The Black Map #253: Black Emerald from Reading! (Summer Bash V Edition)

Can you effing believe it? It’s been seven days since we last spoke about the Hawaiian beach party to end all Hawaiian beach parities that Mercury’s Well are hosting at Facebar in Reading on Saturday 22nd July! We’ve been slacking. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol #3 was released this weekend and… [No spoilers ~ Ed] we digress. It’s the fifth anniversary of the annual meeting of like-minded individuals and so this year is going to be special, the line up increasing to no less than eleven bands to entertain during a full day of drunken debauchery and riffs, should you so desire. Here’s the line up in full…

Tape It Shut
One Last Day
Black Emerald
Hundred Year Old Man
Tribe Of Ghosts
Mercury’s Well
Treehouse
Perp Walk
Masquerader
Buds
Pteroglyph

Rumour has it that while putting together the line up for the event, Mercury’s Well were approached by a band they hold dear to their hearts in Black Emerald and so the originally planned ten became eleven to accommodate because the opportunity to host their heroes was too great to turn down. Make of that what you will but the truth is often stranger than fiction. After all, drummer Connor Shortt, guitarist vocalist Edd Higgs and bassist vocalist Simon Hall haven’t played a show together since Bloodstock in 2021 which had seemingly seen them call time on their career after fifteen years. They hadn’t released any new material since 2018’s “Hell Can’t Handle All Of Us” and going out on a high seemed an obvious conclusion… But then the temptation to play a one off show at a venue they considered a home from home during their time proved too great a gravitational force to avoid. The only question being, will Craig McBrearty from Gutlocker reprise his role on “Life Of Anxiety” during the set?

As a band, Black Emerald have the widest variety of influences, ranging from Hard Rock to Doom, Thrash, Southern and Progressive Metal, which bleed through the bandages in their sound. It could of course have been a train wreck waiting to happen but their dedication to musicianship prevented that from happening. You see, rather than having a single mastermind providing a vision, they create alchemy together, something which served to give them a distinctive collaborative style that when coupled with their passion for music separated them from the pack. So maybe, just maybe, that passion will see them decide that this one off show is… More of a tip of an iceberg situation?

Want a ticket for Summer Bash V? You can find yours here