Portsmouth Guildhall
Back in 2012, there was a great multi-stage festival set up by Kai Harris and his team at Advance Promotions at Southampton University. The festival was called Takedown Festival and it ran from 2012-2015 before sadly stopping. It featured acts such as Don Broco, Skindred, Deaf Havana, Heaven’s Basement, The Blackout, Funeral For a Friend, Dead!, Scarlett Riot, Glamour of The Kill and many more. Earlier this year Kai and his wife Sarah with their new promotions company Divergent Promotions announced the rejuvenation of the festival. The festival would be situated at its new home, the versatile Portsmouth Guildhall; with a ridiculously comprehensive line-up with 5 different stages, including an outdoor stage.
So it’s Bank Holiday weekend and the Rock gods have been kind to the Takedown Festival, as the sun is shining and the doors have just opened with excited Rock/Metal fans streaming in for hopefully what will be an amazing day of alternative music. It takes a little while to get your bearings around the place and this is helped by the many signs and the well-trained venue staff.
There is the main Guildhall Venue stage, VIP Lounge on the top floor, the outdoor Total Rock Stage, Down For Large Music Stage in the venue’s main bar area, Out of Line Stage in a spacious room off the main hall and DJ area in the basement. As well as this there were various bars dotted all over the place, an outdoor food hall and dedicated merchandise areas. With all bases covered and the layout of the place investigated, it was time to get on with the matter at hand and enjoy some live music.
The first act on the outdoor stage is London-based 5-piece Pop/Punk band Autumn Fires, who kick things off in style. Their upbeat numbers radiate across Guildhall Square and indicate the Takedown Festival 2023 is underway. Vocalist Charlotte does a good job in engaging with the crowd and invites Royals’ Vocalist Luke Smithson to the stage for their recent collaboration single “Sandcastles”, before signing off with “Chemical Burn” showing off the band’s considerable creative skills.
They get plenty of positive support from the crowd and they leave the stage.
Next, I head inside to catch False Hope For The Savage, who show off their skills with some fine atmospheric instrumentation; three different guitarists including one with an E-Bow creating some divine sounds.
I’ve been here on many occasions to see a whole host of different acts in the main hall and I’ve never given the versatility of this place a second thought. The old building is huge and provides many different options and even the venue itself has started to utilise the space more with intimate gigs in the different rooms. Next up in the main hall are Red Method a band that I can describe as a cross between Rammstein and Slipknot. They only have around 30 minutes to perform and they head out onto the stage as a band on a musical mission to make their time on stage memorable. With unorthodox styles and their loud and abrasive, in-your-face delivery; frontman Jeremy Gomez stalks the stage coercing the crowd to get involved. There are plenty of Red Method fans in the crowd who oblige and mosh pits start to evolve. With his deep growls and intense instrumentation they are a band that will always divide opinions but always trigger curiosity.
A short walk over to the “Down For Life” Stage to catch one of Bournemouth’s newer acts, the four-piece Lightwave who have just released their brand new single “Good Enough”. They have pulled themselves quite a crowd and they reward their attendance with a fine display.
Samantha Bower provides the sterling vocals while Johnny Halpin shows us his guitar skills, with drummer Talvin Rihal not missing a beat while stand-in bassist Tobias Young (Our Hollow Our Home) does a great job. The songs are melodic, and infectious and feature some well-thought-out lyrics that their fans can relate to. After their 30-minute set, there is plenty of noise from the well-entertained crowd, who clearly want more.
Back outside Pop/Punk locals, The Bottom Line is blowing out the cobwebs with their first gig since June of last year. They are undoubtedly more than ready to be in front of an audience again with Tom, Max, Callum and Matt injecting some severe energy into proceedings. Callum goes into the crowd for a brief surf during the financially appropriate “Broke” and the fans hold him up without a hitch.
As well as some of the more well-known material the band deliver their new single the audibly irresistible “Fake Love” and a brand new vibrantly hook-laden track called “RIP” (Rest in Pieces). These guys harness the Punk/Pop genre and put everything into delivering singalong choruses and upbeat riffs that the genre’s peers demonstrated.
The festival organisers have put all the different stage timings onto a handy app called “Bandbond” and thankfully I’d taken a few screenshots as usual, with many big crowd events the internet reception was a bit hit and miss. Saint Agnes with a tag line of “Disgusting Horror/Punk Trash-Metal perfect for losers, aliens, the lonely and the strange”, I had to take a look and find out what they were all about.
The East London quartet show some serious stage presence as lead singer Kitty Austen provides some unique angst-driven vocals. The band’s raucous set is full of highlights with the audience reacting to the band’s riotous delivery.
“Bloodsucker” is an intense assault on the senses with this bass-driven number coupling with some intense drumming and some resplendently alternative guitar riffs. The song influences sound like they are attained from the likes of Rage Against The Machine, and Jane’s Addiction. A reworked cover of The Prodigy’s “Firestarter” shows another of the bands that feature on their tour bus playlists. They leave the stage after 40 minutes with the debut of a new song “Middle Finger” showing a display of alternative mastery and getting plenty of positive noise from the crowd.
Like any festival with multiple stages, there are some hard choices that have to be made over who you decide to see; some are made due to the logistics of moving from stage to stage, some are made out of curiosity and some will be bands we have seen before. If you look at some of the larger festivals like Glastonbury, Reading or Download there is the inevitability of clashes between bands that you want to see. I personally believe in seeing a full band set and cannot be dashing from one stage to another to catch bits and pieces of band sets.
The main hall is absolutely rammed as the South Coast quartet Our Hollow, Our Home takes to the stage with their melodic twin guitars, together with their punchy rhythms; which are complimented by some impressive dual vocal deliveries. The crowd respond to everything that these guys have to offer and they without a doubt put together one of the best performances of the whole day.
Back outside next and it’s beginning to get a bit chilly, it is only April after all so after retrieving some more layers from the Car (I am over 50!!) it’s time to see As December Falls. A band that I was fortunate enough to see last year at the Teddy Rocks Festival. Bethany Curtis (Vocals), Ande Hunter (Lead Guitar/ Vocals), Will Brown (Rhythm Guitar) and Lukas James (Drums) formed back in 2014 and have been creating a fair momentum ever since with many notable performances.
The band have emerged on the Poppier side of Rock with plenty of melodic riffs over lively rhythms. Bethany’s vocal delivery is the proverbial cherry on the top and she provides the focus of attention. The crowd are mostly familiar with the band’s material, with tracks such as “I Don’t Feel like Feeling Great” and “Nothing On You” – the band connects easily with their crowd.
During another song appropriate to the UK’s financial crisis “No Money”, 10 lads lifted up a chap in his wheelchair high above their heads. Its occupant initially has slight trepidation, but once he feels safe he laps up all the adulation that the crowd give him, one of the standout moments of the weekend.
The band capitalized on the audience’s good feelings and get a circle pit going for their song “Carousel”; I say circle pit, it is mostly people skipping around in a circle. The band debuted live a new track called “Alive”, a song that shows a slightly heavier side to the band’s sound and a great track at that. A fantastic performance and one that is the start of the band’s busy festival season, which includes a performance at the Download Festival in June.
I confess; the next band I have been looking forward to seeing for a long time; I am a bit of an InMe anorak and have been watching them perform since 2002 when they supported Puddle Of Mudd at the Astoria in London. Since then I have seen them at every opportunity many times. Today is the first time I have seen them with this new line-up and they are billed to play their debut album “Overgrown Eden” in full.
The new line-up features John O’Keefe on Guitar, Tom Dalton on Drums, Mike Garrett on Bass along with long-time member Gazz Marlow on guitars with Dave McPherson taking on, as usual, the frontman duties. There is a lot of love out there for InMe today and these songs still mean so much to many.
Dave wrote many of these tracks when he was just 14 and the subject matter is very deep and mature considering it was written by an adolescent teenager. “Underdose” and “Firefly” sound fresh and as powerful as ever; while “Lava Twilight” with its futuristic musical soundscapes pulsates brightly. My personal highlight “Her Mask (P.A.)” stirs up all sorts of emotions with its powerful lyrical content and I confess to a few tears.
The Takedown crowd enthusiastically bounce to the single “Crushed Like Fruit”; frontman Dave is overwhelmed by the size of the crowd and their reaction from them. When a band you love changes its line up there is always a sense of nervousness when seeing them again, however, this group of musicians absolutely nail these songs. The album at just over 45 minutes ends with “Mosaic” and it gives me and the collection of InMe fans here a trip down memory lane, along with a host of joyous emotions.
After that, I went for a wander round just to see what was happening where. Jamie Lenman was inside on the main stage and captivated me with some fine music. The former Rueben frontman has carved himself out quite a following since going solo. He is and has always been a great songwriter and it’s hard not to be smitten with some of his hook-laden compositions. Tonight with Jamie on guitar he is ably accompanied by Jen on Bass and Jack on guitar. We are treated to the romantic “Lena Don’t Leave Me” and “Song On My Tongue”, both from his latest album The Atheist. For the final number, Jamie travels back to Rueben’s “Racecar is Racecar Backwards” and performs “Tonight My Wife Is Your Wife”, which much of the audience seems to appreciate….especially me!!
Masked metalcore band ChuggaBoom have absolutely packed out the “Down for Life” stage and there is no chance of getting anywhere near them to see them perform. As I’m feeling a bit jaded – it’s been quite a long day; I head for the food hall to grab a coffee (and a very tasty coffee I might add) and walnut cake, to give me a sugar/caffeine kick to take me through to the last band.
As I was outside I could see that Punk Rock Factory where touting their reworked covers on the “Total Rock Stage”. I’ll be honest with you, I am not a fan of cover bands; I’d much rather see an original band anyway. Looking at the crowd there were so many getting enjoyment from their fun and spot-on delivery of a host of familiar tracks – the hilarious “SpongeBob Square Pants Theme”, Kate’s Bush Stranger Things rejuvenated song “Running Up That Hill” and that awful track from the film Frozen “Let It Go”. Drunk and sober people in the audience were singing their hearts out to these tunes, clearly having a great time.
For the final band of the evening, I had a dilemma. I’ve seen Skindred on a number of occasions and absolutely love what they do. I also sadly missed them at Download last year, arriving just in time for Friday headliners “Kiss”. I also was really excited about Sleep Token after listening to their music for months in the run-up to this festival……What should I do?? As they were both pretty much on at the same time, I just flipped a coin and abided by its decision…Heads it’s Skindred…let’s face it, whatever the outcome I won’t be disappointed.
It was “Heads”…and as the “Star Wars Imperial March” starts the large crowd get really excited; first Arya Goggin (Drums), then Daniel Pugsley (Bass/Synths), then Mikey Demus (Guitar) and finally vocalist Benji Webbe in all his finery takes to the stage with huge welcoming cheers.
Kicking off “Stand for Something” the band immediately takes charge of our attention and keeps it until they play the last note.
They have it all; visually, musically, technically and lyrically they thoroughly believe in every word they sing and every note they play. Benji as a frontman has it all – he provides plenty of humour, however, he won’t stand for anyone not getting involved. His unique style of vocals and huge personality is a big part of this band. Skindred has a brand new album entitled “Smile” out in August.
We are treated to a couple of new tracks from it including the recent single “Gimme That Boom”, all about the selfies that fans ask the band for and the big-hearted “L.O.V.E. (Smile Please)”. They show that their creative juices are still flowing freely. The big hitters “Big Tings”, “Kill The Power” and “Nobody” keeps the crowd voices singing loudly in this cold night air. “Warning” is the final number and virtually everyone knows what to expect; the now world-famous “Newport Helicopter”, it’s intense; it’s fun and a great sight to behold as you look back across the crowds.
If you enjoyed that, Skindred will be back on November 11th at Southampton O2 Guildhall for some more chaos and mayhem.
Takedown Festival was an absolute blast and an opportunity to see bands that you would usually only see at some of the larger alternative festivals (Download/Bloodstock), which are quite a distance away from here. The South of England needs its own Alternative festival that Weirdo Mosher Freaks (as the Sophie Lancaster Foundation puts it!!) can call our own.
Thank you Kai and Sarah for the festival resurrection and for all the efforts and finances you put in to get it off the ground once again. The amazing news is that it will be back next year 13th & 14th of April and early bird tickets are now on sale here: https://takedownfestival.com/early-birds/
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Links
https://takedownfestival.com
https://www.facebook.com/takedownfestivalUK
Words, Pictures & Media by David Chinery (Chinners)
