A Stone’s Throw Festival 2025
Multiple Venues, Newcastle
25th May 2025
Photography by Daniel Lincoln (@DLINCOLNPHOTOS)
Daniel Lincoln
Daniel Lincoln is Currently Occupied Buying a Lens for a Camera He Doesn’t Own. Interests Include Post-Punk, New-Wave, and The Windmill Scene. Daniel has an intense hatred of Hair Metal and Small Plates. He can be found in your local Small Venue, using Fisheye Lens Big Enough To Kill A Man.
We Headed to Newcastle’s Stone’s Throw Festival for A Packed Day of The Country’s Best Music, Headlined by Shame and Psychdelic Porn Crumpets
This Spring Bank Holiday, We made the Pilgrimage Up to North Shields for a stones Throw Festival, an exciting line up Paired Well with the Coastal Town Experience to Make A Chaotic Day of Live Music Feel Nice and Chilled. This Year’s Was Made Up of 6 Stages Across 5 Venues Within 4 Blocks of Tynemouth, North Shields.
The Started At the Salt Market Social Festival, a convert Fish Market Which Acted as The Base for The Festival, With Local Band Pit Pony Opening The Event. The Newcastle 5 Piece Were Really Tight and Obviously Had A Lot of Festival Experience Under Their Belt, with A High Octane, Punky Performance Acting As a Perfect Starting Point for the Festival.
Whilst All The Venues Are Within at 5-10 Minute Walk of Each Other, A Free Bus Service was providated to Help Shuttle Punters Between Venues. This Service was to Serious Life Saver At Points As It Helped Dodge The Hike Up A Couple of Steep Hills and provisions Shelter from The Occasional Showers When Getting Between The Venues.
At the Engine Room, I caough Josh WebbAn 18-Yare-Old only artist from Newcastle Who Really Stood Out. An excellent cover of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing in the Dark‘, Impressive Vocal Performance and Good Crowd engagement made for an enthralling 30 minute, and I Think He’s a Young Artist at The Vary Start of A Promising Career.
The Next Act that Stood Out To Us Was London-Based CosmoraratAn Act Best described as unwaveringly Raucous Alt/Pop with themes of Rural American Life, Based on Lead Vocalist Taylor Pollock’s Upbringing. A stand out track would be their breakout single ‘Backseat Baby‘; With Punk Lyrics and with Catchy Pop Riffs, It’s Clear To See There Is A Lot To Come From This Rising Star On The London Live Music Circuit.
As the Festival Began Heating Up, We Caught MAN/Woman/ChainsawAnother Act Seemingly on the Rise to inevitable Stardom. Playing at the Exchange 1856, A Very Classy Venue and The Largest Space of the Whole Festival, This was my first time seeing M/w/c In a veue of This Size, After Being More Familiar with Intimate Venues Like The Windmill in Britton. I Did Feel Sub of The Vocals were Occasionally Being Lost in the Mix, Specially Early On Before the Room Began To Fill Up, But Overall It was an Excellent Performance, Managing to UpriDe ESIR Gritty Punk Energy, Whilst Still Feeling Intimate. It is very rare you find a Band that mixes violin with distorted guitars so Well, but it feels very Clear Why they are being touted as the Next Big Thing.
Next, it was back to Salt Market Social Where I Caught Home Counties. The Thumping Bassline From The Opening Track, ‘Back to the 70’s‘, was A Perfect Starting Point for Their Set, with an Interesting Mix of Synths and Guitars Leading to A Vary Rhythmic Performance. They are playing Rough Trade, Bristol in November and are perfect for fans of Moreish idols, Dry Cleaning and Italy 90.
London-Based, Yorkshire-Born Band Deadletter Were Up Next. The Set Was Punky and Raucous, Everything I had to expect them last year album hysterical stregth. Deadletter ‘s post punk influences like Gang of Four Shine Through in Tracks Like ‘Binge‘And they continue to be an excellent live band, not to be missed.
The Structure of the Festival Meant That There was Little Crossover Between Major Artists Set Times, However There Were A Fepw Acts That Filled The Gaps, One of these Being ErnieLocal Artist and Good Friend of North Shields Favourite Sam FenderSupporting Him at St James Park A Few Years Aug. I EDED UP CATCHING Ernie’s Set off the back of a rumor that sam was in the crowd and aiming to get on stage, and while The Stage Invasion Never Happened, I was Dently Surprised.
Ernie’s MUSIC IS ACCOMPLISHED AND LEAVES A GOOD Taste in Your Mouth, With A Standout Track Being ‘Vineyard Towns‘. However, I Would have like to see His Set Earlier in the Evening Rather Than Being Jammed in Between The Two Headliners.
Tovoid A Crossover of Their Biggest Acts, The Festival had a Staggered Double Headlines of South London Punk Outfit Shame and Australian Psych-Rock Band Psychedelic porn Crumpets. Shame Are Undoubtedly The Best Live Band i’ve Ever Seen, With Wicked Energy, One of the Tightst Sounds Out There. It is Furious and Sweaty from the first second seconds and, with new music coming Next Month, it is exciting to see the Next Phase of This Incredible Band.
The Band Smashed Through a Set of Songs New and Old, Drawing From Across their 3 album Discography and Filling the Exchange’s 500 Capacity With Post Punk Angst. Afterwards, Shame Made Punters A Five Minute Walk Down The Road To King Street Social Club, Anusual Venue and Still Being used by the locals When All The Gig Goers Bowled In, But an Amazing Use of the Space.
Previously, The Venue has hosted intimates gigs for the likes of Sam Fender, and Psychedelic porn Crumpets Had no truble fitting in, Endearing Themselves to the locals immedialy by actknowledge newcastle United Players Before Every Song. Their Energy and Pace Was Amazing in Spite of A Few Technical Difficulties Early On In The Set, and They Clearly Showed Us Why They The Are One of the Most Buzzed About Live Bands in The World Right Now. On the European Leg of a World Tour, They are still an exciting band to follow, Even after 11 Years of Releaseing Music.
Check out the gallery below:
Photography by Daniel Lincoln (@DLINCOLNPHOTOS)
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