Festival:  Z Rock 2006 

Artists: Shy, Vaughn, Demon, Winterstrain, Dante Fox, Crimes Of Passion, Enemy Of Thought 

Venue: The Limelight, Crewe

Date:  2 April 2006 

The conclusion of what has been a very hectic week gig wise for the Mayfair Mall crew came to an end today with the return of Z Rocks.

This would be my first time at the Limelight and the overall impression of the venue was a positive one. The facilities were good, the availability of something to eat at these all day shindigs has always been an issue.  With a mini cafe of sorts in the room adjacent to the concert hall, today we didn't have far to venture for food.

Enemy of Thought

To start today’s proceedings off were ‘Enemy of Thought’.  Although the band were announced as the remnants of Melodic Rockers Contagious with Pete Frank on guitar and Stormin Norman on drums, the bands sound is a million miles away from anything that Contagious ever did.

The heavier sound is something Pete has always wanted to play and with Enemy of Thought he certainly has achieved it.

Opening up these sort of mini festivals has always been a daunting task for any band, but give them their due, Enemy of Thought did themselves proud.  They came out and delivered the goods in their allotted 30 min slot.

Opening up with ‘Ever Again’, a song that showed what a great sound the band could produce, then continued with ‘Who The Hell Are You?’, with Pete showing what a talented guitar player he really is.

The band slowed things up a little with the menacing ‘No Remorse’, a fairly new song for the band which I think perhaps needs a little more practise, and maybe a few vocal effects to fully bring the song on.  The same could be said for ‘Monster Growing Inside’, but still with a little more work these could be a massive songs for the band.  After all this is still a new band and while the newer songs need a bit of strengthening up with practise, the older songs sound spot on in both their power and delivery.

The set continued with the monster ‘I Am’, which was my favourite track from the bands EP that I was sent some time ago.

The song of the day from the band had to be ‘Purest Form’, which is more favourable to the vocals of Chris Adams, and is early Sabbath at their best.  The band then finished off their impressive set with ‘I Speak’, which once again gave Pete a chance to shine.

My overall thoughts of the band are that with a little more practice, and a little work on the vocals, the year 06/07 looks very promising for Enemy of Thought.  If you haven't got a copy of the EP then I can highly recommend you check it out. 

Crimes of Passion

Next up were ‘Crimes of Passion’, a band that over the past year have grown into quite a band.

The band emerged like a phoenix for the ashes from Deadline and the name change, change of vocalist, and change of style musically, has given the band more scope to expand into a wider market.

I've seen this band on quite a few occasions now and was really looking forward to this particular performance.  I was also looking forward to hearing the bands new songs, to which there were plenty in today’s set.  It's now blatantly apparent that all ties with the Deadline moniker have been well and truly thrown aside for a much more dynamic and alive approach to the music.

This new lease of life the band seems largely to have come in the form of new vocalist Dale who brings his larger than life persona to the band.

As far as today’s set goes Crimes of Passion has opted for new material and dropped all earlier material of the Deadline era. The set opened up with ‘Pray For You’ and immediately Dale was in full flow leaping about the stage like a man possessed.

Sadly the sound seemed to have taken sum what of a nose dive from the Enemy of Thought set, as the guitar didn’t sound as crisp as they should.  Indeed after the set Dale revealed that he couldn’t even hear himself on the on stage monitors.  But sound aside, Crimes of Passion still put on a great show.

The set continued with the new songs ‘Exit Wounds’ ‘The Death of Me’ and ‘My Miracle’ and the excellent ‘Breathless and Beautiful’.  The set was then rounded off with a cover of Warrant's ‘Rainmaker’.

As I said before Dale has brought new life into an almost dead band and let's hope things go from strength to strength.  Indeed there are now absolutely no similarities left to the band known as Deadline.  Crimes of Passion are a new band in every way with the musicians finding a new jest for life. 

Dante Fox

Next up was the Midlands own Dante Fox who hit the stage around 4 o’clock and tried their best to provoke some sort of reaction from what had been so far a very dormant audience.

I’ve never been a big fan of the band, but give them their due they do put 110% into each performance, and you can't fault the powerful vocals of Sue Willets one iota.

The sound was a little better for Dante Fox with only one or two dead mike moments.  They opened up with ‘I Can't See You Alone’ and then quickly went into ‘Something Going On’.  By this time some members of the crowd were starting warming to the band and started making their way tenderly towards the stage.

Dante Fox have always been a band big on the power ballads and today was no exception with songs like ‘City Lights’, ‘Break Me Down’ and ‘Goodbye To Yesterday’.  There were a few cry’s from the back of the auditorium for the Stevie Lang’s ‘Remember’, which tends to be the bands usual set closer.

The band wavered a way from the power ballads with the excellent ‘Firing Guns’, if the bands set contained a few more tracks like this one then I would be a bit more enthusiastic about see the band live more.

The band yielded to the crowds chant and changed the set running order and played ‘Remember’, which was an excellent version of the song and vocals are spot on every time I’ve heard it.

The closed the set with ‘Last Goodbye’ another power ballad.  Although this was another workman like performance from the band, I’m sure that if they had been around when the likes of Alannah Myles were high in the charts, Dante Fox would be a lot bigger band.  As it is let's hope that the new album will bring a harder sound and bigger audience appeal, otherwise they might find their vocation takes them more along the lines of the cruise ship circuit.

Winterstrain 

The festival needed a shot of adrenalin and that’s just what the next band brought with them.  Norsemen Winterstrain set siege to the venue with a blaze of glory opening up with ‘Temptations’ and immediately they got the audience moving, which was a good thing because by this time some had started to take root.

Their own brand of Norwegian progressive metal was music to my ears as the set continued with the 1998 track ‘Family Secret’ from the album Return To The Mirror.  The band seemed genuinely honoured to be part of the day and seemed to be really enjoying the experience.

Their set was straight ahead melody and power this seemed to hail the start of the day proper for many in the crowd, as suddenly there were signs of life from every corner of the room by people who definitely seemed to enjoy what Winterstrain were giving them.

The set continued with ‘In Your Head’ and ‘Rumours That Speak’ before things slowed down with ‘Broken To Dust’.  The band then introduced a guest backing vocalist, non other than Shy’s Tony Mills who apparently also did backing vocals on the bands album and who was instrumental in getting the band over to the UK.  So it seemed only right that he joined the band on the live performance.

The band continued with a magnificent performance of ‘The Battle’, with vocalist Geir Helge Fredheim giving it his all.  Then ‘Leon’ before going into what was the highlight of the set for me, ‘Mountain Inside The Stone’, still with the mighty Tony Mills on backing vocals. The set closed with ‘From The Other Side’ and the last track of a far too short set was  ‘Another Time’.

This was the first time for me and most of the audience to sample Winterstrain and I for one was certainly impressed.

Demon 

The question now was could Demon continue the momentum that Winterstrain brought to the days proceedings, the answer was a definite yes.  Demon are a band very much in the Tygers of Pan Tang mould delivering classic rock vibes with a touch of keyboard panache.

The band led by manic front man Dave Hill opened up with ‘Night of the Demon’, with the antics of Hill being the focal point of the set as he gestured every word of every song.

With a vast back catalogue to pick from the band got everything right with the choice of songs for today’s performance.  Next up was ‘Into the Nightmare’ and a song some twenty-year-old song ‘Plague’.

But it was the song of the bands 'Unexpected Guest' album that really set the crowd alight.  Tracks liked ‘Sign of the Madman’ ‘ The Spell’ and the song that started it all off for the band ‘Don’t Break the Circle’.  The set was brought to a close with the rousing ‘No Hell On Earth.

The band might be a little long in the tooth but they still have rock running through their veins and still give it their all, and with a European tour later this month in the pipeline things are looking up for the aged rockers.

Vaughn 

What can a say about the next act that hasn’t been said before, simply nothing, as late inclusions to the day as Von Groove couldn’t play for one reason or another (rumours abound) it was up to Vaughn to save the day.

Danny Vaughn has kept the Vaughn band name alive with the help of some of the cream of British melodic rock talent, and with this line-up he intends on going into the studio later this year to record a new Vaughn album.

The set was very similar in vein to that of the set that the band did at Firefest last year, with Danny’s vast back catalogue to choose from, it must have been hard not to simulate the Firefest show in its entirety, as most of today's audience had been at that very show.  As Danny said as he looked out among the crowd, he saw lots of now familiar faces.

The set opened up with something a little funky ‘Feel The Power’ before it was down to some good old’ rock n roll with ‘Wings’ the it was back to the mid eighties for some Waysted.  So far Danny had gone through nearly twenty years in only three songs, before settling for something off the 'Soldiers and Sailors' album, which is probably my favourite Vaughn album.  Singing ‘Is That All There Is’ it was plain for all to see that the band were pulling out all the stops and really enjoying themselves.

Then it was time for a touch more Tyketto with ‘Meet Me In The Night’, a song that still gets the crowd going.

But it was the Waysted years that really brought back memories for me with ‘How The West Was Won’ and my all time favourite Waysted song ‘Heaven Tonight’, which was a track that someone e-mailed Danny and requested he play today, and play he did.

As Danny introduced the band to everyone, I was pleased to hear the biggest cheer go out when guitarist Pat Heath’s name was announced as I think he is one Britain’s least appreciated guitars players and he doesn’t always get the praise he deserves.

It was the encore that was a bit special as Danny returned to the stage alone and did an outstanding rendition of ‘Standing Alone’, which was helped in the chorus by the very appreciative crowd.

As the rest of the band returned to the stage to perform ‘Fearless’ and what has become the band obligatory last song ‘Forever Young’.  This ended another first rate performance by the band.

Shy 

With the Vaughn set still fresh in the crowds mind it was time for headliners Shy to shine, and as the gig was being recorded for a live album the opus was on the audience to give it all they have.

Shy have always been a band I had dismissed in the past, but after seeing Shy give one of the performances of the day at Firefest 2 last year I was really looking forward to tonight’s show.

It's was plain to see as the dividing screen went up that Tony Mills had his business face on and was 100% committed to the gig.  The band opened up in great style with ‘Breakaway’ and ‘Skydiving’ two of my favourite Shy tracks.

The two vocal styles of Mills and Vaughn are very different, but the AOR fraternity holds both singers in very high esteem.  So who came out best today I would have to say Tony Mills for his cock sure attitude and his stage persona have no equal.

The set continued with the classic ‘Emergency’ before things were slowed down a little with ‘When The Love Is Over’ and then a song the band haven’t played in ages ‘Communicate’.

The band were in great form  and even Tony was giving a occasional rye smile, the set continued with ‘Cant Fight The Nights’, ‘Soul Searching’, ‘ Whole Lotto Feelings’, and the outstanding ‘Breakdown The Walls’, which really got the crowd going.

The set was rounded off with ‘Reflections’ with Steve Harris at his immaculate best, and the rousing ‘No Other Way’ before the band left the stage obviously drained from another great Shy show.

The audience were encouraged to bring the band back by the compare but it wasn’t looking good for an encore.  Then host Mark Alger came on to the stage and asked if we minded if the band did an acoustic set as the band were exhausted, p***ed was his exact words.  The crowds roar of approval saw the band come on stage to perform two excellent acoustic versions of ‘Talk to Me’ and ‘Telephone’, which capped off perfectly what was in all an excellent day.

And with the announcement of another Z Rocks later in the year and the rumours of there being no Firefest this year, it gives Z Rocks a shot at giving the AOR crowd something to look forward to.   

 

 

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