A NEW DAY FESTIVAL
21st, 22nd and 23rd August 2026
Arrival and Day 1
Leatherat
The Bevis Frond
Gerry Jablonski Band
Hayley Griffiths Band
Lightnin' Willie & The Poor Boys
Cuprum
Brave Rival
Flor De Loto
Peatbog Faeries
Stray
The Sweet
日本語で読む
Arrival
Boughton-under-Blean is a hamlet. There is no actual definition of the size of a hamlet or what its population should be but it is generally described as ‘smaller than a village’, a pretty useless description as a village is generally described as ‘smaller than a town’. Suffice to say, in English terminology, a hamlet is the smallest definition of settlement. Serving the Boughton-under-Blean population (as of the 2011 census, 1,917), is The White Horse, a Grade II-listed site, a pub that dates back to 15th century. Having gone through a major revamp in 2022, it is now a rather splendid place of accommodation and it was here I fortuitously found myself for four days, my accommodation at last year’s A New Day festival being unavailable. Bonus: it is only twenty minutes’ walk or a three-minute drive to Mt Ephriam Gardens, the scene for much merriment in the days to come.
The previous night, I had arrived after a leisurely drive through the English countryside stopping at the grave of Spike Milligan, The Jackdaw Inn in Denton for a sumptuous Lamb and Mint pie at lunchtime and the Peter Cushing Museum in Whitstable: three bucket list places in a day. After checking-in, I had a pint of Spitfire and then wandered up to the festival site to pick up my pass. That done, I had another pint at the festival bar which opens the night before at 7pm for the happy-campers and revellers who have already arrived and then returned to The White Horse for a third. Enough for the day, I got lost in the king size bed for the night.
Day 1
Yesterday had been a rainy day to say the least. I was in the car for most of it and when not, close to shelter anyway but today, we needed sunshine and upon opening the curtains, saw blue skies with a few white clouds. I check the weather forecast and it says there will be a brief shower in the afternoon – I can deal with that. Relieved, I went downstairs and had a hearty full English breakfast with a bucket of coffee served by a delightfully friendly lady who chatted with everyone in the breakfast room. Around 11am, having decided today I would drive to the festival, I packed what I needed for the day and set off, arriving with a few minutes to spare before M.C. Barry Gilligham takes the stage to get the proceedings underway.
This year’s choice to kick-start the show on the main stage – this year named the Wantsum Brewery stage - are Leatherat and you’d be hard-pressed to find a better opening band for a festival of this ilk. High-octane folk-rock their website describes them as and that’s pretty apt. They’ve played here before and quickly draw a crowd to the front with a combination of their stage presence, friendly encouragement between songs and general good-time in the sunshine feel. A well-paced song called ‘Altruistic Hedonist’ begins the set that runs up through the gears of a fourteen-wheeler to the breakneck speed of ‘Life In The Old Dog’. A New Day 2026 has come flying out of the traps.
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Leatherat
Jono Watts and Pete Bailey
A few words with Jojo Watts...
Q: Well, that seemed to go rather well.
JW: Yeah! It's about the third time I think we've played here, on this stage as well, so it's really nice to be welcomed back by A New Day. We love the guys that organise the festival. they're friends of ours, been friends with us for years. We never take it for granted that we get that invitation to come and play and yeah for a 12 o'clock set, we've got people out of their seats.
Q: You’ve been together a while…
JW: Yeah we've been going since 2005, what's that about 26 years?
Q: 21
JW: Okay - maths was never my strong point at school. (grins) When we started out, I suppose, we were playing a blend more of folk music and metal music at the time because the guitarist that we had back then was a real shredder and it was really unique. No one else was doing it, or certainly not with the kind of aggression that we were doing it with. But Pete and I, we clicked instantly when we first met. We had a shared love of lots of folk music like The Levellers. If you guys have never heard of The Levellers, you should go and check them out because they've been going for longer than we have and they're absolutely amazing and also the Scottish band called Wolfstone, who were a massive favourite of ours as well. They play a sort of mix of Scottish Celtic music, but set to a heavy backline and rhythm. That's all we really wanted to do, we just wanted to be in this band. I guess our main ambition when we started out was that we wanted to play at the Cropredy Festival near Banbury in Oxfordshire.
Q: I was there last week.
JW: So were we. We played in The Fringe. It was a good show as well. The ambition was we're going to set up this band because we want to play on that stage. And we did it five years later in 2010. Then it was kind of like, well, we've achieved what we've set out to achieve, we've done it, now what do we do? And I think we're just still going and going because every time we're getting back to festivals like this it's just such a buzz, you know, it's so much fun. For the Japanese readers out there, we're very much a sort of a festival band. We don't really do pubs and venues like that because it just doesn't suit the vibe but, you know, a field full of people, a bit of sunshine…and cider! Actually, my favourite whisky comes from Japan; Nikka from The Barrel, blended. Expensive, but very nice and I’ve had a string of Japanese cars. I've had a Nissan Skyline, a Mark II Toyota MR2, I've actually had two Skylines, I've had an R33 and an R34. Nissan Silvia S15, loads of them, just love them.
Q: You’ll have to come over one day. So, what's got Leatherat got lined up for the rest of the year and next year?
JW: We've got a few more little festivals to do and I think really what we want to be doing now is focussing on getting a new album recorded, because it's been too long since we've done that.
Q: What was the last one?
JW: The last one was called Snake Eyes. It was quite a lot of time ago, and we had a different line-up in the band as well, we've got a new drummer, a new bass player, a new guitarist, in fact Pete and I are the only original members of the original line-up, so we want to get out there and put a new album together and then hopefully, I mean the material is there, it's a case of getting into the studio and actually doing it and recording it, and then that will be a big step forward for us.
Q: Every year when I do these festivals, Cropredy and A New Day, I always look for the best T-shirt of the day and of the festival, and I think your drummer's already won it. World's most okay-est drummer.
JW: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, he's okay. Obviously. (grins)
Q: All right, thanks very much, much appreciated.
JW: Thank you very much, thanks for coming in.
The bands start five minutes after each other but that’s not a problem as the second stage – the Mick Abrahams/Dee Palmer stage for 2026 – is a one of two minutes’ walk from wherever you happen to be and by the time I arrive, The Bevis Frond are raring to go. These guys go all the way back to the sixties and have a pedigree of musicians that know how to deliver a song and a set to an audience. ‘Lights Are Changing’ is one of those lovely songs that calms you down after frantic start to a record; deep breath, chill-out, we have quite a way to go. They play long, tasteful guitar solos that you can feel the emotion in; the band happy to go along with however long seems right for the show. There was some confusion at the end (a misjudgement of the length of the set?) which meant they had to drop a song which pleased neither band nor audience but such is the schedule of a festival.
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The Bevis Frond
Ade Shaw
A few words with Ade Shaw...
Q: What was the last song going to be?
AS: Well, we had a couple more actually. A bit optimistically, we missed out ‘Undertaker’, ‘Olde Worlde’, and ‘He’d Be A Diamond’.
Q I’m not sure Japan has heard of The Bevis Frond. What can you tell us about the band?
AS: Well, the band is basically Nick Saloman's baby. He started off in the early 80s doing everything himself. Then I met him and my band needed a guitarist. We were doing the Hawkwind 25th anniversary and to cut a long story short, he and I were with a variety of other composers and we've been playing together now for it must be the best part of 40-odd years. We've had this line-up now for about 20 years and is the final line-up, I'd like to think.
Q: You were in Hawkwind…
AS: Yeah, a long time ago in the late 70s. I've been playing in bands since the 60s. I played with Arthur Brown a little bit. It was after Carl Palmer. It was down in Puddletown, we were in Dorset.
Q: Got it. What's the name mean? The best one?
AS: It was suggested to him by a childhood friend of Nick's called Julian Temple. He was a school friend of Nick's and suggested the name and he had a band called The Bevis Frond Museum for a little while. Then he had various other bands and then when we started playing live again it became The Bevis Frond and that's been ever since.
Q: Thank you very much Ade. Lovely to meet you.
AS: You to.
Probably the newest and most unique singer on the bill is fronting Gerry Jablonski Band, namely former Royal Marine Commando (yes, really!) Nicky Aiken. He hasn’t been in the band a year yet but has already dropped into the line-up like he should have been there since they started five years ago. A terrific, invigorating and energetic set of Blues Rock, Nicky’s pipes have taken the band to a new level and he seems a natural frontman. Gerry, as always, becomes one with his Gibson SG, a wicked grin rarely leaving his face as he eggs the band on to play better and better – they do. Ending with The Faces classic, ‘Stay With Me’ they take a bow and leave the crowd baying for more.
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Gerry Jablonski Band
Gerry
A few words with Gerry Jablonski...
Q: I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did.
GJ: Yeah, it was OK. We travelled a lot yesterday and today to get here from Aberdeen so we’re a bit tired. You know what I mean?
Q: Yeah, I bet you didn't fly either.
GJ: No, we'd just arrived. We'd basically arrived, got the gear out, got it on stage and then played so, I haven't really had a time to kind of settle in.
Q: Well you can relax and enjoy now. It's probably one of the best little festivals in the world, isn't it?
GJ: It's one of the best, definitely - without a doubt. There's a couple of similar type of festivals in Poland that we do. This is probably the closest you'll get to that kind of thing, you know.
Q: You do a lot of stuff in Europe?
GJ: Yeah, yeah. We do France and Germany and we do Poland and Czech Republic. Holland's a bit strange at the moment. It's really difficult to get in there and I don't know why, but some people do get in and others don't. It's sad all over the world, isn't it?
Q: It is, Japan included. I'm here for the Japanese media. I'm talking to all the bands that Japan's never heard of, but they should hear of.
GJ: Oh, OK. That's cool.
Q: You’re from Aberdeen?
GJ: I was born in Banff, Scotland which is kind of on the Moray coast so it's kind of high up. It's about a two-hour drive from Aberdeen northwards. A fishing village, you know. Now I live in Aberdeen with the rest of the guys. There are no high-flyers in our outfit. (smiles) We all muck in and do what we can.
Q: What are you going to do for the rest of the year?
GJ: You know, you're talking to the wrong guy because I have absolutely no idea (laughs) but I assume there's a lot of good... I think off the top of my head... No, I've no idea. (smiles)
Q: We'll leave it there. Thanks very much.
GJ: My pleasure. Take it easy, mate.
The Hayley Griffiths Band is actually a trio and to say they complement the lady with the voice to die for is a gross understatement. What you notice about Hayley in these intimate set-ups is that she seems incredibly at home. She engages with the audience naturally, making each person feel she is singing directly to them. The percussionist and guitarist’s arrangements are full-bodied but never dominant and that gives her free range to have fun with ‘Star Of The County Down’, enchant us with ‘Scarborough Fair’ and finally, close her set with an awe inspiring ‘I Know My Love’. Post show, at the artist gate, she’s swamped for autographs and photos.
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Hayley Griffiths Band
Hayley
A few words with Hayley Griffiths...
Q: Wow, that's a lot of merch and autographs you've got through there.
HG: I know! I wasn't expecting that.
Q: You did a lovely version of Scarborough Fair. It's pretty brave taking on a song like that when there's so many other versions out there.
HG: It's a big classic, I know. It was on my Far From Fear album, so I think we just had to be authentically us and not try and copy anyone else or be anyone else and just do our own version and see what people thought. It's actually one of the favourites on the album, which is why I wanted to do it live. And it's nice for people to hear some stuff they recognise as well, if they haven't heard of us before.
Q: How do you get that beautiful balance between what the air of a song is and the acoustic stuff that you can put behind it?
HG: I think, for me, it's really about connecting with the lyrics. And then, obviously, with this festival, we're a Prog band, so there are the kind of dynamics to a song going on and taking people on a journey and the highs and lows. Even if it's acoustic and we have one instrument, it's still really important that it's got lots of dynamic levels and lots of layers to it. I think that's what we've really tried to achieve with the acoustic. Even though it sounds nothing like our electric set, it's not trying to, but we’re trying to make it interesting. Every verse has something different added, or a higher or lower, or the shaker versus the cajon. It was really fun, actually, to take some of our really heavy rock songs with hundreds of layers and pare it back. Poor Matt had like a thousand parts that could bring down to one. He was like, ‘Which part do I play?’
Q: Do you write on acoustic?
HG: Yes, sometimes I start with just the vocals and then everything gets built up around me. Sometimes Matt will kind of have a track that he's put little bits of layers to so we're probably not the most quintessential songwriters, writing in a certain way.
Q: What's the rest of the year and next year got in store for you?
HG: I'm singing with Oliver Wakeman. We're going out doing a UK and European tour which I'm really excited about. I think it starts late October in the UK, then Europe, and then back again. I was the vocalist for his Anam Cara record, which is a beautiful kind of Celtic record. Iit's a mix of his Anam Cara and solo works and there's some Yes From A Page stuff which has never been sung live so I'm like the first person singing these Yes tracks, which is terrifying but also a really massive honour.
Q: All right, well best of luck with that.
HG: Thank you very much. Thank you. Take it easy.
It was a swift and welcome return for Lightnin’ Willie & The Poor Boys who had us all rocking last year. The sun was still blazing when the first song was counted in and seemed to shine brighter as the set went on. Willie is one of those musicians that can feel a song as well as play it and his band cook! The shuffle in ‘Eyes In The Back Of My Head’, the Mexican rhythm of ‘Tears Fall Down’ and best of all, the sincere cover of The Animals’ version of ‘Baby Let Me Take You Home’. Fun in the sun doesn’t come better than this
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Lightnin' Willie & The Poor Boys
Willie
A few words with Willie...
NB: Willie was playing another gig that night so he was in a bit of a rush.
LW: Hey Glenn! How ya doin’?
Q: Good Willie. You tore it up today.
LW: Was it okay?
Q: Of course it was.
Q: How long are you over for?
LW: Till the end of September. I've got England here, I've got like 14 more shows to do and I'll go back to the States, I've got shows to do in Los Angeles area and stuff like that. I'm working on a new album - I'm actually working on two. I've started one, and then Pete Anderson, the great producer, is going to produce my more bluesy album. This other album I'm doing is going to be more of a country blues. I'm going to have pedal steel on it. I've already got one song done. We started, we got some tracks done and then the guy producing it went and got somebody to come in and he put down some pedal steel on it and I went, ‘Oh man, this is too cool’ because it gives it that country happy flavour, you know? I'm just so, so happy with it. So next year I'll have a couple of new albums and I think I'm coming over in June it's all good.
Q: Well keep me informed of that. I’ll make sure to catch up with.
LW: OK. Take care.
Cuprum are Prog Rock and from Czechia. Vintage Moog and Hammond sounds, acoustic and electric guitars, flutes and odd time signatures within the same piece, it’s all very 70s and all very marvellous. Now celebrating twenty years together, they were last at A New Day in 2022 and everyone was happy to see them back this year. Having never heard them before, live or on record, I was overwhelmed with the changes throughout every piece and the flitting between the members to play their parts - picture yourself watching a pinball bouncing around and you’ll get the idea. I made a note to buy their catalogue.
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Cuprum
It normally takes a band a few years of being together and playing the circuit before they start to get attention and awards but not Brave Rival. They have already chalked up a list of accolades including being the UK Blues Awards 2025 Band of the Year and they smacked us in the face with their opening song called ‘Let Me Rock ‘n’ Roll’. No arguments about that, please carry on and they did with lead singer Lindsey Bonnick teasing the audience between songs, flirts almost, before belting out another set of lyrics to some of the best original Blues-Rock music you’ve heard for years. They take no prisoners as they say, I for one was happy to be slaughtered.
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Brave Rival
Lindsey Bonnick
A few words with Lindsey Bonnick...
Q: What can you tell me about the origin of the band?
LB: This particular line-up with our guitarist Ed, was formed in 2019. We were a trio of ladies before that. We’ve been a seven-piece, then we were a six-piece, then we were a five-piece and now as of the last year and a half, there’s just the four of us. Our sound has evolved. We love Classic Rock, we love modern Rock, and our sound has kind of gone from a bit Blues Rock to a bit more Rock. We are very much out and out rocking our latest album, which we're recording at the moment. That is going to be out in February mid-February.
Q: You have a wonderful stage presence as well as a magnificent voice. That kind of presence that the one can't stop looking at. I'm talking about Debbie Harry and Sonja Christina, people like that. Is that a natural thing?
LB: I think so, yeah. I guess its half natural, half learned. I've been performing professionally since I was 18, different capacities on the stage, hotels, theatres, different bands, different bits and bobs. I used to do amateur dramatics when I was younger so I think a culmination of all of those things have helped to form my stage presence. I've always had Rock music at heart, but I've never been in a situation where I could really release the ‘Rock Chick’ in me. I've always listened to Metal and Rock and Classic Rock, because my Dad was a rocker, loved Heavy Metal. I grew up around that stuff, but I never had the opportunity to let it out so I like to walk around the stage, I like to headbang and whip my hair all around. I do like to have a dance and it's nice that the other guys either side of me, Billy and Ed, like to have a dance with me as well, so that's fun. Donna's on the drums so she can't do much dancing. (smiles)
Q: Who are your influences?
LB: Iron Maiden is one of my favourite bands. Judas Priest I just think they're just amazing. Fleetwood Mac, Toto, Yacht Rock. So it spans quite a vast genre, but my heart always comes back to some kind of rock in some capacity. As an influence, I think probably Whitesnake, David Coverdale’s voice is just amazing. I love Susan Tedeschi, she's very on the other side of that. I draw a lot of influence from her and when I was younger, I used to draw a lot of influence in my lower tones from Karen Carpenter. As far as the band goes, we're all so heavily inspired by lots of different people like Zeppelin and Queen and Deep Purple. Just everything, everything you can think of that you would say.
Q: I noticed the Classic Rock element in your music, but then normally when you're watching stuff like that or listening to it, you go, oh, that's a bit Iron Maiden or I can see that comes from Sabbath or whatever. Yours, I couldn't see any of that. I could hear Classic Rock, but I couldn't hear where somebody had nicked something from.
LB: That's good. That's a really good compliment. Thank you.
Q: You're welcome. Who's Lindsay at home? What does she like to do?
LB: Lindsay's actually quite quiet at home: she is the opposite of stage Lindsay. Home Lindsay is quiet. She likes peace. She's got two cats. She's very settled. Shew watches telly all the time. I haven't got the attention span for reading. If I'm on holiday, I might get through a few chapters of reading, but I'm a binger of series, films, massive film buff. Luckily, my partner is the same. We watch a lot of films, go to cinema every week.
Q: How are you on Facebook and social media and all that kind of stuff
LB: I handle a lot of our social media. I don't do a lot of social media personally because I do so much of it for work, for the band. So yeah, I had to keep on top of it. I'm always on my phone, always, you know, pushing the band into the future with the pictures and the posts. It's a relentless job.
Q: It is Right. Thank you very much for doing this Lindsey.
LB: You're very welcome.
More Prog next although this time on the more Prog Metal side. That said, the Prog Metal tag doesn’t do any justice to Peru’s Flor De Loto, who incorporate a few other elements into their music as well including Andes wind instruments. Two songs from the latest album were exceptional. ‘Viaje Al Cosmos’ is an aural assault; ‘Esclavitud de Tu Ser’ has a beautiful, haunting opening that links to an irresistible Rock second part. They are part of the A New Day family of performers having played here in 2024 but had to cancel last year’s appearance here so it’s good to see them make it over this time and they certainly set out to make sure they would not disappoint - mission accomplished.
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Flor De Loto
We needed a welcome distraction from the cumulonimbus clouds that were rolling in and the seven gentlemen that make up Peatbog Faeries provided it. They know how to have party onstage and throw it into the audience with their unique (an often-overused word in music reviews but here, apt) fusion of Celtic and anything else they can get their hands on genres. There was dancing, cheering, swaying and joviality throughout the gardens; even the merch and bar tents were bouncing. As the ominous clouds came ever closer and darkness descended, they blew up a storm of their own, holding off the inevitable. Nature vs Peatbog Faeries, the boys from the Isle of Skye won hands down. Momentarily…
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Peatbog Faeries
A few words with Lee Small (The Sweet)...
Q: So, what have you been up to since the last time we talked?
LS: That was The Last Man on Earth…three years ago, I can't believe that's just fled.
Q: Yeah.
LS: I released a solo single at the beginning of last year. Eye in the Sky, covering the Alan Parsons Project. I've always loved that song and bizarrely enough, when we're out with The Sweet, usually when we come off, that's usually the first song they'll play through the P.A. I always used to say, one day I'm going to cover that song - so we did. Me and Tom, the keyboard player from The Sweet and the other guitarist, put it together and we did that. Obviously, I'm just working with The Sweet a lot at the moment, not really doing much recording. We're supposed to be doing... I think it was 2013, I did an album with Dave Boyce - he was with Grand Slam - I did an album called Skyscraper with a Norwegian guitar player called Tor Talle. We've recorded one new song towards a new album. I think we're going to hopefully try and get that done and they've got Mel Gainer from Simple Minds. He's in playing drums for any live shows.
Q: Wowzer! One of my favourite drummers.
LS: Oh, he's incredible. Dave played the first album we did to Mel, and he says he wants in. Let's hope that one comes off but The Sweet's so busy now. It's just kind of took over, which is great. With Lionheart, Steve's busy with Michael's show (Steve Mann, Michael Schenker) but I'll tell you what is coming out. It was last year we did a a Lionheart gig in the Academy. It was a festival at the O2 in Manchester and the show was videoed So there's going to be, hopefully, there's going to be a live album from that coming out, which will be the first Lionheart live thing. It covers all five albums, everything we've done. Which is really nice. Something live to represent the band fully, properly and I think there's going to be a DVD to go with that as well. So that'll be something through. I think it's going to be through Metalville, who puts all the other albums out.
Q: Dennis (Stratton) is coming to Japan in December with Maiden United
LS: Dennis is more busy than anybody! I can't keep track of him, man. He's literally here, there and everywhere. I love these guys. We just don't get a chance to see each other enough. We really don't.
At this point, the heavens opened and we both ran for cover. Lee to the dressing room with the rest of the band and me into the backstage toilet.
How I wish could tell you that Stray were the best band of the day. I wish I could tell you that they blew the field apart with their vintage Hard Rock but alas, I can’t because I didn’t see them - no one did. The ‘light afternoon shower’ the weather bureau had predicted had finally arrived and brought all of its friends with it including a very angry Mum and Dad. The downpour had begun just before Stray went on and when lightning struck within a six-mile radius and they had to abandon the show. They were hoping to go back on after twenty minutes when the squall petered out but a second bolt had hit by then and safety measures state that no performance can begin or continue until thirty minutes after the last strike. Stray, with smiles on their faces, packed up their gear having only played ‘Houdini’, their first on the set list.
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Pete Dyer unphased by the weather
The promoters had been given the all clear to continue just minutes before The Sweet were scheduled to play and so, bang on time, they launched in to ‘Action’ and didn’t let up for the next hour. They gave us greatest hits set to die for with a couple of classic album tracks thrown in for good measure. Andy Scott may be the only one left from the seventies line-up but he has assembled a group around him that more than justify their inclusion. All the harmonies were pitch perfect, the pace and the energy were there and most of all, the spirit of the original band. Many had (excusably) run for cover during the drenching and not returned but for those that had stayed, ‘Teenage Rampage’, ‘Fox On The Run’ and ‘Blockbuster’ and put grins back on faces and recharged their glasses. No prizes for guessing the last song and ‘The Ballroom Blitz’ sent the happy if somewhat sodden campers back to their tents for a change of clothes and night’s kip. There was no rain forecast for the next two days.
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The Sweet
Lee Small
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