Soundle Music Festival ’25 – Day One

Queen Victoria Hall, Oundle
Friday, 6^th June 2025

Firstly, before I spend my time writing about the event, let me give you a brief introduction to the festival and its location. Soundle is a portmanteau word where Sound and Oundle, the Northamptonshire town, are put together. Clever ah? And for those who are not familiar with the place it is a picturesque village South West of Peterborough. It is the sort of place that seems to have frozen in time and, if the modern cars were removed, it probably wouldn’t look that much different to how it was 100 years ago, only with fewer antique shops and boutiques. Its main claim to fame is the public school that, legend has it, once expelled Bruce Dickinson for urinating in the headmaster’s dinner.

Perhaps a niche location for a Prog music festival but I found it a wonderful town and venue. The whole weekend was broken into three days, therefore to allow me to deliver something that will keep your interest I will split it into three separate reviews, covering each day in turn.

The drawback of weekend festivals, which start on a weekday, is that leave has to be taken by the die hards, and, if travelling to them during the day traffic, and the multitudinous roadworks can mess up all plans and timescales. Making arrival times more of an rough aspiration than a hard and fast plan. This was the case for my travelling companions and myself. A protracted 3 ½ hour journey ensured that we arrived not only tired, hot and sweaty but also a little late for the start of the first set. But, despite being about 20 minutes late I did manage to catch most of the first act.

STORM DEVA

Like many of the acts on the bill I was unfamiliar with this band but, like all the uninitiated in the audience I was there to enjoy the music and find new bands to love, and Storm Deva were certainly a great start. If there had been any ‘first on the stage’ nerves or jitters they had all disappeared by the time I got there and they were playing a blinder to an audience who were obviously enjoying the music. The band backbone of Carollyn Eden, lead singer and keyboards had a wonderful voice and Stuart Clark showed of his guitar dexterity. They delivered a stonking set consisting of ten songs, of which Believing and The Journey were my favourites.

It was enjoyable and drummer Jack Summerfield was arguably the most outstanding drummer of the whole weekend (although there were a couple of others that came close). He was talented but sadly there seemed to be an issue that was repeated for many of the bands and that was that the drums often drowned out the singer. I don’t think it was the player’s fault or that of the sound engineer. I suspect it was more down to the relatively small stage area and positioning of the shared drum kit used by all the bands. But once I got used to that I was able to ignore that, to a degree, and take in the rest of the musicianship. Thankfully Storm Deva were well worth listening to and I’d certainly want to hear them again. However, spoiler alert, and to avoid pointless repetition, I could say that of most of the bands performances over the weekend.

NICK PENNY

The next on the bill was Nick Penny and I must make a confession at this point. I did look him up and the description made him sound like an eager ornithologist who recorded bird song. In my mind I was anticipating something akin to Donald Pleasance in The Great Escape saying “This is a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker” as he started to play a recording of their singing. Thankfully my preconception was totally wrong and what I saw and heard was quite beautiful in its simple, yet clever, structure.

Yes, it did involve bird song but there was a lot more to the texture than that. He would start off by giving a brief story behind the recording and, as a video showed appropriate scenes, he played along to the birds with his harp. An unusual combination and perhaps a brave participant in a prog music festival but I think it was inspired. Along with the beauty I found it relaxing and, even though the set only lasted half an hour, I could easily have spent a lot longer listening to the birds and him play. Even the Jackdaws on the roof seemed to be enjoying it and wanted to contribute their vocals in the quieter sections.

TEIGER

Third on the day’s bill was Teiger (pronounced Tiger). Another band I was not overly familiar with but I soon became a new devotee. Led by Talie Rose Eigleland the belting voice and great tunes made me think that they had all grown up listening to some of the musical greats. As I tried to list all the possible inspirations I heard phrases or sounds that were redolent of such luminaries as Frank Zappa, early Jefferson Airplane, Ry Cooder and I gave up trying to pigeon-hole them when I got to The Byrds and The Doors. High praise indeed but well deserved. The trio knew how to rock, be it prog or the ‘n’ roll type and the audience certainly showed their appreciation. From the opener, The Crawl, right through to the final song Hydra they didn’t let up and made me wish that I was young again and had so much energy.

Out of curiosity I did briefly have a chat with Philip Eldridge-Smith, the guitarist, after their set as I was curious about all their musical inspirations. I had hoped that he would confirm that they all were massive fans of the aforementioned institutions and, when they got home they unwound to The Grateful Dead, alas none of them rain checked any of them – all the band had varied and eclectic tastes that might have entertained them, but not been obvious with their music. Well, apart form the volume which was pure rock, irrespective of any musical heroes.

EBONY BUCKLE

Finally, rounding off the first night, was Ebony Buckle…

I always struggle to categorise many female vocalists as the list of comparators could be large. Most people, including myself, end up putting the singer into either four basic categories. They are either sound like Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, Björk or Enya (or combinations of all of them). In some cases they mix all and compare the singer to all four. But thankfully, despite having echoes of Kate, the eponymous lead singer managed to create her own sound and avoid coming across as someone who has already trod the same path. Not an easy thing to do but Ebony Buckle managed it.

If I am being totally honest I found the performance to be a bit of a slow burner. It wasn’t until the fifth song, The Monster, that it seemed to pick up and truly grab my attention and then from The Whisky Song through to the final anthemic Run I was hooked. Up tempo tunes full of so many hooks I couldn’t help but get caught by them. So, dare I say it, were definitely worth dancing to and a few in the audience managed to do that and avoid the disapproval of the prog crowd. The entertainment was enhanced by comedic banter, and occasional open and honest histories behind the songs. A great combination that helped to keep people amused and on her side. Added to that were a couple of tunes where the accompaniment was stripped back so it was just Ebony accompanied by either cello or violin. Mesmerizing and I noticed the rest of the audience were all engrossed. A great way to end the evening, ensuring that I went off to my AirBnB a tired but happy man.

[The Gallery features a small selection of the photos taken by Chris Simmons at Soundle ’25. If any of the bands would like high-resolution (high-res) images you can get in touch with Chris: HERE]

Soundle Music Festival – Facebook Group

Related posts:

The Wood Demons / Storm Deva Soundle Music Festival: Day One Solstice / Ebony Buckle ProgDreams X: Day Two