Skegness hosts the first big rock festival of the year and it’s always an interesting mix of new and old.  And that’s just the audience.  Three days of rock and ruin, well maybe if you take excess to all areas.  But a great chance to wallow in unbridled nostalgia as well as stealing a peek at upcoming artists.

Of these, Jo Harman played an excellent acoustic set in Jaks on the Sunday afternoon, her version of Whitesnake’s ‘Ain’t No Love In the Heart Of The City’, was one of the highlights of the weekend.  And, for me, The Stumble were the discovery of the weekend.  This North-West based band specialise in Chicago-style R&B.

Amongst the highlights,  Colin Blunstone‘s set oozed quality and with such a healthy songbook to plunder too, both his own and that of The Zombies.   John Coughlin’s Quo were excellent…playing vintage stuff like, ‘Juniors Wailing’, ‘In My Chair’ and ‘April, Spring, Summer and Wednesday’.   Perhaps a glimpse at the Frantic Four tour.

Thijs Van Leer and Focus pushed their latest album but not as much as the inevitable career highlights like ‘Hocus Pocus’ and ‘Sylvia’.  Not just a trip down memory lane, the band’s credentials are bolstered by original drummer Pierre van der Linden and the more youthful guitarist Menno Gootjes.

Oliver Dawson Saxon,  perhaps cruelly forever  in the shadow of Biff, demonstrated raw heavy metal power with the twin guitar onslaught of Graham Oliver and Haydn Conway sounding as good as ever as they hammered out material from their new album ‘Motorbiker’ as well as the expected (and welcome) classics.

Curved Air impressed with the ever-lovely Sonja Kristina and an animated Paul Sax (violin) and the set pretty much followed their current ‘Live Atmosphere’ album but strangely the crowd had thinned out.

Eddie & The Hot Rods and Hawkwind supplied their usual high-voltage sets, the latter basking in the recent reissue of ‘Space Ritual’ and almost turning the clocks back to 1973 although their set was spiced with later classics like ‘Assault And Battery’ and ‘Hills Have Ears’.

Amongst the new crop of blues talent, The Mentulls deserve special mention with guitarist Andrew Pipe at times out Bonamassa-ing Bonamassa although work is perhaps needed in the image department.  Virgil And The Accelerators turned in a typical powerhouse performance evidently relishing the prospect of some juicy support slots with Uriah Heep and Michael Schenker this year.

Mitch Laddie also deserves special mention, another quality if slightly underrated act whilst Henrik Freischlader completed a strong ‘new blues’ contingent with some incendiary playing from his excellent album ‘House In The Woods’.

Perhaps the easiest on the eye, Finnish guitarist Erja Lyytinen also dazzled with tracks from her excellent new album ‘Forbidden Fruit’.  Either I need new rose-tinted specs or they have ramped (vamped?) things up for the new album cover.

And then of course we had those hardy perennials The Blues Band showing lesser mortals (and ages) how it is to be still relevant with advancing years.  Paul Jones remains ever youthful and an articulate and passionate spokesman for the genre of R&B.

The Animals broke off from their current tour to remind us just how many hits they had in the sixties but of course they played second fiddle to the guitar colossus who is Steve Cropper and ‘Green Onions’ was as ever a highlight.  And Hundred Seventy Split, Ten Year’s After’s Leo Lyons  and Joe Gooch, were amazing with some of the best bass playing from Leo I have ever seen.

Those other hardy perennials Stray  under the ever genial stewardship of Del Bromham played another high energy set; Del always a natural and captivating live performer.

But perhaps the biggest delight of the weekend was the appearance of Blue Coupe, a grouping of  ex-Alice Cooper bassist and songsmith (Dennis Dunaway), and two ex-early Blue Oyster Cult:  the Bouchard brothers Joe and Albert.  This was classic rock at its finest with band originals mixed in with the expected classics like ‘Under My Wheels’ and ‘Godzilla’  The gig was part of the band’s wonderfully entitled ‘Hot Rails To Hull’ tour.

Altogether a great way to start the year, and always some surprises mixed with the more familiar, and a great showcase for new artists too.  Certainly the perfect antidote to snow, triple-dip recession and post-Christmas blues.  And the food and bed was top notch as well.

Review and photos by Noel Buckley

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Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.

In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.

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David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 20 October 2024.

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