Amidst the rain and smeared glitter V Festival kicked off on a chilly and wet Friday night. A steady downpour welcomed most festival goers, so setting up camp and figuring out the layout brought exciting challenges. Once settled in fans flooded, pun intended, into the arena to check out the nights sets. Popular DJ and […]

Inner City Live posed the question “when is a festival not a festival?”. The answer is straightforward – it’s when it is a gig with four bands. The topic of the move from the Rainbow Arena to the O2 Academy may well be subject to rumour control and conjecture but the fact is, it turned […]

Tonight’s an early start. It’s 7.15pm when support act for Gary Numan, (IAM) WARFACE take to the stage to greet the near capacity crowd. They open with ‘ To Die For ‘, and it’s clear that the guys mean business tonight. They are going to take advantage of their prestigious support slot and enjoy every […]

Up first, supporting Oceans Ate Alaska, we had Failure Is An Option, a midlands-based metal band who I’ve seen once before when they opened for Bad Omens at The Flapper a few months back. Their style is a mix of emo; especially with clean singer Matt’s singing, intertwined expertly with Brandon’s guttural death growling and […]

There is a buzz of excited chatter at the Barclaycard Arena as New Jersey indie rock band, The Front Bottoms kick off with their set. Judging by their choice of band name and the subject matter of songs, they seem to centre their success on injecting humour into all aspects of their set, especially with […]

There was a distinct end of term feel to Laura Mvula’s appearance at Festival On The Close tonight. This event was the last of the inaugural running of the festival, and the last of our coverage this year. But it was also the real end of term. Rugby School has finished another year and the […]

The National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO) presented their mix of swing, funk and jazz standards in our second major event at the Festival On The Close at Rugby School. One thing that you can guarantee you get from the NYJO is variety. By their very nature they have a fluid line-up, and their repertoire can […]

Perfect timing! As I enter the Academy 2 for Dead Kennedys I am greeted by an air raid siren from the PA.  Enter Otherkin to the sound of said siren. Now, if you read BrumLive regularly you will recall that I reviewed this band a few months ago at the Flapper on their own headline […]

G4 and Lesley Garrett opened Festival on the Close 2017 in Rugby tonight, representing a whole series of landmarks, and a couple of “firsts” for this writer. This is by far the biggest event of its kind that Rugby School has promoted. It may even be the biggest series of events seen in the town; […]

It is the type of heat that feels like you are standing on a thousand suns. It is sticky and muggy, with each breath sending musky warmth into the air. The sweat rolls down your back, making you shift your weight. It may sound like the beginning of a summer horror film, but for those […]