Review: Thursday at Winter's End 2026 with Sophie Lloyd, Rosalie Cunningham and more

Forget New Year’s Day (the date, not the band) – anyone that’s been to Winter’s End knows the new year truly begins at the Planet Rock event.

Few people look happier to be here than Pyrogaric’s remarkable Jamey-Leigh Butcher. She can stand (or sit) alongside Planet Rock’s multi-talented Ian Danter as being part of that rarest breed, a drummer that sings. Her band, swollen now to a quartet, would’ve been here in 2024 but for a wrist injury. They play deep-digging stoner rock like ‘God’s Plan’ and new song ‘Dead’, but it’s hard to keep your eyes off Jamey-Leigh. She’s like that Benfica goalie that recently scored a header against Real Madrid – you shouldn’t be able to do what she does, and yet, there she is.

Chez Kane is cool too, albeit she’s a trip to an altogether different time. Kurt Cobain and Dave Grohl haven’t changed the world, because they haven’t actually met yet. Kane and the gang play smooth, singalong mid-80s rock – hers is the band Saraya or Vixen could have been had fate not flipped. “I’m at a stage in my life where I need to be full on wild,” she tells us, before the sensational ‘Rocket on the Radio’ concludes with its epic call-and-response hooks.

The dizzying breadth of our genre is further explored by that raven-maned queen of all things vaudeville, noir and psychedelic, Rosalie Cunningham. Amid swampy depths of Hammond organ, those shapeshifter songs build curious shapes around her interestingly prim vocals. ‘Timothy Martin’s Conditioning School’, apparently about Wetherspoons, is like ‘Penny Lane’ if a stoned Hendrix got hold of it. Then there’s ‘Spook Racket’, flute solo, the lot. We never know where Rosalie is taking us, only that the scenery enroute will be fascinating.

Trecco Bay’s perfect sound makes it a dream to watch Sophie Lloyd and her band flexing their metallic muscles. It means her guitar soloing truly penetrates. She’s defiant, her craft pyrotechnically delivered and interspersed of course with some genuinely great songs. The latter are sung by Marisa Rodriguez, herself a talent assured enough to own this big stage. ‘Runaway’ and ‘Do Or Die’ are killer classic rock tunes, and there’s something endearingly genuine about it all – you know when Sophie wrote this stuff that she was responding to real troubles. Elsewhere, instrumental takes on Maiden’s ‘The Trooper’ and Bon Jovi classic ‘You Give Love A Band Name’ get this gathering emoting as one. “I think I’m finally over my imposter syndrome,” she tells us at the end. Having been part of something as cool as this, so are we.

Thursday at Winter's End 2026 in photos:

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