REVIEW: Friday at Winter's End 2024 with Massive Wagons, Black Spiders and more

Steve Beebee rounds up the first day

Massive Wagons on Friday at Winter's End 2024

Author: Steve BeebeePublished 3rd Feb 2024
Last updated 3rd Feb 2024

Fortunately, there aren’t any neighbours. That’s one of the many great things about returning Winter’s End to its now regular home at Trecco Bay in Porthcawl, Wales. Now in its seventh year (and second at Trecco), the three-day event almost feels like a family affair, the rock faithful descending in happy droves to the seaside both for this and Planet Rockstock, our other big festival.

That loyalty is lost on nobody at Planet Rock, least of all Paul Anthony, Winter’s End’s genial host. Between bands, Paul pays tribute to you, the people that support rock events year in and year out, and without whom there simply wouldn’t be a scene for any of us. Winter’s End is once again completely sold out, a sign not just of the three great headliners it’s pulled in, but an additional notch in the bullet belt for all those who collectively make our world complete.

Loz Campbell at Winter's End 2024

To Wakefield-based singer and guitarist Loz Campbell falls the honour of opening the entire shebang, and it’s a challenge she and her band rise to with relish. Playing an accessible brand of alt-loaded rock, Loz wins over gathering clans with songs like ‘Beautiful Liar’ and new composition ‘Can’t Get Enough’. There’s a cover of The Runaways’ classic ‘Cherry Bomb’, but best by far is ‘Back Biting The Bullet’, all artful hooks and harmony vocals. In a nod perhaps to the Scorpions, there’s even an on stage attempt at a ‘human pyramid’ – though it’s closer in size to what Professor Alice Roberts might describe as a ‘human burial mound’.

Hand of Dimes at Winter's End 2024

“I used to be Nev MacDonald,” grins the man of that name three songs into Hand Of Dimes’ well received set. The former Skin frontman is a little breathless having wrapped his godzilla-sized larynx around the bluesily melodic ‘Bad Reputation’ – so professional, soul-drenched and cohesive is Hand Of Dimes that you could be forgiven for thinking it’s effortless. It’s actually come from a collaboration with Nev’s former bandmate Neil Garland; they played together in Kooga before Skin took off, and seem to have finally found their niche in this newest iteration. ‘Pinstriped Arrogance’ and ‘Sail On’ are steeped in quality and fronted by a mighty voice that is, beyond doubt, still very much Nev MacDonald.

South of Salem at Winter's End 2024

It’s fair to say that South Of Salem are a band that have rock fans talking. Musically and visually they occupy a middle ground between the nu-Goth of bands like Creeper and Saint Agnes, and the far older, vampy sleaze of classic L.A Guns. It means the five-piece have the potential to either fall into the void between them, or – just maybe – have the best of both worlds. Tonight they attack the stage as if they mean to do the latter – the first section of their set is pumped with aggression, loaded with horror-inspired spite and adrenalin. It’s a catfight of a show, fur flying, hooks barbed and poisonous. All this is something to behold, and while their songs can’t always equal their attack, when they’re good they’re very good. Forward momentum is everything.

Black Spiders at Winter's End 2024

Black Spiders know a thing or two about momentum, particularly when raining down such impossible-to-dislike rock asteroids as ‘Alright Alright Alright’ and ‘A Rat Is A Rat’. Both songs hail from their newest album, 2023’s ‘Can’t Die Won’t Die’, which also happens to be the best thing they’ve ever done. That’s some achievement from a band with this sort of history. With Planet Rock’s Wyatt now established on drums – and playing as if his life depends on it – the Spiders knock out instantaneous fun like ‘Fly In Your Soup’ with its filthily low-slung riff, and climax of course with ‘KISS Tried To Kill Me’ (“it was Gene, not Paul”). They’re joined on vocals by two plucky fans, Faye and Vicky, for a hilariously brilliant climax.

Massive Wagons at Winter's End 2024

One of the great things about following British rock in recent years has been observing the inexorable rise of Massive Wagons - brilliantly eccentric, wonderfully down to earth, and a group of interestingly disparate looking men who you can’t help but like. It’s not surprising that some are now describing them as ‘the new Terrorvision’, a nod to the similarly entertaining outfit that made 1990s Britrock a brighter place to be.

Tonight it’s as if frontman Baz Mills (the brilliantly eccentric bit of the equation) is being pulled by invisible elastic bands from one side of the stage to the other, pausing only to deliver a succession of high kicks. You can only imagine he’s still lying in a darkened room now, trying to recover from this incredible, sustained burst of high-on-life energy. And the songs – ‘Pressure’, ‘Skateboard’, ‘Ratio’, ‘Bangin In Your Stereo’ and a welcome return for ‘Billy Balloon Head’ – rattle past in Technicolor gobbets of brightness, irony and melody.

Massive Wagons at Winter's End 2024

The brilliant ‘Please Stay Calm’, a surprisingly beautiful anthem with a very important message, is tonight dedicated to Planet Rock’s generally very serene Jon Norman, a nice touch, and Baz also pauses to pay tribute to Black Spiders, without whose influence Massive Wagons might just be Adequate Wagons. There’s nothing average about tonight – the Wagons triumph bigtime and we can’t wait to see what’s next for them.

Winter’s End 2025 Early Bird tickets:

Tickets to Winter's End 2025 are on sale RIGHT HERE at Early Bird prices until 11.59pm on Sunday 18th February 2024.

Massive Wagons headline the Friday night at Winter's End 2024

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