BEDLAM BREAKOUT returns to The Roadmenders' in Northampton over the weekend of 15th to 17th March.
Bands appearing this time around include Guana Batz, Mad Sin, Klingonz, Astro Zombies, The Sabrejets, The Pharoahs, The Zipheads, Spellbound, Frantic Vermin and loads more...
Vive Le Rock got in touch with organiser Tobe to get the lowdown on Europe's no.1 psychobilly event....
"Bedlam festival started in '97 after us doing evening gigs for a couple of years as a progression really. We did two all-dayer events but sadly lost a lot of money on the second one and had to stop. We then restarted the festival ten years later after a drunken conversation at the Callela festival in Spain. A couple of all-day gigs followed and were successful. This then led to putting on a Friday night gig for the punters who were travelling in ready for the Saturday festival. This in turn led to putting on the Sunday all-day as well. Before we knew it, we were doing this two times a year!! It takes a huge chunk of time to organise it all and we also run an online merch shop selling vinyl, CDs, etc all year round to help finance the festival. We recently dropped the September festival to concentrate on the March one and the shop side of things.
"The scene in the UK is reasonable at the moment with lots of old faces re-finding it again. A few young people are getting into it, thankfully, but not enough as it's difficult to reach them and without the music press taking any notice in general, it's a slow process. But with magazines like you helping out it's getting better again.
"My favourite periods for the scene were obviously the '80s and '90s... but my absolute favourite period is now !! It's got a family feel to it all and if we keep at it then we can hope for a better future for the scene.
"Bands to look out for at the festival.... Again the obvious headline bands like the Guana Batz and Mad Sin, etc... but... I think we should really say all of the bands tbh, as we try hard to get a really strong line up each time... One of the Bedlam aims is to promote the up-and-coming bands as they are the key to the future of it all. We have a great selection of psychobilly, rockabilly and garage trash bands on display for the audience and keeping to this format seems to be working. With the Internet and YouTube, etc now, it's easy to check out bands you haven't heard of, and we urge people to do that!
"Regarding my personal favourite tunes... I couldn't honestly pick 5 !!.. Maybe 105 favourite tunes and I could do it... but my all time favourite is The Meteors' 'Can't Keep A Good Man Down'. Nigel Lewis-led meteors numbers hit the spot for me, and that track is going to be played at my funeral... hopefully in many years time, I hasten to add!!"
Tickets for Bedlam Breakout are on sale here.