“We paid someone £400 to drive to Sheffield to get a cable for Mogwai, or we were f*cked”: Kerrang!’s view from the bar at ArcTanGent 2024

Onstage at ArcTanGent last weekend, all sorts of marvellous stuff went on. But you already know about that. We saw and heard plenty backstage as well. For one thing, we’re pleased to report that earthtone9 guitarist Owen Packard is still a magician. Like, he actually does magic. And, like a true man of the craft, wouldn’t teach us how to do any of it.

Elsewhere, though, bands were happy to tell us about their various nuts and bolts. Like Japanese black metal berserkers Sigh.

“Blood is very important to our show,” mainman Mirai Kawashima told us before they went on for surely the most entertainingly bananas gig of the weekend. “Today we can use fire as well, so that’s good. But blood is essential.”

And use fire they did, announcing their arrival onstage with a flaming katana, and then setting light to a pair of Bibles. Lovely stuff. But there’s reasons why some places are less keen to let Sigh spark up…

“At one show on this tour, Dr Mikannibal [vocals/sax], she burned down the stage monitor,” Mirai shrugged, matter-of-factly. “She tried to breathe fire and failed, and burned down the monitor at the festival.”

Which is still better behaviour than that of one of Sigh’s corpse-painted kids onstage who, between calls for backing vocals and horn-throwing, was spotted absent-mindedly picking their nose and eating it. Pure evil…

The man keeping potential disaster in check, of course, was festival top dog James Scarlett. Though we spotted him spending most of the weekend either watching bands or propping up the backstage bar, he was also called upon at times to avert potential disaster. Electric Wizard wanting a hundred quid's worth of weed on their rider was easy. Other things, less so…

“Last night, there was a radio call saying that there's a really essential cable Mogwai needed that links the stage to the sound person,” he told us. “We had to get a guy to drive to Sheffield and back to pick one up. We basically paid someone 400 quid to fucking drive up the road. But if we didn’t get it, we were fucked.”

Which would have been catastrophe enough, but ATG have been trying to bag Mogwai since the first edition. Did they not want to do such an obviously good-fit fest? Um, not quite…

“We thought they didn't want to play, and we thought it was because they don't want to be associated with post-rock. Turns out their previous agent just didn't tell them about it…”

Mogwai had a lovely time, in the event. Guitarist Stuart Braithwaite even found time to tell a podcast audience that, “I really fucking hate Queen. Everything about them is fucking awful.” Which was nice.

Love was in the air, though. As he was walking up the ramp to go onstage on Thursday lunchtime, Underdark guitarist Ollie Jones got down on one knee and popped the question. “It was literally as we were heading to the stage,” he jubilantly informed us afterwards. “I said, ‘You’ve got half an hour to think about it.’” Black metal songs about systemic attacks on the British working class are probably what every girl dreams of when they think about such an occasion. She said yes, by the way.

Permanently-smiling Baroness man John Baizley, meanwhile, told us that, over their Euro festival run this summer, he’s found himself a new love of sorts. Turns out, Korn are better than he thought.

“They have turned into one of the most powerful headline-level festival bands around,” he enthused. “I remember in the ’90s, they were the one you were supposed to hate. I guess I’ve reached an age now where I don't give a shit about those sort of things and saw them and realised: they've been on tour for 30 years, they're solid, and you can't fuck with 90,000 people all moving in unison.”

John also admitted that he doesn’t get put off if he turns around onstage to see James Hetfield or Rob Halford watching from the wings. He did have a cracking story about the one time he almost lost his grip, though.

“Jimmy Page came to see us in London once. He was standing front and centre on the balcony, and there was some kind of spotlight behind him. All I saw the entire show was a silver halo. For an avowed atheist, it was the only moment when I’ve ever seen a god looking down on me.”

Which is very different to how KEN Mode man Jesse Matthewson gets on onstage. Following their scorching set on Saturday afternoon, he revealed that, actually, his good mood came down to post-show euphoria, rather than actually playing it.

“I think the others have fun onstage – I don't,” he told us. “It's nothing but stress and tension for me, like the stress of everything that has to do with tour. But it’s also the mood, it fits the music. Afterwards, though, I know it went well and that’s when it hits me. And it does feel like a good workout…”

In a festival full of saxophones, Jesse also noted that they manage to stick out by being the only band to utilise the more unpleasant side of the instrument.

“I think I've seen, like, five bands with saxophones, but they aren't using it like a weapon. That’s such a missed opportunity, because I feel like it is one of the most violent instruments that you can play. We use it as an attacking instrument!”

And finally, back to James Scarlett, as we tried to coax the goss for next year out of him. Admitting he’s all but given up on ever reeling in The Mars Volta, he wouldn’t name any names yet, but promised some special treats. Come on, man, what can you tell us?

“Only that there's a couple of bands that are reforming for next year, and one who are splitting up. They said, ‘We want to do one final show. Can we do it here?’ So that’s gonna be special.”

We’re excited already. See you back on the farm.

ArcTanGent returns to Fernhill Farm from 14 – 17 August, 2025

Read this next:

• The big review: ArcTanGent 2024
• “I wanna see more sex in the mosh-pit”: Kerrang!’s view from the bar at Bloodstock 2024
• Baroness: “Music can take our hurts and allow us to springboard back into the brightness, to enjoy life with all the more dimension and contrast”