Not only do you get to see Skindred, Funeral For A Friend, Heaven’s Basement, Ginger Wildheart, Black Spiders and more bands than you can shake a shakable object at, but we can exclusively reveal that Bullet For My Valentine are Camden Rocks’ secret headliner! They’ll be topping the bill at the Electric Ballroom and it’s going to be madder than Christmas at the Joker’s gaff. Here’s what frontman Matt Tuck has to say about this completely ridiculous state of affairs:
“We wanted to create a shit-storm, really! Hopefully it’ll be the perfect start to the album cycle and we can play some new songs and make a cool event out of it. The festival itself has a good vibe anyway, but with us being there at such late notice… It’s going to be chaos.”
“We’re still getting up to speed on them,” Tuck says of the tracks on their forthcoming album Venom, due on August 14. “I think we’re just going to decide [what songs to play] on the night and be spontaneous. We’re not bringing any toys to town, so it’s just gonna be the guys, some amps and a drum kit. We’re just going to let loose and it’s going to be really stripped back.”
On May 17, the band offered fans a taster of their fifth studio album – a lyric video for the lead track_ No Way Out _– along with the news that Jamie Mathias has joined the band, replacing long-standing bassist Jay James, who left in February. And talking of new music, it’s been a year and a half since the promising Raising Hell reared its heinous head. Turns out it won’t feature on the next album, though.
“It would be a bit of a cop-out to put something that’s been out for so long on the record, it just wouldn’t be cool,” admits Tuck. “Raising Hell is like a Tears Don’t Fall compared to the new stuff. It’s a good indication of what the record would have been one and a half years ago, but since then it’s turned into a far more sinister beast, should I say. It’s a lot darker. We love that song but even since Raising Hell, the band has evolved massively.”
And for those poor, unfortunate souls who read this article and still don’t nab themselves a Camden Rocks ticket? Fear not – we doubt you’ll see Bullet in a 1,100 capacity venue again, though.
“Oh, there’s a lot more to come,” concludes Tuck, assuring of us of tour dates further down the line. “It’ll all be announced shorty – it’s the biggest UK tour we’ve ever done, let’s put it that way.”
Bullet For My Valentine headline Camden Rocks on May 30th. Buy your ticket here.
