‘Wool City Rockers’ – In Celebration Of Bradford’s Alternative Culture @ Bradford Live (13/12/25)

With Bradford being chosen as this year’s City Of Culture there has been a worry that with all the talk of Art, Theatre and Dance being so well represented in this area, well maybe we rockers felt a little bit unrepresented. But that changed with the opening of a rather splendid music venue (Bradford Live) earlier in the year and the fact that there are some pretty cool bands that have trodden the boards for the first time in this part of West Yorkshire….Wool City Rockers was born! Bands like Skeletal Family and Random Hand also played today but I am concentrating on the three bands who played in the main hall who all played sets of equal length (75 minutes) so get on your cloth cap, refresh with a pint of Yorkshire IPA and get ready for some rocking, Yorkshire Style lad!

Nick Holmes from Paradise Lost has been in this venue before! He took the Missus here to see A Nightmare Before Christmas and is obviously glad to be back. I don’t think some rockers realise the success that Paradise Lost have, with a career that already spans thirty five  plus years old, Paradise Lost aren’t just a big band in the UK but have success all over Europe and beyond. One of the things that I really like about Paradise Lost is the way they are constantly evolving. Yes, it is the riffage of their Draconian Times album that they are probably most well known but there has always been more to them than that. The dark electric feel to albums like  One Second  would mean that fans of bands such as Sisters Of Mercy would understand what people will see in Paradise Lost.

Stand out tracks from the set include Pity The Sadness, Say Just Words and Silence Like The Grave with guitarists Gregor and Aaron heads down no nonsense riffs bringing a smile to this old Ulsterman’s face time after time. One of the things that I don’t think I had realised was just how humorous Holmes could be a s a frontman, firstly making everybody very aware that Paradise were the youngest band to take this main stage this evening. And finally when the set was reaching it’s climax, shouting “Get Your Hands Up Lily Holmes!” brought a smile out in me and my missus! And the final, “This goes out to the Halifax massive”…..well I am won over!

In terms of entertainment, surely Terrorvision are the masters! Their Party rock came out of this city in the late 80’s and they are undoubtably the band that are as closely associated with the city of Bradford like no other (singer Tony Wright will always declare ‘We’re Terrorvision from Bradford’ each and every show for goodness sake) and tonight they really are treated like homecoming heroes!! True men can wear Pink and right from the opening chords of My House, Terrorvision have the crowd in their hands. We are treated to some of the newer material like Baby Blue and The Day That Lemmy Died before the crowd erupts in song with Alice, What’s The Matter? My personal favourite, American TV sounds as good as it did when I heard it on The Friday Rock Show back in 1993. Something else that hasn’t changed since that year is just how much energy  each member of the band puts in to every minute of every single show. I love the fact that while the waistlines have always been trim, their sound is massive with keyboards and horns bringing more to the party.

Just as I feel that I could do with a breather, Terrorvision rip in to Do You Wanna Go Faster and I love the fact that some of the lesser known songs like Josephine or Celebrity Hitlist are greeted like old friends. Highlight of the set might have been when Wright talked of the musical heritage of this great city and it’s venues like Rio’s, St Georges Hall or The Underground that the band personify, no nonsense good time rock and indeed roll. With the Yuletide Season almost upon us, well if we didn’t hear Our Christmas Song I would have been shocked and with a Double hammer blow of Pretend Best Friend and Oblivion to finish off……well this really is Their House!

And so to our headliners, New Model Army. A band who have been thrilling audiences for forty five years, have survived various line up changes and trends, becoming all the better for it. They start with track number one, from side one of their debut album, Christian Militia and I have to say that this was one of my favourite times seeing them. NMA have always played by their own rules, their set lists are always different and you never know what you are going to get. Sometimes they can play some really obscure stuff but tonight we get a set mixing the hits with more treats than Santa will be giving in twelve nights time!

With a backdrop/logo that is so familiar, Justin Sullivan leads the current line up through a rousing set. Tracks like Echo November and Winter suit the crisp winter evening outside and you get the feeling all the way through the affection that Sullivan has for this city as he reminisces about the early days (and venues) where the band cut their teeth nearly half a century ago. No Rest and Do You Really Want To Go There? are great but it is when the band bring on street musician and local legend Ed Alleyne- Johnson to play two classics, Vagabonds and Purity that brings the fans to a higher plain! Sullivan doesn’t get behind some sort of pulpit when talking about the state of the world, especially in the United States but reminds us of a very important fact that most people on this Earth are good and we should never forget that and the band launch in to 51^st State.

A poignant moment comes with New Model Army’s final song which Sullivan dedicates to former drummer Rob Heaton who died from a brain tumour in 2004 and they rip in to final song, Green And Grey and they leave the stage to rapturous applause. Bradford deserved to be 2025 City Of Culture and for this wonderful event to be a Pre Christmas event is fitting and with New Model Army, a band so intertwined with this City, making it perfect.