Brave Rival head to The Wedgewood Rooms for their annual homecoming gig: ‘It's going to be pure rock and roll'

The blues/classic-rock band saw out 2024 with the departure of co-lead vocalist Chloe Josephine.

However, the band opted not to replace her and would continue instead as a four-piece with Lindsey Bonnick taking over as sole vocalist.

Now they’re running into the end of this year with what is fast becoming a tradition for the band and their growing legion of fans – Friday December 19 is their third annual Christmas homecoming show at The Wedgewood Rooms in Southsea.

It’s a fitting end to what has turned out to be a successful year for the band. Back in April they were named band of the year at the UK Blues Awards and they’ve continued winning fans wherever they play.

As Bonnick says: "We're kind of trying to make it an annual tradition because we travel the length and breadth of Britain and beyond all year,” the band maintains a busy touring schedule around the UK and over to mainland Europe, “and it's just really nice to come full circle, back to the Wedge, especially after a year like this , it will just be nice to play in front of a lot of friendly faces.

“And obviously it's such an iconic venue, The Wedge just has that rock and roll edge to it.”

Then there was the release of their EP 5 to 4 in October – five new tracks bolstered by acoustic versions of three of the songs – which saw them reach the charts for the first time. It topped the UK independent album breakers chart, as well as hitting number four in the rock and metal album chart, six in the UK download album chart and eight in the UK independent album chart.

The EP also saw them leaning more into the hard-rock side of their sound.

"I think it's the direction that it was always going in, if I'm being completely honest,” says Lindsey. “I think now that we're a four, every single one of us is on the same page musically. Before, we were all on a beautiful page, but it was a bit more eclectic, there were some different elements in there. Now it seems to be more focused, more streamlined. We're big fans of classic rock, we're really big fans of blues rock, so it's kind of more focused and more intent on that direction.

“Since the beginning of the year, I think naturally it was always going to sway that way, and luckily it has gone down well with our fans and our audience.

“Obviously, you're never sure when you put out new music, how it's going to be received, so we were absolutely blown away by the response. To have the UK Blues Award and then to get into the charts – that's pretty freaking special and unexpected.”

The band had been keen to put something out to give fans a taste of their new direction.

"We were worried that spending this year trying to find our feet again, rediscovering who Brave Rival are, plus putting out a full album would be too much,” the singer explains.

“But we're always writing new material. Just in a rehearsal, someone will start playing something, then everyone will start joining in and it will turn into a whole song by the end of five minutes.

"Things are always moving forward, things are always being created, which is really lovely. We did that all the way through last year, and we were like, should we just put some of these out as an EP and get something out this year?

“We felt like our fans deserved a little slice of the direction we're going in, before we go into the full next album.”

Looking ahead into 2026, they’re not taking their feet off the accelerator pedals just yet.

“We've got loads of gigs lined up in the first half of the year, and we've started writing album three already. We started writing that a couple of months ago, so we will write all the way through the first half of next year, get an album together, and then hopefully record it over the summer months, with a view to putting it out in 2027. Nothing is in the diary as such yet, but that's the master plan!”

When it comes to songwriting, all four are involved.

“Donna (Peters, drums) is probably one of the most prominent on the songwriting side. She plays piano and guitar as well. She's always, always writing. She'll come to the rehearsal room with a beautiful melodic piece – she did that with (5 to 4 track) Try Again, and it turned into this eight-minute blues-rock epic.

"It comes from all different angles, and some of the stuff that I've written, I've just been driving or something, and an idea will come. Billy (Dedman, bass) came up with something the other day, we were having a break and he was playing this riff on his bass, and we were like, oh, that sounds cool! What could we do with that? And we literally wrote two-thirds of a song which is our best song we've got so far in this process.

“And obviously Ed (Clarke, guitar) is riff king! So he's always coming up with bits and bobs and sharing it on the band WhatsApp. We're always exchanging ideas, so we're always involved in the writing. We all just jump on in on someone's idea.”

Before album three though, it’s The Wedge.

And if you’re one of their ‘Patreons’ there’s an extra treat in the form of a special early show just for these superfans. Patreon is an online subscription platform where fans pay a monthly fee in return for additional goodies from the acts they’re supporting.

Lindsey explains: “Over the year we do exclusive Patreon content. It starts from £1.50 to £15 a month and it's like an inner-circle thing.

“They'll get behind-the-scenes content and special Patreon-only shows so if anybody does want to sign up they're more than welcome to come along to that if they can make it.

"At the moment, for example, we're doing a Santa's sack, so every day there’s been a prize. It's just a really nice community of hardcore fans.

“It helps us maintain what we do as a band financially because obviously every little helps and it's dependent on what you can do and how much you want to support.”

“We've got that Patreon show, I think it's at 6 o'clock that evening in the main room, then we'll clear the room and reset.”

And for the main show?

"We’ve got Hollie Rogers and Coast supporting us. Coast's front-singer is Donna's godson, so it's all a bit of a family affair! We're bringing it all home to Portsmouth.

“It's going to be good. It's going to be a culmination of rediscovering Brave Rival as a four. It's going to be pure, raw rock and roll, as we've been doing all year, just all of it coming to a head. No gimmicks, no frills, just us four playing rock and roll!”

Brave Rival are at The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea on Friday, December 19, supported by Coast and Hollie Rogers.

Tickets £20, doors 7.30pm. Go to wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.

To find out more about their Patreon, go to braverival.com.