Tonic Music @ Takedown Festival
- 4 hours ago
- 6 min read
Tonic Music were thrilled to attend Takedown Festival once again on the 3rd and 4th April at Portsmouth Guildhall.
It is the loudest weekend of the year for the south coast, which can only mean one thing, Takedown Festival has returned.
Returning for their sixth year, Takedown Festival is a melange of heavy music that celebrates metal, rock, punk, and the alternative music scene.
Across the two day-long south coast bash, plenty of big names performed across the Metal For Good stage, Total Rock stage, and Kerrang! stage, as well as rising bands and artists taking the next step in their music careers.
Tonic Music returned to Takedown for our third year, where we provided a mental health stand in the foyer of the historical venue, as well as backstage in the green room where musicians, crew, and event staff could access information and resources on the mental health support services we provide.
Plenty of our merchandise was available to be purchased, along with a vast collection of metal records for sale that attendees could sift through.
Friday
The old school hard rock bands kicked off day one of Takedown, with the likes of The Wildhearts and Therapy? headlining Kerrang!’s Phil Campbell stage, named after the Motörhead legend who was due to headline but tragically passed away after a short illness.
To honour Phil Campbell, there was one minute of noise before the headliners stepped on stage, a moment that defined this year’s Takedown.
Throughout the day, Team Tonic had the pleasure to speak to many people at Takedown, from metal legends to the festival’s crew.
“Music is essential to my mental health”, confidently said singer and guitarist of InMe, Dave McPherson, “even if I have a rough day at work, I need to get out how I’m feeling on guitar, or screaming and singing my guts out every night to The Crowd is pure therapy for me.”
Not only was McPherson headlining the Metal For Good stage with InMe later that day, the singer and guitarist stated how he had been one thousand days sober, and attending Takedown was “a really cool way to celebrate that.”
“Being sober has changed my mental health big time, and also my relationship with music, realising how essential music is to me and how it has been the place that I’ve turned to since I was a boy.”
With a career of twenty years touring with various bands and artists, what does being in a band mean to him?
“It brings me and my four best friends together”, he explained, “to just constantly do cool things together, and we really support each other and check in on one another.”
There had been a backstage buzz throughout the day knowing Ginger Wildheart was getting ready to perform later that day on the Phil Campbell stage, so of course we had to have a chat with him.
Accompanied by his Australian Shepherd dog Maggie, Ginger Wildheart explained to us how important music is to him, comparing it to being his “best friend” and his “therapist.”
“Music has been the thing that has literally saved my life.”
As well as this, the singer-songwriter compared listening to music to “falling in love.”
“I am such a fan boy,” he admitted, “I fall in love with music. It feels like you can have loads of partners and you can fall in love with as many things as you want, and it’s healthy!”
Without realising it at the time, but music had been an escape for Therapy?’s drummer, Neil Cooper, it made him feel like he belonged in the music scene.
“Getting to play the drums as a teenager was a massive help to my mental health”, said the drummer, “and even now, with what is going on in the world, you can lose yourself in an album.”
When discussing the most difficult part of working in the music industry, Cooper stated that “the great thing about what Tonic Music does is getting the conversation going about looking after yourself.”
“You’re away from home, there’s a lot of travelling, and there’s a lot of boredom. You get an hour on stage and then you’re travelling again all day; so there’s a lot of time to dabble in the wrong things, so you need to look after yourself.”
After not touring for thirteen years, Takedown’s a big one for Manchester metal band The Fear, with singer Micky Satiar explaining how he “really needed this.”
“On our first tour back after thirteen years, we were away from home for a month,” the singer explained, “we went back home to normal life, from being on stage performing to thousands of people, and that’s a crushing low from such a high.”
“The only way to keep ourselves sane is to get in the studio and write, so if we are not on tour we’re recording, and that keeps us in a good place.”
Finally, we chatted to heavy rock band Black Light Vice, who enthusiastically discussed what music means to their mental health together as a band.
“I can safely say music has been a constant in my life since I was five years old,” said guitarist Simon Bradbury, “there is always something blasting on my speakers at home,” along with his fellow band members nodding their heads in agreement.
When you’re on stage playing, you don’t think of anything,” said lead guitarist Charlie Robinson, “it is complete bliss for half an hour.”
Day 2:
Time for the modern bands of metal and alternative music to take the stages.
Pop punk band As It Is (pictured below) returned to Portsmouth for the first time in thirteen years, and were pleased to rock up the south coast again.
“Music has given me purpose, unity, and has shown me people struggling with what I struggle with,” said singer Patty Walters, “which is why we try to write such transparent lyrics ourselves, because songwriting was the first place I started to make sense of myself and feel okay in my own skin.”
“I think you hit the nail on the head there,” guitarist Ben Biss chimed in, “it is about unity.”
“As a teenager, music was how you found your people, and that has never really changed. Now, we see that in our fans, when they call our shows ‘home’ or their ‘safe space,’ that's just so important to me.”
When discussing songwriting, the singer explained how it helped “process what I was thinking and feeling, admit it to myself, and then share it with you guys [As It Is], my wife, my family and friends, and then eventually more people.”
“Songwriting had all of these stages to sharing who I was with people, which was really helpful.”
Earlier in the day, upcoming South West band Monochrome (pictured above) took the Metal For Good stage, where lead guitarist Algernon confessed that “there were more people in the audience than expected, and everyone seemed to enjoy it.”
Despite the technical difficulties during their set, the band stormed through it, and enjoyed themselves regardless.
“Live music is a good escape,” said bassist Joe, “seeing and playing in bands is a good way to physically get yourself out of a rut.”
“When you are around people who are into heavier or more alternative music scenes, they are quite chill and happy because they’ve got a good outlet for their emotions.”
For the drummer, Jay, it is all about the physical experience of playing music. “Playing drums is like an escape,” they said, “you can process your thoughts and it puts you into a headspace where, all of a sudden, the fuzz has gone and you can think about things more clearly.”
It is their third year back at Takedown and Slackrr are playing their 885th show (yes, you read that correctly, 885th show).
This year the pop punk trio took the Total Rock stage sporting our very own Tonic Music wrist bands.
“Every album of ours is based around mental health,” stated singer and guitarist, Scotty Perry, “because we’ve all got friends or family members who have struggled with mental health, it’s all of our lyrical content because it impacts us.”
After playing nearly nine hundred shows, it is safe to say that the trio are always on the road.
“We rack up nearly two hundred shows a year,” said bassist, Caitlyn Bowyer, “we are everywhere all of the time, so we have just learned that it’s really important to look after yourself, talk if you need to, and to not bottle things up with each other.”
Thank you
Thank you to everyone who donated, every donation helps us to support music professionals and music fans access free therapy sessions, peer groups, skills workshops and training courses.
A big thank you to Takedown Festival for inviting us back to yet another brilliant year, we look forward to seeing you again next year!
Keep an eye out for our incoming Behind The Scenes @ Takedown blog, where we spoke to crew, journalists, photographers, and radio hosts from this year’s south coast’s bash.
Don't forget to check out all our Courses, Groups and Workshops currently open for registration for working musicians and those working within the music.
