There has been much said about this years Z Rocks what with bands dropping out, Britny Fox and Von Groove and the promoter dropping one of the headliners ‘Black N' Blue and with numerous postings on the Melodicrock Forum, or as I like to call it "The Melodicrock Four-of-em", asking for people to boycott the event and asking for refunds.

This sort of thing goes on quite regular amongst the so-called Melodic Rock fans and to be honest is not productive when these sorts of events are put on, after all we're supposed to be all trying to keep this music alive. There was a brief period a few years ago when The Gods and Phoenix Rising events were no more and people were crying out for such event to keep this music alive.

No matter who is promoting these events it the bands who suffer from the bad karma and after all it the bands we come to see year after year not the promoter if we want to keep this scene alive. 

Enough of my ranting down to the actual event which is being held at a completely new venue, it's so new the paint had just dried hours before the doors opening at Birmingham’s The Asylum, which is part of Madhouse Recording Studios.

As venues go the place isn’t bad, quite spacious actually, probably holds about 400 at capacity and has two bars, which is always a bonus.  A smoking area, which is the yard outside and which means you don’t have to physically leave the venue.  A decent PA and a big stage!  So all in all things are looking up for Birmingham’s newest live venue. 

Opening up the day one section of Z Rock 2008 would be Rock$tar who were into their set when we arrived at the venue.  As I entered into the main room I had to take a step back as Rock$tar's frontman Tony Nicholl has an uncanny resemblance to Andrew “Mac” McDermott of Threshold fame.  Is this what Mac was doing since leaving Threshold? Sadly not.

The band were the ideal opener for this pre-show event as their set was a mainly a covers set, which had a few surprises in it with excellent cover versions of WASP’s 'Wild Child', Tyketto’s 'Forever Young' and even Billy Idol’s 'White Wedding' got the Rock$tar treatment, as well as Motley Crue’s 'Looks That Kill' (you don’t hear that everyday) and with 'Hot Cherie' being the pick of what I caught of their set, as a warm up act they did what it said on the tin. 

Next up were local band 7 Dayz who's set was all their original Hard Rock material, which got underway with ‘Can You Feel It’, a really big opener that made people step away from the bar and look stage ward.

Their set was a mix of Hard Rock and Melodic Rock and featured many songs from the bands debut CD including the Melodic overtones of ‘Honestly’, the Hard Rockin ‘Natural High’ and ‘Talk To The Hand’.  The band also managed to do a tribute to Von Groove who couldn’t make to festivities with their version of ‘Lost/Down In Love’ which ended quite a decent set of old school Hard Rock. 

Up next were obvious crowd favourites Stormzone, as this is the point were people actually moved forward towards the stage as Harv Harbinson and the rest of Belfast’s best delivered the first of two sets of the weekend

I saw Stormzone as last years Firefest pre-show and was quite impressed, not only with the band but also with Harv’s enthusiastic approach as he dominated the stage that night and so did he tonight as he gave 110% as always.

The band opened up with ‘Spellbound’ from the bands debut album and instantly had the crowd on their side.

The band have the roots solidly planted in the root of great British Rock and wear it proudly on their sleeves as they carried on their set with ‘Secret Gateway’ and my personal favourite ‘Fallen Hero’, both as old school as they come but great all the same.

But highlight of the set had to be the next two songs firstly ‘Cryin In The Rain’ this one really set the band apart from the previous bands as they got a few members of the audience singing along those of them that had bought their debut 'Caught In The Act’ and were making the fact known to all.

Then it was ‘New World’ a heavier track that rocked big style and showed off Harbinson’s vocals prowess as well as guitarist Keith Harris’s fluent guitar style, the set was rounded off with ‘World Of Sorrow’, another slice of old school MelodicRock which ended a great set and one that was far superior than the last time a caught them at Firefest last year. 

Well with all these sort of events there is one band, which has to suffer for the sake of nourishment, and today it was Dante Fox who suffered, so I’m sorry to Sue and the rest of the band. 

When it comes to the next band what can I say I’ve now seen them on every tour since their come back album 'The Power And The Myth', but it was the 'World Upside Down' album that really put the band back on the map, mainly due to the line-up change and the introduction of Jimi Bell and BJ Zampa to the fold, alongside James Christian this seemed to be a marriage made in heaven and the band have gone from strength the strength ever since.

As the intro into 'Sahara' faded away James and the rest of the band opened up the song proper they made an instant impact, not just on me but on the rest of the audience with Bell is stunning form along, with new boy Matt McKenna on bass, as he reminded me of a young Mendoza with his bass twirling.

But it was Christian’s vocals that were just stunning, even more so as he was having problems listening to himself as the in ear monitors that weren’t working, all the time  this never phased him.  As he showed with a stunning vocal performance on ‘Chains Of Love’ and the excellent ballad ‘Love Don’t Lie’.

Bell got ‘Come To My Kingdom’ underway and straight away I thought the album version doesn’t do this song proud as live, it is just magnificent and showed the band are good on album, but live they are just great and a totally different animal altogether.

This was none more apparent when the band just ripped through the top notch rocker ‘Rock Bottom’, with Bell once again firing out the licks with such ease.  It was like watching it in slow motion such was the ease of his guitar playing.

'One Foot In The Dark' was dedicated to Jimi by James as Bell just ripped up a storm once more with McKenna just a superb on the bass.  The first song Jimi and James wrote together ‘I’m Free’ was next then it was straight into ‘These Are The Times’, both superb slices of the new House Of Lords.

There were numerous highlights in this a very much old and new set but the likes of ‘I Wanna Be Loved’ and ‘Talkin 'Bout Love’ shone above all others for me, as the songs rang out around the venue like they had only been written yesterday.

After a thumping drum solo by BJ the band returned and James strapped on a guitar for ‘Cant Find My Way Home’ then once again Bell made the guitar look easy as the band went into Top Of The World’ and ‘All The Way To Heaven’. But Bell real moment to let loose was with his solo he just burned up the fret board like no other and paved the way for the big finish of ‘Slip Of The Tongue’ again showing the bands more rockin' side.

The band left the stage only for a few moments as the audience bayed for more, more we got as they rounded off the night with the stunning SOS.

With all the politics behind the scenes of the event this was still a bargain at twenty five pounds and the winners tonight were those who decided to attend and the bands who all gave their all.