band from Telford. They’re pop rock,
and have been playing gigs for years, in fact
they once did a ten date sold out tour in Brazil
which most bands can only dream off! They’re
catchy and fun, they bounce around the stage clearly
enjoying what they’re doing. They sound
sweet with nice background synth great drumming
and awesome guitar hooks. They’re bouncing,
poppy, fun and definitely worth checking out.
After the festival they went through to the final
3 of the Red Bull Bedroom Jam competition, so
good luck to them!
We Are The Ocean are up next and due to it being
a long day and not really knowing much by them
I take this moment to go back to the tent and
get some food. I do catch a few songs and they’re
definitely a band I will check out in future,
with their great harmonies and thumping melodies.
I did catch there two singles, The Waiting Room
and the hauntingly beautiful What It Feels like,
which both sounded as good as they do recorded.
 MakeThisRelate (3/5) are an alternative rock band
from Glasgow and are my final Red Bull Bedroom
Jam band of the weekend. They’re position
in a nice slot between We Are The Ocean and Funeral
For A Friend and they fit in great. They’re
definitely influenced by Biffy Clyro as there
sound is dark and gritty with great popping bass
and raw guitars all glued together with loud banging
drums. Singer Kevin Walls has a great Scottish
accent that comes into the vocals and makes the
songs sound deeper, along with guitarist Aidan
Scott’s backing vocals this band are dark
and moody and are appealing. Kevin tells the crowd
who are stood waiting for Funeral For A Friend
“Come on over and have a closer look, come
and enjoy yourself as when where done we’ll
be joining you in watching Funeral!”. They
play a great set with some catchy songs including
new single Sugar Glass. If you like Biffy then
go check these guys out as there doing a small
tour write now!
 Funeral For A Friend (3/5) the Welsh emo group
from Bridgend have been around for ten years now
and I’ve been with them from the start,
I used to listen to them all the time when I was
16 and that carried on until after Hours, but
since then I kinda lost touch but whenever I hear
them it takes me back, they’re unique tones
make them instantly recognisable and seeing as
I’ve seen them many times over the years
and caught them last year at Sonisphere for Gareth’s
farewell gig and they were amazing. Tonight they
were good but something was lacking and I think
this was down to Hevy’s PA system, for some
reason when the bigger bands get on stage the
sound system seems to cop out and unfortunately
it did it here. You could tell they were playing
great and that Matt Davies was singing perfectly
but the system seems to get the levels messed
up and kinda wisps in from soft to heavy. But
despite the sound problems they were great, Matt
did keep going on and he’s definitely gained
confidence over the years as he used to just sing
and not say a word in-between songs, but now he
goes on big speeches. His longest was before Roses
For The Dead, where he went into a drawn out bit
about how much this song means to people, and
all I wanted was for them to cut the chat and
play more songs! I know this might have been to
help the sound guys sort the sound but it was
boring. They did however play a great set with
songs both old and new, all tying up with Escape
Artists Never Die.
 Your Demise (4/5) this St Albans Hardcore band
are crazy, they come out and want to mess things
up. The singer Ed McRae is crazy and comes bursting
onto the stage with a t-shirt tied round his head,
he jumps into the crowd he goes off stage, he
basically can’t stay still, but to be honest
none of the band can! They’re moving all
over the place slamming there guitars around,
thrashing and jumping. Theres not allot I can
say about them other than, GO SEE THEM LIVE! They
will blow your mind, they keep your attention
and even if you’re not into hardcore you
will enjoy this! They play a decent set in which
the crowd goes wild, trying to climb on stage
and climb up the tent pegs and then diving off
the 10 foot high platforms into the crowd. Your
Demise closed the Front and Etnies Stage in style!
Finally it was time for the final bands of the
weekend, and again I had a choice; Four Year Strong
or The Bronx. Now for me this is a simple choice
The Bronx! So I did the same as the night before
and caught most of The Bronx in-between a bit
of Four Year Strong.
 The Bronx (5/5) I’m stood in the dark anxiously
waiting for the Bronx to burst onto the stage.
The crowd are keeping themselves entertained by
throwing an inflatable shark around and climbing
up the tent poles and jumping off. The band appears
on stage and burst into a high energy set containing
classics such as Knifeman, White Tar and False
alarm. Singer Matt Coughthran is on top form and
jumps into the crowd screaming at the top of his
lungs. The volume is the loudest I’ve heard
all weekend and its flowing through me, the band
and the entire crowd. Its dark it’s raw
and it’s brilliant! Every time I see this
band they overwhelm me with their sheer presence,
and tonight is no different. They have such a
strange stage presence, the rest of the band tend
to stay still whilst Matt goes crazy! I was enjoying
myself so much that I didn’t want to leave
and see
Four Year Strong (2.5/5) and when I did I wish
I hadn’t! The Massachusetts pop punk band
where good, but they weren’t great, to be
honest I don’t know why they headlined,
they would have been a great band earlier on but
seeing as they were the final band of the weekend
they didn’t pull it out the bag. But speaking
of bags they did through lots of food into the
crowd, they were talking for like ten minutes
about all this food they had been given and how
they wanted to give it out, so they did, there
was cheese, crisps and other snack foods that
were thrown into the crowd. The sound again was
poor but again I feel like this was not the bands
fault but the PA. They played a good set including
It Must Really Suck To Be Four Year Strong Right
Now and Wasting Time along with a handful of new
songs, which I always feel shouldn’t be
done at festivals as people are there for the
hits but ah well. Overall a decent enough showing
but definitely not a festival closer.
 So, a great day with quite a few nostalgic bands
with allot more punk bands than the day before.
Unfortunately it did seem quieter that the day
before for some reason but it was still great.
My highlights where The Bronx, Capdown and The
Hype Theory. So as the weekend comes to a close
we had back to the car for a nice 200 mile journey
to Birmingham, on the way back we catch up on
the news and events we’ve missed and find
out that unknown to myself and most of the people
at the festival riots were kicking off in London,
which goes to show that once you’re at a
festival your happy with the music, the beer and
the people and outside news doesn’t matter
because a Festival is great and even the small
ones like Hevy, have plenty to see and do, so
here’s hoping to an even better Hevy 2012!
Review By James Daly
Photos By James Daly And Elizabeth Aston |
