Due to work and family commitments I was unable to attend the Friday night pre show party unfortunately, however after an early start on the Saturday and a fairly painless coach trip down from Newcastle I managed to arrive in the fair city of Bradford at around 11:00am, thus giving me ninety minutes to find the venue and my accommodation for the evening That actually proved fairly painless as well luckily. Eventually returning to the venue at about 12:25 it was encouraging to find a rather  large queue mulling around outside the venue and with the doors opening at about 12:40 I managed finally to get into the venue just as Pride were playing the first or second song of their set. This is where the fuckwit brothers struck big style. Steve and I discussed who was going to review whom at great length earlier in the week, but Steve forgot his pen and was in full on David Bailey mode. He is happiest with his camera in hand (see the rest of the website for proof!). Don’t stand still or you will be photographed! Anyway this lead to me not taking any notes for Pride as I thought he was doing the review. (“The communications let us down”) Anyway the guys played a blinder of a set with guitarist Chris Green in particular  impressing and new boy Tony Marshall putting his big gob to good use as a backing vocalist and rhythm guitarist. Matt Mitchell proved to be a great singer/frontman, reminding me of Steve Overland at times and also providing some solid acoustic guitarist work to add flavour to the songs where needed. The bass player and drummer were of an equally high standard (Simon Farmery and Rik Eade respectively) and thus the keyboards of Ivan Gunn, prevalent on the recorded versions of the songs, were not missed in the slightest  and Pride, with their set,  provided the highest of standards that all of the bands that would have to follow

Next up were House Of Shakira and, as with Pride, they proved to be on top of their form. I’ve been a fan of the band since hearing Method Of Madness on a Frontiers sampler many moons ago and as an added bonus at Firefest the band  also featured a very special guest in the shape of one Mikael Eriksson, the bands original singer and current co-writer of many of the bands songs. Due to solo deal Eriksson signed before the first album was recorded he was not allowed to record with the group and hence was replaced, but still continued to write with HOS and the Friday and Saturday shows at Firefest were his first performances with the band in many years. Eriksson sounded amazing and interpreted the songs extremely well both vocally and with his onstage body language. Opening the set  with 'The Song Remains' culled from their second album and then following up with 'Uncontrolled', that featured a massive solo mid song,  the band were absolutely stunning and continued the high standard as they  served up tracks spanning their career including 'In Your Head', 'Hey Lord', 'The Best Times, 'Wings (which featured fabulous harmony vocals though out) and then to cap it all a stunning acapella version of 'Seven Bridges Road'. Continuing in fine style the band then delivered 'Morning Over Morocco' and  'You Are', which  helped to promote the bands latest album 'First Class' issued through Lion Music in 2004. Rounding out the show with the aforementioned 'Method Of Madness' was definitely a smart move and this reviewer was still humming the track the following day and finally the band wound things up  with 'Pellucid', the instrumental opening form there imaginably titled third album 3. 

A most amazing set and a thousand times better than the last time I saw them at the Gods 97 show. A class act that raised the bar even further for the rest of the days performances

After a short break the next band Million, (one of the bands I really wanted to see) opened up with the massive, 'Eyes Of The King' off their latest album 'Kingsize' and that was two bets lost in one foul stroke!  The first was that band actually managed to get to the gig. (See my review of the album for my previous failures to catch Million live) and the second was  that they would open their set with 'Backdoor Queen' , but that was to appear further into the show.

Next track up was 'Original Power' and with keyboard player John Bergquist's Hammond organ leading the way the sound was very much like a heavy Deep Purple with overtures of Queenrsyche in the excellent guitar riffs Eventually  we got to the aforementioned 'Backdoor Queen' and the keyboard player proved once again to be so much like John Lord in style that it was unreal, then followed a guitar/keyboard interlude that  lead nicely into 'Judgement Day'. Guitarist Jonas Herman was turning out to be a real star due with his all round stage presence and the band as a whole were delivering big time in the entertainment stakes. By the time next track 'Rock and Roll' was delivered  I was so into the set that I could hardly read  the notes I had scribbled down - must have been good then!! Overall the massive guitar sound employed by Million, combined with some AOR style keyboards had the crowd, at least the first few rows, singing along with every song. Million in summary produced an first class set and up to that point and three bands in to the festival were, to this reviewer, the band of the day. With a little bit of luck we might even get to see them live again in September when they tour with Waysted.

After three excellent bands Firefest was turning out to be the dog bollocks to coin a phrase and the thought was there could it get any better? Unfortunately not in the short term, as the next band on stage were Legs Diamond. Now it may simply be that  I am too young to appreciate them, especially  as the older members of the audience seemed to love their set, but the only stand out song for this reviewer was 'Walk Away' with the rest of the numbers simply merging into one another and seeming to flow straight over my head. However for those of you reading this and who really enjoyed their show  why not post your view in the guest book. As I say not my cup of tea but for completeness this is the set that 'Legs Diamond played:

Out On Bail, Rok Doctor, I Am For You, Fugitive, Underworld King, Nervous, Stagefright (not the Def Leppard song unfortunately), Walk Away & finally  Woman.

Despite my reservations with Legs Diamond on the whole, it must be said that new vocalist John Levesqe (ex Wild Horses) was not half bad and for my money easily won the silly hat of the day award!

Next up were Casanova and a band from whom I had heard nothing before today and to be honest after this stilted performance I don’t think I will be rushing out to investigate their back catalogue

Michael Voss may be a good songwriter, but with his own band and hindered by a broken foot Casanova proved to be quite simply boring. The only highlight for this reviewer was when Gary Barden (x MSG and current Sliver and Statetrooper vocalist) joined them on stage for a run through of the UFO classic Doctor, Doctor!. This just goes to show how boring they really were, Everyone is allowed an off day of course and apologies to any Casanova fans reading this, but in this instance, they were the only really bad band throughout the entire day!