'THE BEDFORD METAL EASTERFEST'.

Live At The Ath. - Bedford Athletic Rugby Club, Wentworth Drive Putnoe Bedford.

Easter Sunday 16th April 2006.

SUMMERFALL, with PHONIC RAPTURE, SLAVE TO NATURE, SCRATCHPLATE, WORN, STEPPING OVER JENNY and NICK THEODORE.

With a huge food/burger bar outside the venue and a free Easter egg on the door for people and a bar waiting to soon open; the Easter fest hatched open with NICK THEODORE. Local acoustic singer, songwriter and musician with much of his own material and a few light hearted songs as well - some with a Christmas theme, including a song about turkeys. The audience responded well and bought chairs up front, adding a more intimate environment.
Needing to be off for another gig later on for some of them STEPPING OVER JENNY young Bedford ska band with more characters than a Dickens novel, taking up the stage with some great tunes and covers and a singer filling in with hand held autocue.
The only band to appear first time at the Ath., and to a Bedford crowd WORN were a heavy rock 3-piece who put in a solid and worthy performance. They hail from Norwich and for an unknown band their sound and style were quite good. Not pulling anything particularly memorable out of the hat, just getting on with it and demonstrated a tight well played performance.
Fire Fountain - another new band failed to show up but a welcome replacement was hastily put together made up of 3 people from the mighty HeKz, with various guests including Matt from Slave To Nature, learning the song in the interval before the slot, Nick Theodore putting acoustic guitar to Maidens 'Flight Of Icarus' other guitars from Fionnbharr and me singing 'The Trooper' for the second time this week with HeKs.
The well-practiced and totally classy SCRATCHPLATE were up next. I would never expect a bad performance from these guys but for this gig they played even better and put that little bit extra, making a very enjoyable set, with exploding party poppers as well adding colour to the fest. The new singer had a big job taking over from the previous set up, but proved him self an admirable front man fronting a very talented rock band.
A band I was very much looking forward to next SLAVE TO NATURE, their singing has vastly improved, perhaps needing a little more gusto, but with added death growls from their bassist adding a dimension. Their were parts of this gig that blew me away, especially when in perfect unison, two guitarists got together and were jumping one end of the fret board to the other together; such amazing guitar work I wish some of the other bands had bothered coming up front to see. The singer from HeKz looked mesmerised, his band coming from the same area - it must be something they put in the water over their way 'liquid talent' probably. This band played an amazing set and secured a place for them selves at the BedRock festival in June!
Fresh, or rather worn out from a gig the previous night in Bristol, Luton rockers PHONIC RAPTURE a favourite of Scratchplate's were up next. Electronic drum kit, amazing sound to the vocals and solid tunes played well go to giving the band their strength, quite a front man as well - entertaining the crowd with banter, between the material they have. You cant get a lot of variation from a band that are consistently good all the way through, so they make up for that with various styled songs in their set. They have quite an accesable sound that you could see people enjoying while watching.
SUMMERFALL are a gymnasium of vocal exercise. Each adding something along with their instrument ability that leaves other bands they first started out with whey behind. Their front man positively explodes with energy and exacerbated vocal intensity, while their songs, many from their latest C.D. entertained the imagination of the crowd, who were a little flagging in energy after a long day, not much movement, but a captive audience non the less and a great band to end the fest with.

Keith. www.bedfordmetal.co.uk