Festivals come and go but Stonedead, initially started by some fans reminiscing on social media about the original one day one stage Monsters of Rock at Donington, looks to have staying power. This was a celebration of its fifth year and a sell out even at its enhanced 5000 capacity.

It represented my third in a row, though the first time I’d made it to the Friday night pre party, which has gradually diluted the one day festival concept but is a very useful opportunity to get familiarised with the set up, view stalls and build anticipation for the main entertainment.

PRE-SHOW PARTY: MYKE GRAY’S SKIN, KIRA MAC, THE KARMA EFFECT

As a bonus the three band lineup included two of my favourites from the ever growing crop of rising new acts, beginning with my fellow Londoners The Karma Effect. Looking very dandyish, theirs is a richly melodic and slightly bluesy sound, with welcome keyboard contributions from Seb Emmins. On opener ‘Wrong Again’ and later ‘Steal Your Heart’ I thought the throaty voice of singer Henry Gotteliek reminded me, ironically enough, of Skin singer Nev MacDonald. But after ‘Doubt She’s Coming Back’, ’Mercy’ and ‘The River’ a new song in ‘Promised Land’ had to be aborted as a storm had already drenched those in the arena and was now threatening lightning.

The easiest thing would have been to call a halt to the night but to their credit, when the rain largely abated, not only did the Stonedead crew welcome the band back to finish their set, but kept to original band timings with only a planned rock disco scrapped as a result. In fact the second half of the Karma Effect’s set was even more impressive than the first, including an excellent new song ‘Hold On To Better Days’ and the slow, soulful ‘Stand’ with prominent piano. Ending with ‘Testify’, featuring some audience participation, this was a very strong start to the weekend.

Kira Mac are another band who have rapidly risen, helped by radio airplay and are surely destined for higher slots on future festival bills. The eponymous Kira is a powerful singer and striking frontwoman (though for a couple of songs early on she sounded a tad flat to me), and their modern yet accessible songs go straight to the jugular.

They opened with ‘No Way Out’ then the rather heavier ‘Dead Man Walking’ while on ‘Chaos Is Calling’ people were instantly singing along to the ‘take it to the level below’ chorus. After ‘Play The Game’ and ‘Scorned’ (the most commercial of their many playlisted singles with the air of Shania Twain gone metal), ‘Hit Me Again’ saw Kira, rather unnecessarily I thought, accompanied by a troupe of dancers.

She introduced ‘Never Going To Stay’ as a ballad, although it really wasn’t anything of the sort, just relatively mid-pocket, but ‘Mississippi Swingin’ had a fun groove and ‘Climbing’ was probably the heaviest of their set. ‘Downfall’ with its ‘gotta die sometime, might as well as have a good time’ chorus would in fact have been a perfect closer but that honour fell to ‘One Way Ticket’ in a set where the tally of 11 songs in 45 minutes proved how lean and mean it was.

Headliner for the Friday night party was Myke Gray’s Skin. The lineup was the same as the band who played a blinder two years ago under the guitarist’s own name, but with a set of songs exclusively from his commercially most successful band.

After opening with ‘Money’, it was clear this would not just be a set of their best known hits with the punky ‘Spit On You’. Singer Daniel Byrne faced head on the challenge of tackling songs that were always going to sound slightly different with a higher register than his gruff predecessor Nev MacDonald.

We got early reminders of just how great Skin’s 1994 debut was (I was sorely tempted by the expanded triple reissue for sale) with ‘House of Love’ and ‘Raised on Radio’-with a snatch of ‘Nightsong’- but a whole lot more from other periods of the band’s career, including the anthemic ‘Stronger’ and ‘Soul’.

On the power ballad ‘Which Are the Tears’ Myke, always fluent and technically skilled, excelled himself with his solo, and backing vocals from all the band members made it sound all the more huge, before another surprise in non- album cut ‘Monkey’ which came over far better than my vague memories of it from back in the day.

The party really started though with their best loved song in ‘Look But Don’t Touch’, leading to the stomp of ‘Colourblind’, segueing with a bluesy riff from Myke into ‘Take Me Down To the River’. Dan then mentioned one particular song had made a very special impact at the festival two years ago, and ‘Tower Of Strength’ again became a mass singalong before Colin Parkinson’s bass intro heralded a more headbanging ‘Shine Your Light’.

There was one surprise left though- I had assumed their allotted hour was up and had almost reached the toilets at the back of the arena when they came back for ‘Wings Of An Angel’, the closing ballad on the debut album but one that as far as I recall was very rarely played live. Watching from afar, Dan did the song justice and Myke was in the middle of another sweet solo when gradually it appeared as if the power was being pulled owing to the curfew.

That slight anti climax aside, it had been an excellent aperitif for the main event with all three bands on top form. The one remaining challenge was whether my sodden clothes after the earlier storm would dry out overnight in time!

MAIN FESTIVAL: BLUE OYSTER CULT, BLACK STAR RIDERS, THERAPY?, THE ANSWER, KING KING, FLORENCE BLACK, DERAPS, SOUTH OF SALEM, COLLATERAL

A number of Stonedead traditions – the fly past, the tribute to fallen colleagues and Krusher Joule’s unpredictable foul mouthed banter between bands -have been established and another is that the opening slot on a packed bill is decided by a battle of the bands style fan vote, which on this occasion was won by Kent rockers Collateral.

They’re a band well known to me – indeed I had seen an expanded version of this set less than a fortnight before at Firevolt -but those less familiar will have been impressed by the way charismatic longhaired frontman Angelo Tristan bounded on stage, and the diversity of the opening numbers in the hard hitting ‘Mr Big Shot’ and ‘Midnight Queen’ with its smooth AOR meets country rock melodies driven by his acoustic guitar and reminiscent of Nelson or Tyketto’s mellower moments.

Having gone back down to a four piece a huge burden has been placed on Louis Malagodi’s shoulders (and I still think the band’s cohesion would benefit from having two guitarists) but he played a tasty riff on ‘Sin In The City’ before another bold set choice for this audience in the country-ish ‘About This Boy’.

‘Glass Sky’ on only my second time of hearing was superb, showing a new songwriting maturity yet catchy enough for a singalong. Then a trio of hard hitting heavier rockers in ‘No Place for Love’ and old favourites ‘Merry Go Round’ and ‘Lullaby’ ended a set that showed off their diversity and hopefully won many new friends.

Next up from further along the south coast in Bournemouth (and surprisingly the last all English band of the day) in South of Salem. They have a sleazy, vampiric image which suggests they only come out at night but instead had to contend with some of the thankfully few rain showers of the day.

Opener ’Let Us Prey’ was a little shouty for my tastes (though an illustration of their punning song titles which appeal to my sense of humour) but ‘The Hate In Me’, ‘Made To Be Mine’, and in particular new song ‘Static’ had a good mix of aggression and hooks, with the similarly intense Pop Evil a recurring comparison for me.

‘No Plague Like Home’ (sic) featured the twin guitars of Kody and Denis, the title track of forthcoming new album ’Death Of the Party’ made a very good first impression and ‘Pretty Little Nightmare’ was even more commercial. They closed with ‘Cold Day In Hell’ with another memorable hook (albeit one that reminded me of ‘Wild Child’ by WASP). For many people they were the discovery of the day and I must admit my own expectations had been pleasantly exceeded.

There is a definite ‘circuit’ of bands forming the pool from which festival lineups are drawn so when the Stonedead announcement was made last autumn I was stunned to discover a band I had never heard of in Deraps. The mostly Canadian power trio are fronted by eponymous guitar hero and singer Jacob Deraps, and I did discover a big early Van Halen influence as I did my homework.

Sure enough opener ‘Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll’ (now where have I heard that before?) was ‘Hot For Teacher’ with different lyrics, and ‘My Side Of Town’ and ‘Make Ya Groove’ were also VH-esque, while even the supposedly bluesy ‘Live Fast Die Slow’ sounded much like the rest.

However there was also something annoyingly dumb about them (including the backing vocals and ‘noises off’ of Aussie drummer Josh Gallagher in the style of Dokken drummer ‘Wild’ Mick Brown) and to call a song ‘F– Off’ demonstrated David Lee Roth’s sharp wordplay was one part of the VH formula they had not inherited.

After just six of their own songs, the rest were covers though ‘Highway Star’ offered the scope for both Jacob and bassist Thaddy Lavoie to show their talents by successfully emulating the original, then perhaps inevitably we got the real ‘Hot for Teacher’. However I thought ‘Ballroom Blitz was the weakest of the three covers, while in a final irritation they brought the Stonedead dancers back on stage. Call me prudish, but in this post #metoo world I felt a bit uneasy at the sight of them titillating middle-aged men, at best tacky and distracting from the music and at this most family friendly Festival, at worst inappropriate.

Sadly there was a late lineup change and Stonedead did well to get as highly regarded an act as Florence Black to replace Mason Hill at short notice owing to medical issues suffered by singer Scott Taylor (who has subsequently quit the band).

In musical terms the Welsh three piece brought a greater darkness and intensity to the bill but swiftly won over a mix of old and new fans with the battle cries of Zulu ‘(Zulu, zulu, they’re coming for you’). There was a mixture of old (‘On The Ropes’, ‘Bird on a Chain’) and new, in the more instant sounding ‘Don’t Hold Me Down’.

This was my second time I’ve seen an act that many gig buddies rave about and not been able to get into them. Though I heard elements of Marc Tremonti-like dark and dirty riffing on songs like ‘Smoke’, singer and lead guitarist Tristan Thomas tilts his head backwards Lemmy- style from the microphone to give his voice a harsher growl, sometimes added to by drummer Perry Davies, which meant the vocals in particular were personally not to my lighter and more melodic tastes.

Others of course felt differently and after threatening to do so for much of the set the first mosh pit of the day seemed to break out for their cover of fellow Welshmen Budgie’s ‘Breadfan’. Their best known song ‘Sun And Moon’, switching between rare quiet passages and their trademark bludgeon, ended a set that judging from the post show chat won many new fans.

A recurring thought I had during the weekend was how dizzyingly varied the line up was and this was proved when Florence Black were followed by something completely different in King King. With blues-era Whitesnake a huge influence on the band it was fitting that on a weekend when we lost the much loved Bernie Marsden, the intro tape was ‘Fool For Your Loving’ rather than the more usual ‘Highway To Hell’.

The Scots opened with one of their less bluesy songs, reflecting their recent shift in musical direction in ‘Dance Together’ but after ‘Long Time Running’, ‘Heed The Warning’ was built on a classic blues rock riff.

Returning to earlier material, ‘Lose Control’ had that early Whitesnake and classic Bad Company feel, and led into the classics that have formed the basis of their set for many years in ‘Waking Up’ where Jonny Dyke’s keyboards complemented the guitarists, ‘You Stopped The Rain’, beginning with some spot on vocal harmonies and ending with one of Alan Nimmo’s mellifluous solos extended guitar solos, and a lengthy ’Rush Hour’ with more fine keyboard passages and people singing along.

They closed though with a more recent song and one of my own favourites in ‘I Will Not Fall’, with its seventies funk flavoured keyboards, an anthemic chorus and Alan’s brother Stevie taking a rare solo before some harmony leads from the pair. It was a quality set of the type I am used to but seemed to have won a lot of new friends.

After a long hiatus The Answer, have stormed back this year with a new album and resumed their role of old as Festival mainstays. Indeed, as with Collateral, I’d seen a longer version of this set (and indeed Cormac Neeson’s stage patter) only a couple of days earlier at Firevolt. There was a good atmosphere from the outset as old favourites ‘Keep Believing’ and the hard driving ‘Under the Sky’, where the band created an impressive racket, sandwiched the more contemporary but earworm rhythmic beats of ‘Blood Brothers’.

Compared to the previous times I’d seen them this year, the set balance was tilted in favour of old favourites and against new material, particularly as a song or two had to be dropped because of time constraints, though that was probably the right tactics for a festival crowd.

However either side of their most hook filled song in ‘Nowhere Freeway’ and ‘Spectacular’ which outstayed its welcome a bit, the title track of new album ‘Sundowners’ had an altogether different feel and some great slide playing on a resonator guitar by ‘brother’ Paul Mahon, as Cormac called him.

They closed with a pair from their newer to be beaten ‘Rise’ album in a frenetic ‘Under the Sky’ and ‘Preaching’, Paul paying some dirty slide while Cormac did his party piece of going into the crowd and conducting a round of crouching down and rising up. It was a very impressive set tipping the balance for me from ‘might go’ to ‘definite’ for their winter tour.

Cormac had also pointed out they were the first of three successive bands in a Northern Irish takeover, the next being Therapy?. In one sense they stood out like a sore thumb among more traditional acts having enjoyed their best days in the mid nineties (indeed including appearances at the old Monsters in 1994 and 1995) when the alternative became mainstream, and there was more overlap than ever before between the pages of NME and Kerrang. They were always therefore going to be a polarising choice, with some looking forward to them more than any other band, and traditionalists like me less so.

Singer Andy Cairns, looking almost unchanged from the day, was a humorous frontman, whether describing the music as ‘riffing and shouting’ or calling ever smiling bassist Michael McKeegan ‘the evil priest’. Sparky pop punk like ‘Stories’ and ‘Teethgrinder’ sat alongside some musically discordant or lyrically dark songs including the RATM- like ‘Kakistocracy’, and ‘Diane’. The darkest twist yet was when Andy joked they’d play an Irish folk song he learned in school, and ‘Potato Junkie’ began with the line ‘James Joyce is f–ing my sister’.

It was also a set covering all eras, from the likes of ‘Poundland of Hope and Glory’ from this year’s ‘Hard Cold Fire’ album, to songs from their mid-nineties heyday like ‘Die Laughing’, dedicated to both Bernie Marsden and Sinead O’Connor. Traditionalist I may be but from my youth onwards I’ve always enjoyed a great punk single and the set closed in style with two that rank with the best in ‘Nowhere’ (starting with an excerpt from the Beatles ‘Nowhere Man’) and ‘Screamager’.

Black Star Riders appearance seemed appropriate, both with frontman Ricky Warwick maintaining the Northern Irish connection and the band having had to pull out of a headlining appearance at the 11^th hour two years ago. Since then there have been further lineup changes and the big question for me was would the now retired Scott Gorham make a guest appearance as he did on their spring tour?

However as they took the stage he was absent from a four piece line up and Ricky was filling in by playing the (diminishing number of) harmony leads with Sam Wood, beginning with ‘All Hell Breaks Loose’. The latter took nearly all the solos, and not only played with real fire and panache but his flowing locks and Gibson Les Paul even made him a dead ringer for the seventies Gorham. If it was down to me his loan move from Wayward Sons would be made permanent as this is a better use of his musical talents.

Most of the first half of the set was taken from their last two albums ‘Wrong Side Of Paradise’ and ‘Another State Of Grace’ including the title tracks. But while there were some highlights, such as ‘Tonight The Moonlight Let Me Down’ and ‘Better Than Saturday Night’, there were too many meat and potatoes moments of stodgy and rather repetitive songs – ‘When The Night Comes Down’ and ‘Testify’- lacking the charm and lightness of touch that characterised even their earlier, more overtly Lizzy derived material.

Things picked up with one of those epic Celtic romps in ‘Soldierstown’ followed by ‘The Killer Instinct’. Ricky asked the crowd to chant ‘we love you Scott Gorham’ in tribute, but sadly the last chance he might appear from behind a curtain came and went and hopes were dashed.

However, ironically a storming version of ‘Jailbreak’ was very well received and lifted the set to a new level, while a very authentic cover of ‘Crazy Horses’ was a revelation, not least the squealing guitar noises from Sam: even if the high vocals of bassist Robbie Crane didn’t really hit the mark, it was hard to argue with Ricky’s quip ‘who knew being a Mormon could be such fun’?

A guest was introduced in long time friend Andy Cairns to duet on ‘Finest Hour’ which I think does what it says on the tin when it comes to BSR’s back catalogue. The gig had thoroughly warmed up and came to the boil with more Celtic imagery and one solo after another from Sam on ‘Kingdom Of The Lost’ and the even more Lizzy-esque guitar harmonies of ‘Bound For Glory’.

As they leave those Thin Lizzy origins further in the rear view mirror BSR have lost a little for me. That said, once this set warmed up it proved they will always give a 100 per cent, no holds barred performance and will be welcome at any festival.

Stonedead has booked some genuine classic rock legends in its short history- Glenn Hughes, Uriah Heep and Michael Schenke r- and once again they pulled things out of the bag with Blue Oyster Cult. They even played the second edition of the original ‘Monsters’ in 1981, albeit that it was one of the unhappier moments in their career. Fortunately in recent years, after a long absence, they have returned fairly regularly to the UK, most recently supporting Deep Purple last autumn, though with remaining founding members Eric Bloom and Buck Dharma 78 and 75 years old respectively, there cannot be too many more chances to see them.

Photo: Andy Nathan

The only drawback to having them headline is that, with one notable exception and a couple of honorary mentions, relatively few of their songs have permeated the consciousness of non committed fans or been played on rock radio.

Indeed, after going on stage 15 minutes late to a fascinating video backdrop of their history starting in the present day and working backwards, they opened with two relative obscurities from their earlier period in ‘Transmaniacon MC’ and ‘Before the Kiss (a Redcap)’, Eric and Buck singing lead respectively.

Their comeback album ‘The Symbol Remains’ was represented by just a solitary song in Eric’s ‘That Was Me’ which grew on me as it went on, but something more accessible was needed for a tired festival crowd. Even when ‘Golden Age Of Leather’ opened with the raise your can of beer on high’ chant in harmony, the song itself meandered and took ages to reach its climax. And yet in doing so it featured some beautiful, subtle instrumental passages, and the same could be said for ‘The Vigil’ later in the set. For confirmed fans like me they were delightful listening, even if Danny Miranda’s bass seemed to drown out some of the other instruments in the mix.

Photo: Andy Nathan

Probably nearly half an hour into the set came the first a casual fan would know in ‘Burning For You’. It was a showcase for Buck, not only with his smooth vocals but fluent and melodic soloing that demonstrated he is an underappreciated guitar great also (even though his headless guitar goes against rock aesthetics!) ‘Harvest Moon’ was a similar story though Richie Castellano (who switched seamlessly between keyboards and guitar) also got a smaller slice of the soloing action, before the latter took lead vocals on the boogie of ‘Hot Rails To Hell’ which was a welcome change of pace.

The extended ‘Then Came The Last Days Of May’ is always a highlight of a BOC set and this nine minute version was no exception as one rapid fire extended solo from Richie gave way to an even longer and better one from Buck who was on his knees at one point, almost like an East Coast answer to Skynyrd or The Outlaws.

Photo: Andy Nathan

Eric has not aged as well as his fellow founder and for a big part of the set seemed somewhat superfluous but that changed when he was back on vocals for ‘E.T.I’ featuring a mini jam that deviated from the original, then after asking pantomime style if we could hear the taped noise of the monster, at last there was a near universally recognised song in ‘Godzilla’.

Buck then began noodling a bit until when Eric pointed to an imaginary wristwatch, he played the opening everyone had been waiting for and finally ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’ could get everyone joining in and involved. Once again his soloing was superb, before the show ended in a shower of confetti.

Sadly because of the late start a couple of songs had to be stopped (double the shame as they came from the unrepresented ‘Secret Treaties’, my favourite BOC album) and there was time for just one encore, going right back to the start with the classic riff of ‘Cities On Flame With Rock N Roll’, Eric taking a few drumsticks to join in with Jules Radino then joining Buck, Richie and Danny in their traditional four strong guitar army line astern at the song’s close.

Photo: Andy Nathan

Reservations on pacing and set choice aside, it had been a fine demonstration of the subtle and beguiling charms of one of classic rock’s most original acts. I really enjoyed it even if it seemed not everyone did.

Stonedead really is top of the class when it comes to a friendly festival of around the right size and is immaculately organised in all respects. The one day concert format that has to try and cover all the varying subgenres of rock and metal can means there will never be a consensus of opinions on individual band, but it only took until I could get a WiFi signal on the shuttle bus back to Lincoln (another fine Stonedead add-on) to book an early bird for next year, hoping this winning formula for a mid-sized rock festival won’t be changed.

Review by Andy Nathan

Photos by Lindzrs media-photography (except where indicated)

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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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 1 December 2024.

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)