For a while it looked like this year would be without our annual pilgrimage to Nottingham. There was an announcement of Firefest returning, but it was just a false alarm, and apparently the festival is not going to return anytime soon. Then, David Herron and his troops announced that there would be a second Rockingham festival, although in a new location. Never mind I thought, ”I’m booking a hotel and time off work, NOTTINGHAM CALLS!” It didn’t hurt that some of the bands announced were the kind of acts that I couldn’t have dreamed of seeing, major surprises.
The new location was quite close to Rock City. The Level at Trent University Student Union building has been recently refurbished and it proved to be a nice place for this festival. A big stage, good lighting and nice bars with fast service and reasonable prices, at least compared to the bar prices here in Finland. Us press folks had an access to the VIP area too, which was a nice gesture from the organizers. Much appreciated!
The Friday’s line-up promised an easy start for the weekend, with only four bands playing. The honour of opening the festivities was given to ART NATION, a young Swedish band. Having seen them last winter in Stockholm, I knew were were in for a treat and the band didn’t disappoint. Lead by the charismatic vocalist Alexander Strandell (ex-Diamond Dawn), the band put on an energetic performance. Strandell might be in the limelight as a lead singer, but I noticed that guitarist Christoffer Borg took a bigger role than the last time, headbanging and throwing shapes like a young Yngwie.
Even though the band has only one album under their belt, they provided us a set of several hit-worthy tracks. The album opener, video song ”Need You To Understand” was the natural kick-off track, followed by ”I Want Out”, ”Start A Fire” and my personal favourite ”All In”. There was no time or need for ballads, so the band concentrated on their more uptempo songs. The tempo did slow down a little for the heavy ”Wage War Against The World”, but ”Don’t Wait For Salvation” and ”3000 Beats” returned it back to the ”up”-mode. Yes, a fine start for the weekend!
SETLIST:
Need You To Understand
I Want Out
Start A Fire
All In
Here I Am
Wage War Against The World
Don’t Wait For Salvation
3000 Beats
Next up was the only ”returning” act from last year, VALENTINE or to be more precise, Robby Valentine and his band. Last year his set divided opinions, some thought it was brilliant and some thought it was just way too strange. This year he had adjusted the setlist a little, dropping some of the weirdest songs but still concentrating heavily on the latest album of his, ”Bizarro World”. Just like last time, I would have liked to hear more ”classic tracks” from his early albums but Mr. Valentine plays what he wants to and this time it was the new stuff.
The Valentine band had changed a little, there was no keyboard player, apart from Robby himself. There were still layers of keys, choirs and effects… Robby kept himself busy switching from keys to guitar and back yet never missing a vocal line. He seemed a bit more comfortable on stage than last year, and does have an aura of a ”rockstar”, even if a little reluctant one. One cannot deny that he’s a bit of a musical genius, a master of his instruments and a vocalist with a considerable range.
Occasionally Robby shared the spotlight with Maria Catharina, featured female vocalist on some of the Valentine songs and the front woman of her own band Aniday. She wore the same (or similar) spandex catsuit than the last time, and I noticed that the male audience seemed to be a little bit more alert everytime she made an appearance.
This time we didn’t hear ”Bohemian Rhapsody” with Robby singing harmonies with himself, instead he played a less familiar Queen track called ”Ogre Battle” which didn’t require that much technical trickery. My favourite tracks were Valentine originals though: ”The Magic Breeze”, ”I Believe In Music”, Bizarro World’s standout tracks ”Close The Door” and ”Black Rain” and of course, the hit that kickstarted Robby’s career, ”Over And Over Again”. It’s a bonafide WimpPompRock classic!
SETLIST:
The Bizarro World
The Magic Breeze
Rockstar
Dear Dad
Fear Of Heights
I Believe In Music
Make Way
Close The Door
Schizophonicated
Black Rain
Ogre Battle
Save Myself
Over And Over Again
I was looking forward to seeing LEE AARON. Back in the eighties she was the Metal Queen, who went AOR with her self-titled album in 1987, then toughened up her style a bit for ”Bodyrock” and ”Some Girls Do”. For the past twenty years she hasn’t done much rock stuff, but earlier this year she returned to rock with ”Fire And Gasoline”.
Lee Aaron had brought her whole band to Nottingham and they put on a solid show - with no backing tapes I might add. One third of the show contained songs from the new album, and they weren’t bad but they didn’t make me want to buy the album right away either. The rest of the set was made up of Lee’s biggest hits, such as ”Whatcha Do To My Body”, ”Powerline” and ”Barely Holding On”, which wasn’t a hit in her home country but a cult classic here in Europe. The inevitable set closer was ”Metal Queen”, with Lee herself on third guitar. She played guitar on a couple of other songs as well.
Lee Aaron’s performance was energetic and she sang really well, and the band impressed me too. The Metal Queen must have access to the same fountain of youth as some other 80’ies stars… Those of them who don’t seem to age like us mere mortals. Personal highlight of the set for me was ”Powerline” with its’ glorious keyboard dut-dut intro and anthemic chorus. I’m very glad Lee and the band added it to the setlist.
SETLIST:
Tom Boy
Hands On
Rock Candy
Fire And Gasoline
Powerline / Lady Of The Darkest Night
50 Miles
Some Girls Do / Sex With Love
Barely Holding On
Whatcha Do To My Body
Metal Queen
Friday’s headliners were TRIXTER, the US band that hit the big time with their 1990 debut album. They had a couple of number one hit videos on MTV and the album reached gold status. Their success was short-lived though, and the band split up in the mid-nineties. They reformed a few years ago and have now released two albums on Frontiers records.
The sound at the venue hadn’t been that great for the previous acts, and for Trixter it only got worse. The band was very loud and there was some kind of a buzzing noise in the background throughout their set. That made their set a little bit less enjoyable. As far as my untrained (and ringing) ears could tell, Trixter played without off-stage elements and I have to hand it to them, their vocals were superb.
The setlist contained half of the first album, three songs from the second album ”Hear!”, two from their comeback album ”New Audio Machine” and one from their latest one, ”Human Era”. I wouldn’t have minded if they had played more from it, as it’s a very good album. My favourites were ”Heart Of Steel” and ”Tattoos And Misery”, which sounded better than I remembered. I don’t know what happened during ”Road Of A Thousand Dreams”, it could have been on the favourite-list, but somehow it didn’t work live. It sounded a little chaotic.
The ”Hell On High Heelz” made two appearances on stage with Trixter, adding some visual content to the show. The smoke cannons were also in use and during the last song the room was filled with confetti, which probably caused a couple of nervous breakdowns among the cleaning staff.
SETLIST:
On The Road Again
Rockin’ To The Edge Of The Night
Heart Of Steel
Play Rough
Rockin’ Horse
One In A Million
Road Of A Thousand Dreams
Surrender
Machine
Tattoos And Misery
Line Of Fire
Give It To Me Good
 |
UK newcomers STONE BROKEN had the honour of opening the second day. I must admit that I missed some of their set and so did our photographer. The few songs I heard sounded very much like Nickelback’s heavier tracks, not much hooks but a lot of attitude. The band played well and the singer has a good, raspy voice, but… maybe a melodic rock festival wasn’t the right kind of festival for them? Or maybe the songs that I didn’t hear were more melodic, I don’t know… they’re signed to Frontiers after all, they’ve heard something in them anyway.
BLOOD RED SAINTS released their debut album last year and it was a decent slice of ”Winger-Meets-Dokken on British Soil”-type of hard rock. The band’s set was a good one too, best of the album’s songs and a cover of Bon Jovi’s ”Wanted Dead Or Alive”. For ”Unbreakable”, the band brought in guest vocalist, Paul Laine of The Defiants and Danger Danger fame. He hadn’t had too much time to rehearse but one could’t really tell, he and Pete Godfrey were a good power duo.
The BRS frontman Pete Godfrey’s song introductions and other little anecdotes were funny, so funny in fact that I’ve seen some suggesting that he’d take up stand-up comedy! He’s not a bad singer either… SETLIST: After two new bands, it was time for one of the surprise additions to the line-up - LIONHEART. They released their only album ”Hot Tonight” back in 1984, but only lasted until 1986. I recall seeing their video ”Die For Love” back in the day and instantly falling in love with the song. Needless to say it was the one song I most definitely wanted to hear… Lionheart played almost completely in its’ original recording line-up. Only vocalist Chad Brown was missing, but the band had managed to find a great replacement - Lee Small, who’s sung with Shy, Phenomena, Snowfall, Skyscraper and many other bands. The other members of the band are Rocky Newton on bass, Dennis Stratton on guitar, Clive Edwards on drums and Steve Mann on guitar and keyboards.
The band didn’t care for ”holding out” as they played three of their most well-known songs straight away. Opening with ”Wait For The Night”, ”Hot Tonight” and the inevitable ”Die For Love”, they threw away their best cards… a fine start for the set, although there were some technical with the keyboards. Lee Small’s vocals were a good fit for the songs and the band sounded good, even though it’s been ”a while” since they played together the last time. But damn it, ”Die For Love” without the keyboard intro… a slight disappointment. The rest of the Lionheart setlist consisted of a few other songs from ”Hot Tonight” and some unreleased material, tracks called ”Prisoner” and ”Lionheart”. Rocky Newton announced that the band is working on a comeback album, whether these songs will be on it remains to be seen. SETLIST: Swedish rockers CRAZY LIXX were one of the main attractions of the festival for me, as I had never seen them live before. Their latest, self-titled album has been in heavy rotation and the same goes for ”New Religion”, another modern-day melodic hard rock classic. Now with a revised line-up, the band took Rockingham by storm and played one of my favourite sets of the weekend.
Crazy Lixx played a set full of catchy hard rock songs with big hooks and singalong choruses, something that only a handful of bands can do. What’s more, there were several great Crazy Lixx hits which didn’t fit into the setlist because of the limited time they had… later on I talked with new guitarist Chrisse Olsson about this, and he asked which songs I had hoped to hear. I named a couple and he said that they are part of their headlining setlists, and recently played to the Russian audiences.
As the Crazy Lixx guys are younger than most of the other artists, they had plenty of energy for the stage and they used it well. New guitarists Chrisse Olsson and Jens Lundgren sounded and looked like a good match for the band. In Danny Rexon the band has a good frontman who sings well and the rhythm section of Joel Cirera (drums) and Jens Sjöholm (bass) laid down the foundation perfectly.
The Swede-attack continued with THE POODLES. First of all, Jacob Samuel is A FRONTMAN with lots of confidence, an endless variety of moves and a strong voice. And there’s a difference in between being confident and arrogant, Samuel strutted like a peacock but I never thought of him as being arrogant. Later when I talked to him he seemed like a humble, nice guy who genuinely appreciated my comments. If there’s a performing arts school who needs a teacher in the art of stage presence, they should call Professor Samuel!
The core of the band has been Samuel, guitarist Henrik Bergqvist and drummer Christian Lundqvist for quite some time. The band’s previous bassist Johan Flodqvist left the band recently, and for this show the band had enlisted their former bassist Pontus Egberg. He was great and many people have commented that he should stay in The Poodles on a permanent basis.
The band’s setlist leaned heavily on their latest album ”Devil In The Details”, they played 5 songs from it. I’m not a huge fan of the album and I would have heard older material, but I can’t say I was too disappointed. We did get classic Poodles tracks like ”Cuts Like A Knife”, ”Like No Tomorrow” and ”Night Of Passion” and even the less thrilling tracks were given an entertainment injection by Mr. Samuel’s crazy stage antics. The Finnish Jury voted and we especially liked ”The Sweeper”, a move which looked like he was sweeping the floor with his mike stand. SETLIST: There was never any question about the most outrageous haircut of the weekend. JEAN BEAUVOIR and his gravity-defying blond mohawk was just about the coolest thing ever, and let’s face it, the man is the King of Cool. Beforehand I had thought that potentially his set could be one of the showstoppers, because he has written quite a few killer songs. Well, it was very good but maybe not the showstopper I hoped it would be. The members of Jean’s band were long-time collaborators of his, Hawk Lopez on drums, Tommy Lafferty on guitar and bassist Dario Saixas. Last year Saixas played with Giuffria and just about stole the show from the Giuffria geezers. He’s probably the most entertaining bass player I’ve ever seen. Now with a strong, charismatic frontman next to him he didn’t stand out that much, but his whirlwind-type of a stage presence did add a lot to the show. Although marketed as a Jean Beauvoir solo show, there were only two songs from his solo albums in his setlist. The first Crown Of Thorns album was heavily featured, almost half of the material was from that, but then again, it’s a nineties’ classic. I’m certainly not complaining that I finally got to hear ”Dying For Love” and ”The Healer” live, it doesn’t get much better than that! The ”blasts from Beauvoir’s past” were a mixed bunch: The Plasmatics’ punk song ”Masterplan” sounded a bit out of place at this festival, while the Kiss song ”Uhh All Night” worked better. It’s hardly Jean’s finest collaboration with the band though but that’s just my opinion. The Ramones song ”My Brain Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)” might sound like a weird inclusion but it’s actually a melodic song with a catchy hook. ”Voodoo Queen” was continuously requested by someone very enthusiastic which amused Jean, but it wasn’t in the cards. I would have liked it to hear it too!
One of the most anticipated acts of the whole festival was Saturday’s headliner STEELHEART. There was a huge question mark hanging over their performance - what would they play? The sound of the band has evolved (or drifted away) from what it was when they broke through. I think a lot of us were hoping for a set that would have several track from the first two albums. Unfortunately that wasn’t what we got, and if it wasn’t for Miljenko Matijevic’s strong performance, this would have been a bit of a disappointment.
Four of the songs were from the Rock Star movie soundtrack and while they are among most well-known songs of Steelheart/Miljenko, I must say that I don’t think that they’re particularly great. The crowd did like them so maybe it was a good move to play them all. We did get to hear 4 songs from the first Steelheart album, but none from ”Tangled In Reins”. Instead the band played TWO Zeppelin covers and a drum solo. All this in a set that last for about 65 minutes. No ”Can’t Stop Me Lovin’ You”, ”Like Never Before”, ”Love Ain’t Easy”, ”Late For The Party”, ”Steelheart”… I know that Zeppelin have a god-like status, but I would have rather heard Steelheart originals than covers. Matijevic’s voice was in good shape. Naturally the years and his accident have taken their toll, but he can still hit those high notes. Maybe not as easily as in 1990 but he can still hit them. He’s clearly the star of the band, as good as the other guys are, their roles are supporting ones.
The one song I was most looking forward to hearing was of course ”She’s Gone”, one of the greatest power ballads of all time. The hauntingly beautiful piano intro was replaced by guitar which didn’t work for me at all, but thankfully the rest of the song did. Matijevic’s voice sounded beautiful during the verses and he belted out the high notes of the chorus quite convincingly.
During ”We All Die Young” Matijevic jumped off the stage and took a walk among the crowd, singing the song while doing so. Lot of handshaking and phone photos took place I assume, couldn’t really see what was going on from where I was standing.
SETLIST:
|
 |
Not a day without a Swede goes by at Rockingham… and Sunday’s Swedes were MARTINA EDOFF and her band. The band was actually 60% of H.E.A.T. - Jona Tee, Crash and David Dalone with bass player Chris Buckley. Exceptions were high but they were met, Martina and the boys played a very good set and made a lot of new friends. After the gig, I went to the merch desk right away and bought the ”Unity” album.
With songs co-written by Jona Tee and Erik Mårtensson, Edoff had a set full of potential hits and they crowd seemed to like them. She has a strong voice and the band was good, it was nice to see Dave Delone back in action. It seemed like Martina was checking out the reception and warmed up as the show went on, by the end of the show she was more comfortable and commanding up there on the stage.
UK’s own ANGELS OR KINGS had the honour of opening the last Firefest. Now on the eve of the release of their second album ”Go Ask The Moon”, the band been given an early Sunday slot. They played the best of their first album and three new songs. The band introduced a new bass player Dan Price (or was he just a stand-in guy, I don’t know) and gave him a ”trial by fire” with several jokes about him. He did have some technical issues and spent most of the time between songs tuning his bass or whatever.
SETLIST: The ALESSANDRO DEL VECCHIO BAND followed next. If you’re not aware, Alessandro Del Vecchio is the man behind several of Frontiers’ projects, a multitalented producer/songwriter/keyboard player and singer. As far as I know, this was his first live gig as a ”solo artist”. The musicians in The ADVB were Nigel Bailey on bass, Neil Ogden on drums and Howie G. on guitar.
The setlist consisted of songs Del Vecchio has written for various projects, including Find Me, Revolution Saints, Hardline and his own band, Edge Of Forever. Del Vecchio seemed understandably nervous but relaxed after a couple of songs. Interestingly, he sang two songs from the new Hardline album which has just been released. He must be really proud of them, since he could have easily chosen songs that the crowd would have been more familiar with. The closing track ”Fever Dreams” was one of those familiar songs, another Hardline song but from the band’s previous album. SETLIST: Around this time my hands started sweating and heart began pounding faster… it was time for FORTUNE. The band disbanded in 1985 and everything about the gig was behind a veil of mystery. All I knew was that the Fortune brothers Mick and Richard and original vocalist Larry Greene were in the band. I also knew that songwriter/keyboard player Roger Scott Craig wasn’t involved. I was worried that there might - shock, horror - not be keyboards at all, but a quick glance from the VIP balcony washed those worries away, keyboards were set for the band.
I swear my heart skipped a beat when the familiar keyboard intro of ”Thrill Of It All” began and the curtain was dropped. A magical moment! The band sounded good, and Larry Greene’s voice was in fine shape. Then it was one classic after another - Smoke From A Gun, Bad Blood, Dearborn Station… Interestingly, the band played some rare songs too, namely ”Home Free” which was recorded for the reissue of their only album and ”Heart Of Stone”, which was also a bonus track on the reissue, only as a live recording. The latter is a classic AOR ballad that deserves to be included on the band’s long-awaited (understatement!) second album. Yes, there’s a second Fortune album in the works! The three members of the 1985 recording line-up were present, as I had heard: Mick Fortune kept the beat going in a very minimalistic style, Richard Fortune showed that he’s a classy guitarist and Larry Greene sang like it was 1985 all over again. The two other guys were the curiously named Ricky Rat on bass and backing vocals and Mark Nilan on keyboards. Together they created an hour worth of vintage and unique AOR magic. SETLIST: FROM THE FIRE returned to the scene at least partly thanks to their successful appearance at the last Firefest and the demand from the fans. Since their return, the band has released two albums, the latter of them, ”Octopus”, just recently. At Rockingham the band had a new line-up with only vocalist/keyboard player J.D. Kelly and guitarist Tommy Lafferty remaining from the one that played Firefest. New guys Brian McDermott, Charlie Castro and Gannett Ries and new girl Jenni Cue completed the line-up and they did it very well. Now with Jenni Cue on keys, J.D. didn’t have to stand behind his keys all the time, which meant that the band had an actual frontman. Wearing the loudest jacket of the festival, I might add. Although both bassist Castro and Lafferty tried hard to compete and wore shirts that screamed… Well aware of their debut album’s legendary status, the band gave the fans what they wanted to hear - 7 out of 9 of the debut’s songs. New keyboard player Jenni Cue took her share of the vocals too, singing ”Cry For Me” and Theresa Starley’s parts on ”Spark And Flame”. All in all a good set.
THE DEFIANTS then… they were a different kind of beast altogether. Although they are also a band with only one album, the guys have a long history and have played together before in Danger Danger, one of the most popular bands of the genre. At Rockingham they played and slayed like headliners. By the end of the set the crowd was absolutely nuts and for many, me included, this was the best set of the weekend. Paul Laine, Rob Marcello, Bruno Ravel and the Swedish (again!) drummer whose name escapes me now started with ”Grind”, a Danger Danger song that kicked ass and set the tone for the set. Four songs from the The Defiants album were played, two Paul Laine songs and 5 Danger Danger ones… I think that was a good balance of the old and the new. Laine was in good spirits, smiling throughout the set and cracking jokes with the guys, not to mention singing great. Rob Marcello is a guitar hero of the first degree, and Bruno ”Bruuuu-no! Bruuu-no!” Ravel is a melodic rock legend, nothing less.
SETLIST: KEVIN CHALFANT was the last act of the festival, and initially I thought it was a bit strange that he’d headline. Don’t get me wrong, I respect him and I think he’s a great singer, but he’s not exactly a household name. Then again, for the Rockingham crowd he is an iconic singer, and I think that’s what the organizers thought. And they thought correctly, his set was well received and featured a lot of hits.
Kevin Chalfant made his major debut in the band 707, then moving on to Steel Breeze and The Storm in 1990. The Storm featured former Journey members and their first album did quite well, the band had a couple of radio hits and toured with Bryan Adams. In 1993 Chalfant played with Journey and was asked to join the band. However, Steve Perry re-joined Journey in 1995 for their next album, which meant that Chalfant never released anything with the band. After that, he’s been in Two Fires, Shooting Star, Alan Parsons Live Project, Shadows Fade and his own Journey tribute.
The Rockingham set was a retrospective look at Chalfont’s career. His backing band was British, with Nigel Bailey (bass, vocals) on stage again, along with Lee Revill (gt), Irvin Parrat (keys), Steve Clarkson (drums) and Adrian Boyd (gt). I’ve got to hand it to the band, they had done a tremendous job rehearsing the set on their own. The show started with a nod to Chalfont’s Journey connection, the classic ”Separate Ways” was the opening track. Other highlights of the set included The Storm hit ”A Lot To Learn About Love”, Survivor’s ”High On You” which was dedicated to the memory of Jimi Jamison, ”Don’t Stop Believing’” and one of the personal highlights of the weekend, ”Keys To The City” from The VU album. I requested it from Kevin on Facebook and damn it, he played it. Not that I’m trying to take credit for it, I’m sure a lot others asked for it too.
To sum it up… another great weekend in Nottingham, good friends, good music, even good weather. Huge thanks to David Herron and the other organizers for creating us this event! Review by Kimmo Toivonen |
