Adam Gregory

Bloodstock Open Air festival is a well established annual part of heavy metal history, taking place every August at Catton Hall, Derbyshire, England, over three days and three stages. The biggest names in metal have graced the stages over the years and this coming year is no exception. The headlining acts are KING DIAMOND, LAMB OF GOD and SLAYER, but there are so many more metal bands appearing: ACCEPT, AVANTASIA, ANTHRAX, SABATON, EXODUS, DEVILDRIVER, EX DEO and WHITECHAPEL to name a few.

Adam Gregory is one of the driving forces and a part of the family management team behind the UK’s largest and well-loved independent metal festival, and Metal Shock Finland‘s Blackdiamond recently caught up with him to find out more about the history of the festival.

Whilst discussing the artwork by founder Paul Gregory, Adam revealed that there will be something special happening at this years festival in the form of an exhibition:

” We’ll be having a bit of an exhibition at the festival this year, all the art covers, all the previous years original work. And then another piece of very specialist artwork Paul’s done recently as well. It’s going to be very unique when it arrives.

There’s an obvious tie-in with metal and fantasy and we want to expand on that.”

The full audio interview can be heard below:

“The Great Goblin” painting adorns Paul’s book Beyond Time And Place, this was Paul’s Lord of the Rings Exhibition held at the Waldemarsudde in Stockholm

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The organisers of the BLOODSTOCK Festival have announced the following news:

Hobgoblin is excited to unveil its electrifying new partnership with Bloodstock Open Air Festival. The collaboration sees both parties teaming up to bring METAL 2 THE MASSES at Bloodstock 2013, offering breaking bands the chance to perform on the Newblood Stage.

The road show, aptly titled ‘Hobgoblin presents Bloodstock’s METAL 2 THE MASSES’ will be visiting a host of UK and European venues to seek out the best new acts to grace the stage at Bloodstock Open Air 2013. Bands will also be in with a chance of playing a number of established European festivals in 2014, along with a wealth of additional prizes.

In addition to this, as part of its exclusive sponsorship deal, Hobgoblin will be opening up the search worldwide via Wychwood.co.uk , inviting acts to submit their videos online from December 2012. The contest will be mirrored on promotional packs of Hobgoblin from January 2013, where fans can vote for their favourite act, with the winner bagging the coveted slot on the Newblood stage. In exchange for their vote, drinkers also win the chance to take home a whole host of music-related prizes via an ‘instant win’ competition.

Chris Keating, Wychwood‘s Marketing Manager said: “Hobgoblin has been the official beer of Bloodstock for the last few years and what better way to intensify the brand’s long running association with music than by sponsoring METAL 2 THE MASSES? This competition will cement Hobgoblin’s place amongst metal fans and will give fans a chance to play what is arguably, the best metal festival in the UK, as well as be seen by some of the biggest names in the industry, which really is a chance of a lifetime.”

Bloodstock’s METAL 2 THE MASSES competition will be open to all genres of rock & metal, so if you’re in a speed, thrash, death, doom, folk, battle, gothic, groove, metalcore, industrial, neo-classical, Nu, post, power, progressive, sludge, stoner, alternative, extreme, symphonic, Viking metal or hard rock act, then get ready to bring the noise!

Adam Gregory says “Here at Bloodstock HQ, we are really excited and proud to have Hobgoblin supporting not just Bloodstock but more importantly our fans and the breaking music scene here in the UK for our genre of music. Our joint collaboration really does go to show how the music scene is developing here in the UK and how important both Bloodstock and Hobgoblin feel supporting this scene really is. 2013 will represent a great year for unsigned music in our country and we are sure we will unearth some more great talent.”

Visit www.wychwood.co.uk or www.bloodstock.uk.com/events/boa-2012/masses_venues/intro for further information, alternatively ‘like’ Hobgoblin on Facebook or follow @Hobgoblin_beer @Hobgoblin_beer on Twitter for giveaways and further information on Metal to the Masses.

UK metal band OSMIUM GUILLOTINE released a song last year dedicated to their love of Hobgoblin, check it out below: