Cum on Feel The Noize in Wolverhampton

Words: Darci Jackson

Photos: Izzi Glover

Wolverhampton really felt the noise as the first ever Feel The Noise Festival descended on the city on the Saturday of the Easter bank holiday weekend. Showcasing some of the best talent coming through the ranks at the minute, it felt like a real celebration of guitar music and its bright future.

A damp afternoon in Wolves was quickly forgotten upon arrival, as trickles of festival goers slowly gathered in the town centre (who were quickly identified by all of The K’s merchandise and three stripes knocking about). Taking place over just three venues, Feel The Noise gets some gold stars from us, as we’ve never seen venues so close to one another. Gone are the days of trying to calculate when to leave one place so you arrive at the next one in time. The furthest walk was probably 2 minutes, if that.

At just over 1,000 capacity, Wulfrun Hall with its rounded edges and ease of access has one of the best acoustics of a venue we’ve ever heard. Sound so crystal clear it simply pierced the walls, and when stood outside it felt as if you’d been transported straight back into the venue.

Our first offering of the day came in the form of Florentenes, a young four piece from Manchester who’ve burst onto the scene with their punchy and confident tunes. With their vibrant and bright performance, the band are part of the next generation creating a promising future for the industry.

Also flying the flag for that generation is Alex Spencer. Despite this being his first time playing in Wolverhampton, he packed out Wulfrun Hall as if he was a pre-headline and not playing at 6pm in the evening. Coming to the end of his UK tour with just one more huge hometown headline left, Spencer is basking in the glimpses of the sunny future ahead of him. ‘I’m speechless, this is really cool,’ he remarked before launching into a high energy set full of tunes both old and new.

Now if you remember earlier, I did say all the venues were right next to each other, right? I still stand by the aforementioned statement, but I did forget to mention that to get to the Dive Bar, you do have to go up about 5 flights of cramped and narrow stairs to get to the top. But it was absolutely worth it for The Kowloons, reviving the Merseybeat with their singalong 90s Britpop hits carrying bucketloads of nostalgia. The room was a tight squeeze at best, festivalgoers spilling out of the doorway, entranced by the sweet tones of the band. From the slight glimpses we got, The Kowloons had the crowd hooked, and we’re sure lots of new fans of the Merseyside four piece were made that day.

And because one Scouse band was nowhere near enough, back to Wulfrun Hall we went for more Merseybeat revival in the form of Keyside. ‘Up the Scousers,’ frontman Dan Parker stated which got a few cheers from a small group at the front of the venue. Lighting up the room with their no-nonsense jangly indie pop, Keyside breezed their way through an efficacious set including current fan favourite and recent single Michael (What’s Your Call?).

And now on to the ‘business end’ of the evening, as described by The Covasettes frontman Chris Buxton. If there’s one person who absolutely revels in a bit of banter, then it’s Buxton. ‘Can’t miss that fucking barnet can you,’ he joked about Alex Spencer, which got cheers from Alex and co. as well as mentioning something about The Clause and prawn sandwiches. Unfortunately, at this time, we cannot confirm nor deny whether The Clause love a prawn sandwich.

Third time lucky they say, and as this was The Covasettes’ third time in Wolverhampton just this year, they really did bring the festival energy we’d been craving all day. Sunny indie pop banished the damp start to the day as the four piece led us through a warm and upbeat set, debuting unreleased track Feel So High from their upcoming album at the end of the year.

Speaking of albums, The Clause’s Johnny Fyffe gave us the lowdown on their new album coming soon.

‘Was I not meant to say that?’ he followed. Too late I think mate.

As we stood in the cooling Wolverhampton evening air, frontman Pearce Macca and guitarist Liam Deakin addressed the ‘A’ word and the radio silence from Clause HQ.

‘We’ve been in and out of the studio, finished it about three days ago. Excited to have that out, it’s been a long time coming and we’re really really really proud of it,’ mentioned Deakin with Macca adding:

‘It’s a big thing for us and it’s been a lot of years in the making. All will be revealed soon.’

This comes after the release of their second EP Weekend Millionaire, featuring boisterous singalong tracks Fever Dream and Take Me Home. The band reveal how it was finished even before the first EP.

‘There’s some songs on that EP that have been written for about five years. It was a good one for us and the tour we did at the back end of last year was wicked,’ added Macca.

After much debate over Staffordshire Oatcakes and what they should be eaten with (the fact that The Clause have tried theirs with tuna should be illegal by the way), talk turned to their massive headline at Birmingham’s O2 Academy at the end of the year.

‘It’s the final hurdle, I guess,’ started Macca.

‘I don’t think there’s a venue in Birmingham we haven’t played. I think we’ve done every single one of them.’

And although being proud Brummies, we think The Clause became adopted Yam Yams for the day as Macca joked ‘maybe Wolverhampton likes us better than Birmingham,’ during their electrifying on stage performance.

After walking out to a techno trance type track and launching straight into Fake It, Fyffe was already jumping off the drum kits and amps, with more hop in his step than the Easter bunny.

And we’re going to give the award for best dressed at the festival to The Clause, almost pulling off flares as well as Blossoms.

There’s a nonchalant attitude that comes when you have riffs as loud and riotous as The Clause, guiding the crowd from Take Me Home to I Don’t Care with plenty of mosh pits along the way. You’d have thought they’d been the headline act of the night, as someone crowd surfed to In My Element and the energy was sky high from the first note to the last.  

But we did have time for one more band who’ve got their second album on the horizon. The K’s swaggered onto the stage with their new opener Gravestone, before doing a run of vintage The K’s with Chancer and Heart On My Sleeve.

‘Everyone’s got their phones out, what do you think I’m going to play?’ jested frontman Jamie Boyle before a sea of people on shoulders unfurled and heartstrings were pulled during Hoping Maybe.

Now, for an indie band who know how to write a banger, they do sure know how to write a ballad too, and new single Helen, Oh I really showcased the other end of the spectrum. Stealing the hearts of the crowd in one foul swoop, Boyle led us through five minutes of pure emotion before heading all guns blazing into what they dub ‘the national anthem’: Black and Blue.

Rounding out the night with the crowd losing their heads during Sarajevo was a great way to end the first ever Feel The Noise Festival. With people of all ages attending, it felt like a real community of people just passionate about new music and who want to feel the noise.