Review by Tim Marcus with photos from Sam Conquest Photography
We’re back on site at Springbok Park for what promises to be another full on day of wonderful blues and rock and everything inbetween.
Kicking things off today is an artist who, until the start of this year was new to us, Thomas Heppell. I’m not sure why we’d not come across Thomas before given he was a nominee in this year’s UK Blues Federation awards in the category of Breakthrough Artist of the Year. However that was rectified and today will be the third or fourth time we’ve seen him performing since January albeit today will be the first time we’ve seen him with his band, the previous occasions all being as a solo artist.
A very different performance with the band gives us amongst others, a slow traditional blues type of song featuring some wonderful slide guitar in the shape of “The Sky is Grey”, a brand new song called “See Me Bleed”, again showcasing some slide guitar playing, “Good Ol’ Doney” and “Victim of Circumstance”, both from Thomas’s latest album before he concludes this short set with a cover of BB King’s “How Blue Can You Get?”
With things now underway, the energy levels quickly go up a couple of gears with the return of a band that took this stage by storm last year, The Milk Men. A traditional pub rock, RnB type of band, very much in the style of Dr Feelgood, The Milk Men, fronted by the charismatic Jamie Smy give it to us with both barrels launching into “Little Miss Attention” followed swiftly by “The Operator”. “Hungover” from their most recent album “Holy Cow!” follows before they deliver a great cover of Robert Cray’s “The Score”. This fantastic set continues with Adam Norsworthy excelling on guitar while the solid rhythm section of Lloyd Green (bass) and Mike Roberts (drums) remain in place.
I say “remain in place” however that’s not strictly true as at one point midway through the set, Mike takes to the tambourine and goes walk abouts, finding himself down the front enjoying proceedings in the middle of rest of us in front of the stage! “Cheap Seats”, “Fabulous” and “Make Mine a Double” follow in quick succession before we hear “Give Me a Reason” from the band’s “Gold Top” album. We then get another great cover in the shape of the Peter Green penned “Oh Well” ahead of “One Man Band”, another track from the latest album “Holy Cow!”. We’re now into the final straight of this set which concludes with another great cover, this time, Robert Palmer’s “Bad Case of Loving You” and “She Don’t Like Rock n Roll”, a track from the band’s 2020 album “Full Phat”.
It’s been a great fifty minutes with The Milk Men who are without doubt one of the most fun and entertaining bands currently on the blues rock circuit. A band who always deliver and one I can’t wait to see again.
Next up it’s Sons of Liberty making their first appearance at Alfold. I love these guys and cannot believe it’s almost a year since I last saw them! These Bristol based Southern Rockers are on top form today and win over a large number of new fans as they deliver a fantastic hard rocking set, a kind of UK version of Motley Crue meets Molly Hatchet (well that was the analogy that guitarist Fred Hale used to describe the band’s style to me the first time we met about four years ago).
It’s very much a mixed set we hear from the Sons today consisting pretty much of a 50:50 split between songs from their recent release, “The Detail is in the Devil” and their first two albums, “Aces & Eights” and “Animism”. Also, despite being with the band now for well over a year, I realise too that today is the first time I’ve seen them performing a full set with “new” front man Russ Grimmett, having only managed to catch the tail end of their performance at the Maid of Stone Festival last year. He’s a confident stage presence and performs as if he’s been with the band from day one performing both the older and newer material with equal ease.
With Fred Hale and Andy Muse on guitars and a solid rhythm section of Mark Thomas (bass) and Steve Byrne (drums) we hear some Sons’ classics including “Damaged Reputation” and “Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief”, two of my favourite tracks. Russ too, following on from the example of the Milk Men’s Mike Roberts before, decides to spend some time out front with the crowd so takes advantage of his cordless mic to leave the stage and join in the party much to the delight of those who quickly form a large circle around him.
He does eventually return to the stage though from where we also hear “I Come In Peace” a song which the band dedicate to the people of Ukraine before wrapping things up with the fast rocking Ruby Starr, a song about the US singer who rose to fame in the 1970s with the Southern Rock band, Black Oak Arkansas.
Next to hit the stage are a powerful Medway based blues rock trio that I’ve seen four or five times now and just love; The Zac Schulze Gang. However despite my love for them, at the same time, for me at least, they’ve also become a bit of an enigma. They’re fronted by Zac, a young man in his mid twenties who’s more than ably supported by brother Ben on drums and Ant Greenwell on bass, who also takes on some of the vocal duties.
There’s absolutely no doubting Zac’s talent as a guitar player. He’s mesmorising to watch and can hold his own with the very best. His skill with the axe has seen the Zac Schulze Gang invited to play at the Rory Gallagher Festival in Ballyshannon, and this year win the award at the UK Blues Federation awards night for Breakthrough Artist of the Year as well as earning an invite from Samantha Fish to be special guests on her current tour in the U.S: it’s clear that Zac and his gang remain for now on an upward trajectory. However, here is the enigma for me (and I’m very happy to apologise and be corrected if I’m wrong): all of this success, to date, has been achieved predominantly off the back of playing other people’s songs. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing but praise for the quality of Zac’s playing however the more I think about it the more incredible I find it that the UK Blues Federation have given one of their prestigious awards to what is to all intents and purposes a covers band (and I say that having voted for Zac myself!).
We saw Zac and his band performing a headline show at a local venue a few weeks ago. They played two sets of approximately fifty minutes each and I think across the whole evening, there were no more than four original songs: the rest was covers. Having said that, they were very well chosen covers (not the sort of songs you hear performed by your average covers band) and excellently executed. And today, it’s much the same albeit they’re restricted to fifty minutes today. There’s a couple of original songs in today’s set, both taken from the 2023 EP, “Made of Three”; a song sung by Ant, which Zac tells us in his introduction is about Ant’s spending habits(!), “Hole in my Pocket” and “Ballyshannon Blues”, a song written about their experience playing at the Rory Gallagher Festival a couple of years ago. The rest of the set is made up of some classic blues tracks spanning the past sixty years, including a cover of one of Zac’s contemporaries, The Cinelli Brothers. We also hear a great version of Rufus Thomas’s “Walking the Dog”, Dr Feelgood’s “She Does it Right”, and T-Bone Walker’s “They Call it Stormy Monday but Tuesday’s Just as Bad”. The set concludes today with a fantastic mash up of Rory Gallagher’s “Messin’ with the Kid” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well”
Those reading this review may think I’ve been somewhat critical of the Zac Schulze Gang. That has certainly not been my intention. My comments about the covers are simply borne out of frustration and a desire to hear more original material from this wonderfully talented band as I believe that is what’s required if they are to continue their upward progression. Believe me though when I say I’d pay good money to watch them performing tomorrow.
Next to perform is a bit of a curve ball for me; Kanda Bongo Man. Not someone I’d ever heard of or come across before however an artist we’re told is a favourite of Festival Director Dave Rees: An appropriate point to say how great it is to see Dave in the arena this afternoon having suffered a heart attack just two days ago. It’s just a brief passing visit, stopping by for a couple of hours, bringing the sunshine with him, having been discharged from hospital locally and now en route to be taken back home to the North East by his wife Bec.
Kanda Bongo Man entertains for an hour. For me very much out of place at a Rock and Blues Festival however for many, appear to provide a refreshing interlude as he delivers his own unique style of Soukous, a kind of Congolese Rumba. As I say, for me an act somewhat misplaced at a Rock and Blues festival however if it’s good enough for the convalescing Director of this great festival then who am I to disagree!
We’re now back onto the subject of cover bands however Verity Bromham are a little different. If Carlsberg did cover bands…… There’s no doubting that John Verity and Del Bromham have earned their stripes over the years, John most notably during the 1970s with Argent and Del, over the last six decades, with Stray so if they want to indulge themselves a little having fun with other people’s music from over the years then who are we to say no: so having fun with other people’s music (and a bit of their own) is just what they’re doing today.
Supported by Del’s Stray band mate Colin “Curvy” Kempster on bass and Chris Mansbridge on drums we get sixty minutes of great covers interspersed with some equally great chat and banter from Del between songs. They kick off with a great version of Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen” and follow that up with Eric Clapton’s “Cocaine”. Robert Palmer’s “A Bad Case of Loving You” follows and then its Rick Derringer’s “Rock n Roll Hoochie Koo” before they delve into John’s Argent back catalogue for “Hold Your Head Up” and “God Gave Rock n Roll To You”. Del then leads us into a group sing song with “Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City” before breaking into Joe Walsh’s “Rocky Mountain Way”. Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock n Roll” is next before John leads us into some Jimi Hendrix with some Woodstock style “Star Spangled Banner”, leading into “God Save the King” and finally “Purple Haze”. A great fun set performed by two wonderful musicians: a good time has been had by all.
Penultimate band of the day are Brave Rival, returning to Alfold after their resounding hit here last year. It’s fair to say that the rise they were on last year has continued at pace as they’ve continued touring whilst preparing for the upcoming release of their highly anticipated second album, “Fight or Flight”. In the past two years Brave Rival’s stock has risen through the roof as they’ve simply taken the world of blues rock by storm.
Fronted by the powerful, yet harmonic and melodic dual vocals of Lindsey Bonnick and Chloe Josephine and with dynamic guitarist Ed Clarke switching seamlessly from gentle accompaniment to red hot shredding while the solid rhythm section of Donna Peters (drums) and Billy Dedman (bass) hold things together, you have an irresistible package. You only have to listen to their two live albums, one recorded back in 2019 (Ed Clarkes’s first live show with the band) and the other in 2023, to hear how much the band has grown.
During those years they’ve been working hard with an increasing amount of touring, playing a live set that has consisted primarily of tracks from their killer debut studio album, “Life’s Machine” however more recently, over the past six months or so they’ve been adding into the mix, one or two tracks likely to appear on the much anticipated second studio album. Again today it’s a great set combining songs from “Life’s Machine” with tracks from the upcoming album.
Amongst the older tracks we hear “Heart Attack”, “Guilty Love” and “What’s Your Name Again?”, while previewing the new album we hear “Bad Choices”, “Five Years On”, Fairytale” and their latest single “Stand Up”. Once again it’s a fantastic set from Brave Rival who it seems at the moment can do no wrong as they continue to go from strength to strength.
Finally it’s time for tonight’s headliner and that’s former Stranglers front man Hugh Cornwell. I’m not quite old enough to have ever seen Hugh performing with the Stranglers however did get to see him playing a solo set at Guilfest back in 2011. Back then, whilst well into his solo career he was still very much Hugh Cornwell an ex Strangler and played with great “attitude” as you might expect from an old punk rocker and his set that day was heavily doused with Stranglers hits in amongst the solo stuff.
Today is the first time I’ve seen or heard him play since then and my immediate observation is that he seems to have very much mellowed. Although still dressed in black he no longer gives the impression of being the ex punk rocker. Rather he is a man, like me, increasing in years, complaining about the weather and in particular how cold he is! Despite the weather though and Hugh’s suffering from the cold he still puts on an excellent show, which these days comprises largely his own solo material.
He opens up with “Too Much Trash”, a melodic Stranglersesque type of track. “Iwannahideinsideaya” follows before we get the first of just three Stranglers tracks in the set tonight, “Skin Deep”. A couple of tracks from Hugh’s 2008 album “Hooverdam” follow (“Wrong Side of the Tracks” and “Delightful Nightmare”) before we get our second Stranglers track of the set, “Strange Little Girl”. It’s a fairly short set from Hugh this evening and he finishes things off with a couple of tracks from his 2012 “Totem and Taboo” album, the title track and “Bad Vibrations” before concluding the evening with the Stranglers’ “Who Wants The World”.
It’s been another fantastic day at Alfold Rock and Blues and we head back to our digs for the weekend very much looking forward to what tomorrow has to offer.
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