I’m going to do my best to fling up some quick posts about Bloodstock this year day by day. This is in no way an in-depth review, but an old fashioned blog / diary thing while details are fairly fresh, and likely sprinkled with crap photos off my phone! Much better ones will be going up on Facebook and Instagram courtesy of Katie and Sean who actually know what they’re doing with cameras…
The long drive from Glasgow was largely uneventful (for a change) but we were surprised to be rained on when we arrived – usually we’re escaping the rain when we head south! Thankfully it cleared before the first bands were on, but Sean still interviewed the lovely Belgian band Gnome indoors because we had tons of space in the press tent. Only the real hard workers turn up on the Thursday!
Openers Dead Flesh were superb and obviously buzzing about being thrust onto the prestigious SOPHIE stage. The tent was rammed, pits were formed, crowds were surfed and everyone had an awesome time as the homegrown death merchants kicked Bloodstock 2025 off to a fine start.
Unfortunately I missed the next band (Fourway Kill) as I have to move my car, but I did see most of Gnome’s set and they went down really well. Crowdwatching was fun, and someone somewhere was making a killing selling gnomish headgear.
All For Metal were brilliant, possibly even better then when I saw them in Glasgow a few weeks ago. The performance and energy was amazing, and the crowd were right into them with plenty of inflatable swords and hammers kicking about.
A quick(!) trip to the merch stand to get the annual t-shirt meant that by the time I got back to the SOPHIE stage it was mobbed for the headliner, Nergal’s Me And That Man. A band I’ve written off in the past based on their description, I am now kicking myself as they were bloody good and I actually really like their sound.
I skipped out a little early, and caught the tail end of tribute band Robbed Zombie who were playing to a large crowd in the VIP tent.
As always, a pleasure to see so many familiar faces again after so long, and I’ve been handing out patches left, right and centre – mainly to people with kids! Our new rainbow ones are very popular!
Let’s see if I can keep the diary going tomorrow. Saturday will be difficult after Machine Head as I suspect I’ll need to be carried to the First Aid tent by the time that one finishes…
