Dementia AwareFest – Rock bands play for a good cause. Part Two

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Station Bar, Cannock 2024

Saturday 20th February

Review and photographs by Linda McDermott

With a four-hour drive under our belts, we were in Cannock for a small festival in aid of Dementia Awareness. This little festival came into creation in 2013 when Dave Evan’s was asked to do a one-off charity fundraiser. He took up the challenge and Dementia AwareFest was borne. This one-time event has now been going on every year since!

People living with this debilitating condition is predicted to rise to over one million this year, every penny counts, and everyone involved in putting this fantastic day together made sure we all had a good time while raising as much as possible.

With a stellar lineup featuring a wide range of rock genres, I was really looking forward to hearing all eight bands. Unfortunately, White Skies had to pull out at the last minute due to personal reasons but undeterred the other bands stepped up and added another couple of songs to their sets to fill the gap.

Considering the day started at 3 pm there was a great crowd in to hear Pete K Mally compete for the day.

A’Priori

This three-piece rock band from Blackpool work hard touring the country getting their name out there. They have a distinctive sound with touches of Sound Garden in places and to me that just adds to their appeal. Playing a mix of songs from both albums, ‘House of Cards’ and ‘Black Tower’ they totally entertained the audience. Favourites of mine are the tracks ‘Black Church’ and ‘Better Man’ and ‘Making Love to the Devil’ and of course there’s the sing-along song ‘Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah’, I love a chorus that I can’t get wrong!

The guys will be releasing their 3rd album ‘Voodoo Love’ this year and having the album launch at The Waterloo Bar Blackpool on 6th September. Tickets are available from the link below.

https://www.seetickets.com/event/apriori/the-waterloo-music-bar/2908216

Set List

Watch the World Burn

Shotgun Blues

Black Church

Better Man

Halo

Here Comes the Reign

I Feel Alive

Making Love to the Devil

Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah

Wasted Years

Videos

Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah

Better Man

Black Church

Black Lakes

I have no idea how I’ve missed this band; I mean, I saw 223 bands last year! Anyway, I was looking forward to seeing these guys for the first time, their hard-hitting heavy rock/alt-metal album ‘For All We’ve Left Behind’ is phenomenal and I wanted to see how it transferred to their live show. The guys took to the stage and after a few technical issues they, along with me were ready for their set. Wow! The crowd had all moved forward ready to listen to music to make your ears bleed (in a good way).

The influences I can hear coming through are the likes of Drowning Pool and Linkin Park, what’s not to like about that? Singer Will Preston gave it everything, backed up by the highly polished band. Yes, they continued to have sound problems, but I feel that affected them more than it did the audience who were invested in the music.

Their new single Verity in Flames is stunning. I think once you’ve listened to them and seen them live you may come to the same conclusion as me, which is that Black Lakes sound like they should be a ‘bigger’ band. In that I mean they sound like they should be playing stadiums as headliners. Check them out, see if you agree with me.

Set List

Avarice

Verity in Flames

Fragments

Break the Silence

The Divide

Landslide

White Cliffs

One Step Closer

Dissident

Verity in Flames Video

Fragments Video

The Hot One Two – Headlining the event was The Hot One Two and this band know how to entertain a crowd. Their high-energy stage show is incredible to watch as they go from strength to strength picking up new fans each time they play.

Last year saw the launch of their debut album ‘Superbia”, and tonight everyone was in for a treat as they played all the songs on it plus ‘Bleed on Me’ from their ‘Unrestrained’ EP. As soon as the guys hit the first note the crowd were with them, foot tapping, head nodding and devil horns in the air.

There is not a bad song on this album, each track is slick and powerful and with Nick, Joe, Nick and Kev’s impressive playing and Simon’s distinctive voice they had the crowd eating out of their hands. Each chorus was sung back to them loud and clear ending in a massive cheer. There were smiles all around me as the audience lapped up every minute they were on stage.

Speaking to Nick Blackburn he said “What an awesome night and an amazing way to kick off our gigging schedule for this year! It’s always encouraging to see so many people braving the cold and coming out to support not only an amazing cause and charity, but also a thriving music scene and rock community, and we feel very blessed to be part of it. It was great to catch up with some ‘old’ faces, get to know some new, and hopefully melt a few with some high-voltage rock n’ roll! We had an absolute blast, and we can’t wait to see you all again at a show soon”.

These guys should be on your radar, they are contagious, and you can’t help but smile when you see them on stage as they look like they are having the best time ever and if they are, you most definitely are too.

Set List

Playing With Fire

Bleed On Me

God Forsaken Blues

Demon Daze

The Fray

Rolling Stone

Feeling Good

Something Real

You’ve Got It

Is It Hot?

Time Me Down

For gig dates visit their web page

https://www.thehotonetwo.com

Videos

Tie Me Down

Is It Hot

Demon Daze

All too soon the day was over, how did nine hours pass so quickly? Because it was fun and full of laughs and music. The day was filled with like-minded people who wanted to support Dave Evans and friends in their quest to raise funds for Dementia Awareness. The bands were incredible by supporting the event, they entertained us all and it is a day everyone should be proud of. The charity is over £2,000 better off because of some amazing people.

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