Round 2 for me at Riverside. This time around saw Mayday Parade warming up for Download Festival where they are set to perform on Saturday evening on The Avalanche Stage shortly before Neck Deep. For support, local act Better Days were drafted in to warm everyone up. Despite having only formed a little over two years ago, they are a well polished machine, putting a smile on the faces of even those to whom they were unfamiliar.
Mayday Parade frontman Derek Sanders pointed out that before the nights' show, the band had been on one of their longest breaks from touring, and that there was nothing they'd have liked to have been doing more than being back on the road. And here they were. The band put out an incredibly energetic set of pop-punk-power interspersed with a few quieter numbers. Riverside was also treated to one of the first performances of some of the bands new material from their upcoming album 'Sunnyland', available on June 15th.
Once again, I was drawn in towards producing some high contrast black and white images, but Mayday Parade's light show was nicely done and came off well even in photographs. It was an interesting change to shoot a band with a singer dealing solely with vocals, rather than playing an instrument alongside singing, and I feel I got some great shots of frontman Derek really connecting with the Newcastle audience.
