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Primordial Radio AGM 2019

Primordial Radio AGM 2019 was a blast.

I’m sure some of you have never heard of Primordial Radio so let me enlighten you quickly before we get to the main event.

After the demise of TeamRock radio some of the ex presenters there decided to start their own station. However it was done in a totally different way and is run by the community. The initial start up for the station was via a seeders campaign and this generated the money required to get it off the ground and those investors are now shareholders. Primordial Radio is a subscription based Rock and Metal radio station with over 1500 members that prides itself on championing new music and nearly 50% of the playlist is towards that end. The community around the station is excellent and growing. You can pretty much guarantee that if you go to a gig nowadays you will see the Primordial blue somewhere in the crowd. The station is ad free, promotes new music, rotation of songs is low even the ones on the playlists which means you don’t get the same songs on repeat all day, entertaining presenters who are Rock and Metal fans, transparent in how the station is run and very much promoting the community and making like minded people feel welcome.

If you want to find out more then check them out here - https://primordialradio.com/"https://primordialradio.com/ and if you fancy 3 months full membership with no strings attached to try it out then go here https://primordialradio.com/eg1-sub/"https://primordialradio.com/eg1-sub/ and use the following code PR_ZWc7LgHm

Last year the weather was glorious and back then there were 350 attendees. This year the weather was cold, windy and at times wet but the event was very close to being sold out with over 900 people attending. Which is amazing and points to the fact that the guys running the station are doing an awesome job.

The first part of the Saturday was taken up with the AGM section which was quickly followed by the station’s resident environmental representative. (Yeah, you did read that correctly. One of the things the station is trying to do is be more environmental aware with all that they are doing which can only be a good thing.) Introducing The Worlds Only Heavy Metal Marine Biologist ‘The Blowfish’. His presentation was very educational and entertaining and it’s well worth checking out his shows and podcasts on the station.

The line up of bands for the evening were Millie Manders and The Shutup, Skarlett Riot, Evil Scarecrow and Massive Wagons.

Millie Manders and the Shutup – Wow, for an opening act these were impressive and started the evening off with a bang. Millie’s voice as she started the first song ‘Right To Life’ was awesome and it sent chills down the back of my neck. I understand she had the effect on most of the people there too. The band are classed as Cross genre – Punk which is a good starting point but along with the Punk-Ska elements there were at times a jazzy feel and then some impressive Death Metal scream vocals. Millie’s voice is ace and she commands the stage even with one leg currently heavily strapped up due to a knee injury. Millie also showed she is a multi-instrumentalist playing ukulele and saxophone. The rest of the band on the night consisted of guitarist, bass player, drummer and saxophone and they were a very tight unit on stage. Millie was energetic and the set soon passed by. The last two songs ‘Lollipops’ and ‘One That Got Away’ which have been played a lot on Primordial capped a brilliant performance and I for one can’t wait to see these again soon.

Skarlett Riot – These are a four piece band from Scunthorpe which meant the show was a fairly local one for these guys which they joked about. Looking at the crowd there were some fans in for these guys which was good to see. The 7 song set consisted of 5 songs off the 2017 release 'Regenerate' and the other two from the 2016 release 'Sentience'. These guys can play and Skarlett ‘ Chloe’ is a live wire on stage and her vocals are powerful and very impressive. The heavy riff and bass lines are backed up by the drumming with some very nice double pedal work. The energy on stage was impressive with both the bassist and guitarist head banging at every opportunity. This energy didn’t go unnoticed by the crowd who were also head banging and cheering every time Chloe showed the horns. You could say they had done there job of keeping the crowd warmed up for the later acts and in the process gained quite a few more fans along the way. Good stuff.

Evil Scarecrow – Well. Where to start. Let’s introduce the members. Dr Rabid Hell, Brother Dimitri Pain, Kraven Morrdeth, Princess Luxury and Ringmaster Monty Blitzfist. With names like that you know you’re in for an entertaining set. These guys come from Nottingham and whatever they’ve been subjected to I want some. These are without doubt the most fun Metal band I’ve ever seen. Whether you’ve had a drink or not you can’t help but get drawn into the proceedings which Dr Rabid Hell orchestrates from stage. It’s not just the crowd interactions that make the show, the multitude of stage theatrics and props are just insane and totally brilliant at the same time. On top of that these guys are accomplished musicians and can play they have some serious heavy riffs and beats coursing through their songs. It was great to see the crowd just lapping it all up without a care in the world and doing everything that was asked and the response at times from the main conductor Dr Rabid Hell on stage was great to see, I don’t think he could actually believe that he had everyone in the room at his command. So cool. It would take me far too long to explain what happened but trust me when I say it was awesome and if you ever get chance to go see them, just go. Highlights for me were the collective collaboration called Crabulon , Robototron and Hurricanado. Hopefully bigger venues will become available to these guys because their show deserves to be seen by as many people as possible.

Massive Wagons – Primordial Radio have been a big supporter of Massive Wagons and it’s great to see the band returning and headlining this years AGM. The band is well liked and that’s more than evident from the amount of hats, shirts and hoodies in the crowd.

The five piece band from Lancaster comprising of Baz Mills, Adam ‘Bowz’ Bouskill, brothers Adam and Alex Thistlethwaite and Stevie Holl have enjoyed an amazing year. Signed to Earache Records and having their latest album ‘Full Nelson’ reach no16 in the UK charts and an appearance at last years Download festival. For a one time only and at this event the album is being played in it’s entirety. However not in the order on the album and other songs added too which was pretty cool. Where Evil Scarecrow had the room via the interactions Massive Wagons had everyone singing along from the first song ‘Tokyo’ all the way to end of the set. It was great to see after the second song ‘Nails’ Baz stopped and brought in Moose one of the original elements in founding Primordial Radio who was unable to attend but via the wonders of the internet and video chat and a mobile phone he was able to see the crowd and they responded with the shout of Moose Moose Moose. Moose and his family have had a difficult time lately and the love in the room hopefully reached them and him in Canada.

The set continued and it was great to see the faces of the lads on stage especially Stevie. The smile on his face and the way he moved you could tell he was loving it up there. Baz was like a man possessed owning the stage and standing foot on the monitors singing his heart out. All the favourites were there ‘China Plates’, ‘Billy Balloon Head’, ‘Hate Me’ and even a rendition of ‘Robot’ which Baz said they’ve only ever played a few times live and probably wont do again. The song that I’m guessing most people who found Massive Wagons probably heard first ‘Ratio’ was played and hell that place was jumping and loud from the crowd singing. I must admit ‘Last On The List’ is a bit of a personal favourite which I had a damn good sing to. Before you know it the set is finished although they did come out for an encore and played ‘ Back To The Stack’ and ‘Fee Fi Fo Fum’ which got the crowd singing even louder. I for one came away with a sore throat but thoroughly enjoyed it and I doubt I was alone.

All the bands through the course of the night sang the praises of the station and thanked them for the support. Primordial Radio is going to be something you are going to hear more from and will be present at more festivals and gigs. If you see that big blue ‘P’ go over and have a chat you’ll have no regrets.

This event will be back next year and even if you aren’t a member you will be welcomed with open arms by everyone in the prfam community. So pencil it in your diary and I’ll see you next time.

Primordial Radio put on a great event, well organised and the staff should be very proud of the professionalism displayed and courteous manner in which they conducted themselves.

Millie Manders and The Shutup - https://www.facebook.com/milliemandersmusic/

Photos & Review - Bandshotz

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