This is the first festival I’ve done since before The Pandemic, and the first outdoor I’ve done since Bloodstock 2015. Have to admit to a little bit of nerves!
Anyway. Made it down to Newark Showground in good time, just as it properly started raining. Luckily by the time the first band came on (The Hot One Two) the rain was easing off. Not a bad start to the day, despite the rain.
Once the rain had finally stopped, the next band out were proper Old School Heavy Metal band Tailgunner (one of the bands I was here to see). Unfortunately the impromptu interview I was having with The Bites overran a little and I ended up missing part of the set. I got there just in time for them to start on Crashdive. A little disappointing I missed so much of the set, since I’d been listening to the rather excellent album, Guns For Hire on the way down.
As the sun briefly made a brave attempt at dispelling the clouds, The Bites took the stage.
It was like being transported back to the late 80’s. This is a band that would have been comfortable playing alongside Poison and Faster Pussycat at The Viper Room (which is where two of the band members met). Actually, it might have been a little uncomfortable for both of those old bands, since The Bites are more talented musicians in the live setting than either of them. As I said to them later, “It was like watching Poison and Pretty Boy Floyd… except you can play and sing!”
Honestly, Bonafide and Eclipse aren’t really my cup of tea, so I headed back to the press room to start writing this up. And have a cup of tea because I was parched. I also needed to spend a few minutes finding a charging station to make sure I was going to get home after the show.
That’s when it started absolutely CHUCKING it down.
Luckily that didn’t last long. By about half past four, it had dried up.
This is also where hanging around in the press room can come in useful, as The Hot One Two came in to do an interview with someone else. When they’d done, I asked if they had a few minutes to do another interview and luckily for me a couple of them had. Once I’ve got the interview edited, I’ll get it up on the website. Also Brian Tatler (Saxon guitarist, formerly of Diamond Head) also dropped by, so I managed to grab him to get an ident for the show.
Which was nice.
After having a very pleasant chat with the members of Tailgunner (whose new drummer, when he’s wearing his sunglasses, looks exactly like Rick Savage from Def Leppard!).
Unfortunately all that meant I missed Doro. Which is a little annoying, but that’s festivals for you. It happens.
With the interviews done, I headed out into the arena to watch the last couple of bands: KK’s Priest and Saxon.
I will admit that I’ve made some disparaging comments about KK’s Priest in the past, most based on them being a cut-price Judas Priest tribute band. And the intro tape introducing each member of the band with a sepulchral voiceover and TV-opening-titles-style graphics on the screen at the back of the stage didn’t do much to contradict that. Then they started playing. The first three songs were all KK’s Priest originals from their Sermons Of The Sinner and Sinner Rides Again albums. In fact their entire set was fairly evenly balanced between Judas Priest material and originals (and using The Ripper, The Sinner and Burn In Hell from Jugulator). When the temptation must have been there to finish with something like Livin’ After Midnight, they finished with Raise Your Fists from their debut album.
Not bad at all, Mr Downing and chums. Not bad at all.
Then, to bring Stonedead to an end for 2024, the headliners: Saxon.
Saxon are an institution. They’ve been around since 1977, with their first album being released in 1979 and their most recent just last year. So they know what they’re doing. With the addition of Diamond Head‘s Brian Tatler on guitar, replacing the retired Paul Quinn, they keep going. It’s fair to say they’ve not produced a poor album since the late 80’s (I didn’t like Destiny – I didn’t buy another album by one of my favourite bands for years after that one).
Anyway, fantastic band with some great songs, a lot of them were part of the set… but my knees and back weren’t having it. So mid-set, when they slowed the pace a little, starting with Sacrifice, leading into The Eagle Has Landed, it was time for me to leave.
Hopefully I’ll be back next year. If the line-up’s as good as this year, I’d be sad to miss it.
Keep your eye on this site over the next few days, and you’ll see the other photos and be able to listen to the interviews.
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