Review: JT Soar Fest 2025

SATURDAY - DAY ONE

The lovely autumn sunshine bears down. On my left, a hive of people, dotted with their red and white scarves, circulate the Tap with predictions of what the final score will be. This football talk follows me down to the Vat and Fiddle, where even the non matchgoers get caught up in the furore of the lead up to a 3pm kickoff. While we enjoy the pre-match camaraderie, it's time to circumnavigate the pub and reach the Old Cold Store before it gets out to the Forest faithful that I’m a diehard Sheffield United fan. Some things are best worth being kept to yourself. 

Upon the very welcome entry from the team, we are greeted not only with a wristband, but a neat pamphlet in a primitive DIY style akin to fanzines of the late 70s and early 80s. The effort Phil and the team have put into these is nice to see and provides a great directory for the weekend's events. Phil, however, disclaims that this is the most he’s ever written the words "post-punk" in his life. This gives us the impression that one genre underpins the lineup amongst the multitude of abstract genres that acts identify with depending on the day of the week. The festival has many supporters outside of the music realm with Neon Raptor supplying DIYPA as the festival’s special brew. 

After sampling one and giving it a warm seal of approval, we catch TV Crime at the start of their set after some delays. These local lads come with the pressure to impress as the first act on the bill but that doesn’t faze them. The four-piece have sharp style with Oxford collar shirts and their noticeably thick sideburns giving them an attitude. They thrash out a raucous cacophony with scatter gun guitars rattling through the rafters.

The delivery is short, sharp and precise with echoes of estuary pub rock from the likes of Eddy and the Hot Rods and rebellious characters like Billy Childish. It's like the band created noise by stuffing sand in their amps and downed a pint or two before. This is the type of music to get anyone on the juice for a sesh.

After wetting the whistle with pub rock fun, we are introduced to compare Jen Reid and her eccentric Lancashire balladeering voice who gives out top marks to anyone who can pronounce the next band: Virvon Varvon. They crank up the post-punk prognosis further with an attitude that takes aims at everyone while still managing to keep an audience.

These guys take an ultra-nihilistic approach to life and it reflects in their music. Offerings such as “I feel so useless I want to die”are performed with dry wit and humour too loose for some cannons. This one is a bit “out there” for the second act of the day. But dark humour is proving to be their strong point; this is a crowd that gets it. Despite sound issues and more false starts than the Grand National, they power through a set that cranks up the pressure in this post-punk powder keg. Game on!

That pressure crank will have to wait as Southend art-rockers The Plan take to the stage on hand to take us beyond the ether with their modular compositions and fill of avant-garde lounge pop. The quintet is the main side-project of Wet Dog frontwoman Rebecca Gillieron and the rest of the band were at one point involved in the cult punk rock group Subway Sect headed up by Vic Godard.

Their sound is somewhat intercontinental with hints to Stereolab, Popol Vuh and Tangerine Dream intertwined with melodic vocals and heavy riffs. If you want something more subdued and palatable, then this is the way to go.

Due to the sudden cancellation of Es, comperes Jen and Bruce teamed up for a 15-minute hellraiser. This set  was a surgical stitch up done without anaesthetic even the soft cushion of ear buds proved ineffective. This raucous use of improvisation was the shot of adrenaline needed as day turned to evening. Sheffield’s Big Break are keen to provide us with more good-time post-punk guaranteed to send the crowd into a frenzy. These guys hit hard with their whacky great riffs as well as stomping a beat that harks way back to their cities once industrial might. The frenzied riffs channel the greats of garage punk from Thee Oh Sees to Butthole Surfers with it being an experience nothing short of sweat-drenching. An experiment into how long one can engage in the cat’s cradle of entangled arms and legs before taking yourself out for a breather.

After said breather accompanied by The Cool Greenhouse on the decks providing post-punk bangers, Grazia are on hand to give a lesson in how to be speedy, short and sharp. The punk rockers have left the capital to disembowel the disengaged to ensure they pay some level of attention.

This is a band for those who see beauty in the comfortably ugly parts of life and who hate the false sense of glamour depicted on social media platforms. They aren’t interested in all that nonsense, they just want to play animalistic punk for all to enjoy and screw the academic lens through which music is often looked at.

There’s been another injury in the warm-up and it's time for another super sub to save the day. Carrying on with the football theme, Glaswegian punks Water Machine are replaced by local favourites Stuart Pearce; an announcement that went down as well as could be imagined. While the jovial mood is epitomised by “Forza Garibaldi” and the thrill of the terraces, there is more depth in this squad than first realised, with them being a last-minute replacement.

The energy is showing no signs of slowing. Frontman Nat was so committed that he came from a wedding in LLandudno via Sheffield to be here and he, as well as the rest of the lads, don’t seem fazed by the fatigue of long travel. To show their appreciation for the festival and all its wonder, they launch into an anthemic cover of The Who’s Baba O’Riley. The cries of “Teenage Wasteland” are serenading around the room with great force and Nat gyrates on stage whilst completely in his element.

This was also a special moment for Ben Chapman who has just joined SP on bass and safe to say has passed the audition with aplomb. Stuart Pearce, with their surprise slot, have shown they are big players in the league of Nottingham bands (the cliched football puns will stop now, I promise). 

The Monks were one of the most underrated and influential garage rock bands of their time. It’s difficult to compare them to anyone even more so given their discography on Spotify is so thin. The work is a threadbare one album to be precise, but the influence isn’t. Mark E Smith cited them as a major influence and The Fall did a notable cover of “I Hate You” (retitled Black Monk Theme Part 1) on their 1990 album Extricate. More about The Fall later. 

The Monks’ influence inspired a group of seven women to form Ye Nuns, an all-female tribute with members from Echobelly, Sleeper and Thee Headcoats in their ranks. This was just perfect for the night after Halloween, where it kinda still is with some people dressed up and carved pumpkins still dotted about. Ye Nuns come dressed in black with some going in full nun regalia complete with the full habit of veil, cornet and guimpe. This is more like a coven than the congregation with the witchy sense more palpable than ever. I’m expecting the compere to say “Now, Live at The Nottingham Witch Trials” but alas we are still in the Old Cold Store. 

If you ever get a chance to see a “proper” tribute band then get yourselves down to see Ye Nuns. There is nothing like it and depending on the familiarity, you’ll be forgiven for thinking that this wasn’t a tribute at all. Their harmonies, somewhat dark overlapping, set the mood right for a spooky evening of boogying down to lively stompers from the 60s. Their versions of Shut Up and I Hate You are particularly impressive with their beats, while primitive, proving to be footstompers combined with their deep vocal arrangements and rhythmic drum patterns. Their clangy, eccentric performance is the epitome of a good time and sets the mood well for The Monochrome Set to follow.

The Monochrome Set have been mainstayers and have excelled in their field as pop punk pioneers. Having 18 albums to their name is evidence enough of their longevity and the commitment they have to producing fine music. The band found fame first on Rough Trade before moving to Cherry Red where they established themselves as a real tour de force. Ganesh ‘Bid’ Seshhadri has been the leader of the pack in that time and has shown himself to be a talented songwriter crafting songs such as He’s Frank, Eine Symphonie des Grauens and the eponymous Monochrome Set showing the diversity in his artistic repertoires.

This group are incredibly well balanced and show no sign of slowing down in terms of their approach. It’s an attitude that precedes creativity and craftwork over pure showmanship. There is nothing flash, but there doesn’t need to be flashiness in a set like this. It exudes a confidence that doesn’t need to be exclaimed from the rooftops, just admired by those of us here to have a good time. The Monochrome Set are able to keep you engaged not through their interactions, but their ability to let the music speak for itself. They’ve been at it for nearly 50 years, so they know what's up.

This rounds off the first act in this great double-header celebrating all that is good to come from a fruit and veg merchant turned DIY recording studio. Bravo!

SUNDAY - DAY TWO

Day two at The Old Cold Store begins with high prospects, especially with House of All, the supergroup of ex members of The Fall closing out the festival. I had previously seen House of All previously in Manchester, and though I never got the chance to see The Fall, it was great to see those who executed such landmark albums as Live at the Witch Trials, Hex Enduction Hour and I am Kurious Oranj share the stage and have the unique style of playing that made The Fall so recognisable in those early years, especially in their “two drummers” period with Karl Burns and Paul Hanley joined by Si Wolstencroft throughout; playing new original material in a way that evokes the weird and eerie aura The Fall once had without the over the top sentiment of nostalgia.

Low-fi upstarts Buffet Lunch deliver us a moody set that purveys good taste and keeping with the ‘mostly’ post punk theme. The Scottish group are fresh off the back of the release of their third album and have accrued a knack for jangly indie pop that is comedic and light-hearted. This is action music mixed with a cornucopia of noises resembling every snap, crackle and pop from mic to the humming of echoes in the crowd. This playful attempt at art-pop is seen similarly in bands like Squid and Crack Cloud mixed in with a hint of indie sleaze from groups like The Maccabees. It’s a set full of obscurities that border on ridiculous to the more adventurous made better with an appearance from compare Brue Sargent dressed in a shaggy ghillie suit resembling a golden retriever taken from the Super Furry Animals music video of the same name. It's a mind-boggling costume that reflects the surreal nature of today’s line-up; a mishmash of everything.

Following from those surreal exploits, we have A.P.a.T.T. These avant-garde trailblazers are accompanied by Al Judders from local genre blenders Seas of Mirth, themselves renowned for bizarre live shows and the use of multimedia elements in their work. The Liverpool-based ensemble are not immune to that description and from this outing are ultra-performative. Each member is dressed head to toe in white and are resembling the crew from Barbarella with less sex appeal. The ensemble, who have been going since 2002, make it their mission in their own words to “redefine the notions of failure and success”. This hyper-futurist set culminates in the redefinition of sound for a new age. A daring attitude to imagine the unimaginable and to present it in a form any which way they want.

The most prominent element is the hypnotic flute, the sound of which casts you away to the depths of the jungle in the same way that Kaa, the rogue python lures Mowgli into his domain in the classic animated adaptation of The Jungle Book. The sound-scape is purely ethereal and takes conceptual sound into a new dimension. The delectable variety in sound is rounded off with a Kraftwerk-esque acapella transition that challenges you to think as well as listen.

JT.Soar have been great cheerleaders of avant-garde ensembles with recent promotions such as the Orchestre Tout Puissant du Marcel Duchamp playing at The Boat Club in August going down a storm, and it was fitting to see them cheerlead another one have have them down for their festival to showcase music that blends into the high/low culture divide.

The Yummy Fur are on to tone things down by going back to the roots of jangly indie rock. The Glaswegians have as it were “been about a bit” too having formed in 1992 and included members that would go on to form Franz Ferdinand. This is music from the tenement kids who experienced the great cultural boom Glasgow went through in the 1980s with Postcard records, Orange Juice and Aztec Camera spearheading the charge and wanted to add the next chapter in the history of Scottish pop and rock. For a band recently reformed, they sure know how it's done. 

The twangy grooves and jovial, hapless romanticism in their tunes provide a feel good factor that the crowd can all get behind. Similarly to the Monochrome Set the night before, there is a feeling that it is best to play through the set with minimal interaction and just let the songs speak for themselves. That way it is best to enjoy it and pogo like spacial awareness isn’t a thing.

Penultimate act 100 Flowers went by a different name before. Back in their heyday they were The Urinals, and were one of the core acts in the Californian punk scene alongside Black Flag, Dead Kennedys and Minutemen. In the 40 or so years that have passed, not once in that time have they been to the UK - until now. They say with some gleeful lament that this is the final stop on their world tour, but that this is might not be their last in the UK. Their set is everything you’d expect from a hardcore punk band; loud and short with the same fiery rebelliousness that was first unearthed all those decades ago. 

Scatter-gun riffs fire from the hip whilst the bass punctures and sends everyone at the front into a frenzy. It’s remarkable to have that much energy for a trio and still be able to provide it. This experience is a paradox of a band playing to a new audience, here in the UK, and to a dedicated crowd they must have to many times over, achieving the same sense of exposure that JT Soar has opened people up to over the past 15 years.

House of All were themselves billed as a substitute for the festival. Had there not been last-minute changes, we wouldn’t have had the privilege of seeing this almighty super group. They are currently three albums in, and while it seems impossible not to compare it to their former master’s music, of which they provided, it is best to see them as their own entity and not as “formerly in The Fall”. The stage is incredibly crowded with the two drum kits on stage, but this over-layering of sound is to prove masterful in its delivery. Frontman Martin Bramah takes off his long trench coat; he looks like the local undertaker about to frighten you.

As frontman of The Blue Orchids, the band he formed after he first departed The Fall, Bramah is used to taking on the role of stepping up to the mantle. The set is an absolute barnstormer and incorporates everything you would expect, although maybe a version of Totally Wired  would be the cherry on the cake. The musicianship is the strongest of all the acts of the weekend. Whilst Bramah, Wolstencroft, Paul Hanley, Steve Hanley - bassist and older brother of Paul - and Burns were five in a team of 65 over The Fall’s lifespan, the fact they were all in the band at relatively the same time throughout demonstrates their thorough understanding of one another as musicians as well as the sharing of the same styles and influences over that time. The compatibility of double drums, Hanley’s sinister bass tone and Bramah’s elongated vocal delivery is off the charts and ensures that House of All is truly its own beast of the highest calibre.

Phil Booth and Co have put on a show that captures all that is great about JT Soar. The celebration of all that is subversive, whacky and a bit weird in equal doses is something to cherish and is tantamount to fantastic representatives they are for DIY multi genre music. 

This is to you and your amazing work: cheers! 

JT Soarfest took place on 1st and 2nd November 2025.

@jtsoar