Two of the leading lights of the UK underground rock scene joined forces for a co-headlining tour over the last week or so, travelling up and down the country putting on some awesome shows. We had the wonderful privilege of heading down to their stop at Chesterfield’s favourite venue, The County Music Bar. Check out what we thought about the bands, as well as a few great words from them themselves.

First up were the support band, half of the amazing Healthy Junkies. Unfortunately only two of them could make it on the tour so they did it acoustically, vocals and an acoustic guitar. The stripped back nature surprisingly suited the punk/grunge band and I’d love to see a full electric set of theirs soon. The couple of covers they did were excellent, and the frontwoman getting to show off her native language for ‘ La Vie En Rose’. A great warmup act to open the show!

Both bands had nothing but positive things to say about the tour.

‘Yeah, it’s been amazing!’ Firekind said. ‘Started right up in the hills of Scotland and I was wearing three coats because it was freezing. Now We’re in Chesterfield and I want to put a vest on! But no, it’s going great, great to play with Loz‘

‘Great, still buzzing from last night to be fair!’ Loz said. ‘Nearly there, just tonight and tomorrow now‘.

Also, when asked about what they thought the music scene is like these days, the bands had this to say:

‘For us it’s been a lot busier’ Loz and her band told us. ‘Yeah, this year’s been mental. We’ve got Planet Rockstock and stuff like that too towards the end of the year too!‘

‘I think it’s always been quite strong‘ Added Firekind. ‘This sort of music, there’s always been that passion for it. There’s that cliche but it’s not going to die. It doesn’t matter how much commercial airplay or how much it’s put into the public limelight, people just have a love for this. As far as the scene at the moment goes, we’re here and there’s so many festivals at the moment. Wildfire was a massive success. It seems really healthy.‘

Next up were the awesome Firekind. The band have gained a strong, growing reputation over the last year or two thanks to their impressive live shows and awesome songwriting. Watching their set, I can definitely see why. One of the best live bands I have seen this year, honestly. Their stage presence is electric and they had the crowd in the palm of their hand throughout with their interaction. They deserved to have the place packed out, and fingers crossed next time they do. Their setlist was an awesome mixture of tracks off their album and new, upcoming ones, and each sounded fantastic. A band that I cannot wait to hear or see again!

Both bands seemed keep to be working on new music. In fact, Firekind were in the studio earlier that very day.

‘We’ve already recorded four tracks with Josiah Manning at Momentum Studios, which went great. Loved it. So we’re in the process of finishing the album now, making sure we have enough killer tracks. It’ll be next year now but we should have one or two singles out this year. We’re very excited!‘

Meanwhile Loz added ‘We’re back in the studio this week working on a new single but we’ve actually just been discussing this after one of the gigs this week. We’ve nearly sold out of albums on this tour so we could do with putting a new one out!‘.

Last up was the woman herself. Bringing her own brand of attitude-soaked rock’n’roll to the stage, Loz Campbell never fails to impress. She’s another band hard to place neatly into any one genre, much like Firekind, but there are definite elements of hard rock and punk in there. Her vocals on point and her playing was of course fantastic as ever. That’s not to take away from the rest of her band though, who all play their parts perfectly. The songs were infectiously catchy and even the covers were great (especially the fitting Cherry Bomb). Another fantastic performance to close out the night!

Lastly, we asked both bands if they had any advice for another band just starting up. We got some great answers from both!

‘Don’t do pay to play!‘ was a very good suggestion from Loz’s guitarist. ‘You’ve gotta spread out‘ Loz added. ‘A lot of people stay in their local areas. Get out of your local scene as soon as you can. You’ll have bands that’ll get a really big following but only in that specific area.’ ‘Also, be nice to everybody as well!’

Meanwhile Firekind said: ‘Just get as many gigs as you can. Get out there and hone your craft. Do as much as you can musically. And don’t carry too much gear!’

And there we have it. A night of fantastic rock music from a bunch of great people. I cannot recommend enough checking all three artists out, on track or live if they are nearby you, you will not be disappointed!

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