Proving that two wrongs do in fact make it right Liverpool's Wrong Festival alldayer returns on the final Saturday of April, for the ridiculously cheap price of £25 (or £20 if you get in early enough). Given that you'd likely normally pay that (or pretty close) to see headliners Future Of The Left alone the fact you're also getting the legendary Damo Suzuki in collaboration with local psych merchants Mugstar, Manchester's psych juggernaut Gnod (much enjoyed by us previously in Liverpool here) as well as the might of Hey Colossus and a plethora of top notch up and coming acts across the event's three North Docks venues then this has to be one of the best value for money musical gatherings in the UK in 2018.

Wrong is the brainchild of Liverpool record label Loner Noise. With a line-up featuring over 30 international acts it will build on the platform created at last year's successful debut outing to further promote the acts of the Freakscene both old and new. Lasting from the early afternoon until the wee hours of the next day it will confirm it's place as a vital addition to the world festival circuit.      

In Black And Gold finds Hey Colossus eight albums to the good and, for a change, taking things rather slow & quiet. Opening track ‘Hold On’ is all ethereal voices and synth noodling. On-hold music for when you put a call through to your local hippy funeral home maybe. Certainly worth listening to until you get to the head of the queue anyway.

About this point you could well expect something along the lines of ‘The Drang’ from the RRR album to pounce on you, now you’ve been cosseted for the past four minutes. The sampled crows at the start of ‘Sisters and Brothers’ certainly give hope of such a pounce but instead restraint is very much to the fore. The vocals are certainly of the frenzied sort but they’re miles back in the mix and the guitars nimbly stride over them. Headphones are probably required to get the best out of this number.

Those looking for more pace and something to frug to finally get what they want in ‘Hey, Dead Eyes, Up!’ – a pleasingly forthright and gutsy example of the band’s embodiment of the Stooges’ sound. From here on the album remains one of ups and downs as far as overall tempo is concerned, even shamanic at points.

There is variety aplenty here (seemingly more than on any other release in their decade+ existence) so if, like me, you’ve been only vaguely aware of the band and what they’ve been producing in that time this could very well be the best chance you’ve yet had to become enlightened and delve backwards into their work. Certainly the prospect of experiencing these and older songs live is one I’m sorry to be missing out on this time around but if any of the dates below work for you then I suggest you track down tickets:-

FEBRUARY

6^th                    Bristol                                 Exchange

7^th                    London                                Lexington

14^th                  Brighton                               Green Door

18^th                  Birmingham                          Flapper

19^th                  Newcastle                             Head of Steam

20^th                  Edinburgh                             Bannerman’s

21^st                  Nottingham                           Sona Studios

In Black And Gold is available from amazon and iTunes.