A three band bill featuring two tried and tested rock giants, namely Def Leppard and Whitesnake, alongside one of the best up and coming young bands in Black Stone Cherry was one gig that couldn't be missed and judging by the very impressive turn out it’s safe to say that, at least from a turn-out perspective it proved extremely successful. But what were the bands like?

Opening band Black Stone Cherry impressed the hell out of me. However, as is the curse for many opening bands, their sound mix was poor for the first few numbers with the bass drum overpowering literally everything but gradually things got ironed out. Black Stone Cherry had obviously taken on board that this slot on one of the biggest tours of the year was an opportunity that doesn't come along very often and as a result they threw themselves into the performance literally giving it everything they had. The audience seemed to grasp straight away that the band were steadily taking things up a gear with each song and the likes of “Hell Or High Water” and “Maybe Someday” certainly came across well. Their obvious enjoyment and enthusiasm for their music was tangible and infectious and special mention must go to the drummer who epitomises everything you would expect from a rock engine room. He gave his all as he went through drumstick after drumstick whilst doing the best impression of “Animal” from the Muppets that I have ever seen.  This young band from Kentucky closed their set with a cover of Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile” abut it was an unnecessary addition as they bludgeoned and beat into submission one of the coolest and sexiest rock songs of all time and to be honest I would rather have heard another original from the band. All said and done however Black Stone Cherry played a blinder.

Whitesnake, currently riding high on the back of one of the best albums of their career, were next up and the stage presentation went up a notch as three big screens displayed shots of Reb Beach and Doug Aldrich strutting their stuff  and the set list itself covered a lot of ground with new songs “Best years Of My Life”,” Can You hear The Wind Blow” and “Lay Down Your Love” sitting perfectly alongside big hitters like “Fool For Your Loving”,” Love Ain’t No Stranger” and “Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City”. The band also chose to include acoustic versions of “Deeper The Love” and “Ain’t Gonna Cry No More” which, for this reviewer at least, lost the momentum the band had built to that point. To be honest in a big arena setting the acoustic approach just felt wrong and left two great songs sounding at best under whelming.  Another song which surprisingly didn’t seem to work was “A Fool In Love Again”. Preceded by some scintillating guitar trade offs from Beach and Aldrich the actual song seemed to plod along down to a dead end and again caused the band to lose further momentum that the other material had built.

 

Unsurprisingly Whitesnake kept some of their biggest hits for the end of their set as they launched into “Give Me All Your Love Tonight”,” Here I Go Again” and the amazing “Still Of The Night” but of course the biggest question to be answered is, after all these years “is David Coverdale still one of the finest voices in rock and can he still cut the proverbial rock mustard?”  The romantic in you wants to believe he still has what it takes and without doubt he is still one of the most charismatic front men that has ever graced a stage, the between song banter is as relaxed, witty as always and you are left with the feeling that he is absolutely sincere with everything he says. However the realists admit that Coverdale's voice is starting to fade and in place of that throaty warm roar that has accompanied many of his songs down the years, in Newcastle at least, he instead delivered more of a croaky screeching noise that at times sounded plain old awful. To be fair I think Coverdale may also be asking himself just how much longer he can keep going but when he finally takes his last bow the rock world will lose one its most hard working and talented performers and if this show was indicative of the rest of the tour then Mr. Coverdale is getting close to the point where he will have to take a long hard look at himself and ask if he really can still deliver the goods.

Last but not least there was Def Leppard, like Whitesnake they are also riding along on a wave of critical acclaim for their latest album “ Songs From The Sparkle Lounge”, and the first thing that was noticeable wasn’t their performance but the stage show, which made Whitesnake's look, in a word, average. Leppard will always be associated with polished rock and their stage show reflected this perfectly. Video ran in synch to the music to great effect and it felt like you were witnessing a show on every level. Considering this tour was billed as a double headliner there was definitely a feeling that Whitesnake looked more like a support act thanks to extra stage room, set and videos Leppard had in place. Opening with the familiar “Rocket” followed by  “C’mon C’mon” the third song in was one of their biggest hits, namely “Animal”. For some reason a song that is rightly regarded as a classic seemed to drag and for such a sizeable hit even the crowd didn’t get behind it.

Another new song “Nine Lives” preceded “Make Love Like A man” and “When love And Hate Collide” and after a cover of David Essex’s “Rock On” Leppard made the same mistake as Whitesnake before them, an acoustic version of “Two Steps Behind” and again the whole set seemed to lose momentum. The acoustic guitars stayed on as the band launched into “Bringing On The Heartache” and they literally killed one of their best ever songs. Even when the band all came in for the guitar solo’s and rocked it out the damage was done. Sure it was a risk messing with such a classic song and bottom line is it just didn't work.” Hysteria” and “Armegeddon It” saw things picking up and “Photograph”  was delivered with real guts and glory but Joe Elliott’s vocals were woeful as he delivered the song in a girly falsetto. Pour Some Sugar On Me” led into “Rock Of Ages”  closed the main set before the final encores of “Bad Actress” and “Let’s Get Rocked”. Like Coverdale there is the feeling that  Elliott is not the singer he once was but, unlike Coverdale, he lacks the personality to get away with  the crowd, yelling “Fuckin’ hell come on man.. clap” before the start of the final song seemed like the rallying cry of a frustrated front man who on the night had failed to deliver, a real shame as the rest of the quintet, especially Phil Collen, were on fire, which only made Elliott’s failings even more apparent.

When Leppard took to the stage the screens proclaimed “that was then but this is now” and that phrase sums up perfectly the performances of both Whitesnake and Leppard. As gigs go this was a great night for the fans, seeing two giants of rock and one band very much on the up so in terms of value for money it was a runaway success. Other “big” bands should look at the success of this tour and consider packages along the same lines.  To be frank with the way things are these days a lot of fans would welcome this approach instead of having to choose between seeing one band over another due to financial constraints.

Al Hey & Steve Cummings