FRIDAY
Moving on to the Friday. A long day was
planned out, mainly sticking with the main stage. Up first are fellow Celts, The King Lot. I
really liked their first album and saw them supporting Dan Reed Network a short
while back. I always like to see bands like The King Lot, get a shot in front
of a ready and willing audience. Thankfully they did not fail me. As a three
piece TKL will give anyone a run for their money, even Earth, Wind & Fire! I
must say that with their new guitarist in tow, Jay Moir, The King Lot are a different
prospect to what I saw in 2016. They were tight as a nut, and the vocals from
Jason Sweeney were a joy to hear. Very few bands have that ‘sit up and take
notice’ vibe about them, but TKL are one of those bands. ‘As They Burn’ was a
strong song to get a crowd on your side, and the new songs prove they are
making big leaps and bounds on from the debut, with ‘Save Me’ and ‘All I Want’
making more than a mark. Going on first can be a killer as a lot of people
could still be tucked up in their vans after heavy night, but the guys managed
to pull in a very decent crowd. Props go to Jason for his humorous banter in-between
songs. I’m sad I missed them at the bar afterwards for a ‘drinkypoo of Irn Bru!’
Cruzh as in ‘Crush’ and not ‘Cruise’ as I
thought it was. This is proper AOR that the Swedes in particular seem to be
flying the AOR flag for. Even before they start, bass player Dennis,
resplendent in his fur wrap, and arm in the air salute showed off their
stagecraft. This is some serious shit I think to myself. I have to say,
vocalist Tony Andersson has one hell of a range to his vocals, and a various
points was hitting notes that only Labradors can hear. I was not aware of these
guys, but what was presented to me was very good, and in ‘In and out of love’
Cruzh have their Bon Jovi moment, I half expect Andersson to belt out ‘Tommy used
to work on the docks….’ They were out Bon Jovi-ing, Bon Jovi! If that makes
sense.
What does every good AOR vocalist need to
have? Did I hear anyone say, abs? With his bandana, and desire for showing off
his torso, Tony is every inch a 1989s MTV star. To qualify how good they
(Cruzh) are, I stepped over to see Fugitive for one song on the second stage,
and the gap, my friends, in difference is as wide as the smile on a Cheshire
Cat! Although Hippie Jesus (if you caught him – hair matted and with a John
Motson sheepskin) seemed to like Fugitive.
Some five years after making their debut at
the inaugural HRH AOR, Daylight Robbery was a bit further up the bill this
time. They have been quiet on the album front, with their most recent being
2013s ‘Falling Back To Earth’. Most of their set is weighted towards this
second album. In Tony Nicholl, they have a very good vocalist and all round
front man, (a bit like pointy Bob from Magnum) and an excellent guitarist in
Mark Carelton. My only criticism is that Mark should watch Brad Gillis and see
how a guitarist performs. Carelton is a cracking guitarist but it was like
watching a mannequin! Most of the set comes from FBTE, and any band having a
decent intro tape is worth a punt. The songs on offer warrant a bigger crowd
than they got. ‘Digital Dreamer being one of the best songs with they guys
great harmonies, I’m a sucker for four of five part harmonies and DR deliver on
all counts. ‘Fallen Star’ is probably the best song in their armoury, whilst it
isn’t a ‘Stargazer’, it is a very good song. I heard a lot of mixed opinions
regarding DR, but for me it was a good performance. I’d like to be seeing a new
album coming out form them soon to keep some momentum going.
Jac Dalton, ‘who?’ I hear you say was up
next. Well he is the first Antipodean
rocker on the main stage on Friday. First impressions count for me, and if that
isn’t a syrup, I want to know what the fuck he is doing, as I want whatever he
is putting on it. It was like a fucking mane! Anyway hair, and dodgy ill
fitting kecks aside, Jac started up very promising. He was one of the few acts
I have never heard material from over this weekend and I suspect I wasn’t the
only one in this position. ‘Powder keg’ has the hallmarks of a great opener,
decent riff, and a good and catchy chorus. I have no idea where this blokes
been for the last 20 years, but with it being Australia, I’m guessing its
witness protection. Jac has surrounded himself with some pretty good musicians.
JD firmly has his feet planted in the 1980s and makes no apologies for it, with
‘Roll in The Punches’ being a prime example. His diction is clear, which is
great for a reviewer, and JD comes with a decent set of pipes. He did however
declare that they were there to party on this Saturday Night. I’ll forgive him,
as it probably was Saturday in Australia! Some of the set is clichéd, but there
were some pretty decent songs to be heard here with ‘Armed and Dangerous’ being
a particular favourite for me. Jac is an
amiable front man, who operates at 30 DHACF (that’s 30 Devil Horns and clenched
fists per song. He was handing them out like sweets). ‘Blow me Away’ was
another good song where a Hammond organ plays its part. ‘Let It Go’ comes from
the same stable as Ratt’s ‘Invasion Of You Privacy’, both riff wise, and
chorus.
My favourite moment was not a song but an
introduction to his band. ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, the Ayatollah of rock and
rolla….Graham Greene’ . Well done Sir!
JD finished with a song that Ratt, Poison,
and all the Hair Metal Bands of the 80s would love to have in their repertoire
the unashamed, ‘Locked, Cocked and Ready To Rock’. It was a bit trapped in the
past, but that necessarily isn’t a bad sign. There were more hits than misses,
but had they had 45 mins like some of the others; they could have left more of
a mark on the audience
Onto my favourite Skippy/The Sullivans/Sons
and Daughters, Australian band, (second
only to the legendary Jimmy Barnes), The Radio Sun, bringing their own brand of
‘thunder from down under’. Steve Janevski, Jason Old and the guys certainly get
their money’s worth out of the HRH AOR fest, as this was their second
performance (out of three for the weekend). They had travelled both far and
wide, and bloody long to get here – non-stop for 30 hrs. and still managed to
put in a great show on the Thursday night after the main JLT event. It’s the
main stage set that the one they have been building up to. There is good reason
that TRS are here for the third year in a row, their crowd is building with
every performance here, they deserve the hour slot that they have built up to
as they have certainly put in the hours and performances. This slot gives TRS a
chance to hit the audience where it hurts, and they deliver on all fronts. With
the big stage and more time, Janevski bounds around like it is their last
performance, and in Jason Old, we have a guy who likes to talk about hair care.
Thankfully, he can sing also! TRS epitomize what this festival is about,
melodic rock. The audience gets hit with a barrage of their ‘pop/rock’ brand
and manage to cram in a hefty fourteen songs. It could have been seventeen had
they stopped Mr Old from singing
‘Working Class Man’ and chatting away!! I’ve said this many times
before, but they do this ‘power pop/rock’ so well, in a way that a band like
Coheed & Cambria does. Jeez, there were too many songs to pick from, but
highlight for me were ‘One In A Million’, the raucous ‘Tonight’s The Night’,
and a song they have made their own, the excellent Andy Taylor cover, ‘I Might
Lie’.
We are now getting to the sharp end of
Friday night. I had no idea who Aaron Buchanan and The Cult Classics were.
Coming onto the stage, they all looked as if they were there to make a huge
statement of intent. Sharply turned out, a whirlwind of movement from them all,
and right in your face. It was like being kicked in the balls (in a good way). Opener ‘Left Me For Dead’ reminded me of early
Alter Bridge crossed with Alice In Chains. Buchannan is a live wire of a
performer, hardly keeping still, and his delivery is great considering he put
more energy into one hour than all the previous bands could muster up!
I had a thought, what is he doing playing
‘Fire, Fire’, then it hit me. He was the bloke in Heavens Basement. Now without
the long locks. Backed up by his sister Laurie on guitar, and Lead guitarist
Tom McCarthy, they were here to leave a mark on the audience. I think he very
nearly did – in trying to stage dive he went arse over tit, and looked like it
could have smarted a bit. It could have been the end of it there and then. To
quote him afterwards, ‘a show without risks, isn’t a show’. I honestly think he
lives and dies by this mantra. ‘Fire in the ~Fields of Mayhem’ is a song
inspired by Coheed, and hits the spot, short and punchy like a Claudio classic,
complete with ‘whooa, oh ohs!’ After the near death experience, Aaron thought ‘I’ve
survived this, so ill give it another shot’. During the powerful ‘I Am
Electric’ he beckoned the audience in, walked across them, and pulled off a headstand
on top of the audience for one of the memorable points of the whole weekend. The
whole band at this point were on fire, all bar Paul White (drums), the guys up
front were in the audiences face for the whole hour. ‘Man With Stars On His
Knees’ was the stand out song for me, you get to hear Aaron just singing, it
built up into a crescendo without the need for screaming and was simply
wonderful. Hearing four Heavens Basement songs made me think why the hell this
band didn’t make it, as the interpretations here were excellent.
AB&TCC are as near to AOR as I am to
being politically correct. That doesn’t matter, because as far as I am
concerned they gave one of the performances of the weekend. Fucking fantastic.
Marc Torien’s Bulletboys were up next. The audience
was stoked for these guys. I feel that I might be in the minority, but I saw
and felt differently to the crowds reaction. As far as I’m concerned, they should have been sponsored by ‘The Dairy Council of Great Britain’ as
these fuckers know how to milk out a song. It was all smoke and mirrors. I
thought Torien, looked great, sounded great and played guitar even better, but
I just don’t understand what all the pissing about was for. The few songs they
played (8 in total. Really?) there were extended intros, extended outros, and
the bits in the middle were too bastard long also. If I hear him shout ‘Are you
glad to see us Wales?’ I heard it 20 bleedin’ times. If I’m honest, it started
well with ‘Hard as A Rock, finished well, with ‘Smooth Up In Ya’ but the middle
was the shit, in a shit sandwich. I just did not get it. They were booked for an hour, played 5 or 6
songs in 50 minutes, and I wouldn’t have put it past him to count his money on
stage for the last 10. There was too much faff and fannying around for my
liking. You can tell he is taking the piss by throwing in a drum solo. I would
have swapped these around with AB&TCC. Where’s the mind bleach as I want my
mind erasing.How he could take the money after a performance like this is beyond me.
Night Ranger nave been doing this for 35
years and were not going to let anyone before steal the thunder. By the time
they took the stage a little late the venue was rammed, to the point of almost
being uncomfortable. Based on this, Night Ranger is THE band that people were
here to see on any of the three days. They play with the vibe of a band that is
playing gigs every weekend for the last 10 years. Jack Blades in particular
looks as if he is having the time of his like. Very few bands from the 80s
could pull in a crowd like this today. It’s all because they are fucking great.
End of.
This is the third time in four years that I’ve
seen them. Do you know what is great? They have mixed up the set list for all
three gigs. It helps considerably that they have such and excellent and
extensive catalogue of great songs to pull from. There’s no light weighting or
fillers here folks, its full on Night Ranger power for almost two hours.
The new (ish) songs, opener ‘Somehow
Someway’, ‘High Road’ and ‘Truth’ fit in seamlessly with the older classics. In
fact if you didn’t know any better you would think they are all from their
golden period. It’s an artillery of voices, with five part harmonies, an AOR
fans wet dream. With Brad Gillis and Keri Kelli the interplay between both is
something else, and Gillis in particular is one of rocks finest guitarists, and
vastly underrated. The playing on ‘A Touch Of Madness’ is just to die for. Jack
Blades is taking something that I want. I don’t know what it is, but if I can
bound around like him for a couple of hours at his age, I’d be a happy man
indeed. Night Ranger are a well oiled
machine, its hit after hit, from ‘Rumours In The Air’ to ‘The Secret Of My
Success’ and the not very heard ‘7 Wishes’ and ‘Night Ranger’. For me, the
crowd responds better to the Damn Yankees songs than the Night Ranger ones.
They have enough great songs to draw in that don’t need to be Damn Yankees. One
of my favourite albums is ‘Man In Motion,’ there are some cracking songs on
here that never get an outing. With the
last five songs, Night Rangers phasers are set to ‘stun’. ‘Goodbye’, When You
Close Your Eyes’, the superb ‘Don’t Tell Me You Love Me’, segueing into Highway
Star, then onto the one-two sucker punch with ‘Sister Christian’ and ‘(You Can
Still) Rock In America.
Night Ranger delivered on all levels, song
choice, and performance level, and musically. There’s not that many bands out
there form the 80s that could match this level at this stage in their careers.
Here’s to 2021 or sooner hopefully.
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