Stonedead Friday 23rd Newark Showground, Newark, Nottingham

Review By Smudge smith and photos By Paul McWilliams

Friday 23^rd.

Has it been a year already? Crikey time flies. As I pulled into the site entrance it was all familiar faces with huge smiles that greeted me and welcomed me back. The press accreditation was nice and easy, and I was directed to the press area – yes, we lucky press people have a whole building to ourselves where we can interview people, down load and post our images. After a catch up with some old colleagues we went for a stroll around the arena and decided it was time for a beer – an easy decision really.

Opening the festival were Scarlet Rebels who I saw headline a stage at Call Of The Wild back in May. I mentioned then that I wasn’t sure if they were ‘big enough’ to headline a stage at a festival but their performance changed my mind immediately and their performance tonight only reconfirmed my decision. They oozed confidence on the big stage with guitarist Chris Jones making sure he used every inch whilst tearing out fills and solos as he pulled some proper rock star shapes.

These guys have their heavy melodic rock chops refined and they get better every time I see them. We got the news that their new album ‘Where Colours Meet’ had entered the charts and number 15 and four new songs were aired tonight – opener ‘Grace’, ‘Streets Of Fire’, ‘Secret Drug’ and ‘It Was Beautiful’ alongside ‘These Days’ and set closer ‘Take You Home’. Scarlet Rebels have a come as long way since I saw them support the Graham Bonnet Band when they were called V0ID, they were good that night and it’s a pleasure to see how they’ve developed.

I saw Paul DiAnno and his band supporting KK’s Priest earlier in the year and I thought they played an awesome set with DiAnno in fine voice despite his recent health issues. He was still in a wheelchair after recent knee surgery, but the voice was still strong as he gave us a set of classic Maiden numbers with a totally different band behind him. We got ‘Sanctuary’, ‘Charlotte The Harlot’, ‘Prowler’, the huge ‘Wrathchild, ‘Murders In The Rue Morgue’, a wonderful ‘Remember Tomorrow’ and ‘Phantom Of The Opera’. He told us that he was playing on only about 4 hours sleep in 3 days and was none too complimentary about a certain hotel chain, but he was the consummate professional as he finished with ‘Iron Maiden’ and ‘Running Free’.

A lot was written on social media about DiAnno’s performance with literally half the people disliking what they heard and the other half saying he was awesome. Both myself and my erstwhile partner in metal, Adrian Hextall, agreed that he and his band sounded great.

Now, I have said it before – I was never a fan of The Quireboys, especially live, where I thought they were sloppy, drunk and unprofessional BUT Spike has amassed a shit hot band who tonight included Thunder drummer Harry James alongside his colleague Luke Morley, Willie Dowling from The Grip tinkling the ivories and original Q’boy Nigel Mogg on bass. I saw them at Call Of The Wild and was mightily impressed but tonight they were awesome. It was an evening of sheer fun and enjoyment with their brand of cheeky chappy Faces/Stones rock n roll.

Spike’s voice sounded clear and powerful, and Morley threw out those rockin’ R&B riffs like confetti, a big credit to Dowling too who played like The Killer himself – Jerry Lee Lewis. ‘Jeeze Louise’ and ‘Can’t Park Here’ are perfect openers and Hannah from Truro dancing next to me told me they were ‘bouncy’ as did her son Harry. Now Hannah is a foster carer and she had her ‘ward’ with her – legally I cannot name him – but this lad was having the time of his young life. We got ‘Misled’, ‘Sweet Mary Ann’, ‘Raining Whiskey’ and ‘Whippin’ Boy’ before the crowd went nuts and sang-a-long to ‘Hey You’.

The good times continued with ‘I Think I Got It Wrong Again’, ‘King Of New York’ and ‘Roses And Rings’ which has a refrain much like ‘Some Kinda Wonderful’ before it was sing-a-long time again with ‘There She Goes Again’ and ‘7 O’Clock’. Hannah looked disappointed as they hadn’t played her fave – ‘I Don’t Love You Anymore’ and told me to deduct points, but after the calls of ‘one more song’ she got her wish. A wonderful opening night made everyone excited for tomorrow.