Review by Tim Marcus with photos from Sam Conquest Photography
As we enter the site this morning, I’m still buzzing from yesterday’s performances however I can’t wait for today to start as on paper today is the day that has the most bands I’m looking forward to seeing playing, and as always I’m hopeful of finding one or two I like that are new to me as well.
Events kick off today at 11:30am on the dot on the number two stage with a gentleman I’m not familiar with but whom we’re informed by our compere for the weekend, Simon, played at the very first Loverocks festival some seven years ago, Kit Trigg. What we get from the Kit Trigg band, is an eclectic mix of 70s style guitar rock originals and covers.
Amongst the latter we get a teased intro of “Sweet Home Alabama”, as well as a heavy version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well” and a great cover too of “Proud Mary”. It’s an enjoyable way to open up the final day of the festival with an easy to listen to band who’ve been out touring recently as support to “These Wicked Rivers”, whom we’re due to be seeing on the main stage later today.
Kicking things off on the main stage today in energetic style are four piece Yorkshire rockers, Loz Campbell. Not a band I’d seen or heard before however I’m very impressed with what they deliver today, a short set of hard, riff driven, heavy rock.
Amongst what we hear from them is a new track, “Can’t Get Enough”, a cover of AC/DC’s “Shot Down in Flames”, and their set closer, “This World Was Made To Destroy You”. Just an observation, certainly not a criticism and I apologise in advance if I’m wrong with this assumption however, one of a number of bands over the weekend who appeared to make use of backing tracks to bolster, to good effect, their live sound. If you’ve not seen this band before and you like your rock then Loz Campbell are definitely one you should be checking out.
We’re back to the number two stage again now for another band I know nothing about, Violet Blend. Described on their social media pages as an Italian alternative metal band, hailing from Florence in Italy, Violet Blend take to the stage and proceed to engage the eager and attentive crowd with a captivating performance of around forty five minutes.
This immaculate four piece, dressed in black and matching violet coloured jackets deliver a great set of eerie, sometimes gentle, sometimes not, euro rock music: again another band to make good use of backing tracks in their live performance. They open their set with “Rock DJ” (no, not the Robbie Williams one as I first thought when I saw their setlist on the stage!) and then play us a song about a funeral called “Funeral of Love”.
Giada, the young lady who fronts this band then explains to us that the next song they’re going to sing is one she wrote about a past relationship: it’s called “You, Me and Alcohol”. The set then continues with “Voices in my Head”, before we then hear Violet Blend’s latest single, “My Head is Broken”. We also hear “I’m Only Happy When I’m
Drunk” followed by my personal favourite from the set, “Every Time We Say Goodbye”. The set concludes with “La Donna Mobile” (beautifully sung by Giada in Italian) and finally “My Daughter”.
It’s been a highly entertaining set from Violet Blend, a band that are not only great to listen to but wonderful to watch too.
Back on the main stage, the run of bands I’ve never previously heard continues however the number of A’priori t-shirts on display this afternoon would suggest that I’m clearly in a minority. An obvious favorite of many in attendance today who it would appear have come along with “day tickets” purely to see A’priori.
Whilst not something that necessarily lights my fire, it’s clear to see why they have such a following. This heavy rock power trio, comprising of Tony Lang on vocals and guitar, “Mouse” on drums, and Mark Wilson on keyboards, play with the power and energy to produce the sounds of a full five piece rock band.
We’re back to the smaller of the two stages for the final time at this year’s festival to see and hear Promethium, a five piece Heavy Metal/Rock band hailing from Lancaster in the North West of England. The stand out to me from this set is the performance of (relatively) new vocalist, James Candlin, whose strong and powerful vocal shines through.
Combined with the powerful riffs and guitar licks coming from longstanding band member Dan Lovett-Horn, Promethium have me in mind of a cross between some of the earlier metal bands of the early 1970s and some of the more commercially inspired that came a long a few years later; a kind of Black Sabbath meets Iron Maiden if you like. The set we hear from them today is pretty much dominated,
understandably, by tracks from last year’s “Bleeding the Ghost” album and as well as the title track we also hear, “Goat” (the set opener), “Priest”, “Murder She Wrote” and “Catfish”, before concluding their set with a couple of songs from their “Revisions” album, “Enemies Fate” and “Murder Inc”.
For the remainder of the day, and indeed the remainder of the festival, proceedings will be seen out by the final four bands who will all be gracing Loverocks’ main stage. The first of those are a Birmingham based band, who over the past 12-18 months has rapidly become one of our favourites.
We first saw Blue Nation in the early part of 2023 when they supported Laurence Jones on a tenth anniversary show that he was performing. That day they played as duo (Neil Murdoch on guitar and vocals and Luke Weston on bass and backing vocals).
We were immediately struck by the camaraderie between the pair who are two of the friendliest guys you could wish to meet. And they obviously got on well with Laurence Jones too as they’ve been out on the road again with him since and on that first occasion we saw them, he even joined them on stage to play drums during their encore. We were then delighted to see them again about four months later when they appeared at last year’s Loverocks festival, on the smaller stage, but this time as a full trio, complete with their own drummer, Oli Jefferson, who incidentally is absent today with a substitute sitting in as he’s away playing with Robert Plant’s new band, Saving Grace. Sadly for Neil and Luke, Robert Plant pulls rank on them!
In reviewing day two of this festival I spoke about the magic of the chemistry between individuals on the stage when writing about the set performed by Oli Brown and his Dead Collective. Never is that magical connection so in evidence as when watching Blue Nation on stage, in particular between Neil and Luke who’ve been best mates for years. The banter and rapport between them is almost as if they’re inside each other’s head, each knowing what the other is thinking and each knowing exactly what the other is going to say next. I have to say that for the majority of the set I was simply absorbed by the charismatic charm and mutual love and admiration exuded by Neil and Luke, so much so that I cannot recall specifically what songs they played! I do recall however that they played us their new single, “Time is a Thief” and of course my personal favourite, “Echoes”. If you know the band then you’ll be aware that they are very active in promoting awareness of men’s mental health. I first heard “Echoes” when they played it at last year’s festival. I recall at the time Neil explaining that the song had been written very recently, just after they’d lost a very close friend who’d been suffering with mental health issues. It was clear from how Neil sung that song today that one year and a bit on, it still resonates as much now as it did then and I know for sure that the boys on stage were not the only ones getting lumps in their throats as they delivered what was probably the most emotionally powerful song, and set, of the entire festival.
We barely have chance to re-compose ourselves before it’s time for the next band to take to the stage and that’s Eastbourne’s, Amongst Liars. I believe that this is a third appearance for this band at Loverocks and they’re clearly a favorite with the crowd. Difficult to pigeon hole them into any particular genre, I would describe them as high energy, alt/techno rockers.
There’s also a little bit of “heaviness” to the sound as well which has me thinking that they’re not too dissimilar to Promethium whom we saw earlier today. It’s not material that I’m familiar with despite having seen them before however my favourite track from this set is probably one they played from the new album, the title track “By Design”.
Again, Amongst Liars, whilst not something that immediately grabs me, are a band I’d quite happily stand and listen to for forty five minutes if they happened to be playing at a festival I was at.
We’re now down to the final two bands of the day, the first of which is a band I’ve seen several times over the past couple of years, having first seen them when they played on the main stage here back in 2022, These Wicked Rivers. I think it’s fair to say that this five piece band of fuzzy, no nonsense, heavy rockers have drawn the biggest crowd of the day so far to the front of the stage.
Their set today is pretty much a shortened version of the set they’ve been touring around the country recently in promotion of their latest album “Force of Nature” and it’s the title track from that album that kicks things off. As always, their stage is bedecked and decorated in scarves, drapes and lampshades and has the appearance of what you might’ve expected your grand parents’ living room to look like back in the
1950s. Charismatic lead guitarist, Arran Day, has all the moves, as well as the biggest pedal board of the festival, and appears to be a natural draw for all of the front of stage photographers as he repeatedly demonstrates his ability to high kick “can can” style! The set proceeds with “Shine On”, “Evergreen”, and “When the War is Won”. Front man, singer and guitarist, John Hartwell is as charming as ever and has a great friendly rapport with the crowd.
He introduces the next song, one of my favourites from this set, “Black Gold” which was the band’s first single from the new album. “The Riverboat Man”, “Testify” and “The Family” follow before they conclude the set with their regular closing number, again one of my favourites, “Don’t Pray for Me”. Once again this has been another great performance from These Wicked Rivers who appear to be going from strength to strength.
The final band of the day, indeed the final band of this year’s Loverocks festival is The Answer. I first saw The Answer back in 2010 at the short lived High Voltage festival which took place in London’s Victoria Park and then again five years later at the inaugural Ramblin’ Man Fair back in 2015.
I then didn’t see them until they appeared at last year’s Steelhouse festival and to be honest, up until then I’d forgotten just how good they are so was delighted when I saw that they’d be headlining down here in Dorset. They take to the stage with the sound of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” playing in the background. Comprising charismatic front man, Cormac Neeson, Lead guitarist Paul Mahon, bassist Micky “warrior” Waters (if you know the story Cormac tells then you know!)and drummer James Heatley, the band have now added a keyboard player to their ranks for their current run of live performances in the shape of the highly talented Cara Bruns.
The set gets underway with “Blood Brother”, Nowhere Freeway” and “Under The Sky” before a nice harmonica intro from Cormac and some slide on steel guitar from Paul, lead us into “Sundowners”. “Want you to Love me” follows before they play us their latest song, “Put Your Money on Me”. “Comfort Zone” follows before we hear the title track from their 2016 album, “Solas”. “Spectacular” and “Wild Heart” are next before a short guitar solo from Paul leads us into “Come Follow Me”.
Cormac comes and sits down on the front edge of the stage, maybe one song too early it appears, as they launch into “Cold Heart” before the band give us “Preachin’” during which Cormac leaves his perch on the front of the stage, walks around the barriers at the front and out into the crowd where he continues to sing. As he makes his way to a central area just in front of the stage he now has everyone gathered around him, crouched down on their haunches.
He eventually returns back through the crowd and back up onto the stage to complete the song and bring the main part of the set to an end. We then get a three song encore comprising “No Salvation” with another nice harmonica intro from Cormac who then proceeds to give us a solo rendition of the traditional Irish song “Here’s a Health to Company” before the band bring their wonderful set and 2024’s edition this wonderful festival to an end
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