It was back in 1980 that the first one day Monsters of Rock festival was born and even that inaugural event attracted a crowd of 35,000. It lasted in this format into the 1990’s until we were told to listen to something else.
Well here we are now with Stonedead celebrating its fifth anniversary as a one day outdoor festival and attracting a capacity crowd of some 5000. There is still an eager demand for this format, held on the last bank holiday in August each year. Stonedead sells out every year before the show starts. But its beginnings were born out of the ashes of those early days by a group of veteran rockers who wanted to put on a show that was affordable and accessible but not compromising on the quality of entertainment.
If you look at the legendary line-ups of yore, you can see a similar format in the modern day line-up. Young bands making their way up the rankings, those who have been treading the boards both locally and internationally for a few years and then your headline classic act followed by hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide. So there is something for everyone old and new. Throw in quality food and beverage and merchandise stalls, plenty of camping facilities and it becomes a great day out for the whole family.
So what of the bands chosen for this year’s fifth anniversary event?
Well the afternoon kicks off with the popular Collateral and their full on AOR sound which we don’t hear so much in the Modern Rock genre. Often compared to Bon Jovi, these guys have a slightly more refrained English sound. Stand out songs Mr Big Shot and Midnight Queen start the show and get the crowd dancing from the off. A new album is fast approaching and this is a great opportunity for the boys from Kent to put themselves on a big stage and show off the talent they clearly have.
Second up are South Of Salem, quite a different sound to that of Collateral being more of an alternate/metal sound. Again though, they’ve got some sing a long tunes and catchy choruses. With second album Death of the Party due soon, they take the opportunity to sound test a couple of newbies which go down well and together with the pyros and lights you can see the band are clearly enjoying the larger stage experience with a capacity crowd feeding off the vibe.
All the way from Canada are Deraps enjoying their debut UK show. They describe themselves as immersed in the seventies and certainly Van Halen spring to mind straight away. There’s plenty of the VH bounce in a lot of the tracks here, My Side of Town and Make Ya Groove. But to bring their set to a head and reinforce that theme, we get a cover of Deep Purple’s Highway Star and of course Van Halen’s Hot for Teacher, rounding out with The Sweet’s Ballroom Blitz. A great party band who I’m sure will be back for a bigger UK tour soon.
We were due to be watching the energetic force that is Mason Hill at this point but sadly with singer Scott Taylor being unwell it was down to last minute replacements Florence Black to fill their shoes. You couldn’t get a more pile driving hard rock band if you tried. For three guys from South Wales they surly filled the Newark sky with more noise than the Lancaster Bomber we saw earlier. This is proper heavy metal but with a melody that gets right under your skin. They play plenty of tracks from the mighty Weight Of The World album, my favourite being Zulu and we get new single, released that very weekend, Don’t Hold Me Down. And we couldn’t not get closer Sun And Moon a criminally overlooked by mass media song that is just superb. An awesome show from these guys, as always. There are people who say you either love them or you hate them, there’s people who have never listened to them but today in front of 5000 people they made themselves very familiar.
The mighty King King were on stage next and boy did we get a treat. In one song you can get soul, blues and rock, Hammond organ and twin guitar lead. This was a band very comfortable with their surroundings and quite frankly overdue a step to the next level. Opening with Dance Together the band succeeds in getting us doing just that, Heed The Warning and Lose Control keeping the blues and soul sounds running and finishing with the trio of You Stopped The Rain (great timing) Rush Hour and the fantastic I will Not Fall where we are treated to the awesome twin guitars of brothers Alan and Stevie Nimmo. Surely world stages beckon for this incredible band.
Returning from a long hiatus are Irish rockers The Answer who seem to have used their break very well. Coming out as fresh as when they started the NWOCR scene all those years ago, they seem even more polished and chilled. They manage to wow the crowd by carefully picking songs from the breadth of their career, Keep Believin’ from debut Rise, the popular Nowhere Freeway from Revival, Spectacular from New Horizon and of course a few new ones from the excellent new album Sundowners. Cormac Neeson is in fine singing form and has brought plenty of stage banter with him too. An excellent welcome back from these lads, who surely are here to stay for a bit longer this time.
Therapy? were never part of my growing up with rock music so believe it or not most of what I heard at Stonedead was new to me. This veteran band clearly had huge support here and nearly everyone knew their songs so I was left as the minority. Playing songs dating back some thirty years, they were clearly very familiar with the big crowds and knew how to kick off a show. With such a wealth of material to choose from, their usual choice of songs from Troublgum were present but they did take a deep dive into other songs, Potato Junky and Teethgrinder for example and yes of course they were going to play new tunes from their 2023 album Hard Cold Fire. But the biggest tune was always going to be the closer….Screamanger. Is it really near thirty years old??
Black Star Riders are a massive favourite on the festival circuit and were not about to disappoint this time round. The natural opener All Hell Breaks Loose is no surprise and is the perfect way to kick off what by now is a classic hits show. Now without Scott Gorham, Sam Wood takes centre stage as lead and for a brief moment you could think it was Scott himself on stage, with his long blonde hair. And it’s not long before Sam is in his usual kick ass guitar mode. There’s no need to go into every song here of the fourteen on show, as it’s just as if this band has been around for forty years, such is the familiarity of each one, testament to the quality of them.
Towards the close of the set, Andy Cairns, from Therapy? joins the band for Finest Hour after we’d been treated to the majestic Jailbreak and the err not so groundbreaking Osmonds song Crazy Horses. With the light having said goodbye and the stage in full glow ahead of us, Black Star Riders sign out with Bound For Glory, every bit Thin Lizzy as it is BSR and a feel good, up lifting song everyone knows. It was a great display and a brilliant way to bring a legacy sound into the modern age so it can last another generation.
The headline band at Stonedead 2023 was none other than the legendary US outfit Blue Oyster
Cult. As much a part of my musical education as Thin Lizzy was all those years ago but a very different sound mixing several genres in what could be quite a complex sound in some of their deeper cuts. You either loved them or not in the day and I’ll be honest it felt a bit like that in the crowd here. Fortunately BOC have enough familiar tunes for people to connect with. The first two openers pulled straight from the debut album from way way back in 1972.
The bands focus on performing a technically well presented set seemed to distract them from any banter with the audience which left some feeling confused as to when applause was needed. However Burnin’ For You and Harvest Moon brought cheers from those familiar with their output. Now I’m a great guitar fan and one of BOC’s highlight live songs for me is Then Came The Last Days Of May, again, from the debut album and a track of no more than 3 minutes 30 seconds in the studio becomes a marathon 11 minute epic with Richie Castellano and then Buck Dharma showing their skills on guitar to very impressive effect. A BOC show would not be the same without the most well known BOC song ever, Don’t Fear The Reaper and wow did it sound great. Undoubtedly the biggest cheer of the set went up and everyone was dancing. An encore of Cities On Flame with Rock and Roll brought the set and indeed Stonedead to a close. They might not have stirred the crowd quite as much as Michael Schenker did last year but Blue
Oyster Cult are a classic American band still delivering music some fifty years later and it still sounds so relevant. I loved it.
Stonedead is a one day wonder, meant in the truest sense. A great day for the whole family, with plenty to occupy everyone away from the music. Great food, great drink, plenty of merch stalls and all in a safe environment thanks to the plentiful, friendly and helpful staff on hand. The hardest job of all is finding the right balance of musical styles from classic to modern, to suite a large 5000 strong crowd and again for the fifth time the Stonedead team have delivered. It’s a brilliant day out and one that will be as strong next year as this.
