Nix opens up The Wafflebox. High Voltage Festival is upon us, so read the waffle and see the bands we’re looking forward to.
Dear weather, be kind tomorrow. Dear BBC, be more accurate than you were for Sonisphere Festival weekend. “Beautiful clear skies today, we’re in for a sunny day”. Were we hell.
It’s to be accepted as a given that British Music Festivals are not in there own little atmospheric bubble where everything is beautiful, bright, with daisy chains and mead (well, maybe some like that exist) so the chickens/sensibles (like me) we are marketed to accordingly with pirate wellyboots and satanic smocks to keep the drizzle out. However, there are some hard nuts that take it all – thunder, lightning, monsoon, hail – dripping with metal and donning steel-toecapped boots, daring the big guy in the sky to strike them down. In the threat of downpour and heaps of electricity being pumped through gadgets, doo-dah’s and wotsits, production crews have either a) taken this into account and have safety measures in place or b) cross their fingers and hope for the best. Whatever it is, I’ve not heard of a rock event ‘rained off’ … so in the words of Twisted motherfrickin Sister, “You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n Roll”.
Enough about the elements – more about the music. High Voltage will spring in to life with a plethora of acts from the hard crunchy riff dealers to the epic and progressive. Here are a list of my top tips for the two days:
Saturday: Michael Monroe, Queensryche, Amplifier, Skin, Anathema, Attica Rage, Thin Lizzy, Von Hertzen Brothers, Grand Magus, Slash, Judas Priest.
Sunday: Heaven’s Basement, Furyon, Saint Jude, Thunder, Graveyard, Black Spiders, Black Country Communion, Jethro Tull, Dream Theatre.
We’ll be on site catching up with some of our favourites and new discoveries so follow the Pure Rawk Twitter for the buzz. We’ll be checking out the Pimms bus and also hoping, unlike last time – HV is stocked of great quality real ales and not run out by dinner time. But don’t take our word for it – check out what the people of the Twitterverse have to say about tomorrow:
