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Well
after yesterday's Metal Day it was time to do it all again with day two
of this years S.O.S. Festival and the mighty Rock day. Today we
would be treat to another great mix of bands and styles all fitting
under the "ROCK" banner. We had Sleaze, we had Old
School, we had Heavy Metal, we had Melodic AOR, we had it all.
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day two underway were the excellent scallywags Ten
By Ten, who really got day two off to a great start with
their old school hard rockin’ big licks and chunky melodies.
This band well and truly took the audience by the throat and
forced them to wake up and get the party started. The
band's set included some sterling moments with ‘Keep Up With
The Jones’, ‘Seven Year Scar’ and ‘Jesus Road Trip’
just a few of the highlights from a great set.
Luckily
enough although it was early in the day and a Sunday, there were
still a fair number in, so for this set everyone up for the day
ahead very nicely, especially the tribute to today's headliners
Gun which had the lead singer instructing us to roll our 'R's'
while singing 'Word Up'. |
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A
band I for one would definitely like to see again as they were not
only entertaining and fully engaged the crowd, but they also has
the musical talent to back it up. It's one thing being able
to perform a song musically, but it's another one to be able to
able to entertain and engage with your audience at the same
time. Well done lads!
Last
year the day continued to get underway in fine form with Afterdown.
The band were back again to wow the crowds and to kept the
momentum going with their metal edged hard rock. Familiar
tracks of their set included ‘What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You
Stronger’ and ‘Rise', both going down an absolute storm.
Even the new one’s like ‘Obey’ and ‘The Devil Inside’
were well received by the crowd today.
A
great band who appealed to both the fans from the metal day and
today’s rock orientated crowd, with both sides nodding in
approval. Definitely a band to watch out for.
Next
up were a band that simply took the day by the scruff of the neck
and really shook some life into it. That band being
Glampunksters Velvet Star. I’ve seen this band
before but many in today hadn't and boy did the band make a huge
impression with their performance today. |
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They
came out all guns blazing as Danny, Corey, Adie, Ginna and new
guitarist Zeb simply exploded onto the stage with ‘Revolver’,
before carrying straight into ‘Rockstar/Superstar’. The
band hit us hard and fast with their high octane rock n' roll
right from the very first chord.
The
tempo was brought down just a touch with ‘One Of Us’, as
frontman Dan joined the crowd to get up close and personal with
the guys and girls down the front. Then it was time to turn
up the heat once more with the excellent ‘Zero’, which
provided new guitarist Zeb with a platform to really show us all
that he was more than up for today's set, as he fired out the
licks like a man possessed.
The
rocket fuel soaked rock n' roll continued with ‘It Ain't Over’
and ‘Ego’, before dedicating ‘Something I Want’ to
Deb. The band even threw in a new song ‘Just Let Go’,
before capping off one of the sets of the weekend with a Sex
Pistols cover. So to sum up ... THEY CAME, WE SAW, THEY
CONQUERED!
A
firm favourite of ours that we look forward to seeing again
soon. |
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Now
I wouldn’t have wanted to be the band that had to follow Velvet
Star's set, but someone had too and so it was over Neonfly
to give it their all. Luckily they were more than up for the
task with their own brand of Power / Heavy Metal. The party
was kept in full flow as they brought in the big guns as they
opened up with ‘Stand Up’. Other memorable songs from
their set included the outstanding ‘The Enemy’ and the equally
impressive ‘Ship With No Sails’.
Next
up it was time to introduce some international talent to the
proceedings with Belgium’s finest Wizzard, with their old
school Hard Rock as the frontman Wizz, Smb on guitar, Sluise on
rhythm guitar, D Troy on bass and drummer Steve DC. All of
whom really brought a touch of class to proceedings as they opened
up with ‘Back Forever’. |
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It
was plain from the off these guys were pro’s through and through and the
number of Wizzfest (the bands own festival held in Belgium) t-shirts on
display from the British fans showed their fans are well-traveled rockers,
who know a good thing when they hear it.
It was
straight shooting rock from here on in as the band went straight into
‘Queen Of Desire’, the storming ‘Out Of Control’ and impressive
‘Crazy Wizard. Although song of the set for me had to be the
tongue-in-cheek ‘Vampires In The Valley’. A song straight out of
the NWOBHM era featuring some great riffs and a solid back beat.
The
set closed off with the excellent ‘Reunited’, before the bands own
tribute to Lemmy and the boys with ‘Motorhead Music’. I was well
impressed with these guys so don’t be surprised if there is another
appearance by the Belgium rockers next year.
One
band that I really looking forward to seeing perform live on day two was
Melodic Rockers Vega. A band that really impressed me (and a
great many others) with their debut album ‘Kiss
Of Life’. With frontman Nick Workman they have a singer well known
throughout the Melodic Rock community. Joining Nick on stage were
Tom and James Martin on guitars and keyboards respectively, Dan Chantrey
on drums and also for today at least, we had the infamous Rob Wylde on
bass.
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The
band set out their stall from the off with ‘Into The Wild’, a
great up-beat melodic rocker to get the set started. Then it
was straight into the excellent ‘Staring At the Sun’, by which
time Workman was really getting into his stride, whipping up the
crowd, although perhaps not as much as Wylde who turned out to be
showing a little more of himself than he would have liked, as one
of the crowd down the front pointed out, much to Rob's
embarrassment ... “ hey
one of Wylde's bollocks are hanging out!”. Whether they
were or weren't we couldn't tell you from where we were
standing but this had both band and crowd in hysterics of laughter
and saw Wylde readjust his bass position.
One
of the highlights of the set had to be the superb epic feeling of
‘One Of A Kind’. With such a shortened set the band were
quick to cover as much ground as possible and it was on with more
great Melodic Rock with the up beat ‘Heart Of Glass’, before
following it up with the AOR rich ‘Stay With Me’.
It
simply wouldn’t have been right if they hadn't included
‘SOS’ in the set today given the name of the festival and all,
so guess what was next? Again pure gold Melodic Rock. Their
short but impressive set was wrapped up with the title track of
the debut album ‘Kiss Of Life’, which is perhaps a bit more
Hard Rock than Melodic Rock, but a great way to top off the great
set. One band that didn’t disappoint the crowd here today
in the least. |
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After
the Rob Wylde incident we got a little more than we bargained for
with Norway’s Citizen Charlie as Charlie Forsberg came on
stage showing a little more than was decent for a family crowd.
Let's just say the long t-shirt wasn't quite long enough and the
barrage of male photographers pointing the lens her way almost
caused a riot as they rushed to get a snap of what Charlie had to
show underneath. Least said about that the better me thinks!
But
this didn’t seem to put Charlie and the band off their stride as
they opened up with ‘Until The Day’ and despite the poor
wardrobe choice, Citizen Charlie really hit the mark musically
this year. Last
year I was a little disappointed with their performance but this
year was the opposite, this was musically much more like what I
had been expecting for the Nordic Rockers.
The
set continued to impress with ‘The Easy Way Out’, the rocking
‘Back And Forward’ and the thumping ‘Loser’, before
rounding off in great style with ‘Cheater’, taken from the
bands debut album. Musically this was the performance I had
been expecting last year from the band so I’m glad they've
finally managed to pull things around. |
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It
was back to the home grown talent as Glaswegian rockers Attica
Rage hit the stage with an almighty crash bang wallop as Jonny
Parr - lead vocals, guitar, Stevie Bell - guitar, Big C - bass,
vocals and Richie Rage - drums unleashed their no holds barred
Hard Rock. Opening up with ’38 Insane’ and the straight
shooting rocker ‘Altered Reality’, before cranking things up
even higher with the massive chunky riffs of ‘Contradictions’,
all three taken from the bands storming 'Road Dog' album.
Sticking
with 'Road Dog' for the moment but bringing it down a touch the
band continued with ‘Ashamed’, before bringing back the big
licks and pounding rhythms once more with the dark edged ‘Change
In The Iris’. This was followed by the superb almost
Sabbathesque bass lines of ‘Through The Inner Eye’ and the
riff fuelled ‘Dark City’, before closing up their monstrous
set with excellent ‘Back To The Old School’. |
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For
those of you wishing the next Almighty (band not the religious chap) would
come along, your wishes have been answered because Attica Rage unleash the
same power and full force rocking machine ethic that Ricky Warwick and co.
had all those years ago. Definitely worth checking out if you see
them advertised at a venue near you during September as they take to the
road for their UK tour.
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It
was almost time for the headline act but before that we had just
one more band to go and what better way to pave the way for Gun
was the lighting rock n' roll of Exit State, who kept the
hard edged rock going with a tight set that really kicked serious
ass.
As
Roy Bright and the rest of the band went for the jugular mixing
tracks for the 'Death Of A Rockstar' album and their soon to be
released on Rocksector Records new album ‘Black
Veins’.
We
were bombarded with monster rockers like ‘Tonight We’re
Free’, ‘Bad Days’, ‘I Know Where You Are’, ‘In That
Place’ and the show stopping ‘Death Of A Rockstar’, all
mighty rock anthems from the lads from Burnley who have a big big
future ahead of them and well deserved their high billing today. |
Now for
the main event and the closing act of this years S.O.S. Festival, the
mighty Gun. The band return to the UK stage once more with a
line-up that really highlighted the fact the band haven’t lost any of
their original edge over the years. Leading the band is Dante and
brother Jools, alongside fellow Glaswegians Paul McManus on drums and
Derek Brown on bass guitar. It has to be said that Dante was doing
an outstanding job on guitar and vocals today as the band set out to
impress from the off. I must admit when I first heard Gun were to
headline this years festival I had my doubts about them, having not really
been a big fan in the past. However, the band really blew us away
with their great set that included hit after hit, together with a few more
recent songs from their ‘Popkiller' album.
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Some of the highlights
for me had to be ‘Money (Everybody Love Her)’, the excellent
‘Better Days’, ‘Taking On The World’, ‘Don’t Say It's
Over’ and of course ‘Steal Your Fire’ and Word Up’.
The superb rocker ‘Seraphina’ and even the rapperesque
‘Something Worthwhile’ rocked the place.
This was Gun at their
very best and at the top of their game, with Dante more than a
match for Jepson and Mark Rankim to be honest, the perfect
frontman for the band. I'm sure with him at the helm we'll
be hearing a lot more from them in the not too distant future,
because tonight these guys just rocked and were the perfect ending
to another great weekend. I for one can't wait to see what
next year has to offer, I'm excited already! |
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I'd just
like to finish by saying a big thank you to Mark and Lynne for putting on
the festival and making it such a pleasurable experience for all attending
once again, also thanks to all those involved behind the scenes for making
these two days so memorable for all the right reasons.
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