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On a brief run of dates to support the recently released second album Star Power, Tuesday saw the fabulously retro Bobbie Dazzle roll up at KK’s Steel Mill together with equally organic quartets Santú and Kasperia.

Bobbie Dazzle

KK’s Steel Mill, Wolverhampton – 20 October 2026

Words: Sophie James

Photography: John Inglis

Star Power is very much a progression on 2024’s Fandabidozi, and I was eagerly anticipating hearing the new material.  

With the venue not exactly full, hardly surprising considering the legendary Alice Cooper was making a Book Tour appearance at the Civic Hall just across town, both supports had warmed those gathered quite nicely on this cold, dank evening.  

Launching straight into the title track and lead single Star Power, it is immediately apparent how true to the album the live mix is. We did not have to wait long for Bobbie’s flute to make an appearance, and to hear it float ethereally over the driving rhythm was just magical. Guitarist Ash even managed a brief segment on lead vocals.  

The shuffling beat of the bubbly Merry Go Round followed. The song already feels like an old friend to me. Once again, the flute worked so well, but what stood out was Leon’s attention-grabbing, driving bass.  

Two songs in and it is evident just how synergised this unit is. The fluency acquired from weeks and months on the road, from tour supports and festival appearances, manifested as an effortlessly communicable effervescence.  

Second single Dirty Martini was the perfect follow-up to the title track and well placed here as it would be recognisable to even the most casual fans.

Such clarity in Bobbie’s voice, and while Ash soloed, I adored her impromptu synchro pair jig with Leon, her mic stand substituting for a guitar.

Despite the false start (blame the drummer!), if one had to select a song to characterise their essence, there is none better than Revolution.

A feel-good booty shaker with its glam rock beat, “Heys!” and a Quo-like rhythm chugging away beneath, it is indeed an (Antique) Time Machine back to the ’70s. Sadly, that particular song was not featured on this occasion.    

Notwithstanding its lush harmonies, there is such beauty embedded within Back To The City.  

“Who’s an ABBA fan?
Everyone’s an ABBA fan, right?
It would make me happy if everyone’s an ABBA fan.
This is pure glam rock.”

Originally on the Waterloo album and also appearing as a B-side to the song of the same name, most people would not recognise the gritty, riff-heavy Watch Out as an ABBA number. They have made this their own.  

“This was a collaboration with Lita Ford. Ash will have to do his best, but I don’t have another catsuit.”

The song in question was the breakneck Feel It Too. While characteristically melodic, it was the deepest excursion into the world of Metal with a solo to match.  

After chronicling her ongoing struggle with Endometriosis, a condition also suffered by bandmate Rhea, who recently underwent corrective surgery, one realised it is sheer purpose and resolve that allows Bobbie to ascend a stage to perform.

Continuing to share observations on the state of the NHS, music venues closing down, and gigs being cancelled, etc, declaring, “This is about not letting billionaires get us down”, provided the introduction and rationale for Take To The Streets.

A fusion of Allman’s groove, sumptuous harmonies and glam stomp, it was brief but so effective. 

For me, the standout track on the new opus is Wonder thus I was delighted it made an appearance here. Imagine Fleetwood Mac Mk II with more expressive ’70s guitar, quieting into a heavenly adagio then exploding into an exuberant Muselike jig before letting rip with another flute solo.

A triumph of composition, arrangement and execution. Air flute anybody?!  

As she acknowledged niece Layla in the crowd, Ash teased the riff to the Clapton classic. Leading into a touching tribute to her late Father, “This is an Important song for me. He was a big glam fan.”

Further explaining, discovering material he had written as a teenager, then adding lyrics, became a kind of collaboration with Dad.

From set opener at The Giffard Arms last year to set closer this evening, Lightning Fantasy possesses an impelling rhythm. Its urgency enables it to fill both roles perfectly.

While I have highlighted arrangements on certain numbers, rest assured the vision stretches across both albums and transfers to stage. The Star Power album rewards repeated listens.

This concise showcase, however, was immersive, impressive and musically flawless, but as the old maxim implies, always leave ’em wanting more.

I am already eagerly anticipating a lengthened set on my next viewing.  

Overall, an evening of three exceptionally talented, retro-influenced bands brimming with vitality. 

Line Up

Vocals – Bobbie
Guitar – Ash JD Baker
Keys – Chris Dando
Bass – Leon Smith
Drums – Miles Dunkley

Bobbie Dazzle – Setlist

1. Star Power
2. Merry Go Round
3. Dirty Martini
4. Revolution
5. Back To The City
6. Watch Out (ABBA Cover)
7. Feel It Too
8. Take To The Streets
9. Wonder
10. Lightning Fantasy

The post Bobbie Dazzle / Star Power Comes Alive At KK’s Steel Mill first appeared on MetalTalk – Heavy Metal News, Reviews and Interviews.

Beast In Black, the Helsinki-based metal outfit led by former Battle Beast guitarist Anton Kabanen, has unveiled “Lost Children,” a new track from its upcoming fourth album, Fear The Beast.

The power ballad lands just ahead of the band’s headline tour, which opens Oct. 26 in London. It also continues the band’s ongoing fixation with the manga Berserk, and vocalist Yannis Papadopoulos stretches his range to new heights on it.

The video comes from award-winning director Katri Ilona Koppanen, who has teamed up with the band before and gives the song a cinematic treatment to match its scale.

Kabanen explained, “‘Lost Children Chapter’ is one of my absolute favorite parts of Berserk manga, if not my favorite. It had an enormous impact on me when I first read it, some 20 years ago, and ever since I wanted to write songs (or at least one!) about it. I wanted to find my own way to tell this important, tragic and heart-wrenching story, while staying true to its delicate child-like purity and meaningful core.

“What makes the story so powerful is its emotional complexity. Children are generally seen as innocent and pure, and in many ways they are also victims of their circumstances. Rosine (girl from the story) is a particularly fascinating example of this contradiction. She becomes the antagonist and commits genuinely terrible acts, yet deep down, she isn’t inherently evil. She’s a vulnerable child who has been pushed into a tragic situation.

“When the God Hand (from Berserk) offers someone a way out of unimaginable suffering, it’s difficult to say how most people would respond. You can understand why Rosine makes the choices she does without necessarily being able to forgive what she does. That’s what makes the story emotionally turbulent. You experience anger, horror, sadness and compassion, sometimes almost simultaneously. By the end, there’s a sense of emotional absolution, because you realise that the character you’ve been fighting against is also a victim herself. It’s not a straightforward story of good versus evil. The emotions are contradictory, and that’s precisely why it’s so deeply moving.

“I wish to add that with Katri‘s visual and emotional storytelling abilities she created a beautiful, unique, layered and the most soulful Beast In Black music video to date, which connects to a human heart and reminds us how fragile it is, and yet so sincerely hopeful in its innocent core. We all have been children, we all are someone’s children, some of us have children. And we all are drawn to that warm light glowing softly in the window called home.”

Last month, Beast In Black put out the title track from Fear The Beast. Kabanen wrote and produced it, Roman Ismailov supplied the artwork, and Koppanen directed the video again.

With new lead guitarist Markus Venehsalo now in the fold, the song delivered the band’s signature mix of dance-beat-driven metal, hooky riffs and melodies, raw vocals and flashy solos. It served as a warm-up for this year’s Resurrection tour.

Kabanen sat out the band’s recent North American run supporting Helloween so he could finish work on the new record.

Beast In Black is known for mixing power metal, 1980s pop and electronic music. Its albums Berserker, From Hell With Love and Dark Connection have built a global following, backed by tours and festival slots. The band’s high-energy live show and distinctive sound have made it a standout in modern metal.

The post BEAST IN BLACK Shares Majestic New Power Ballad “Lost Children” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

American death/thrash metal band Revenant have announced their resurrection. The band’s career was relatively short-lived, from 1986 to 1995. During that time, they made their mark with the debut record Prophecies Of A Dying World, released in 1991. The current lineup consists of four original members – vocalist Henry Veggian, guitarist Dave Jengo, bassist Tim Scott (not pictured), John McEntee, who has rejoined the group on guitar – while Todd Gukelberger, from Prime Evil, has taken over on drums, replacing the late Will Corcoran. Revenant have announced live performances, reissues and potentially new material.
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The UK Festival Awards are coming, and a very special headline set from PRESIDENT earlier this year is being celebrated with a nomination.

Taking place back in April, PRESIDENT closed out the weekend at Takedown Festival, which took over Portsmouth’s Guildhall for two days, serving as their first-ever festival headline slot.

At the time, Rock Sound stated that “every soaring vocal, punishing breakdown and blistering refrain is met with pure adoration” as the band made their way through their unstoppable discography, noting it as “an instantly iconic set. One that plays a huge part in the making of something genuinely special.”

And now, the weight of what that show represented is now being celebrated with a nomination in the Festival Performance of the Year category at the UK Festival Awards 2026. It is up against Bring Me The Horizon at Outbreak, Calvin Harris at Parklife, Ezra Collective at Love Supreme, Susan Boyle at Summer’s End Angus and The Cure at Isle of Wight.

Kai and Sarah Harris of Takedown Festival Ltd had this to say about the gong: ‘We’re thrilled to share that PRESIDENT’s performance at Takedown Festival 2026 has been shortlisted for Festival Performance of the Year at the UK Festival Awards 2026! For a local, grassroots festival like ours, sharing a shortlist with the likes of Isle of Wight Festival and Parklife is a huge moment for us! Huge congratulations to PRESIDENT, and a massive thank you to everyone who came to witness their performance on the Saturday of Takedown 2026!’

You can vote for the winner right here up until November 03.

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PRESIDENT are on the cover of the latest issue of Rock Sound. You can pick up your copy now from SHOP.ROCKSOUND.TV

The post PRESIDENT’s Headline Set At Takedown Festival Nominated At UK Festival Awards appeared first on Rock Sound.

Back in 2020, Rick Wakeman released The Red Planet. A glorious album of instrumental progressive rock harking back to the 1970s and the likes of The Six Wives of Henry VIII and King Arthur. Now six years later, Rick takes us back to Mars with Return to the Red Planet. He is again accompanied by […]

The post Rick Wakeman: Return to the Red Planet Review first appeared on New Wave of British Heavy Metal.

What do you do when your punk band of several decades pulls down the metaphorical shutters on making music? The options for unemployed frontmen boil down to starting a label or becoming a graffiti artist, but Dennis Lyxzén of Refused took the third path; reignite the supergroup. After teaming up with Brian Baker of Minor Threat, Bad Religion and a million effortless chugga-chugga pit-fuel riffs for two previous records, we now get Fake Names’ aptly named third outing ‘Punk Ruins’. Will this replace Refused for Mr Lyxzén instead of just running as a side-project? Who knows, and that’s the beauty of this record. It’s the sound of a bunch of friends at different stages of their punk lifecycle getting together and making music that they love with no agenda. From the ruins of Refused’s long-constructed career rises the phoenix of getting to write songs for the hell of it, and it’s so refreshing. 

‘Punk Ruins’ is also a learning experience for fans of the supergroup’s four members. Lyxzén’s testing out a new vocal style slightly akin to Howlin’ Pelle-meets-Billie-Joe-Armstrong, and while we can hear the Bad Religion, Minor Threat and Rocket From The Crypt DNA in there, Fake Names are channelling the joy of pop punk all the way. That’s not to say they aren’t taking themselves seriously; the title track, with all its “waiting for redemption” feels like a confession from someone who’s just on the verge of ditching the day job and diving straight into the full time punk rock lifestyle, with blistering solos from Baker and a singalong chorus – and it’s as deadpan as we’d expect. There’s a distinctive garage bounce that betrays just how much Fake Names are loving their experience, and even when they’re thinking back on when they got “caught in the landslide” on ‘Cover The Distance’ amid other similarly anguished lyrics, it’s always presented with a wry grin and a touch of flair on the solos. ‘What I Tell Myself’ is just happy beach punk made for good times, and that’s what we gain from listening to ‘Punk Ruins’: we get to share in the experience of taking a pause of doing what feels natural. 

If we’re talking about progression, ‘Punk Ruins’ feels like the point at which Fake Names have switched their train to a different set of tracks. Of course there’s still the popping abruptness that we associate with their sound on songs like opener ‘Until Normal’, but that’s been varnished with an easy gloss throughout the album as a whole. Take ‘Beautiful Scars’, a tune which could easily have emerged from the studio as an old school rager. The melodic shifts and sweetness make it so much more palatable, and their new direction seems like an expression of a group who’re happy about where they’ve found themselves in their lives. Darkness lurks on some songs like ‘If You Could See Me Today’, but it’s always tempered with an atmosphere of self-assurance and the softness of personal clarity. This might alienate folk who read the CV from the band members and think they’re in for a rough ride of growl and thrash, or even those who’ve been following the Fake Names journey from the sidelines, but if you’re in the position to begrudge these guys the freedom to make a slightly more light-hearted pop record, then you’re even more slightly missing the point of Fake Names. 

Lie back on a hillside and watch the sun set, or blast some tunes with mates you’ve known for decades. ‘Punk Ruins’ works perfectly in either scenario, as long as you’re as happy in your situation as Lyxzén and Co are. Fake Names are so pleasingly predictable, as new records are like trying to meet your crowd for a drink: it happens when everyone’s got time, and they’re in the same place, and the vibe is right. We have to make the time to appreciate this little slice of punk rock sunshine and let the riffs take us wherever they may please, because in uncertain musical times, getting back to your roots with the music that matters is the best feeling in the world. That’s the Fake Names ethos, after all. 

KATE ALLVEY

Posted on October 22nd 2026, 12:00pm

Arguably best known for its gleaming spires, the punts on the River Cam and its long history as one of the most prestigious seats of learning in the world, Cambridge will forever be tied to Pink Floyd and especially their former leader Syd Barrett.

A Tribute To Syd Barrett – Official 80th Anniversary Celebrations

Cambridge Corn Exchange – 10 October 2026

Words and Photography: Paul Monkhouse

Having put the band together with three like-minded souls in 1965, he helped shape the legendary act in ways that became indelibly marked in both their DNA and that of the music industry, his departure from the outfit in 1968 seeing both him and the band move into pastures afresh.

After a solo career lasting for seven years, his leaving music behind was its loss and the art world’s gain as he turned his not inconsiderable skills to painting. Famously becoming something of a recluse in his later years, there was still a creative and passionately beating heart there, and that remained until his passing at the age of sixty in 2006.

Fast forward twenty years and after a mountain of work by all involved, Cambridge’s Corn Exchange welcomes a sold-out house to the chance to revel in the Madcap’s music for a mammoth seven-hour show featuring various acts who knew or were influenced by him.

MC’d by DJ Neil Jones and featuring some stunning work by renowned artist Mark Wilkinson, along with a constantly shifting liquid light show all the way from Los Angeles courtesy of The Mad Alchemist, this was an all-immersive treat that drew people from all over the world, such was the power of Barrett’s spirit to capture the hearts and minds of so many. 

Opening the show, Pünk Floyd came all the way from Sweden to join the celebrations, their acoustic set at the previous anniversary show being so well received that their place was assured. There is a genius in their arrangements of the songs made famous by Syd Barrett and early Floyd, stripping them back for quirky and always entertaining takes on numbers like The Scarecrow, Arnold Lane and Baby Lemonade.

Whilst there is a huge sense of fun here, the passion they have for the material bleeds out of every note and this combination makes their set the perfect way to kick off the day. 

With a delightful sudden turn to something different, young Glasgow outfit Radhika are a thrilling proposition, their blend of dreamy pop with Indian influences certainly grabs attention. Outstanding self-penned material like Starry Eyes points to a very bright future for the quintet, and there is the feeling that we are witnessing something special happening in its early stages here.

It is with the covers they earn their name on the bill today, though, as Mathilda Mother sounds great and their take on Strawberry Switchblade’s Since Yesterday hums with life and spark. Definitely ones to watch.

Next up, Diana Silvera and The Psychedelic Circus knocked things out of the park and managed to stun the assembled throng into absolute silence. With her band red hot and smoking, the huge, funky and soulful opener was something that instantly demanded bodies and feet move, Silvera’s vocals outstanding.

An all-too-brief four-song set flew by, and whilst her take on Barrett’s Octopus was excellent, it was what happened next that became, for many, the highlight of the day. Accompanied just by keys player Emily Francis performing a stunning and extended intro, Silvera sang a clear, heartfelt and yet free of any histrionics vocal for Shine On You Crazy Diamond that left many breathless, and the standing ovation the two were rewarded with was utterly well deserved. A reportedly last-minute addition to their set, this stole the day.

Men On The Border brought a different type of rock ‘n’ roll and their propulsive set was electric and nonstop. Mixing numbers from Floyd and Barrett, Astronomy Domine and Gigolo Aunt and Apples & Oranges were played with heft, Arnold Laine seeing the band accompanied on vocals by Rachel Barrett.

Yet more was to come as the Swedes were joined by four members of a local orchestra to bring the thrilling and beautiful tones of a string quartet to the numbers, adding otherworldliness to Wined And Dined and Apples And Oranges. With additional numbers like their own, soaring The Promised Land, Men On The Border had certainly woken the place up and made several new friends themselves.

Old friends of Pink Floyd, Canterbury’s very own Soft Machine were kindred brothers to the Cambridge outfit, each pushing the limits and carving their own distinctive path. A furious No Good Trying opened the set, the band bringing all their unique jazz-rock and prog moves to bear, the sound brilliantly capturing the feeling of one foot in the past and one in the present.

The lengthy instrumental Ramadan brought out a more free-flowing feel to the occasion, the improvisations and virtuosity adding another aspect to the evening. With lead guitarist John Etheridge sharing amusing stories of some of his encounters with Barrett and Floyd, there was another peek behind the curtain that brought all involved just that much closer to the much-missed Syd.

Lost in this world, the time seemed to fly by, and it was time for headliners Kula Shaker to cap off the event in style. With their original line-up still intact from the nascent Britpop days, when the band brought their own distinct twist to the scene, there has always been something different in what they do.

Always eschewing what is expected of them, Crispian Mills, Alonza Bevan, Paul Winterhart and Jay Darlington create something larger than life and seemingly able to cross boundaries with ease. Given his eternally youthful looks, it would be easily possible to believe that Mills has his portrait locked away in an attic somewhere and his kinetic performance certainly showed that the love of music can keep you energised.

With Tattva, Golden Avatar and Govinda starting their set, it was soon time for the Syd numbers as numbers like Mathilda Mother, Interstellar Overdrive and Lucifer Sam brought the house down.

Capping off the night with a specially arranged Shine On You Crazy Diamond, all that was left was for the band to take their bows and a very happy audience to file out into the Cambridge sky.

As private as he was, you can be sure that Syd would have loved this, and his smiling and mysterious presence continues to be carried by all there and the devotees around the world.

He may be long gone, but there is still a love song in everyone’s heart for Syd Barrett, and tonight proved proof positive of that.

The post Syd Barrett: Cambridge Celebrates Its Crazy Diamond With Seven Hours Of Psychedelic Magic first appeared on MetalTalk – Heavy Metal News, Reviews and Interviews.

Sometimes, all we need to set ourselves in the right mood is to put a needle on the

Posted on October 22nd 2026, 11:10am