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At last it has
arrived, the melodic rock showcase of the year. A new festival, a new
name, and hopefully the start of a long run of melodic AOR festivals
under the Firefest banner.
Promoter Kieran Dargon (Emerald Productions) in conjunction with Bruce
Mee and Fireworks Magazine have put together a line-up of superstars and
future stars under one roof.
After the seemingly demise of
the Z fests and the Gods festivals over the past couple of years,
Emerald Productions have taken the bull by the horns and after an
absence of two years, Bradford's Town and Country Club (formerly
Pennington's), is once again the venue for some of the biggest names in
the Melodic Rock to showcase material both old and new.
Pride
Opening up today's
proceedings are Pride who were already playing on stage when I
got into the venue, as the doors were a little over half an hour late
opening. Playing tracks from the band’s two studio albums and
also featuring tracks off there soon to be released third album.
 One
change in the bands line up since they played on this very stage
at the Gods 2003 festival, is arrival of new second guitarist and
backing vocalist Tony Marshall.
The former Contagious/Vaughan guitarist seems to have given the band an
added edge with his own inimitable style of guitar playing.
This mixed with Chris Green’s guitars and Matt Mitchell's vocals, will
hopefully see the band progress to next level and become the saviours of
the British Melodic Rock scene.
Only time will tell I
guess so we'll just have to wait and see. This band certainly gave
it there all and then some and kick-started the day off to a fine start
indeed.
House of Shakira
Next up are House of
Shakira, who I was really looking forward to hearing play on the
bigger stage after the magnificent set they performed at the pre-show
party the night before. I'd also been greatly impressed by them at
their appearance at a previous Gods festival some years ago.
 The
band were joined on stage by their former vocalist Mikael Eriksson who
sang backing vocals today, as new front man Andreas Eklund led the way
to a very impressive performance by the band.
Playing tracks from their back catalogue and their latest release
‘First Class’ on the bands new label Lion Music, who have also
re-released the band debut album ‘Lint’ with Andreas on vocals.
It’s well worth getting a copy to compare the two vocalist styles. House
of Shakira are a band that can go a long way with the right
motivation behind them.
M.ill.ion
M.ill.ion are next
to hit the stage and hit it they did, full throttle and all guns
blazing. Opening up with 'Eyes of a King’ from their latest album 'Kingsize’,
with bombastic keyboards and powerhouse guitars from 19 year old guitar
virtuoso Jonas Hermanson, who has a big future ahead of him if today's
performance is anything to go by.
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Creating a
sound that mixes the early Deep Purple keyboards with early
Scorpions, this was the band that really got the day underway
properly for me. With vocalist Ulrich Carlsson dominating the
centre stage as if it was meant to be.
Concentrating mainly on the new release there were a few older
tracks included in the set. One of my favourites I'm glad to say
was ‘I'm In Your Blood’.
The crowd reaction to
M.ill.ion sounded good enough from where I was standing to earn
them another invite back to these shores. Whether it be at
another similar event, or touring on their own, we'll just have
to wait and see. I for one will certainly be keeping a close eye
out for these guys returning again.
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Legs
Diamond
Legs Diamond were
described in the introduction by Dave Reynolds as "the most
dangerous band in the world", although they were the oldest band on
stage today, they certainly didn’t let that stop them showing the
young pretenders out there how it’s done.
With original
vocalist Rick Sanford dropping out of the band just weeks before
the festival, it was time for John Levesque to take up the
mantle of lead vocals, and tonight he didn’t let the band
down.
Opening up with 'Get Some Out' and 'Rock Doctor' the crowd took
Levesque into their hearts and give him their whole hearted
support.
This seemed to boost the rest of the band who's vast back
catalogue was barely touched in their 45 minute slot, but what
was gave their fans something to remember for a long time.
Tracks included 'I Am For You', 'Fugitive', ‘The Underworld
King', 'Walk Away', and the majestic 'Woman'. |
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For a band that has
been around in one form or another for the last 30 years, they all
certainly seemed to enjoy playing together once more. It was also nice
to see that Roger Romeo and Michael Prince haven’t lost any of their
edge after all these years … Good Stuff.
Casanova
Germany’s Casanova have
one of the highest pedigrees of any of the bands on today's bill, with
Michael Voss being one of the most respected artists appearing here
today.
In Casanova he has found a project that may have had a quiet
spell over the past few years, but with interest from the Japanese
market, the band have once again being thrown into the spotlight. With
the release of their new album ‘Beauty Must Die’ last year a new
spark has been ignited.
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The band open
up this afternoons section of the day with 'Talking About Love'
and 'Hollywood Angels', followed by a quick thank you to
everyone for their support, then it’s straight into 'Not Over
You' and 'Ride With The Wings Of Freedom'.
Then it was special guest time with the introduction of former
MSG and current Statetrooper front man the one and only Gary
Barden.
Then it was time for something different, not a MSG track or a
Statetrooper track, but a fine rendition of UFO's 'Doctor
Doctor', which got the biggest cheer of the day so far from the
crowd.
This set from Casanova
had to be one of the high points of the day so far for many.
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Dare
Next up were Dare
although the announcer inadvertently said that Pink Cream 69 were
next. In hindsight might have been the better choice to follow Casanova
as the crowd were just warming up. Although the easy on the ear tones of
Darren Wharton and Co. were welcomed by 75% of the crowd, I'm afraid I
was with the other 25%, being not the biggest fan of the band.
They just seemed a little too bland and safe for a mid order billing and
seemed to kill the lively atmosphere that had been achieved by Casanova.
Don’t get me wrong Dare weren’t bad, but the fact that Mr.
Wharton is the only original member of the band left leaves me wondering
if he is flogging a dead horse and holding on to past glories.
With a predictable setlist that included 'Stay With Me', 'Abandon',
'Storm Wind', and the Phil Lynott tribute 'King of Spades', not my cup
of tea I'm afraid, but today I think I was in the minority.
Pink
Cream 69
Now it’s time
for probably the best band on today's bill Pink Cream 69 led
by Burnley's own Dave Readman. Pink Cream 69
delivers no nonsense rock n' roll.
Opening up with the title track of their new album 'Thunderdome'
they immediately blew me away.
This is what rock should be, ripping guitars, thunderous back
beat, and plenty of balls.
After a ten-year absence
from these shores the band settled down to playing from their
hearts and with a passion that seemed to boost the crowd even
more.
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With tracks like 'Hell Gone Crazy',
’Like It Like That', 'Lost In Illusion', and the classic 'Keep Your
Eye On The Twisted', the band just ripped through the set like a
buzz-saw, and delivered one of the best performances I've seem at any of
the previous Z fests or Gods festivals in recent years.
Let’s hope that someone offers than a touring slot in this country in
the near future, I for one will be there for sure.
After the set from Pink Cream 69 it would take something special
to follow that, and that’s just what we got from Firehouse, a
band that could easily have headlined today without any problem, and
after the Soul Sirkus set I wish they had, but more of that
later.
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Firehouse
If 75% of the
crowd had wanted to see Dare then 110% of them wanted to
see Firehouse. After their extremely successful
tour with Vaughan last year, those of us who managed to
see them knew exactly what a class act these guys are both on
album and live. In fact I dare say this band were the
deciding factor to many of the punters here today on whether to
come or not.
Opening up the set with 'Down To Lovers Lane', this was soon
followed by the classic 'All She Wrote', both of which had the
crowd buzzing. With C J Snare in fine form and loving every
crowd reaction. |
Then it was time for something
more recent with 'Crash' off the bands 'Primetime' album of last year,
the set wouldn’t be complete without the classics 'Overnight
Sensation', from the bands debut album, 'Love of a Lifetime', and one of
my favourite Firehouse tracks 'Reach For The Sky'. Before finally
finishing of a great set with 'Don't Treat Me Bad'.
The day was complete for me and the next band would find it hard to
compete with this performance.
TNT
But if any band could
follow Firehouse's performances then TNT were just the
band to do it. With Tony Harnell at the helm steering the good ship TNT
to these shores after an absence of some 18 years, not since they played
the Marquee Club back in 1987 have they played together as TNT.
Although Mr. Harnell has been over with Westworld in recent years,
it’s the line-up tonight that a lot of people have been waiting for.
Starting of
with 'Invisible Noise' off the bands new album the excellent 'My
Religion', then it’s back to the classics with 'Far As The Eye
Can See' and 'Downhill Racer'. Before returning back to
‘My Religion’ with 'She Needs Me'.
By this time Ronni Le Tekro is playing the guitar like Tigger on
speed as he rips through riff after mother f**king riff.
With a set that was well balanced between the classic tracks
like 'Intuition', 'Shine On', and '10,000 Lovers', as well as a
healthy mixture of the new stuff.
The whole set is performed
with such vigour and passion. The band performed as a whole,
left their egos backstage, and gave us one hell of a
performance.
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The only criticism I have is that
the band not playing any sort of an encore. Whether this was down to a
lack of time or whatever, but this resulted in the crowd booing, which
was the only time that this happened throughout the day and was solely
down to their disappointment at not being able to hear more by this band
they’d enjoyed watching so much.
Soul Sirkus
It was now 12.50 am and I
was starting to feel the rigors of the day starting to take its toll.
After one of the longest delays of the day, over an hour later than
billed, the biggest hyped band this year Soul Sirkus finally hit
the stage. Sadly the performance didn’t live up to all the
speculation. As they were so late going on stage many of the crowd had
decided they weren’t worth the wait and the audience was now down to
less than a 1/3rd that had witnessed both Firehouse and TNT.
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Starting off so
well with tracks from the excellent debut 'World Play', 'Highest
Ground' and 'Superstition', and Soto's vocals just soared and I
thought this is going to blow me away.
With 'Friends to Lovers' quickly followed by 'Parallel Divide',
and then 'My Sanctuary', we were even treated to 'Stand Up And
Shout', a monster of a song from the movie Rock Star.
The hype that had followed the band was all worth it up to that
point, then the inevitable thing happened that you get when you
have so many talented musicians on stage together, the
showboating started. Firstly Neil Schon did his tribute to
Hendrix by playing 'Voodoo Chile' that just seemed to go on for
a dogs age. |
Then it was the turn
of Marco Mendoza to go on to do what can only be described as a R2 D2
impression with some clicks and whirls and a little scat-man solo that
was lost on most of the remaining crowd. Then he did a Ted Nugent cover
that wasn’t that bad, but for a band whose new album has 16 good
tracks on it, I wonder how many they actually rehearsed for today's
show.
While all this was going on Jeff Scott Soto had been off stage for
something like 25 minutes easy. When he eventually returned it was his
time to do his own solo spot with Seals 'Never Want To Survive',
followed by a little Queen with 'Bohemian Rhapsody', and then into
Princes 'Purple Rain'. All of which are good songs, but certainly not
what I had come to hear here today from this supergroup band. This must
have been the most talented cover band in rock history.
When they eventually got back to playing tracks off the new album I, and
many others in the audience, had lost the will to live. The last track I
heard was ' I Feel Alive', which was certainly ironic as it was far from
what I was feeling at that moment in time. I don’t know how the
rest of the set went, but it was well after 2 am and all I wanted was to
get back to my hotel and crash out. It had been a long day, and
the disappointment of the headline act wasn’t going to rest on my
mind, as the whole day had been great up until that point.
I would like to hope that Emerald Productions, and Fireworks Magazine,
get plenty of positive feedback from both the bands and the punters to
make a go of this festival and bring it back next year.
I know some people were unsure about the ticket price and the line-up
before the day, but having taken the chance and come along to check it
out, all I can say is it was well worth the money and all but the
headliners gave the punters what they wanted and a whole lot more.
The great thing about this festivals is that it gives you a
chance to hear music and see bands perform that you might not normally
come into contact with. As
with previous festivals of this nature, we came away with a bulging bag
of cd’s, a lot of happy memories, and a list of bands to watch out for
in future should they tour.
Thanks Kieran, Bruce & everyone at Fireworks for making the festival
today, and the pre-show party last night, such a joy to be a part of.
Keep up the good work and fingers crossed we’ll see you all at
the next one!
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