VELVET THUNDER

All photos – Les Linyard

FRIDAY
After a lively opening set from Leatherat, whose jigs got the early afternoon crowd moving about, The Bevis Frond opened the Abrahams / Wood stage with a set suggesting they deserved a place higher up the bill. They’re a four piece rock band with a distinctive psych edge to what they play, and their set consists of a few quite lengthy songs, notably Romany Blue and Superceded where, as Nick Salamon tells us, ‘this is where we get a bit weird’. About to start what we’re told is their last song, the MC comes onstage and tells Nick they have to stop because the next band is waiting to take the stage so they can’t overrun! No matter = The Gerry Jablonski band followed on. They’re a Scottish bluesy rock band and they went down well in the afternoon sun, concluding a very lively set with a ripping version of The Faces number Stay With Me.

Up next was the Hayley Griffiths band. This is a stripped down version, just Hayley, an acoustic guitarist and bongo/tabla player, and they performed one of the sets of the day. It was unusual to see Hayley sit for the set as she’s usually moving around the stage. The band performed fine versions of Haunted and Aurora, a delightful version of Scarborough Fair and the title track from her latest album, Melanie, performed very differently than the album version. I could have listened to her sing all afternoon. Lightnin’ Willie & the Poor Boys followed, making a very welcome return to New Day and they fizzed up the afternoon with a lively, bluesy rocking set. In 2025, they performed just as dusk fell, but today they played in the afternoon sun and were just as effective. They know their blues and they performed Treat Her Right, Can’t Get That Stuff No More and Shake My Snake, plus a gorgeous version of Baby Can I Take You Home. I’d love to see a full set in a hall. Next up Cuprum, from the Czech Republic, were making their fourth appearance in six years at New Day. Their take on prog comes across like a mix between Camel and Jethro Tull and it’d be true to say they’ve improved considerably. They didn’t have the Hammond organ with them, but the keyboards they use did the trick. Everything they sing is in their native language so I’ve no clue what they were singing about, but musically they were very good!

Brave Rival followed on from this. They’re a hard rock band who are on a mission, with an attitude of ‘get onboard or get out of the way,’ and most of us got onboard. Fronted by Lindsey Bonnick, they’re a fiery outfit onstage and they rocked the crowd up with tracks like Let Me Rock ‘n Roll, Bad Choices, Poison and Run & Hide before Fairytale wound up a fine set. Peru’s Flor De Loto (Lotus Flower) were also making a return visit after being well received on their debut visit two years back and, similar to Cuprum, they too are much improved. Also, like Cuprum, they sing in their native tongue but what they played was good, sounding like a cross between Maiden and Jethro Tull, with their flute player described as the Ian Anderson of South America. They slipped a few minutes of Tull’s Locomotive Breath into one of their numbers, which drew a big cheer. The singer tells us, ‘the world’s in a state, but it’s peaceful here and the music will save us’. I hope he’s right. The Peatbog Faeries, a leading Scottish contemporary folk band, were well received and their enthusiastic pipes and twirls rocked up quite the atmosphere, with much dancing and merriment in front of the stage.

Stray closed proceedings on the second stage, or at least they attempted to. About to start their second number, the light rain stopped, the heavens opened up and several minutes of extremely heavy rain followed, accompanied by thunder & lightning. By the time the storm passed, unfortunately, time restrictions had arisen and it was too late for Stray to continue so they don’t start a second song. Maybe next year? The storm, which lasted a while, eventually passed, at which point national treasures The Sweet took the chance to close out the day with a blinding set, featuring several well-known hits including The Six Teens, Love Is Like Oxygen and Wigwam Bam before they finished with THAT song which everyone knows – and, despite the fact many in the crowd who had remained were probably only one degree away from pneumonia, they apparently incited a real party atmosphere (the weather had claimed me by that time!).

SATURDAY
Six-piece Cornish band Hanterhir opened up the stage with a very lively performance, their short set having not long begun as I arrived. From their comments, they’re proud of their Cornish heritage and songs like The Big Hill and Lady Of The Lake all had Cornish themes. Sheffield proggers Haze followed them. Their songs are usually quite long and, with only a 45 minute set, ‘this is why we only have time for 6 songs’. They played a couple of tracks from their latest album, Parasite and the Genesis influenced Outlandish Knight, as well as Waters Rising before they dedicate closing number Redemption to Cosmic Andy, from Sacred Geometry, who had sadly died shortly after the band had appeared at New Day in 2024. Albion were up next. They were here last year and their heavily Jethro Tull influenced set was very warmly received. Opening with a new song, The Green Knight, they sounded like they were really up for it, and they followed this with Eldest, She Is The River and closed with Pagan Spirit, which involved the crowd singing along. They’re a powerful stage presence and it would be good to see Albion return, and be given a place much higher up in the pecking order.

What came next was one of the sets of the day, maybe of the entire weekend. Solstice are firm favourites at New Day and, in the mid-afternoon sunshine, their set was radiant. Promoting the re-released and remastered album New Life, they opened with Morning Light, Guardian and New Life from the album, before performing Mount Ephraim and New Day, which they dedicated to festival organiser, Dave Rees, before they closed a great set with Sacred Run. It was a bittersweet set as, for many in the crowd, this will be the last time we’ll see Jess Holland singing with Solstice. Thanks for everything, Jess, and good luck.

Prog and blues meeting with melody is the sales pitch of The Mentulls, though this was a set which, although around 50% instrumental, was surprisingly heavy. Not Living Life That Way and Reflections pt1 were performed and, powered from the back by Henry Rogers, they demonstrated they can rock and they can play. They also played a couple of covers, Don Henley’s New York Minute and a really fine version of Jack Bruce’s Theme For An Imaginary Western = not an easy piece to perform – before closing with a lengthy piece including a section from Yes classic Starship Trooper, rounding off a good set.

Now, no one could ever accuse New Day of being formulaic. Mike Sanchez then came onstage with his R&B band and proceeded to stage a party in the field with some quite delicious R&B classics. He and his band come across like a white version of Louis Jordan’s Tympany 5. He told us that the previous night, he’d played in Kidderminster and had been joined onstage by his friend, local boy Robert Plant. Tracks like Let It Rock, Lydia and I’m Ready got the crowd rocking along, and he closed an extremely lively set with Howlin’ Wolf’s How Many More Times and Freddy Cannon’s Tallahassie Lassie. Last minute addition to the bill Whisky Flowers were up next and they grabbed their opportunity to play to a larger crowd with both hands. If they were nervous it didn’t show, and they were clearly delighted to be here, and showing everyone just what a potent little outfit they are. Tracks like Perfect Imperfections, Bury That Child and Can You Feel The Rain all went down well before they performed a left field choice in Neil Young’s Cortez The Killer. It’s certainly heavier than any version Neil ever performed, but they handle it well, before they close with I’m Not Awake Yet. A band to watch out for.

Next up, festival favourites Lindisfarne, a 70’s folk-rock act who, to me, are now beginning to sound like their own tribute act. They played everything they’re known for – Lady Eleanore, We Can Swing Together, Meet Me On The Corner and Fog On The Tyne, ending with Running For Home and Clear White Light, but it all sounded rather perfunctory. Scottish Celtic fusion band Shooglenifty brought the spirit of the Highlands down to Kent (‘it took us three days to drive down here’) and their set was a series of lengthy reels and jigs, accompanied with some very amusing stories, which included singing to cows when milking them, and a nasty pub landlord who’s now happily off the scene. Their set got many in the crowd a-reelin’ and-a rockin’ for sure.

Finally it was left to the ‘Sonic Assassins’ themselves, the mighty Hawkwind, to bring the day’s proceedings to a close, and they did so in some style, opening with Right To Decide before a set which blended older classics with newer tunes. Dave Brock had turned 85 just before the event, but he still plays with the vigour of someone much younger. With Mount Ephraim being illuminated by a quite amazing light show, they performed more recent tracks like There Is Still danger There and Underwater City, alongside several older tunes such as Levitation, Born To Go and a glorious Spirit Of The Age, before surprising most people by closing their set with a rare outing for Silver Machine, drawing a huge cheer.

SUNDAY
The day began with a fun set from a ‘lil’ ol’ band from Essex, ZZ Toppd. Tribute acts are a rarity at New Day but the Toppd had played here two years back and had gone down well, so inviting them back was a good move and their set, which they dedicated to ‘original OG Frank Beard’, got the day off to a flying start, with lively versions of Top classics like Got Me Under Pressure, Gimme All Your Lovin’, Legs, Sharp Dressed Man and concluding a rousing set with a spirited version of Tush. Dirty Strangers opened the Abrahams/Palmer stage. ‘We’re Dirty Strangers, and we play Rock ‘n Roll’, which they do – though this is more Stones influenced rock, sung by a singer sounding remarkably like Sham 69’s Jimmy Pursey. They went down well with tracks like Pirates Don’t Get Pensions, Turning Of The Tide and single Get Wild, from their album Country And W10. They get the audience singing the chorus to La La, I Couldn’t Care less, which was amusing. Up next were Neon Fields, whose ‘dark Industrial rock with atmospheric synths’, I’ll admit, following on from what had already been heard, I found hard to get into, and it didn’t look like I was alone in this. Playing into the sun in the early afternoon, they sounded bleak and out of place. Their set would have been better suited to maybe later in the day, when dusk would be drawing in and the light more conducive to the mood they evoke.

‘You woken up from your prog daze yet?’ asked singer/guitarist Lee Martin as Blue Stragglers took the stage and blitzed the crowd with their energetic style of grungy stoner rock, with Lee cavorting about the stage like he’d been electrocuted. They’re a three piece band and they play high energy music; tracks like In Love For Half An Hour, Half The Way There and Selfish Scene, with Lee Martin really going for it in Manic Overdrive. Their set was hugely enjoyable and I hope they play here again, though quite why they came onstage to Lieutenant Pigeon’s Mouldy Old Dough is anybody’s guess!

If New Day does one thing better than most other festivals, it’s throwing the occasional curveball and putting on an act from out of left-field. In previous years this has even included a set from a Glenn Miller orchestra, but today it’s the turn of Kanda Bongo Man, a Congolese Soukous Musician whose shimmering rumba sounds and exotic calypsos in the mid afternoon sun had many people around the stage bopping away. And then it was the turn of ‘de blues…’ – all the way from deepest Plymouth, vintage blues duo Vince Lee and Sophie Lord really know their blues, and they play them with style and authenticity and gave what was, for this reviewer, one of the sets of the weekend. Vince’s deep growly voice is ideally suited to this genre and he’s no slouch on guitar either, with Sophie laying down a tight backing. They performed classics like St James Infirmary and You Got Me Rollin’ Mama alongside a couple of Tom Waits tracks, including Way Down In The Hole, and John Brinn’s Do Away With You, before closing with The Pleasure’s All Mine.

Jump were up next and their set was very good indeed. Their music is drawn from across prog, folk and rock, and they’re hard to isolate in any particular genre, but what they play is extremely melodic and full on. Still fronted by John Dexter Jones (JDJ), what they play are almost vignettes of short stories, with JDJ explaining context, such as The King Of Dark Arts, about a Tory MP caught out in the expenses scandal after charging the taxpayer to have work done on his moat. They also gave us The Heroes We’d Be, Old Gods, Pressed Man, and concluding a very fine set with Free At last. Karnataka followed and performed what was, for this reviewer, possibly the set of the day. One of only two bands over the weekend to come onstage to dramatic intro music (Gong being the other), they opened up with Borderline and, right from the outset, with Luke Machin ripping up some gorgeous runs, they were on fire. Singer Sertari was on especially fine form and her gorgeous ringing vocals echoed around the arena. They followed this with Serpent And The Sea, Poison Ivy, Forgiven and All Around The World. Quite why Sertari doesn’t figure higher in the lists of top female vocalists is a mystery to me.

‘Greetings, good people of the earth, we bring you music from distant planets’. So begins the set by the seriously weird Henge. With each member of the band adopting a different persona, they performed a kind of electronic crossover rock, which they described as ‘Cosmic Dross’. But it certainly isn’t, because, apparel and clowning around aside, these guys can play and it’s easy to see why they’re making their name. They use the synth to create some quite delightful runs and they can rock as well, with tracks like Humans, Slingshot and Get A Wiggle On before concluding with a lengthy Demilitarise, where they got the audience to chant along with the words. Hard to disagree with the sentiments they express. Penultimate act of the event were The Soho Dukes; booked just at the very last minute, they filled the gap left by the unfortunate Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash with the sad loss of drummer Tim Brown. They’re perennial favourites at New Day and their set of rocking’ R&B brought a very fine day on the Abrahams/Palmer stage to a resounding conclusion.

It was left to Gong to close what had been another delightful weekend at Mount Ephraim. As Kavus Torabi said, ‘We were given this band by Daevid Allen and look how it’s ended up’. After a lengthy middle eastern sounding intro, the band came onstage and opened with Dream Of Mine, from their recent Bright Spirit album, which they followed with tracks like Unending Ascending, My Guitar Is A Spaceship and Tiny Galaxies. We also got My Sawtooth Wake, and the title track from the album Rejoice I’m Dead, before they returned to their seventies heyday with Invocation and Master Builder, before concluding with Stars In Heaven, also from their most recent album. A trip out to the planet Gong is as good a way to conclude a great weekend of music as I can think of…

OBSERVATIONS AROUND THE FESTIVAL
In a summer which has seen several festivals not being held for one of any number of reasons and, in a few cases, stopped completely, it’s heartening to see New Day was never in any danger of not being held. Still set in the idyllic surroundings of Mount Ephrain Gardens, nr Faversham, Kent, it’s an ideal pastoral setting for what is always a delightful weekend. What was especially poignant in 2026 was the naming of the second stage as the Mick Abrahams / David ‘Dee’ Palmer stage, after two ex-members of Jethro Tull, both of whom have sadly left us since the last event. Dee Palmer had performed at New Day on two occasions, in 2019 with the Martin Barre band, performing songs from ‘Jethro Tull, the first 50 years,’ along with Clive Bunker, and again in 2022 with Stuart Wood, under the banner, ‘Songs From Dee Wood.’

Whilst a few newer and younger bands are occasionally featured on the bill, the majority of the performers tend to be well known acts who’ve been around some time, and have made names and/or carved out niches for themselves. The headline acts over the three days the event was held were, respectively Sweet, Hawkwind and Gong, while other main acts included Solstice, Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash, Albion, Stray, Haze, Karnataka and the Hayley Griffiths band, amongst many others … also the Bevis Frond, who’ve been around for many years but who, for whatever reason, I’d never managed to see onstage before.

Summer of 2026 saw the New Day festival celebrating its tenth anniversary. With a one year break in 2020 because of lockdown, the festival has become a permanent presence on the festival scene, and staged during the third weekend in August, and I’m delighted to be able to say I’ve been to them all. In the scheme of things, New Day is relatively small and was never designed to attract the stellar names like Maiden, Priest, Dream Theatre, etc, but all things considered, some quite big names have appeared in Mount Ephraim over the past decade, acts like Jethro Tull, Fish, Glenn Hughes, Hawkwind, Martin Barre, Gong, Caravan, Soft Machine, Curved Air, etc. And before New Day, when Canterbury Rock was staged on the same site, it attracted acts like Robert Plant, Bob Weir’s Ratdog and Love.

Whoever says God has no sense of humour should have been at New Day on the Friday evening. After a couple of weeks of 30-degree plus temperatures, cloudless skies and no rain, at 8.55pm, just as Stray were introducing their second number, the ominous looking dark clouds which had been steadily dropping light rain suddenly unleashed a deluge, accompanied by thunder and lightning, and Stray had to stop before the song began. Del Bromham attempted to lift our spirits about the weather, but all to no avail as the deluge got heavier. The ground being as hard as it was, this soon produced large puddles everywhere with people attempting to find mostly non-existent shelter (every stall with a canopy or an inside space was rammed with people). By the time the rain stopped, Stray were out of time and unable to complete their set, but headline act Sweet still came onstage at the time given and, I’m told, performed a great set. However I missed this as, five minutes in the storm, with rain now almost biblical in proportion, I was now completely soaked and my trainers feelt as if I was wearing sponges, so, being a wimp, and living only a 20 minute drive away from the festival site, I joined the many others who left early. However, the sun shone brightly on Saturday and Sunday, so it was business as usual.

Even though it’s a relatively small scale festival, it’s still quite a complicated event to operate, thus it’s a fascinating experience to be backstage and watching how the organisers ensure the smooth running of the day. Every band has a set time to appear onstage, which means bands must arrive at a given time so their equipment can be unloaded, prepped and ready to be put up onstage. There are two stages so, while X band is performing on one stage, the road crew and stage hands are stripping down the other stage, removing one set of equipment while another is being readied to be set up. So, when X band has finished its set (the festival runs to a tight schedule, so encores are out of the question), Z band is now waiting to go onstage, and the speed and efficiency of the crews backstage ensures Z band goes onstage at the time listed. Which was why Stray couldn’t continue with their set once the storm passed as Sweet were now ready to come onstage and everything was in place for them. While there has been the occasional minor sound gremlin, and the odd band who overrun their set, for the most part the event runs like clockwork and all sets start/finish on time, which is essential if a licence is to be issued for the following year. So, whilst it’s the bands and the overall ‘vibe’ which helps make the New Day festival the successful event it is, it’s also the unseen efforts of many people backstage who the fans in the arena don’t see, which ensure the festival runs almost like clockwork. I’ve attended events in the 70s/80s where gaps between bands coming onstage of an hour or more was not uncommon – I think my longest wait was just over two hours – but nothing like this occurs at New Day. I can only imagine the backstage headaches and complications at staging a large event like Download, where, with many bands appearing, as well as arrivals, equipment and stage timings, the egos of artists like Axl Rose have to be factored into the equation.

There was some very sad news even before the festival began. Tim Brown, from Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash, died unexpectedly the weekend before. Tim had been in the band from 2013-2022 and, after a two year break had rejoined again in 2024. After playing the Trveheim festival in Germany on August 21st, they’d been due to headline the Abrahams/Wood stage two days later on Sunday evening, but they took the entirely understandable decision to withdraw from both events to allow band members to grieve properly. They were replaced by The Soho Dukes as organiser Dave Rees had been unable to attract another ‘name’ band at such short notice. Hopefully Martin Turner will return in 2027 ..

Another band who had been booked to appear but who’d also had to withdraw from the event was Curved Air, the reason being ill health. Sonja Kristina is still in recovery after treatment for stomach cancer, and so the band has postponed what was to be their farewell tour through August and September, though the plan is still to play some dates when time and health permits – possibly summer 2027, which will hopefully include a welcome return to New Day. They were replaced on the bill by The Whisky Flowers. Frank Smith, one of the organisers of New Day, when asked about how problematic was it to replace Martin Turner at such short notice, said they’d been in contact with several acts, enquiring about their short notice availability, but a few had asked for ‘shedloads of money’, far beyond what the organisers could afford to pay. However, at the last minute, New Day favourites The Soho Dukes had agreed to step into the breach and replace Martin Turner. This is not the first time they’ve helped out like this, so much respect to The Dukes. Frank also said there are already bands booked for 2027, though no names were mentioned.

One bittersweet realisation about New Day was, whilst Solstice were once again guilty of spreading far too much joy and happiness around the arena, performing a blinding set, sadly, after seven years fronting Solstice and helping them to reach new heights, this was one of their very last gigs with the effervescent Jess Holland fronting them, as she’s decided to step back and focus on her academic career and her life outside the band. Possibly one of Andy Glass’s best ever decisions was in asking Jess to join Solstice. Since her arrival, her vocal ability and stage presence have given the band’s career a rocket boost, which has seen the release of some of the best albums they’ve ever recorded with the ‘Sia trilogy’, culminating in Solstice finally becoming ‘the band they were always meant to be’. Whoever follows her into the band will have a mighty pair of shoes to step into and fill. It’s to be hoped the momentum Solstice has spent the past few years building up isn’t going to be stalled, and also Jess will continue to sing – as her voice is too good not to hear again.

It’s unrealistic, and probably unenforceable, but onwe thing I would love to see would be smoking banned at open air events. Watching a band, or sitting drinking a beer, and then having cigarette smoke wafting across your face, because someone standing ten feet away is smoking and the wind blows it in your direction, is really unpleasant, and this happened more than once this year. I mean, I drink beer but I don’t pour drops of alcohol into the faces of non-drinkers! This is purely a personal view of course, however.

Rock ‘n Roll is not just a young person’s game, several artists appearing over the weekend have put in many years at the rock face. Hawkwind’s Space Captain Dave Brock turned 85 the day before the event began and Stray’s Del Bromham is on the run-in to 75. Sweet man Andy Scott is now 77 and Lightnin’ Willie is well into his seventies. What keeps them all going is a genuine love of the music and the real connection they have with the fans. It’s great to see they’re all still able to get up onstage and do it.

Hayley Griffiths was complimented on what was a fine acoustic set, and it was mentioned how strange it was seeing her seated for a performance. I had chance to ask her about this. ‘Yes, it was unusual to sing sitting down, I kept wanting to get up and move about. We played as a trio as people have other commitments, so we just did this as a three piece’.
I said I’d last seen her onstage when she stepped in for Aggie, depping with Touchstone at Trinity, in London. ‘That was fun. I actually recorded a single with Touchstone but it’s never been released. I think their bass player (Moo) is quite poorly so they’re not doing anything for the moment, but I’m the singer if they ever do anything again’.

I asked Paul Manzi, singer with Sweet, about the state of Andy Scott’s health, as he’s been suffering from cancer for several years. ‘Andy’s health is sort of up-and-down – some days he’s good and other days less so, but he’s taking much better care of himself now, no more eating junk food’, he grinned. ‘The recent heatwave was a real problem for him, but tonight’s quite cool, and it’ll be dark when we go on so we’re not playing into the sun, and this’ll suit him just fine, it’ll be good for him’. You’re now back with Arena, aren’t you? ‘Yes, I’m back with them, and we’re likely to be doing something next year’. How about playing here, I asked? ‘Well, I said to Mick Pointer, we should do places like this as we’re missing out if we don’t’.

Whilst Curved Air having to pull out for health reasons was bad news for them, for Whisky Flowers, however, it provide a golden opportunity to play before one of their biggest audiences and they rose to the occasion. ‘We’ve not been together too long, probably slightly less than two years’, said guitarist Aiden Pryor afterwards, ‘so it was great to get asked to play here. We didn’t have that long to prepare as we were surprised to be asked to play, but really pleased to be able to do so’. Vocalist Steph Ashcroft agreed. ‘We got lucky being asked to play here at almost the very last minute, but so pleased we’ve been able to’. I mentioned their version of Neil Young’s Cortez The Killer, and how impressive it’d been to see a young band tackling something like this. ‘Yeah, thanks. We like to include the odd surprise in our set – thus Cortez’.

After what was another fine set from Solstice, played in the afternoon sun, Andy Glass was asked about who steps into Jess Holland’s boots, given this was probably the last gig most people at New Day will see her perform. ‘Oh, there’s no replacing Jess, man’, he stated, ‘but we have one or two irons in the fire at the moment, so we’ll see what happens’.
Solstice have always had female vocalists, so might Jess leaving now see a man out front? ‘No, I’m not bringing in a male singer’, Andy was adamant. He said, ‘Jess didn’t want to be interviewed about her decision to leave the band as the press statement said it all really as to why she’s leaving, and we accept her reasons and we all wish her the very best’.
But, it’s not all bad news in the Solstice camp. The band are currently working on a new album for a 2027 release, so it’ll be fascinating to see just how they follow the ‘Sia trilogy,’ and particularly who fronts the band in place of Jess. Can’t wait…

Laurence Todd appreciates the help of Les Linyard in allowing his photographs to be used.