9

The all-female band display their potential

Drawn as the Wild Card winner in the Red Bull Bedroom Jam competition, Hearts Under Fire were the eighth and final band selected to appear at some of the major festivals this summer, with the first stop being Donington’s Download Festival.

Although a number of female-fronted bands had featured over the course of the weekend already, the all-female line-up of Hearts Under Fire was something intriguingly different. The vocals from Mary O’Regan seem to rise to a new level of raucousness, which may not do her vocal cords any good, but in the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll it sounds pretty awesome. Drummer Lexi Clark put in a great performance, with guitarists Nicky Day and Steph Forrow also producing sterling efforts.

At the moment, something is still slightly lacking from their live performances; possibly it is the maturity that only time and the experience of playing together will bring. The band may have to work on their crowd interaction if they want to fit in a bit better at these heavy rock festivals; at the moment they sound far too friendly and polite! However, they might just have been caught off-guard by the packed Red Bull tent, full of people who had caught Hearts Under Fire’s set by coincidence, initially venturing to the stage in search of shelter from the rain.

There is a huge amount of promise in this band though, so keep an eye on them.