Now that we’re in May, we’re closing in fast on Call of the Wild and we’re going to be back for another year! So we’re getting to know as many of the bands set to play the Trailblazer Stage in 2026 that we can pin down. White Lightning play the Sunday.
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Well, the band was formed in Liverpool/Merseyside but I’m (JJ) actually the only Scouser in band! Alfie is from Runcorn, Luke is from The Wirral and our drummer Louis is Welsh so I guess we are from all over the place but Liverpool where it all began.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
It’s just coming up to the 3rd anniversary round about now here’s to many many more years of the Lightning.
Where does the name of the band come from?
We played around with so many names for weeks and couldn’t decide on anything then Luke suggested White Lightning after the Def Leppard track, the rest is history.
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Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Loud, over the top, hard-hitting, heavy rock and roll, a perfect blend of melodic hard rock and pounding metal, there’s a lot of blues mixed in there, too. There’s even a slight thrash and punk delivery to our sound, especially in our title track “White Lighting”. We fuse all that together to create our brand of hard rock and traditional heavy metal
What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
Pretty much exactly how I described our music – loud and over the top; there’s a lot of crazy stage antics and a lot of crowd participation, too; they are just as a part of the show as we are. Everything is turned up to eleven as if we are playing a stadium at every single show.
Have you been to Call of the Wild before? What did you think?
No, this our first time here so, yeah, we are super excited to tear it up”
Can you put into 10 words or fewer how it felt when you realised you were heading to Call of the Wild?
Excited, thrilled and just ready to tear the place down.
What sort of setlist can we expect?
We’ll we’ve just put out a brand-new EP that we will performing in its entirety maybe a sneak peak of some new material and a few other surprises, gonna be a wild one for sure.
Stage times haven’t been announced yet, so which other band do you most hope you’re not clashing with so you can see them play?
Wailing Banshee, of course, we’ll be sharing the stage with them this year throughout a good few dates really looking forward to seeing them before we kick off the tour. Also, we can’t wait for Onslaught to blow the roof of the place.
What are you working on at the moment?
We’ve got some new material in the works and are focusing on putting together a follow-up full length to the EP.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Every show is wild, you never know what to expect, especially since we are a bunch of maniacs on stage that will do anything to get the crowd to go just as wild as we are; whether that’s us jumping up into the crowd and moshing around or throwing beer and whisky back and forth or causing a riot in the crowd by getting one side to scream and shout at the other then the other side does it back. Sometimes we’ll pull someone on stage for a beer drinking contest – that’s always fun!
What drink do you throw back to get yourself fired up before going on stage?
To be honest it’s the atmosphere and energy of the crowd just before we take the stage that gets us fired up, soon as that intro tape hits it’s game on. Afterwards, that’s when the party begins.
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Call of the Wild Festival 2026 takes place 28th – 31 May and remaining tickets are on sale here.
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