There is just no stopping Panic Over. From winning battle of the bands competitions, their music soundtracking major sporting events on ITV and the BBC to playing sold out shows, it has been an eventful period for the young band. Their latest accolade was to be selected by the BPI to represent Northern Ireland at the Osaka Expo 2025 in Japan in May.
Before they jetted off we asked Dharesh, Ben, Charlie & Reuben to document their travels. This is the trip in their own words and photos.
DAY ONE
We kicked off the trip meeting in Belfast City Airport at 4:30am ( ) on the 19th of May for our flight to Heathrow. We have never put our guitars in the hold for any gigs we’ve flown to before, so I cannot emphasise the stress and anxiety this caused. Surely nothing bad could happen or mess up…right?
We flew out of Heathrow, direct to Tokyo! Just 14hrs in total. Was not half as grueling as we were expecting. Probably because we were all so buzzed! The change in time zone was weird though. We had time travelled to the morning of the 20th when we landed. We tried some very interesting iced coffee to keep ourselves awake, from a vending machine in Tokyo Airport. It was ¥130 (literally less than a quid) and totally delicious. We then hopped on another plane to Osaka. Still nothing bad had happened… or so we thought.
Simmsy was the last to walk onto the plane from Tokyo to Osaka, when he was suddenly stopped. They’d lost his drum hardware case. I don’t know how you lose a case like that exactly, certainly not one THAT size! I’m not an airport pro, but the anxiety was through the roof. The case also had all our in-ear monitor packs and a bunch of important cables. We had to quickly consult with our sound engineer Marius on the ground, to rack up a plan B. Cables could be replaced, but not the earpieces, obvs. He said we’d just go old skool with wedge monitors if needs be. Easy. But still, losing that amount of gear in one go was gut wrenching. So we did what any band would do in such a stressful situation – play intense games of Mario Kart on the Switch with our Videographer Lloyd, who whooped all of us. When we got off at the Osaka airport we prayed that we’d see the kit case on the belt. We did not. Eeeek.
However, after about 30 minutes the lovely staff at Osaka Airport worked their magic with Tokyo Airport staff, located the case – and it was on the first flight over to us in Osaka! :Panic :Over.
By this stage we had been awake for well over 24 hours. We barely slept on the plane from excitement, and we were probably slightly delirious. So we did what any bunch of exhausted and weary people would do – dump our bags off at the hotel and head straight to Universal Studios for some real-life Mario Kart action! As someone who’s never been to any theme park like this, I was mind blown. First up was the Harry Potter Forbidden Journey ride. It was cool, kinda creepy – and made me feel a bit queasy!
Simmsy is a MASSIVE Jurassic Park fan! So of course we rotated round to that section next. Simmsy and Reubs had eyed up “The Flying Dinosaur”. Before this, the biggest roller coaster I had ever been on was the big dipper at Barry’s in Portrush… So just a little bit different to this! If you’re scared of roller coasters, I don’t recommend even looking this ride up to be honest. You’re face down, hanging off the tracks when the ride starts. By the time it’s finished, your liver, spleen, kidneys and brain have all switched places.
I think my reaction on this ride was that of someone facing certain death. I discovered swear words I never knew existed before this. I think a part of my soul died on this ride. I genuinely think we nearly killed our videographer from the trauma of it. Sorry Lloyd!
For something a bit calmer, we went to my personal favourite part of the studios: SUPER NINTENDO WORLD! We could easily have taken a million photos, surrounded by all the Mario characters! Dharesh and I bought quite ridiculous Toad and Yoshi hats (our go-to Mario Kart characters), and got a photo with longtime personal hero – Donkey Kong. Absolutely mega. When we went back to the hotel the restaurant closed, so we had a super nutritious 7/11 dinner and snacks. This is at the point in which we had been awake for around 36 hours or so and the tiredness was kicking in big time. I’m pretty sure I fell asleep mid-conversation with Simmsy. He clearly bored what little life that was left, clean out of me…
DAY TWO
On day two we headed into Osaka City, where we saw a delightful “No Pissing” sign in ENGLISH lol. ( ). We did loads of ‘when in Japan’ type things like archery, ninja stars, and a classic Japanese arcade. We later headed up to the massive Osaka Tower where we became big fans of the design of Kinnikuman.
After this, being total musos, we of course had to check out every single guitar shop in Osaka – and there are PLENTY! If Willie Wonka did guitars instead of chocolate – his factory would be in Osaka. THE most amazing selection of guitars, basses, and gear we’d ever seen. Darsh bought himself a cheeky little new pedal for his board, and he wasn’t the only person who bought something (but more on that later shhhhhh…)
That evening we met with the lovely team at the Expo for a show around of the place, a beautiful water and lights display, and also got to meet the other artists representing the other regions of the UK: Shao Dow from England, Nina Nesbitt from Scotland & Strawberry Guy from Wales.
I can’t emphasise enough how kind and lovely all of the artists and their teams were. I hope we cross paths again in the future!
DAY THREE
Gig day was here. The moment we had all been waiting for! After being dropped off on the complete opposite side of the Expo, we made it just in time for sound check. The stage looked AWESOME!
We have never played a stage of this size or professionalism before, with a huge LED screen behind us that had our logo and graphics rotating when we’re playing! The tech team were so on the ball. It was such a blessing!
We played four sets in total for gig day; two acoustic sets of just Reubs and I on a smaller outside stage, and two full band sets on the big stage. The acoustic stage was a lovely way to warm into the day and helped us feel the buzz of the whole event.
The first full band set was absolutely mental though. The place was packed and everyone was loving it. The response to our show was incredible. Reuben was pretty buzzed to see a Japanese guy in a Leeds shirt in the front row!
In between performances we managed to catch a decent amount of everyone else’s performances. They were all so fantastic. Perfectly curated lineup. I wish I was there as an
audience member the whole time! There was a queue out the door for our final show of the day.
We were on last, and got a big encore to close off the night, which was unreal. Especially as none of these people had ever heard of us before! They say Japanese audiences can be quite quiet, but these guys were slamming by the end!
DAY FOUR
Up and at it nice and early for the last day, so we headed to Osaka Castle to rinse the last few hours of our time in Japan. Seeing the history and incredible architecture of this city was so beautiful and stunning!
Remember that guitar shop I mentioned earlier? Well there was one guitar that Reuben just couldn’t get out of his head. A beautiful Fender Jazzmaster with a metallic green finish. What a beauty.
Unfortunately, Reuben had a terrible accident. He slipped and fell into the guitar shop, picked up the guitar, tried it out, and bought it. Happens to the best of us! In fairness, he got it for a really good price and paid about £250 less than he would have at home because of taxes etc. I didn’t wanna feel left out so I bought myself a pedal, because if there’s one thing every guitarist needs more of, it’s pedals. A Danelectro Stock 59 was flirting with me, but I restrained myself (somehow).
We did, however, bounce into the Apple Store to buy eight airtags for all the flight cases. There was no way we could risk losing the new baby after what happened on
the way in! It was funny watching them make the journey home with us on the tracker. All made it home in one piece 🙂
Our flight from Osaka landed in Tokyo, where we had an 11hr 30min layover before our flight back to Heathrow. Naturally we headed into Tokyo City to catch some of the incredible nightlife! We had an insane dinner in a restaurant where I tried fried octopus for the first time. For not being a fish fan, I was surprised how much I liked it!
It was one of those old skool places with low ceilings, tiny tables, 4 floors up from the street. The kind of place where no one speaks English and they still smoke inside. The Wagyu beef was incredible. 100% rare. A decent vet could’ve got it back on its feet again, no sweat. We had about 5 rounds of that for the same price as one sirloin in a Belfast restaurant. It was the most authentically Japanese dining experience we could have wished for. At 2am.
In Tokyo. Simmsy had his own ‘near death experience’ with the Wasabi and the Sake, but we’ll definitely be back. We had hoped to hit a Karaoke Bar for the craic, but we’ll do that next time. After that massive feed, we were all busted, so got an uber back to the airport for a shower and some last minute gift buying in the Duty Free. Our bags were rammed with kooky Kit-Kats (Banana, Blue Berry, Matcha flavour), Mario, and Hello Kitty Souvenirs. Because I think it’s actually against the law not to?
Touching down in Belfast was bittersweet. Glad to be home after all the travelling, sad that it was all over so quickly. We knew then for sure that we’d make the trip back in a heartbeat. We went to bed that Saturday night still wondering if any of it was real. It was like an out-of body experience. Or maybe we just left them behind in Universal Studios…
Video Documentary
Panic Over started working on a film project with director Lloyd Edgar @ Abbey Films 8 months ago. Lloyd was able to join them on the trip to Japan and is able to give you a sixty second teaser below.
