Firefest Review

Next up was Britain’s one and only Dare. Now Dare’s first two albums are cult classics, the debut one being a true AOR masterstroke, whilst the sophomore release is a real grower.

Back in those early days of course the guitarist was one Vinny Burns and seeing the band on the 'Blood From Stone' tour at the Newcastle Riverside was a gig I will never forget, especially as I had only arrived back into the country from a weeks holiday that morning and was unaware of the events that had taken place the previous evening that lead to the Meadowell riots and made the trip home interesting to say the least!

Anyway back to the Firefest and despite the fact that more recent reports had described the bands live performance as less exhilarating then I remember, I was looking forward to renewing my acquaintance with Dare. The band chose to open proceedings with 'Stay With You' and straight off Darren missed his cue, not a good start. Things got back on track with 'Storm Front' and a decent run through of 'Silent Thunder' and this was were things got a bit strange as this particular song features a prominent bass line and yet no bass player! WAS IT LIVE OR WAS IT MEMOREX?

Next up was 'One Day' which highlighted the very differing styles of the two guitarists in the band, one being electric whilst the second played the acoustic backdrop to the song. Abandon unfortunately proved to be rather ramshackle, but things improved with 'Into The Fire culled from the debut album and then continued on an upward curve with 'Return The Heart' which really worked in the format Dare now operate. The penultimate number of the set was 'King Of Spades', an ode to Darren’s erstwhile Thin Lizzy band mate Phil Lynott and then the set wound down via the Radio 2 hit 'White Horse'.

Not bad at all and much better than I was expecting and a huge improvement over the previous band Casanova. Dare these days are a lot more easy listening than in days of yore, but at this time of the day and after a mostly exhilarating opening to the Firefest this was a welcome change of pace. To be honest though what wouldn't I give to see Vinny let rip with them just one more time.

After the poor show by Casanova and the somewhat low key efforts of Dare Firefest needed a kick up the backside to get into high gear and this injection of energy was duly provided by next band onstage, Pink Cream 69. Introduced by the mad Irishman himself, Kieran Dargan, the band blasted into the opening track from their current album Thunderdome and rarely dropped below the stratospheric level throughout a completely stunning set.

Now I must admit to having only heard a few tracks by PC69 before this show, so please excuse any mis-titling of tracks, however on the basis of this performance I will certainly be making the effort to hear more of their material

After the opening crescendo of Thunderdome the band continued in high octane mode with the James Bond sounding 'Do You Like It Like That' and then got even better with 'Hell Gone Crazy'. 'Lost In Illusion' was benefited enormously due to some amazing backing vocals and they then followed this with 'Talk To The Moon' and Taste The Dragon' (?) both featuring musicianship of the highest order

By this point of the show I had once again become so immersed in the music that my notes became somewhat unreadable but if memory serves 'Sea Of Madness', Carnaby Road and 'Welcome To Hell were played somewhere in the mix. Definitely in the set was an out of this world version of 'Shame', the track that opened a lot of doors over here when it appeared on a Hard Roxx sampler many years ago. Rounding out the show for PC69 was a funky as hell version of 'Keep The Eye On the Twisted' a song that originally featured on the 1993 album 'Games People Play'. Wow!!!!

Given that this was Pink Cream 69's and hence English vocalist David Readman's first gig in the UK for over ten years the band certainly pleased the punters with a well paced and varied set drawing on material from throughout their career. Based on this show it won't be another ten years before they return.

Anyone who was lucky enough to have caught Firehouse on their long overdue return to the UK live scene in 2004 would have known exactly what to have expected from Firehouse's performance at Firefest. Theirs is a show honed to perfection over many years and calculated to do just one thing... ENTERTAIN. Yes Firehouse peddle a blend of cheesy pop/rock, but it is a cheese with all the infectious qualities of 'clostridium botulinum' and the main symptoms of this infection is to cause many hands to be raised in the air and smiles to appear on many faces.

Firehouse may play it safe in their choice of set lists, culling the majority of the songs from their opening brace of classic albums, but with songs as good as the pairing of 'Lover's Lane' & 'All She Wrote' starting the show it is very hard to complain. It seems in fact that every song, including Crash & Door To Door from the band's latest 'Prime Time' album, are designed purely with the live arena in mind and it is truly only on stage that the band fulfill all of their potential and deliver a high energy performance that may sometimes be missing on the studio versions of the songs.

Mixing rockers with ballads such as 'When I Look Into Your Eyes' and 'Love Of A Lifetime' Firehouse paced their hour long set extremely well and with frontman CJ Snare proving to have every rock star pose in the book it is not surprising that up until this point Firehouse elicited the best crowd reaction of the day.

Rounding out the show with 'Reach For The Sky' & 'Don't Treat me Bad' Firehouse proved that once again class will out. Band of the day... for this reviewer no question about it... FIREHOUSE by the proverbial country mile.

Before I get stuck into the writing the rest of the Firefest review it is necessary to add my two penneth to the reviewer's comments above with regard to Firehouse. Before the Firefest I had only owned the first two albums and had seen them supporting Status Quo many moons ago. However I must say that Firehouse were truly amazing! They brought arena rock to the UK in the relevantly small venue that is the Town & Country and rocked its arse! with guitarist Bill Leverty raising the already high standard of guitar playing on view to another level. An overnight sensation indeed!

Speaking of Guitarists Ronnie Le Tekro started the TNT set in fine style with the opening track from their current album (New Religion) 'Invisible Noise' and the first thing that struck me was how short Tony Harnell is, but in saying that the what a set of pipes this guy has as the band powered through a good set that only suffered in the middle due to my unfamiliarity with the material.

Tracks played included 'Far As The Eye Can See', 'She Needs Me', which featured a frightening guitar solo and proved that Le Tekro must be the Swedish gurning champion judging by the faces pulled as he soloed. 'Sign A 'Light', 'Give Me A Sign' were served up in excellent fashion and then came 'Intuition' which resulted in an overlong audience sing along. Come on it was 11:30ish and we were all knackered for Christ sake!

Next up was an storming rendition of the classic '10,000 Lovers' from the TNT album (Tell No Tales) and then finally the band brought their set to a close with the title track from the new album New Religion. TNT were scheduled to play a further two songs as an encore, which were demanded by the crowd. However time restrictions curtailed this ambition unfortunately and so the band never got to play Seven Seas and Everyone's a Star.

All in all though TNT served up yet another fine show in a day full of excellent performances and one that makes me want to investigate their back catalogue at greater depth and makes one hope for a Starbreaker tour all the more!

The break between bands up to this point had been about thirty minutes but to due to delays building up during the day TNT finished when Soul Sirkus were originally due to start (11:50pm). Everyone waited and waited as 12:20 came and went and the crowd began to thin out somewhat as the length of the day took its toll. Eventually at around 1:00am the curtains opened and the reason for the delay was revealed! The drum kit, that all the bands had used throughout the day, had gone and been replaced with a monster set up that Mike Portney himself would have been proud of! Neal Schon's guitar rig, that I’m certain could have flown the Apollo mission to the moon all by it’s self, was also revealed in its full glory

And so arrived on stage Soul Sirkus (the band I had traveled down from Newcastle to see, everyone else on the bill in my eyes was an added bonus and what a bonus!.) They opened with 'Highest Ground ' and then continued with an absolute stunning version of 'New Position', which featured drummer Virgil Donati's new drum intro. Third song in the SirkUS delivered my own personal favourite off the World Play album in the shape of 'Friends To Lovers' and the keyboards, not included on the live version of the track, were not missed in the slightest. The band then took the set up a notch further with the inclusion of 'Periled Divide'. So far so great!!

With Schon changing his guitar for a seven string Steve Vai model (not something I thought I would ever see Neal Schon playing somebody else model!) and putting the change to good effect throughout 'My Sanctuary' and 'Stand Up', a JSS solo track culled from the Rock Star soundtrack and featured in recent Soto solo shows, the set up to this point was utterly breathtaking. However the next section of the show really was a cock-up by the band and resulted in some of the audience leaving!

First up was bassist Marco Mendoza's solo spot with the man serving up an impression of a human beat box! Thanks but no thanks! To make matters worse this was then followed by Neal Schon running through a Hendrix medley. Now I cannot stand Hendrix at the best of times (too many years in the pubs and clubs of the North East listening to bands doing covers, and having a Hendrix fan as a father!), but this developed into a cool Santana style track very much like 'La Rosa Del Sol' from the Journey Cubed box set which allowed Donati to groove man! Finally Marco Mendoza supplied lead vocals on a track called Baby, which is apparently a Ted Nugent track but didn't impress this reviewer unfortunately.

After the culmination of these solon spots Soto eventually returned to the stage for an excellent version of the Seal track 'Crazy' that Talisman had recorded in years gone by and had again played a prominent role in the frontman's solo shows in recent times. This lead to the highlight of the Soul SirkUS show with Soto taking the spotlight at the piano. He started with 'Is This The End?' from the Lost In The Translation album and then delivered a version of Journey's own 'Send Her My Love'.

With Queen back on UK stages and given Mr Soto's affection for all things Queen related (and the fact that he'd been to see the band the previous night) it was only fitting that he threw in the main verse section to Bohemian Rhapsody in homage to the majestic ones, which was quite simply brilliant. Rounding out the Soto solo section of the show the singer started a cover of Prince's 'Purple Rain' only to be joined by the rest of the band for its stunning conclusion.

The set wound down with a brisk run through of 'World Play' tracks 'Another World', 'Alive' and finally 'Peephole'. Once again, as with TNT, time restrictions meant no encore and so the audience were deprived, according to the set list of 'Higher' & 'Praise'. Mind you it was 2:30am at this point and the security staff were desperately trying to usher people out of the venue.

In summary Soul Sirkus delivered an enjoyable set for their debut UK show, but it could have been so much better if the band had dropped the Ted Nugent tune, the Hendrix medley and Marco's solos and replaced them with the Soul Sirkus songs missing from the show, as this was the band we had come to see for Christ sake!

For another perspective on Soul Sirkus, a review of the following nights show at Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall can be read by clicking on this link

Anyway in summation of the very first Firefest show:-

First off a very big thanks must go out to both Kieran and Bruce for putting the show together and with luck the event broke even and didn't cost the guys an arm and a leg to produce.

Shows like this, in the past, have been paid for record companies and any loses can be covered as promotion of the bands. The Firefest was not like given that it was not supported directly by any record company and must at least break even to ensure its future! All of the bands played their part in ensuring that the crowd were royally entertained throughout the day. Sure not every band was everybody's cup of tea and this review is merely a representation of our own personal opinions which will vary as to who was good and who was bad according to personal taste. The one thing that we hope to achieve with this review is to give the reader an overview of the day and encourage people to get out and support any future Firefests if, and when, they take place as one thing is certain it was possibly the melodic hard rock event of the year in the UK.

Cheers

Dougie, Nic & Steve