From entering the venue it was plain to see that the organisers had their heads firmly screwed on.  The venue was spacious, there was both hot and cold food available, seating down both sides of the venue.  The band merchandise stalls were well laid out and easily accessible.  There were even a few stalls selling rock clothing, jewellery and general rock and metal CDs.  Also the bar and toilets were easily accessible to all.  So far so good then.

The venue boasts a 60K sound system and that’s where I think it was let down a bit, as the venue’s acoustics just weren’t really suited to such a vast PA.  The onstage lighting was also a problem and was a bit inadequate at times, however, I’m sure for a first time event these things were looked upon as only minor distractions on what in total was great day.

The day’s proceedings got underway by the very capable Rollin Thunder, a band that impressed me when I caught them recently at Bradford Rio, and tonight they lived up to the standards laid down at that gig.

The band put on a great display of melodic hard rock with frontman Rik Clayton leading the way with his Ted Poley demeanour.  Stand out tracks had to be the excellent up tempo rocker ‘No Work Just Play’, new songs ‘It's Only Love’ and ‘Two Worlds', with the band finishing off with two of my favourites ‘Forever’, and the party track ‘Everybody Want’, which rounded off a great set from a band who have a lot of promise and one who set the standards for the rest of the bands to follow.

Things continued after a short interval with New Generation Superstars, who like most of the bands on today, I was no stranger to their live shows.

This band are a completely different animal to Rollin Thunder.  Whereas Rollin Thunder have a more melodic edge to their sound, New Generation Superstars are a full on rock machine who took to the stage and from the off laid down their own brand of high tempo sleaze rock, with vocalist AJ just ripping up the guitar as they stampeded through their set like a freight train out of control, which at times lead to some of the songs sounding very similar through the poor sound.  This didn’t deter the crowd enjoying what they heard though, with standout songs ‘Star’, 'That's The Way It's Always Gonna Be’, and the bands swan song ‘Rock n Roll Overload’, which once again raised the bar for the rest to follow.

With Blackie Rebel on vocals you don’t know what your gonna get from show to show.  I’ve seen him give his all at show and really blow the crowds away, but then again I’ve also seen him not give a damn, and tonight it was more towards the latter I’m afraid.

As he came on stage holding a bottle of wine and wearing a white top hat and shades this was a man on a mission of self-destruction.

The band opened up with ‘Too Young To Care’, a fitting opener for what I was hoping to be set where the band could really show what they could do.  But as Blackie started to throw the mike around stage, much to the disgust of the sound guy, who I thought was about to launch himself at Blackie at one point.  The look on his face said it all really.

The set continued with ‘On My Way To Hollywood’, 'Another Heartache’ and ‘The Fast Die Young And Pretty’, all sounding rather second rate from a band that have so much potential.  It’s criminal to see them not give their all, as I know they can and have done on so many of the other occasions I've seen them perform live.

The band got the set going with the now familiar set opener ‘Black Sheep Fiddle’ and straight away all the sound problems that had plagued the other bands were gone.  The tight professionalism of constant touring has shown its own rewards as the band delivered what was to become the show of the day.

The set continued with ‘Drag You Down’, another real up tempo rocker with frontman Lee Stone’s voice showing little signs of fatigue.  The band slowed things down a little by bringing in the blues with ‘Hangover Blues’, before raising the gate with ‘Killing Time’, a song which Stone informed us was about waiting for sex!

The band had clearly brought their A-game tonight as the set continued with ‘Falling Away’, before once more bringing it down with the melodic tones of ‘Reach For The Line’.  This band have all the right ingredients, great sound, great songs and are a tight as a fishes arse and that’s water tight.

As the band came on stage accompanied by their now infamous backing dancers the Glitter Kittens, lead singer Zakk swaggered on dressed in a fur waistcoat which made him look more like a miniature Giant Haystacks, than the singer in a sleaze rock band.

The band opened things up with ‘Lady Conniver’ and immediately brought the fun factor to the day proceedings, whether this was entirely intentional or not.

The set continued with ‘Suicide’ and the first of a couple of new tracks ‘Running The Pink’, before Zakk introduced the band as a “bunch of filthy bastards from York”. 

The band got things underway with the rocking ‘Tear Your Fucking Heart Out’, a track taken from the bands 'Wazbones' album and one that immediately had the crown were whipped into a frenzy.  This was before really getting them going as the band went into ‘Living With Out You’, a song that brought the memories of the 80’s flooding back, with Kim high kicking his way through the song like a man half his age.

The set carried on its lightening pace with ‘Shoot To Kill’ and ‘Love Overload’, two obvious crowd favourites.  What am I saying?, all the songs on tonight’s set are crowd favourites!, even the new tracks off 'Bezerk II'.  But it was the classics that the crowd wanted to hear and they were here in abundance with ‘Noise Levels Critical’, 'Dirty Needles', and 'Call of The Wild’.  These were intertwined nicely with the newer tracks ‘For Hates Sake’, a Jay Pepper composition that was played live for the first time tonight, ‘Do It Up’, and the sensational ‘Murderous’.

The set continued with ‘Love Drug’ and ‘Push Me Over’, before returning to the 'No Respect' album for ‘Down For The Third Time’, all of which get a warm and endearing response from the audience.

But like Tigertailz the crowd wanted to hear their favourites and the band dually obliged with ‘Who’s Watching You’ and the ultimate Vain track in many of the crowds eyes ‘Beat The Bullet’, both of which just simply rocked.

The band seemed to play a somewhat shorter set than advertised, whether this was due to the later that scheduled start time or not, only the band and the promoter will know the answer to that.

The band rounded off the set with a stirring encore of ‘No Respect’ and the excellent ‘Ready For More’, before leaving a much drained and exuberant crowd fuelled up for the rock night that was about the follow, so the party would keep on going into the wee small hours.