Wickham Festival 2023: Nogood Boyo combine The Prodigy, Enter Shikari and Welsh folk and they're coming here

This time around, having nabbed their name from a minor character in Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood, they’re appearing with the somewhat different, “trash-trad” Nogood Boyo. Their sound is accurately described by their PR as the result of “locking Enter Shikari, The Prodigy and Meredydd Evans in a room and telling them to make some noise​.”

Guitarist and inhouse knob-twiddler for the band, Sam had a background in a variety of bands before he auditioned for Calan.

"I'd played in metal bands, live electronic bands, funk bands, soul, blues – when I heard about folk, I thought I might as well give it a go! I got to tour all over the world with Calan and got really interested in it as well – I connected with it.”

It was, however, a bit of a culture shock for Sam. “In my past I was used to playing very rowdy gigs, particularly in metal bands with moshpits and all that. So when I started playing with Calan, I think Wickham was one of the first festivals I did with them. I remember it being a packed tent but everyone was sat down. For me that was really weird…

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“I was used to playing covers at pub gigs where there might be a fight going on and you really had to battle for attention, so it was nice in that way. But inside of me, I'd always had a dark side where I'd wanted to do something that was way more rowdy, but also paid tribute to some of the traditional songs and remix them in a way.”

And so Nogood Boyo was born.

“I wanted to approach a different kind of audience which appreciates the music but also wants to go out and have a good time and dance and party.

"We were playing the Gate To Southwell festival a few weeks back. We were there all day and the camp chairs were out in masses. We were last on one of the stages and thought: ‘how is this going to go?’ But as soon as we started playing the camp chairs vanished and the place was bouncing. I've found that the audiences that we're getting at the gigs over the past year is so wide-ranging – we've got the ravers, the rockers and the people who know our trad background so they've come from that, and then families as well.

"It seems to be going down well with lots of different people.”

New single Not My King with the lyrics “Charlie spends a bomb putting crowns on his head, whilst the kids get fed from the food bank instead” to an incendiary backing is typical – this is a band which also wears its politics on its sleeves.

The band sings mostly in Welsh, but of Not My King, Sam, who speaks Welsh as a first language, adds: “We made it in English too so everyone gets what we're trying to say!

"You have to be quite open-minded musically and naturally lean to our political ways. It would be difficult if we had someone playing fiddle who was a raging Tory.

"It's such a mad mish-mash of genres. It's about having a good time on stage, blasting the energy, getting in there loud and proud and connecting with it. But it's not all angry, it's about getting people to show more love too!’

While originally from a village north-west of Wrexham, “it's pretty much as far north-west as you can get on the peninsula,” Sam is now based in Cwmbran, just north of Newport.

The band has, however, adopted a stage uniform to reflect their heritage, combining the traditional Welsh hats with steampunk goggles and boiler suits.

"I thought it was a cool image to take that stereotype and mess with it – put on the hats, get the steampunk glasses out, and we're all in boiler suits. I grew up on nu-metal and stuff, so things like Slipknot – it's bringing in a bit of that.

"With the type of music we’re playing, we’re paying homage to our heritage, but also getting a bit reckless with it too.

“Just before you go on stage, you pop the hat and glasses on and you're free of everything and can go as mad as you want. It just feels good. Then when the hat and glasses come off, no one recognises you...

“It's just jumping into that alter-ego – it gives you permission to go nuts, be free, pull some shapes and shout stuff!”

They play the Main Stage 2 on Saturday afternoon. Wickham Festival runs from August 3-6. Go to wickhamfestival.co.uk.