(Review by Graeme Houston)
‘VARIOUS ARTISTS’ – ‘PRIDE ROCK’, THE OLD MARKET, HOVE 3.8.24
With the official ‘Pride Festival’ becoming a much more corporate and poppy affair, it was fantastic to see that after last year’s inaugural event which was held at Patterns with four bands, that ‘Pride Rock Festival’ returned again this year with a much bigger and better line-up of eight bands, for an awesome all-day alternative event at the iconic, an criminally underused, The Old Market venue in Hove
Over the years I’ve been fortunate enough to see shows by Cardiacs, Echo & The Bunnymen, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Gorillaz, Thurston Moore, and Saxon at this venue and with the gig being headlined by local heroes SNAYX who’s ‘Better Days’ single charted in the Top 5 as recently as February, then the line-up looks like an absolute banger.
MUDDIBROOKE (Click HERE for photos of this set)
First on were MuddiBrooke who we were informed had to dart off straight after their set as they had another gig to play later on in the day. “Thanks for coming to see us so early although I suppose two o’clock isn’t that early, although it is for us musicians” was how Brooke, their lead singer and guitarist greeted us before she and the rest of the band started their set. I don’t think it was though, as the three of them killed it from the get go. They were fast, furious and very noisy. They had the crowd bought in enough so that they were singing along with them to the chorus of their third number. Up on stage they looked as though they were having a great time and that really rubbed off on the audience around me. Their set was finished off with a great grunge cover of ‘You Don’t Own Me’ before they set about packing up their kit. They reckoned they had three hours to get to Bury St Edmunds. If their driving is as fast and as furious as their set, then I reckon they may have made it. What a great start to the day and it’s easy to see why they’re being championed by BBC Radio 1 and Kerrang.
Now after seeing MuddiBrooke my expectations for the day were really raised when I found out that Monakis were playing so early on the bill as these guys are electric. I’d caught them a few times when they were a three piece and loved them, but recently they’d added an extra guitarist in Deri, the lead singer of City Dogs (more on them later) and surprise, surprise, I’ve found myself loving them just that little bit more. I’d never seen them at three o’clock in the afternoon though so this new territory for all five of us. But worry not. They came out of the traps, all guns ablazing. The guitars were soaring, the songs were driven with heavy bass and thumping drums and angrily delivered vocals. Beauty to this listener’s ears. And not just mine. Cat (latter day Lambrini Girl and present day Hypsoline drummer) who is probably the most popular musician’s musician on the scene, was giving it large down by the crush barrier too. Was it really three in the afternoon? It could have been midnight. The four of them left it all on the stage. These guys are off on their first British tour in November; get yourself a ticket while you can.
CITY DOG (Click HERE for photos of this set)
Well I said I’d give you more of Deri from City Dog later, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so soon. Luckily he’s had 30 minutes to catch his breath eh? As has James, the lead vocalist and bassist of Monakis, who I’ve just heard is playing bass for them today. City Dog are a local three piece who I’ve seen many times since I was first recommended to check them out by my friend Jacob who funnily enough plays bass for local band ECC. This is the biggest stage I’ve seen them on and they certainly made the most of it. I’ve never seen them so animated or sound so good to be honest. That’s the best I’ve seen them play. That was a brilliant set and just like Monakis, Cat agreed as they were going just as mental down the front. And if our opinion doesn’t tempt you to check them out, they supported the awesome Surfbort on the last European tour and have also opened up for the legendary Buzzcocks.
I’m beginning to feel rather spoiled now to be honest as I’ve just heard that the next band have toured with The Menstrual Cramps, Loose Articles and ARXX who are all real favourites of mine. Hailing from that there Macclesfield, Queen Cult’s lead singer Maisie is a natural frontwoman. Great banter between songs, bouncing around like she’s got ants in her pants and she has a tremendous voice. The band were excellent. Really catchy, loud, alt-rock tunes you could bop along to. They had a real Queens of the Stone Age vibe to them (if they had a female vocalist obviously) and I’d love to see them come rock out their own headline show at The Albert next time they’re in town. I’d recommend that you come along too.
HAWXX (Click HERE for photos of this set)
Next up were Hawxx whose debut LP was nominated for Metalhammer’s ‘Album of the year’ and quite a few folk in the crowd had told me that I needed to see them if I’d enjoyed all the preceding acts. Challenge accepted, as if I was going anywhere else before SNAYX finished their set anyway. Well my random new friends in the crowd weren’t wrong, These girls are mental. We’ve got a five string bass, flying-v guitar, blue hair, white hair, mohawk mullet and a whole lot more before we even get onto the music. Insane. One minute you’ve got the four of them singing sweetly, in harmony, acapella style just to catch you off guard before hitting you with a huge wall of alt-metal/punk noise. They’ve got anthems that make Rammstein sound like Bucks Fizz. They mentioned that they’re on tour again later on this year but from what I can gather there are no Brighton dates planned thus far. Hopefully that situation will change in the coming weeks as I’ll be there down the front giving it large as will everyone who was buzzing about that performance well after it was finished.
Righty-ho, what’s up next? I’m having an absolute blast, although I must admit that my stomach thinks my throat has been slashed as unlike the rest of the audience I don’t have time to pop out for a quick Scooby Snack. I’ll tell you what’s up next; a real curveball. Stone Angels take to the stage and after the insanity of the previous act, we are treated to some good time, old fashioned, rock. Think Lynyrd Skynyrd and you get the idea. We had guitar solos. Shapes were pulled. We even had a duck walk…… and you know what? As I looked around they had the crowd moving around more than any other act had managed to get them moving so far all day. The young un’s were dancing, the ladies were all dancing and even the men were shifting about as much as they could while still trying to look cool. An extremely entertaining set.
THE VIRGINMARYS (Click HERE for photos of this set)
Throughout the day our drummers have all been sitting right at the back of this particularly large stage on top of a riser, but our penultimate act, The VirginMarys, have brought along their own kit and have placed it right at the front. This immediately adds to the dynamics, intimacy and energy of their set and boy is their set energetic!! Singer/guitarist Ally Dickaty and drummer Danny Dollan owned the stage from the very first chord they played. Danny even managed to snap his first drumstick within the first 45 seconds of trying to rip the skin off his snare such was the ferocity in which they launched themselves upon the crowd. You can see why they’ve been lauded by Rolling Stone Magazine, praised by the rock God that is Slash and have reached the heady heights of No. 3 on the Billboard New Artist Alternative Chart. What a racket they made…and I mean that in a good way. The way Ally went about his business of singing and attacking his guitar reminded me a lot of a young Joe Strummer, and what’s not to like about that, and their set got me thinking of what a punked-up, raw, Jim Carroll Band would have sounded like. On this occasion Slash and myself concur that this is a band that’s really worth seeing live which you can do in just a few weeks time as they are supporting Ugly Kid Joe at Concorde 2 on the 29th of August. Go see. Whether or not you stay behind to watch the headliners I’ll leave up to you.
And so on to the final act of the night that everyone has been waiting for – SNAYX. Our Local heroes and heroine arrived at the venue at 10am this morning for their soundcheck after playing the ‘Kendal Calling’ the night before, and once they’re finished here they’ll be straight back on the road again heading back up north to Blackpool to play at the ‘Rebellion Festival’. Of course we will covering that live set in another forthcoming article! Such is the price of success for a band that is not long back from supporting Royal Blood on their just finished European Tour, and now are about to embark on their own UK tour in September/October and celebrated having a Top 5 single back in February. Oh, and let’s not forget that they’ve also just been nominated for the ‘Best UK Breakthrough Artist’ at the Heavy Music Awards for 2024 as well. To have them headlining tonight is a real coup and credit to ‘Pride Rock’ for getting in such heavy hitters to top this already stacked bill.
Now SNAYX haven’t just got an arsenal of bangers that assault you from the first song to the last, but they know how to put on a show. They’re loving it up there just as much as the crowd are down on the floor and if they’re not they should give up their day jobs and take up a career in acting; they’d all be picking up Oscars by the end of the year. I reckon by their fourth song both Charlie and Ollie have covered every inch of The Old Market stage. Poor Laney is smashing away at the drums like her life depends on it, but the only time you can really see her properly is between songs because both of the boys are all over the place prowling about, Ollie beating on his chest when he’s not thumping away on his bass while Charlie is climbing up on speakers, going walkabout into the crowd and standing on the safety barrier. Judging by the number of phones out I reckon Instagram and Facebook are going to have this gig pretty well documented and rightly so, it’s a stormer; they’ve got the place bouncing. Going back to the safety barrier for a second, there’s no Cat this time as they have somehow managed to get stage side the lucky person. Proceedings are stopped momentarily as Charlie, on finding out there is a small stag do in attendance, instructs the crowd to lift the groom-to-be up into the air and get him body surfing. This is swiftly followed by him jokingly berating his fellow stags for not actually helping with any of the lifting or carrying around. This one hour long incendiary set is over and done with far, far too quickly. Well they do say time flies when you’re enjoying yourself but that went ridiculously quickly. They finished their set with a magnificent cover of ‘Firestarter’ which saw the famous SNAYX bounce turn into a fun and celebratory mosh down at the front.
What a fitting way to end an epic set and what a beautiful way to end this alternative way to celebrate Pride and hopefully raise funds for the LGBT+ communities in our wonderful City. Congratulations to the organisers for putting together such a superb line-up and I’m hoping that I get asked to come along to review your third event next year
