Live Review + Gallery | A Stone's Throw Festival 2025

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 a 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 Psychedelic 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 festival was made up of 6 stages across 5 venues within 4 blocks of Tynemouth, North Shields.

The festival started at the Salt Market Social, a converted 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 a 5-10 minute walk of each other, a free bus service was provided to help shuttle punters between venues. This service was a serious life saver at points as it helped dodge the hike up a couple of steep hills and provided shelter from the occasional showers when getting between the venues.

At The Engine Room, I caught Josh Webb, an 18-year-old solo 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 minutes, and I think he’s a young artist at the very start of a promising career.

*COSMORAT – Photography by Daniel Lincoln*

The next act that stood out to us was London-based Cosmorat, an 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 that 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/Chainsaw, another 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 venue of this size, after being more familiar with intimate venues like the Windmill in Brixton. I did feel some of the vocals were occasionally being lost in the mix, especially early on before the room began to fill up, but overall it was an excellent performance, managing to uphold their 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.

*Man/Woman/Chainsaw – Photography by Daniel Lincoln*

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 very rhythmic performance. They are playing Rough Trade, Bristol in November and are perfect for fans of Moreish Idols, Dry Cleaning and Italia 90.

London-based, Yorkshire-born band DEADLETTER were up next. Their set was punky and raucous, everything I had come to expect after last year’s debut album Hysterical Strength. 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 very little crossover between major artists set times, however there were a few acts that filled the gaps, one of these being Ernie, local artist and good friend of North Shields favourite Sam Fender, supporting him at St James Park a few years ago. I ended 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 decently 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 liked to see his set earlier in the evening rather than being jammed in between the two headliners.

To avoid a crossover of their biggest acts, the festival had a staggered double headliner 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 tightest sounds out there. It is furious and sweaty from the first 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 punters made a five minute walk down the road to King Street Social Club, an unusual venue and still being used by the locals when all the gig goers bowled in, but an amazing use of the space.

*Psychedelic Porn Crumpets – Photography by Daniel Lincoln*

Previously, the venue has hosted intimate gigs for the likes of Sam Fender, and Psychedelic Porn Crumpets had no trouble fitting in, endearing themselves to the locals immediately by acknowledging 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 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 releasing music.

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