LIVE REVIEW: A Stone’s Throw Festival @ Various venues, North Shields (23.05.26)

Image: Working Men’s Club by Thomas Jackson

A bank holiday Saturday along North Shields’ coastline sees A Stone’s Throw Festival return for its fourth year with an exciting line-up of indie artists prepared to win over crowds.

Bristol-based Adult Leisure are one of the first to kick off the afternoon. In their half-hour set, not one moment is unfilled by their spurring, vibrant presence – impressive for a band who released their debut album just last year. Driving guitars soar through King Street Social Club on Hold Me Close (Before You Go) and Dancing Don’t Feel Right paired with a spaced out, airy euphoria. Kiss Me Like You Miss Her enlivens with an infectious chorus that persuades rhythm in movement and evokes hints of new-wave.

Over at Salt Market Social are The Rooks. From Glasgow, their confident, clear-cut swagger translates into classic indie rock that is guaranteed to lure in an expectant and raring audience. They’ve drawn comparisons to the likes of Oasis and The Stone Roses, but rather than just chase the Britpop sound, Nothing To Lose and Found My Reason Why are genuinely riveting additions to the genre with blurry riffs and impassioned vocals that make for stunning hooks.

Charlie Floyd’s recent numbers hit the spot just right in the mid-afternoon. Bringing laid-back, psychedelic jams to The Exchange 1856, tracks including Pinch Me reward ears with a concoction of steady grooves, pensive lyrics and lulling notes. From North Shields, Floyd has built up a decent fanbase over the years and proves that in the numbers who attend today. Promising a special guest would join him for his slot via social media, he welcomes Rowetta, “The Queen of Manchester” to the stage. Rowetta toured with Happy Mondays in their heyday and later competed in the 2004 edition of The X Factor. She joins him on intimate ballad Stay, moving between harmonies and hyping Floyd along to his ‘60s-style melodies.

Also at The Exchange is Scottish singer-songwriter Billy Reekie, who is relatively new on the scene with emotional numbers aimed to tug at heartstrings, best displayed on Song That I Sing, which starts timidly and builds into a momentous chorus. Reekie dedicates a sentimental and unreleased song Hey You to his sister, who dances in the crowd with his girlfriend. Turning somber lyrics into powerful tunes, Reekie’s elevating vocal range bares those emotions at a height then lands them softly into the crowd.

Luvcat takes the same stage soon after to one of the busiest crowds of the entire day, embodying all that is Vicious Delicious with a theatrical, gothic performance and cabaret manner, best shown through her powerful opener where she invites us to “Come kiss off all my lipstick”. Luvcat exhibits the dark, tempting the depths of her alter ego on He’s My Man, a contorted take on a traditional love song and intrigues with the complex, panoramic themes within her music.

Meanwhile, Working Men’s Club’s blend of industrial textures and acid-tinged rhythms was as compelling as ever, locking the room into a relentless groove.

A Stone’s Throw was up against BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend just over half an hour away in Sunderland, but with the amount of talent it managed to pack along the coastline in just one day, it left no opportunity for disappointment.