Words By Keira Knox
With a lineup bursting with compelling up-and-coming musicians, Newton Music Festival made a spectacular comeback to the local calendar! When word leaked out that l hometown superstars The K’s would be headlining, the excitement reached a whole new level! The band pulled out all the stops to make this Mesnes Park show one to remember! With so many amazing bands on the line-up, including The Rolling People, Lottery Winners, Menduulla, and many more, Newton-Le-Willows was lit ablaze with an amazing musical evening!
Malarky:
Festival opening night was spectacular, with local favourite Malarky lighting up the Newton stage! The North West band playing covers from the likes of Sam Fender, The Killers, Stereophonics, Arctic Monkeys and more had the crowd pumped and ready for the acts that proceeded them! Malarky warmed up the audience suitably for the musical evening ahead, bringing that authentic northern guitar music to the stage and those timeless sing-along indie hits!
asianblonde:
asianblonde is a rising duet that TikTok users adore for their distinct sound. Since making their stage debut in 2022, the British duo—which consists of Ed Fisher, the blonde half, and Will Rhead, the Asian half—has been steadily gaining popularity. In the past year, asianblonde has experimented with a variety of sounds and worked with a variety of artists to further their own artistic growth. The pair gave a glimpse of their musical quality despite having a brief set; their rhythms and sounds befitting a festival stage!
Menduulla:
Meduulla is a Manchester-based poet and rapper whose lyrics embody her journey as a first-generation Zimbabwean immigrant growing up in disparate cultural environments. She also gave an on-the-spot education in her native tongue! I was rather impressed with the extent to which this gifted performer enthralled the audience and interacted with them at all times! Menduulla commanded the attention of a mostly indie headliners’ fan base by getting them to join her in singing along to songs they had never heard before!
The Rolling People:
To say The Rolling People blew the crowd away would be an understatement! They’re already causing quite a stir in the Manchester music scene. They draw fervent fans and large numbers of people. Influenced by The Verve, The Courteeners, and the iconic Oasis, they deliver a unique energy. The Rolling People brought that distinctive Manchester guitar sound to the Newton stage, playing a 10 track set including a wide array of their most popular tracks including ‘Better Man’, ‘The Thief’ and ‘No Place To Be’.
The Rolling People, who already have an unrivalled reputation for giving incredible live performances that are in line with their catchy melodies and catchy choruses, more than lived up to expectations during their set at the Newton Music Festival! Marking their 3 year anniversary as a band, The Rolling People are set to play their biggest headline show to date at Manchester’s O2 Ritz this December, it’s one you’re not going to want to miss!
Lottery Winners:
Now, when Lottery Winners grace the stage, you know you’re going to have the time of your life! They never fail to impress; their live energy and performances is one of the best around at the moment! Though Thom Rylance likes to pretend he’s Freddie Mercury, someone has to let him know he’s one of the best frontmen there is, captivating an audience like no other!
Lottery Winners had the Newton crowd in the palm of their hands singing and dancing along to every word! Opening with one of my personal favourites ‘Worry’, the band sent the crowd into a frenzy, a track that we can actually sing in our own northern accents without it sounding ridiculous! Lottery Winners’ live performances are always outstanding; even if you’ve never heard of them, they’ll teach you the lyrics to tracks like ‘Start Again’ and ‘Much Better,’ so there’s no reason you can’t join in!
The group even performed an impromptu rendition of ‘Chasing Cars’ by Snow Patrol, a jab at the group whose set clashed with their own appearance at the YNot? Festival the day before. ‘Burning House’ is a crowd favourite that never fails to get people psyched. Thom Rylance recorded the whole track while everyone was dancing and setting off flares! Proclaiming that “Guitar music isn’t dead!” Rylance complimented every band on the bill in addition to the upcoming headliners, The K’s! Lottery Winners are at the top of a long list of up-and-coming bands from Wigan, Leigh, Newton, and the surrounding areas that are now accomplishing incredible things!
The K’s:
Hometown heroes. The K’s were back where it all started for them, on the field in Mesnes Park, performing to a crowd of what they deemed familiar faces all gazing back at the band who had put Newton and Earlestown on the map. Since Mesnes Park served as the inspiration for many of The K’s songs, this performance at the returning Newton Music Festival will be even more memorable.
Opening their set with ‘Icarus’ taken from their debut album ‘I Wonder If The World If The World Knows?’. Featuring lead singer Jamie Boyle’s unique vocals and gentle, orchestral strings that are brought to life by fast-paced guitar riffs. Ryan Breslin, the guitar god, lit up the stage as he strode around the platform with an unmistakable confidence and swagger. With the words “Honey we’re home!” Jamie Boyle brought the track to a close, naturally sending the Newton crowd into a frenzy. The K’s subsequently performed the indie hit ‘Chancer’. The atmosphere was electric, and I don’t believe the crowd could have made any more mosh pits on such a small field if they had tried! People were jumping over each other, and limbs were flying everywhere!
Then came ‘Picture’ and ‘Heart On My Sleeve,’ sandwiched between Ryan and Dexter’s pauses to converse with various audience members. ‘Glass towns,’ a song written solely about this small town, turns local tales into a hit propelled by memorable, politically charged lyrics. With unwavering intensity, every single person in the crowd sang along to the lyrics. The track ‘Hoping Maybe’, a beautiful ballad that moved many to tears as they sung along to the poignant words in time with Jamie Boyle, brought the show to an acoustic turn. The emotional depth of the place that evening was further enhanced by the weeping guitar chords of Ryan Breslin.
‘Black and Blue’ is a clear example of the amazing songwriting partnership of Jamie Boyle and Ryan Breslin. causing the audience to explode into yet another frenzy, with each person going wild and letting their hair down to this incredible guitar anthem. With its fast-paced vocals and racing drum sounds, ‘Throw It All Away’ had the audience dancing to the pounding rhythms that were pulsating from the speakers.
Another ballad was thrown into the set, ‘Lights Go Down’ which is incredibly poignant and powerful and demonstrates The K’s breadth and depth as a musician. I adore how fast the performance moves from melancholic acoustic songs to fast-paced indie choruses. The band’s next song, ‘Landmines,’ is specifically about the park they were playing in. A moment of complete culmination for the band, who have accomplished so much in a brief period of time.
‘Hometown’ was a very fitting song to play that evening. The song’s portrayal of the working class nature resonated with every member of the audience. This was the perfect opportunity for shouting out the lyrics to a song that was all about the town where the festival was situated. The band’s first single, ‘Sarajevo,’ which brought us all back to the Earlestown boys’ beginnings, closed this amazing musical evening. Their passionate and loyal followers singing along to every word as if their life depended on it.
Rockstars HQ 
Leave a comment