Last Saturday was a big day in the calendar for live music on Teesside. Stockton Calling is a music festival, now in its seventh year, which takes place across nine venues in the town of Stockton-on-Tees.
This year saw more than 70 bands and artists play across the town to a sell-out crowd.
It was my first time at the event, and I had an amazing experience. I don’t go to as much live music as I’d like to these days, so it was a lot of fun to see so many talented, emerging bands in one day. I was also really struck by the diversity of the crowd, which was packed with people of all ages.
For me, one of the best things about Stockton Calling is that each person in the audience gets to have their own unique experience, depending on which venues they go to and the bands they see. Not to mention the set-up of the event means that it’s really easy to discover new artists that you might not have considered seeing. It’s just a shame you can’t see everyone!
My Stockton Calling went a little bit like this:
Tom Joshua
at The Storytellers
A seven-piece local band that play beautiful, melancholic folk songs. These guys were one of my favourite discoveries of the day, and I’m definitely planning to add a few of their songs to my writing playlist.
Dressed Like Wolves
at The Storytellers
With a frontman who was quick to banter with the crowd, this band had plenty of great, quirky songs and played to a packed out venue.
Matt Wilde
at ARC
Formerly the frontman of local indie band Young Rebel Set, Matthew Chipchase has a big following on Teesside. Now performing as Matt Wilde, he played a strong rock set to a large crowd at one of the bigger venues of the day.
Joe Ramsey
at The Vault
We stopped into The Vault to catch a few songs from Joe Ramsey while we waited for Lilliput to set-up at ARC. By the time we got there, the place was packed – so much so that we barely made it inside. I was a bit distracted by the crowd at this one, but still enjoyed what I heard.
Lilliput
at ARC
My gig buddy for the day has seen Lilliput several times before and was keen to catch them again. The Sunderland band was great to watch, with a set full of catchy, upbeat songs. They were so good we went to see them for a second time later that night.
Samantha Durnan
at The Vault
We weren’t planning to see Samantha Durnan’s set, but when we stopped for something to eat, the heavens opened. And it didn’t just rain, it absolutely bucketed down, which led to an interesting few minutes sheltering in the doorway of Barnacles fish and chip shop with the author of the local football fanzine, a radio presenter and two of the lads from Lilliput. Another great thing about Stockton Calling is the amount of random people you get chatting to (plus it helps that my friend knows pretty much everyone on the local music scene!)
Anyway, we couldn’t stay all night in the doorway of a takeaway, so we decided to make a run for it to the nearest venue, which happened to be The Vault.
Samantha Durnan’s set was another of the day’s high points for me. A North East singer-songwriter, she has the look of Ellie Goulding, but a much better voice, with her husky vocals conveying all kinds of emotion, giving her live performance a raw feel that’s more intense than her recorded songs.
Kingsley Chapman and The Murder
at ARC
Without question, this was my favourite act of the day by a long way! Kingsley Chapman is a bit of a legend locally, and is the former frontman of The Chapman Family. His new band plays dark, dramatic melodies that they refer to as cabaret death songs. It’s the sort of music that was made to be performed live and the band members go all out to deliver an epic Gothic spectacular.
When else do you get to see a Teesside lad in a ruffled gold lamé shirt from the charity shop, screaming into the microphone as the drummer starts flinging his gear around, and the rest of the band walk quietly offstage?
Amazing.
Lilliput
at The Georgian Theatre
Round two – and they were just as good the second time!
Plastic Mermaids
at The Storytellers
I only caught a couple of songs before heading off to see Cape Cub, but Plastic Mermaids have an experimental sound, along with some truly interesting homemade instruments. They were really popular with the crowd too, filling the venue to capacity.
Cape Cub
at The Vault
This was the one act that I 100% wanted to see at Stockton Calling, and I’m glad I made it along to their set. Cape Cub is a local singer-songwriter from the seaside town of Marske, who I wrote about in more depth last week.
His music is haunting and melancholic, but with an intimate, emotional feel. I’d be really surprised if he doesn’t become massively successful over the next few years.
Dancing Years
at The Storytellers
This headline act didn’t get quite the crowd they deserved, but their beautiful folksy indie music was a great way to end the festival, with some powerful moments thrown in.
So all in all, Stockton Calling was a brilliant experience and reminded me how special it can be to watch live music in an intimate venue, where you can get up close to the artists and see the expressions on their faces as they perform.
I’ll definitely be back next year.
P.S. In the interests of total disclosure, I worked on the marketing side of this event as part of the day job, but this review is absolutely my own opinion and I attended the event as a regular audience member. I spent so much time working on this recently, I had to go and check out the end result!
P.P.S I can only apologise for the crappy phone photo of Kingsley Chapman and The Murder, but I didn’t fancy lugging my camera around all day. Soz like.