The Blinders - Lunatic (With A Loaded Gun)

As some regular readers might know, besides writing this blog I’m also involved in booking Portsmouth’s Dials festival, a small multi-venue festival that runs in 5 venues on one street in Southsea, Portsmouth in October. The festival is a little different than most multi-venue events insofar as all the core team volunteer for the event, it’s 100% independent and all profits are given to local mental health charity Solent Mind.

Obviously with the current pandemic situation and lockdown (albeit a rather relaxed lockdown compared to some other countries) a lot of festivals have already been cancelled and there is doubt over any live music happening at all in 2020. However, at this stage Dials is still planning to run - if you want to support the charity you can buy an early ticket by clicking here. We were due to have announced the first wave of bands including our main headliners in April, but because of the situation we have delayed that just for now.

The 2019 event was the first time in the four years since the festival had been running where I personally booked the all bands for the main stage at The Wedgewood Rooms, which was exciting but also rather nerve wracking. This gave me an opportunity to hand pick a number of acts that I’ve featured on the blog, including two acts that I’d named in earlier years as ‘Ones To Watch’ in my annual round up of tips for the next year. And so it was that hitting The Wedge were The Blinders, Another Sky, Walt Disco and Saltwater Sun.

The Blinders headlined and put on an electrifying show; raw, passionate and full of an angry energy. 

Today saw the band release a new single that conveys that anger further. Lunatic (With A Loaded Gun) is a song that was written directly about the USA's separation policy and the resulting brutal images of children being placed in cages separate from their families. If you’re the sort of person that thinks that’s acceptable at any time or in any form then please take a good long hard look at yourself. The music is as fiercely incensed as you’d expect and although I wish the subject matter didn’t have to exist, I’m grateful for such a stimulating piece of music.

Lunatic (With A Loaded Gun) comes from The Blinders forthcoming album Fantasies Of A Stay At Home Psychopath due July 17th.

The Blinders - Lunatic (With A Loaded Gun)