This
was the third year of the SOS Festival, but our first visit (and not our
last!) and what a great two days of Rock and Metal it's been. The
festival is run by Mark and Lynne of Rocksector Records whose aim is to
bring the best of the labels bands together with a few special guests,
all under one roof at this very venue.
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The
previous two events have been one day events but this year Mark wanted
to go all out and have a two day festival, making each day a themed
one. Day One being a classic and hard rock event, with Day Two
being a more metal oriented day, making a total of 20 bands spread
across the two days. Another new feature for the festival this
year was the welcome addition of some acoustic sets in between bands on
Day Two, which featured on a second stage area.
Kicking
of the weekend were Manchester’s Hell
To
Pay,
a young band who have taken their influences from the classic rock bands
like Van Halen and Y&T and created their own sound. Opening up
the set with ‘Hell To Pay’ the guys really got the day and the
weekend off to a great start. With each of the minor bands having
just 30 minutes stage time each, they got their message over early and
continued it throughout their impressive half hour set. Featuring
tracks like ‘Matter of Time’, this young band have a great future
ahead of them if this performance is anything to go by.
This
weekend also fell on the birthday of Ronnie James Dio and Hell To Pay
gave their own tribute with a stunning rendition of ‘Long Live Rock n'
Roll’, which rounded off a great opening day set.
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Next
up were Burnley’s answer to Danko Jones and Therapy combined
in Exit State, led by Roy Bright's powerful and dynamic
vocals and firey guitar, the band delivered it hard and fast and
took no prisoners on their way.
Opening
up with ‘Lost Beyond Belief’ the hard edged modern rockers
powered through their allocated 30 minutes with such an
impressive nature, it hard to believe this band aren’t bigger
than they are, but their day will come sooner rather than later
if today was anything to go by.
The
set highlighted their new album 'Death of a Rockstar' with great
rockers like ‘I Know Where You Are’, with its moody intro
before delivering a sucker punch. The fantastic album
title track ‘Death Of A Rockstar’, a real tasty riff filled
rocker that really hit the mark big style.
After
a quick thank you to Mark and Lynne and all at Rocksector
Records the set was rounded off in emphatic style with ‘Bad
Days’, which finished off one of the sets of the day.
Another band to surprise us by showcasing the hidden depth of
talent that Lancashire has to offer. |
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Next
up and keeping the hard rock theme going were The Jokers who really kicked serious ass as they opened up their
account with ‘V.I.B.E.’ Instantly the crowd were moving
forward to check these guys out a lot closer than they had with the
openers. The band continued their hard rockin’ with the
excellent ‘Shake’.
Also featured during their set was a
stunning rendition of the Beatles song ‘Helter Skelter’, which went
down a veritable storm with the crowd. While lead signer Wane
Parry resembled a young Roger Daultry, all eyes were on bass player
Shaun Hurst and his Heath Ledger like Joker mask.
A great live
band with a great album that's well worth checking out because their
songs really are as good live as they are on their album. It was cute to see some mini-Jokers running around the venue
throughout the day with large 'J's' painted across their
eyes. Another band I will be keeping an eye out for in future.
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After
the classic rock and hard rockin’ first three bands, it was time to
bring a little more modern hard rock style to the day with The Crave.
A band whose swagger and sheer rock n' roll attitude are not cosmetic,
these guys can rock as the festival soon found out when they opened up
their set with ‘Cooking In The Kitchen’, with frontman and guitarist
Ryan Burnett dominating centre stage like a great frontman should.
I first caught this band live when they were acting as support for
Buckcherry at the 02 Academy last year. At the time they'd caught
me attention and even since I've been keeping my eye out for another
opportunity to catch them in action. Today's performance confirmed
what I had hoped, that these guys really do know how to deliver the
goods and then some.
Like
most of the bands on early they went straight for the jugular and never
stopped, punching out ‘Break The Silence’, the rockin ‘High’ and
the showstopper ‘All Of You’. It's clear that this band is one
to watch out for and if you see them on a billboard in a venue near you,
I highly recommend you check them out, I know I certainly will be!
Another
band that I was particularly looking forward to seeing perform live were
Norway’s Citizen Charlie.
I’d heard good reports about the bands live performances and I was
really impressed with their studio album when I heard it. But I
don’t know what it was about today but their performance seemed to be
a little lacking of spark. I don’t know what is was but this
wasn’t the band I was expecting to see. Yes they were good, but
they were not great.
The
band opened up with a solid opener before turning the tempo up a notch
or two with ‘Don’t Tell Me What To Do’, although the set didn’t
really get going for me until ‘Running Wild’, an older track from
the band which just rocked big style, with Charlie finally starting to
get into her stride. So much so that she peeled off her jacket and
with a cut down t-shirt and a bikini top popping out the sides (steady
lads!) there was a definitely a sudden surge towards the stage by a
large portion of the male community in the crowd.
The
angst infused rock n' roll kept coming with ‘Up Yours’ and ‘On And
On’, before the highlight of the set for me ‘Until The Day’.
The bands set was unceremoniously cut short when announcer of the day
Red signaled the bands set was now at an end. The set started
slow, built itself up and was then halted abruptly. I have to say
not the show I was hoping for, but I’m sure the band will come out
fighting another day.
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Another
band that was high on my "must see" list were 4Bitten from Greece. Again a band that impressed me a lot on
CD and again like Citizen Charlie before them, were highly rated
by many for their live performances. So would my hopes be
dashed once more or would 4Bitten live up to my
expectations? Well believe me this band excelled my
expectations and ended up being my band of the day.
With
vocalist Fofi Roussos leading the way with her energetic stage
presence and the rest of the band rocking from the off, it was
clear from the opener right to the very last note that Fofi and
the guys were here to rock the very foundations of the Civic
Hall, with great rock tracks like ‘Follow’ and ‘Tell
Me’. I tell you Fofi might be small in stature but she
has a big big voice and a great stage presence that many a front
person would kill for. Talk about working that crowd and
then some, she really dominated the front of stage and worked us
like a puppet-master to her hard rockin' tunes.
The
set continued to impress with the excellent and my personal
favourite of the set ‘Rock n' Roll Dream’. This band
could do no wrong today and rounded off their set with the title
track of their album ‘No More Sins’ before the icing on the
cake ‘Lightnin’ Crashing’. |
This
was the set of the day for me. A great band that have a great
future ahead of them. I’d love to see this band on the Firefest
bill at some stage because they certainly would surprise a lot of people
and would suit that crowd down to the ground.
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Well
what can I say about the next band Falling
Red,
these guys rocked the stage at Trillians in Newcastle when they
supported Dave Evans and tonight on a bigger stage they set
about taking no prisoners.
The
band are old school sleaze, but with a modern day attitude,
(it's all about the attitude!). This quartet live the
dream, sex girls rock n' roll. Firing on all six
cylinders from the first note right to the last, with Rozey,
Kirk, Milsy and Sanders really lighting up the stage in true
Sunset Strip style.
With
hard edged rockers like ‘How You Feel On Me’ and ‘You
Where Out To Get Me’, a couple of tracks taken from the band
excellent ‘Shake the Faith’ album. These hard rocking
party animals continued with the all out rocker ‘Out Of
Control’, with Luke firing around the stage like Taz, while
Sanders pummeled out the back beat like Animal from the Muppets,
only wearing in a cowboy hat.
The
band rounded off the set with a cover and what a cover!
The band totally ripped up the rocker ‘Long Tall Sally’
which had most of the crowd singing and swaggering along to it,
and a song that rounded off another great set from these
guys. If it hadn't been for 4 Bitten being on the bill,
then these guys would have taken the crown for set of the day
today. |
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Finally
it was time for the headliners the Black
Spiders to burst on to the stage. A band whose
reputation goes before them. A band that have none other
than the mighty Ozzy Osbourne as a fan, so they have that going
for them. This was my first taste of the band and it was
easy to see and hear why Ozzy likes them so much, with their
heavy Sabbathesque feel, big bass lines and heady guitars.
The
band took the venues sound system to the edge and back again as
they tore through their set with tracks like ‘Stay Down’,
One Horse Town’ and 'What Good Is A Rock’, topped with
tracks of the set ‘St Peter’, 'Man Ruin', the stomping 'Kiss
Track Tried To Kill Me', before rounding off the day with
‘Blood Of The Kings’.
The
band went mental, the crowd went wild and to top it all we even
had a streaker take to the stage shortly after the band left ...
well I bet you don't get that at Sonisphere ... or even
Knobworth!
This
was only Day One and we had another day to go. What a day! Eight
great rock bands, all totally individual and all brought
together under one banner ... ROCK! I for one couldn’t wait to
see what the Metal day had to offer. |
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