Starting the day in a far more relaxed fashion, I checked out the Master Class area, home to various different lessons and speeches over the course of the weekend. This morning also showcased the Sappenin’ Podcast by Sean Smith and Morgan Richards and today featuring Aaron Gillespie, drummer of tonight’s headline band Underoath. Joining the audience at a particularly philosophical moment, there was talk of life, death and glowing old. But on a lighter note, there was conversation about the various collaborations that both Gillespie and Underoath have worked on, along with Gillespie’s love of the UK and particularly the accents.
Back to the live music and heading to the Kerrang Stage for the first time today, I was greeted with a crowd of people and one dinosaur blowing up balloons prior to the first band starting their set. As soon as Tiberius took to the stage the whole warehouse filled with balloons being punched around, the sight of this in complete contrast to the anthemic progressive metal sound of the Scottish band. The band’s crew contributed to the slightly unusual party vibes by adding a huge onslaught of beach balls into the crowd. While the band were impressive throughout, my lasting memory from the set will be lead vocalists Grant Barclay pointing to the dinosaur in the room saying, “Please be careful of the dinosaur, he is in fact endangered”.
The lineup controversy of this year’s festival was not just contained to yesterday’s headline slot. Today there had been a number of lineup changes with at least three bands being brought in at the last minute to fill gaps. In chronological order the last-minute substitutions were Love Is Noise and High Regard on the Sneak Energy stage, while Shields refilled a mid-afternoon hole in the schedule on the Kerrang Stage.
Knowing nothing about Love Is Noise it was nice to be able to stand back and watch the high energy performance without any predefined expectations. While I couldn’t note down too many of the songs they performed, the band’s latest single ‘Hole In Me’ definitely deserved an honourable mention.
Second substitution of the day were Hertfordshire’s High Regard. A band that my wife and I almost went to see last year in Manchester while we were staying over in the city before catching an early flight the morning after for our honeymoon. However, the sensible member of our marriage decided it wasn’t a good idea. I headed to todays set with strict instructions to record a song for Kristal to watch at home later. For a last-minute gig, the band had impressive outfit coordination with all members wearing black, with highlights of neon green. The band took the time to dedicate the emotional track ‘Mirror Glass’ to loved ones that have passed away, before picking up the pace again for tracks like ‘Worth It’ which saw the bass player Thomas Townsend, jump down into the crowd. As yet unreleased track ‘Red Lights’ had its festival debut, prior to the bands biggest song ‘Dead To Me’ which closed the set.
I quickly stopped by the Kerrang Stage on the way from food to see the last of the replacement bands Shields arriving onto a foggy stage. While the set started with a poem that seemed to be entitled ‘This is not a dream’ the tempo soon picked up for the rest of the bands metalcore performance. For a band that have been out of the limelight for several years following the death of guitarist George Christie, it was good to see them back on stage. With new singles and an impressive performance today, I will certainly be keeping an eye out for new more new material from the band.
Having sampled the culinary offerings from two out of the three vendors at the festival, it was only fair that I visit the third and final stall on the last day. After talking to the lady running the stall about all thing’s photography, I went to find a seat to sample my meat feast pizza. This was another great food offering at the festival at a reasonable price too.
Yonaka are one of those bands that seem to appear for me every couple of years supporting a band that I am going to see. I first saw them back in 2018 supporting Don Broco along with Press To MECO and more recently they had to pull out of a support slot for a Palaye Royale gig I was attending at Manchester Academy in 2023 due to illness, so it was nice to be able to see them again. Showcasing several songs from the bands latest album Seize the Power, such as ‘Call me a Saint’ and ‘Clique’, the set ended with the hugely popular title track off the album. Throughout the set lead vocalist Theresa Jarvis made several references to mental health stating “The world is a crazy place, this one goes out to anyone who’s struggling” and later in the set “If you’re struggling, talk to someone, don’t wait until to tomorrow, get help now.”
Stopping for a quick break at the seats between the two stages, I noticed that the tables had become an area for leaving notes to fellow festival goers and trading gifts. There were several notes asking for people to follow a link and add recommendations to their playlists and a makeshift magic card trading table.
The penultimate band on the Sneak Energy Stage, Artio, are the only band (with possibly the exception of Bring Me The Horizon) who I’ve seen receive a “Yorkshire” chant outside of the county when they introduced themselves, stating they are from Leeds. When first seeing the band walk on stage, I thought it was unusual to see lead vocalist Rae Brazill wearing full ear headphone / ear defenders, although trying to research this post festival this seems like a regular occurrence during live performances. Artio have amassed quite a following on social media platforms like TikTok, with tracks like ‘Product Of My Own Design’ proving popular with their online community as well as with fans in the venue. Brazill was a big fan of crowd interaction throughout the set, asking “Everybody who can, get down on the floor right now. When we say bounce, you bounce!” with most of the room doing as instructed. The band took the chance to plug to their upcoming support slot on tour with Brighton based British-American band As It Is, prior to playing the final song of their set ‘Pyrokid’.
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While there have been some fantastic performances this week, VUKOVI’s set was one that I had been anticipating all weekend. With the lights dropping Hamish Reilly on guitar and Martin Sharples-Johnston on drums took their places ready for Janine Shilstone to strut onto stage. Among the various outfits seen on both stages this weekend, Shilstone wore a two-tone leotard with numerous tassels, similar to those found on classic Elvis outfits. The performance started as it meant to go on with ‘GUNGHO’ up first. I have seen VUKOVI a few times before, but always on much smaller stages, however the band utilised every inch of the Kerrang stage to give a truly impressive show. This was despite Shilstone mentioning midway through the set that she was unfit and sweating various parts of her anatomy off, however I would bet that there are professional athletes out there that couldn’t put on a show anywhere near as energetic as the one I was witnessing. Personal highlight of the set for me was ‘I EXIST’, however I was gutted to see that ‘C.L.A.U.D.I.A.’ didn’t make the setlist as this is the song that helped me discover the band. While stopping to thank the audience prior to the last song of the set ‘La De Da’, Shilstone mentioned that she “came to RADAR as a punter last year, now we’re hear playing the second to last slot on Sunday” appearing to be highly proud of the achievement, while admitting she is ”not great at speeches” she closed the statement with “be kind to each other and look after yourselves”. This was an absolutely fantastic performance from the Glaswegian band which was surely worthy of earning them a headline slot at the festival in years to come.
Well this is where the review gets a little harder to write, not because of the calibre of the bands, but more my own stupidity. When I checked out of my hotel this morning, I hadn’t realised that my phone wasn’t fully charged and right on queue due before Dream State’s headline slot on the Sneak Energy Stage began, my phone died. With no way to take notes, from this point on I am relying on my often terrible memory to bring you the rest of this review.
Dream State are a band that I thought I hadn’t head of prior to their set, however during the final song of their set ‘Primrose’ I found myself signing along, proving that I did at least know one song. While I may have been new to discovering the band, it seemed like I was the odd one out because as soon as VUKOVI’s set had finished the entire festival squeezed into the Sneak Energy Stage for one last time. The Welsh rock band bounced onto the stage for an energetic performance, which saw vocalist Jessie Powell spending much of the set up on the stage risers interacting with the front row of the audience. ‘Anxious State of Mind’ was dedicated to anyone suffering with anxiety and is a song that I found myself listening to on the drive home from the festival. The song ‘White Lies’ received a huge reaction from the crowd. From comments made by Powell during the set, this wasn’t the first time that the band have played the festival, and if they are to return in future years I will definitely be going back to see them again.
After three days of fantastic music, the whole crowd moved one last time to the Kerrang Stage for tonight’s headline act Underoath. While my prior knowledge of Underoath consisted mainly of the band and drummer Aaron Gillespie’s collaboration work, I had done my homework prior to seeing them and was looking forward to the set. Bouncing onto the stage, Spencer Chamberlain grabbed the microphone to scream the opening lines of ‘Loss’ from the bands 2004 album They’re Only Chasing Safety. It was while I taking photos of the band that I spotted something I haven’t seen in all my years at a gig photographer, a sign on the stage reminding Chamberlain that he was at “RARAR Fest, Manchester”, and was reminded of The Simpsons episode There Will Be No Encore where Spinal Tap band member has a Springfield sign taped to the back of his guitar. After ‘Breathing in a New Mentality’, Chamberlain spent a moment explaining that most of the band had flown in from the USA that morning and spent the day sleeping, having spent time at home with their families on Independence Day. He also mentioned that while they had arrived safely into the UK, the bands luggage and some equipment had not. Perhaps this is why Timothy McTague on guitar appeared to be on stage in what looked like boxer shorts. Alongside favourites like ‘Reinventing Your Exit’, the band introduced a new song from The Place After This One, inviting the crowd to join in singing ‘Generation No Surrender’ after teaching them the lyrics. When Chamberlain stated that there was only one song left in tonight’s set, there was no doubt that it had to be ‘Writing On The Walls’ and the crowd went wild one last time, especially when Chamberlain jumped down into the pit that had formed. Although several bands performing tonight demonstrated potential for future headline positions, Underoath delivered an outstanding performance that stood out in this historic venue.
With my first trip to RADAR festival complete, I had a brilliant time and despite this year’s controversy and associated lineup changes, I will definitely be looking forward to returning in future years.
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Photos by Jack Barker Photography
