Pre-Show Party

Alibi - Review Paul Williams

So here we go again.  The most anticipated weekend of my entire year gets underway in The Rig fairly early on a Friday night. 

First up is Alibi, a new British melodic rock band formed by the ever-popular Vince O’Regan of Pulse, Bob Catley fame. Handling vocal duties is Rick Chase, formerly of fellow Brit rockers Double Cross. 

Alibi have just released their first album, Misdemeanours, and the short setlist drew mostly upon that for content. Opening track of the night was also the opening track of the album, “Get Ready”, and this set the tone for a fairly tight, polished set, including other newies “Who’s Foolin Who” and “Out Of Love”.  After a quick blast from the past with an old Pulse song (about which I have to apologise, as I don’t know the title…sounded like “What We’re Fighting For” ??), Alibi end with a cover of the old Neil Young classic “Rockin In The Free World”. 

It’s never easy to be first act on, but the crowd seemed to appreciate the band and it was the perfect way to kick off what was to be an awesome weekend of rock. 

Bad Habit - Review Paul WIlliams

Following Alibi were Bad Habit, who were playing an acoustic set due to the unavailability of their drummer and a fruitless search for a replacement. Originally they were down as headlining the pre-show, but dropped down the bill due to the change in the nature of their performance from a full-on electric show. 

Bad Habit have quite an extensive back catalogue, but relied heavily on new release, Hear Say, for over half their set on the night. Quite a few people I spoke to were looking forward to seeing the band for the first time and they produced a quality show in terms of musicianship and obvious enjoyment on their part, which came across well to the audience. 

As well as playing many of their new tracks, such as openers “All That I Want” and “Swear”, they also dipped into their older material, even playing their first ever single from way back in 1987, “Need Somebody”. 

Their set was closed out by a decent rendition of Journey’s “Who’s Cryin Now” which went down really well with a crowd who were happy to sing along and were by now clearly getting into the whole experience which is Firefest, meeting up with old mates from previous shows as well as making new ones as well. 

It was a bit of a shame about the set being acoustic, but it did serve to whet the appetite for a return visit to these shores with a full band. Bad Habit did nothing to harm their already strong reputation and I look forward to seeing them again soon.

Bombay Black - Review Don Gibbs

I find it hard to believe that the weekend of the year that I really have been looking forward too has come and gone so quickly.  It only seems like yesterday that I was winding my way down the M1 heading for the holy grail of Rock weekends known as Firefest.  Due to some unforeseen problems with my accommodation I missed Alibi’s set and only just managed to get into The Rig for the start of Bad Habits gig.  However, as I wasn’t reviewing either of them I could take my time, get a beer, scan around the room to look for familiar faces and get myself ready for Bombay Black, my first review of the night. 

I was deep in conversation with a rival reviewer when the announcement came over that Bombay Black were about to start their set, and boy oh boy was I in for a surprise.  I had seen the T Shirts around the place that announced Bombay Black as being “the biggest band at firefest, (by at least 18 stone)”, and hadn’t got the joke until the band got on the stage, those guys are big, but they managed to put their weight to good use though and transferred the power from their weight into the music they pushed out of the speakers.  They were a lot heavier than I was expecting and it didn’t take them long to get the place jumping (though not too high because the roof in The Rig is quite low and you could end up with a serious concussion!).  Lots of big hair, lots of big noise and lots of good music pumping around the room and it was real eardrum busting stuff. 

It seemed like the fans were really enjoying themselves as well as I mooched round the joint, all eyes were on the stage and the whole floor was just a sea of nodding heads.  There were a few times when the bass was a bit too loud, sometimes the lead vocals were a drowned out a little, but what the hell, these guys were here to have fun and to make sure that the fans had fun as well.  The highlight of their set for me was “You Suck” which they kindly dedicated to Paul Jerome Smith from Fireworks magazine.  This was the track they used as their audience participation song and it wasn’t long before the whole room was reverberating with the crowd shouting “You Suck”.  Paul did kindly point out that the sentiment wasn’t aimed at him, but he knew who it was written about but no amount of arm twisting would get him to spill the beans. 

All in all a good set and definitely a band I will listen too again.

Newman - Review Don Gibbs 

During the break they played some of the new tracks from the upcoming Vaughn album and I will admit that they sounded a little bit tasty and is definitely something to look forward too in early 2007 

Next on the stage was Newman, another band I was really looking forward too purely on the basis of their latest album “Heaven Knows”.  I do like to harp on about the fact that I am fairly new to this genre of music when you compare me to other reviewers etc, but I do feel that is to my advantage at times because I feel I can give a fairly unbiased opinion of what I hear mainly because I haven’t been following groups or artists for years. 

Now, Newman, what can I say?  Well, they were at a disadvantage right from the start because they had agreed to stand in as headliners at the last minute due to the lack of drummer in Bad Habit, because they had not had chance to do any real sound checks and also because it is the first time they have played live in 7 years.  However, it must be said that the balances were off in places and could have easily ruined their set completely.   

The main fault that was immediately noticeable to all was that the keyboards were mixed far too loud and in places were drowning out the rest of the band.  Some changes were made to the levels by the time they played “Masquerade”, but by the time they came to “Rivers Flow” the keyboards were back to full volume again.  The bass also seemed to leap out at times early on in the set and was quite painful on the ears but that was rectified within minutes.  At the time I didn’t know if Steve Newman was aware of these problems or not, but, like the consummate professional he is, he carried on and managed to deliver what the fans wanted.   

It was obvious that Steve Newman had a lot of fans in the room and it seemed that they were more than happy just to see Steve up on the stage after such a long absence.  The sound problems certainly didn’t deter them from enjoying the evening and if the fans enjoyed it then who am I to say different. 

I did manage to speak to Steve on Saturday and he was the first to admit that things weren’t totally on par during his set.  He told me that the sound on the stage wasn’t very good at all and they all found it hard to listen to what they were playing, then he looked longingly at the main stage in Rock City, turned to me and said “give me a stage like that and you just watch”.  Well Steve, I believe you.  And trust me, if you do manage to get a stage like the main stage in Rock City then drop me an email and I will make sure that I am down at the front with the rest of your fans.

Main Day

Nexx - Review Don Gibbs

At last, the main day had dawned bright and clear. Up nice and early to stuff my face with as much breakfast as I could, quick walk into the town centre to have the customary cup of coffee from one of the many proprietary coffee shops all over the place then head up to Rock City just before 12 to get into the already forming queue.  As usual I wanted to get inside as early as I could to make sure I could get a good standing position to make the most of what was going to be another memorable day in the now long standing tradition of Firefest gigs. 

I was looking forward to seeing NEXX again, having seen them at Gods 2003 and the FF2 pre-show, but I will admit to being a bit disappointed with their latest release, “Another Dawn”, because I thought it was missing some of the vigour and energy that was abundant in their first album “Colours”.  I was hoping that seeing them perform some of it live would change my mind but will admit to being a bit wary.   

The set started off with Bernardo, Jose, Benji, and Oscar coming out on stage and taking up the starting bars to “Critical” then, through a quick puff of smoke, Patricia burst on to the stage.  Now this is the 3^rd time I have seen NEXX live and I still cannot understand how such a powerful voice can come out of someone so small and slim.  As usual Patricia’s vocals were outstanding – she is like a little miss dynamite, full of over-exuberant energy and always on the brink of exploding and manages to use her voice to release this excess of energy. 

  

The whole set from NEXX was a top notch performance from start to finish, showing how prepared all the musicians involved were, and from what I saw they were probably the best show openers I have seen in years.  Testament to this was the amount of people in the place right from the start.  In the past it has probably taken a couple of hours for the place to start really filling up, on Saturday the whole floor was filled to capacity before NEXX started and stayed that way throughout their set. 

I needn’t have worried about how they sounded.  As always, NEXX kick some serious butt when they play live, all the fans were jumping, and as usual Patricia was using her position as front man (or woman!) to good effect and played the crowd with consummate ease.  They played a mix of songs from both “Colours” and “Another Dawn” and all in all put on a fantastic performance from a band that I feel deserves more recognition than they probably get.

Treat - Review Don Gibbs

After a brief interlude in which loads of people ran on stage, shifting this, adding that, plugging in other things (all the technical stuff which is far too geeky for me to understand) came the next act on the bill, “Treat”. 

I hadn’t heard of “Treat” before until I got hold of their “Weapons of Choice” album a few days before the event, but even then, due to unforeseen circumstances I couldn’t spend much time listening to it (wife’s birthday, so I had to spend some time with her without my earphones in – the sacrifices we have to make to keep them happy).  This was probably beneficial as I was totally unprepared for what came on stage.  When these Scandi rockers came to the stage the place erupted.  On the stage were a bunch of true old school rockers with leather jerkins and long hair to boot who were gonna show the crowd just how much fun they could really have.  As this was the first time they had ever played in the UK I feel that they were out to show us what we had been missing.  They had a few technical problems at the start of their set when the lead mic stopped working but that didn’t faze them at all and they just carried on rocking while Robert got the problem sorted. 

The twin guitars were full on power and used to their best, with Patrick on second guitarist also doubling as the keyboard player.  The bass guitarist kept pumping away like there was going to be no tomorrow and his life depended on getting as much from his instrument as possible – at times he had the bass so low it was hanging past his knees and almost seemed like he was using it as an extension to his manhood and was thrusting it out into the crowd.  The Drummer, what can be said about the drummer?  He was twirling his sticks at every opportunity, bashing away at his skins almost to the point of destruction and then double drumming so hard that pints were literally jumping off the bar in sympathy.  I don’t know what they feed drummers in “Scandi-land” but by god he had more than his fair share of red meat before coming on stage today. 

“Treat” went through a fair portion of their “Weapons of Choice” album, with the likes of “Changes”, “I Burn For You” and “Soul Survivor” being of particular note, but by far the best track in their set tonight was “Conspiracy”.  This was real hands in the air stuff, the type of thing that we come to rock concerts for, the type of song that leaves a lasting impression on you for a long time to come. 

I was glad when their set came to an end because I don’t think I could have handled much more.  It was an awesome performance from a very professional bunch of blokes and I was very nearly all rocked out by the time they had finished.  I needed a rest before doing another review later on.  Time to pass the reviewers’ baton on to someone else for the next few hours.  Now, where’s my beer gone?

Wig Wam - Review Paul Williams

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Wig Wam.  I hadn’t got or heard any of their albums and the only thing I knew about them was that they had represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest a couple of years ago. So I wasn’t expecting much… 

But, by Christ, did I get a massive and most welcome shock !!!!! 

For their first UK gig, they immediately set the scene by entering the stage caked in more make-up than I think I’ve ever seen in one place at one time. Lead singer Glam was resplendent in a black & white catsuit with full Indian headdress. 

  

From the opening strains of “Rock My Ride”, Wig Wam were just brilliant. Their songs are simple and ridiculously infectious and catchy, such that the crowd knew every word to every chorus after hearing it just once and no-one needed a second invitation to sing along. 

Wig Wam are massively over-the-top and if their tongues were any further in their cheeks, they’d be sticking out of their ears. However, they can also really play, particularly guitarist Teeny. It was also certainly the first time I’ve ever seen a guitarist and bassist chuck their respective instruments on their own backs, then lean over each other to play the other’s instrument, whilst also spinning around. 

Song after song produced huge smiles on the faces of absolutely everyone I could see. It would be virtually impossible not to like a performance like this and for several people I spoke to later on, they were band of the day. 

Their set was full of modern-day rock anthems such as “Kill My Rock N Roll” and “Hard To Be A Rock N Roller” which had fans screaming at the top of their lungs. The band were clearly loving every minute of it and this added to the crowd’s enthusiastic reaction. 

One splendid moment was when Glam poured a bottle of water over Teeny’s head for playing a “jazz” solo, whilst proclaiming “I baptise you in the name of rock”.  

My only slight moan would have been the choice to play back-to-back AC/DC covers in “Highway To Hell” and “Back In Black”. Personally I would have like to have heard even more of their own stuff. But this was just a minor point and one that did not detract from a simply awesome performance. 

As a result of this performance I will definitely be hunting down their entire back catalogue and cannot wait for a return visit to see them again. Stunning !!!

  

Fair Warning - Review Paul Williams

I felt incredibly sorry for Fair Warning, having to follow such an awesome set as Wig Wam’s, especially on their UK debut. They were very much on a hiding to nothing. 

To their credit they put on a solid and professional show and in vocalist Tommy Heart they have a superb singer who also came across as a genuinely good bloke. 

Whilst Fair Warning are an accomplished melodic rock act, they perhaps don’t have the standout songs to elevate them to the next level and in fact they did not actually play either of my two favourite track of theirs – ones which I think are genuine anthems – “One Step Closer” and “When Love Fails”, from their debut. 

  

The set list contained songs from all of their studio albums and I was pleasantly surprised by how good the new songs, “Generation Jedi” and “Still I Believe”, sounded live, as I could take or leave them on CD.  Their classic debut was represented by “Longing For Love” and “Out On The Run” and I personally would have liked to have seen a few more from what I still consider to be their best album to date. 

Overall, I think Fair Warning suffered because the majority of the audience were still reeling and recovering from Wig Wam’s blistering set and also there was a noticeable reduction in crowd numbers as some people chose this time as an opportunity to grab a bite to eat. 

Having said that, I thought Fair Warning did a thoroughly professional job and I really enjoyed the performance of Tommy Heart – although he could tell his guitarist and bassist to smile once in a while !!!

c

 

Bonfire - Review Steve Atkinson

After a stunning opening set by Nexx, an equally belligerent offering from Treat who, for me are the band of the moment, we’ll gloss over an uninteresting faux pas by Fair Warning and apologise to Wig Wam, who I missed due to slow (and Expensive) service in TGI Fridays, which is a real pisser ‘cos I love their album.  

  

If you didn’t see this year’s offering from the Firefest crew, ha – ha, fuck you, you missed out. This is becoming one of the most important festivals in the British calendar and I’m convinced that Firefest 4, 5, 6 et al will be remembered in the same way as Donington ’84, etc. An absolute celebration of European/Scandinavian rock music, which gets no radio play in this country and yet fills the Rock City with die hard fans who appreciate the finer bands in life.

  

Hence the mighty Bonfire, who in reality would have been the band of the day, had Gotthard not played the set from Hell. Salvo after salvo of genuine rock music from a band who obviously love what they do. And that’s the point; look like you enjoy it and your audience will react, as the Rock City crowd did, with a vengeance.

Claus Lessman and the Bonfire boys proved to me that there is no better music anywhere in the world than Europe, delivered in a stylish, professional way. Twenty years on, this is a band that fires the soul and lifts an audience in a way that will make rock music live forever, the utter splendour of “Sweet Obsession” and “Ready 4 Reaction” will live in this reviewer’s mind for some time to come. Remember the date, 28^th October, Firefest 3, Bonfire night came a week early!

     

Gotthard - Review Don Gibbs

At last, the time had finally come.  This was the epiphany moment for me for the whole weekend.  I had never been a huge fan of “Gotthard” in the past, they were a “take it or leave it” group as far as I was concerned, but since having the opportunity to review their latest release “Made in Switzerland” my views had changed somewhat and I was hoping that the energy and passion shown on this live release would be matched at a show like Firefest. 

They were all I was expecting and about 100% more on top of that as well.  When they came on stage the whole building must have jumped a couple of feet in the air with the noise from the crowd and as soon as they ripped into “All We Are” it was obvious that they had an almost hypnotic control over the crowd – the whole area from stage front all the way back to the exit and from the left bar to the right bar was a mass of hands waving in the air (I have heard reports of 1200 people in the gig and I would say that all 1200 were waving their hands in the air).  I have never seen this type of reception for a group at any of the Gods/Firefests I have been too and they were proof positive that there is still a huge following for this style of music.  I was fortunate to be up on the balcony watching and it felt like the whole building was moving in sympathetic vibrations with the music.  It was an awesome scene and one that will stay with me for a long time. 

  

They followed the “Made in Switzerland” set list with “Dream On”, “Hush” and “Mountain Mama” then jumped around a little, still playing the crows pleasers like “Top of the World”, and “Let it Be” before going into the huge crowd sing-a longs of “Mighty Quinn” and Lift You Up”. 

One notable point during their set was when the lead and bass guitarists had a “duelling guitars” moment, using beer bottles as slides.  Of course they had to empty the bottles first and then put them to extremely good use to really wow the crowd.  These moments sometimes work, other times they can bore the crowd, Gotthard had it spot on.  They did it for the right amount of time with the right amount of humour and the right amount of Rock. 

I will admit now that I really didn’t take enough notes down during the performance to really do them justice with this review, but my excuse for that is because they were SO DAMM GOOD I didn’t want to miss a second of their set, so the notebook and pen went away and the arms went back up in the air. 

Gotthard were, for me, the best act in this line up by a country mile – I would personally pay my £40 entry fee just to see these guys on their own judging from the performance they put on tonight, and this performance will go down as one of those “were you there when Gotthard played”? talking points that always come up when people meet at subsequent gigs.  I am going to be keeping an eye on when they are touring again and have put them at the top of my “Must See” list.  

Awesome, ‘kin awesome.

   Winger - Review Paul WIlliams

As with Fair Warning before them, Winger were always going to have a difficult task following an absolutely awesome show by the previous act, in this case Gotthard, but I had a sneaky suspicion that they might just do it, armed as they are with a catalogue of instantly recognisable and well-loved anthems. 

I could not have been more wrong. Winger were appalling and worst band of the day by a mile for me. 

Kip Winger took to the stage in an obvious bad mood, which became increasingly worse as the set wore on, berating the organisers for having his setlist cut short and the audience for not responding well enough. His behaviour was unprofessional and lacking in class. 

  

I’m not sure what band Kip Winger thinks he’s in anymore, as he played pop-rock tunes such as “Seventeen” and “Madalaine” as if they were Metallica songs, with a dark, menacing and snarling vocal, which just doesn’t work on his older stuff. 

The set kicked off OK with “Blind Revolution Mad”, “Loosen Up” and “Seventeen”, but the atmosphere was flat and Kip did absolutely nothing to engage the crowd. His first bit of banter with the crowd basically involved telling them it “Fucking sucks” that their set had been cut. Now I am sure this was annoying, but it was only 2 songs short of the set he’d posted on his own website earlier in the week and they could both have been included if the drum and guitar solos had been cut and every other song not been dragged out with an overlong instrumental ending. 

  

After “Down Incognito”, which I always love, Kip sat at the keyboard for “Rainbow In The Rose” but was back to swearing about someone having “fucked with my shit” or done something to a keyboard setting, as it is also known. Again, annoying but dealt with in a pathetically unprofessional way.  Several bands had experienced some technical difficulties, especially with the wireless mic, but all the others had just accepted it as one of those things and worked around it – it was never an issue before then. 

We were then “treated” to a track, “Generica”, from the new album, which I can safely say was the worst and most disjointed song I heard all day from anyone.  After “Junkyard Dog”, another new one and “You Are The Saint, I Am The Sinner” all failed to produce more than the most polite and muted response by the audience, Kip moaned “Give us a break” – well sorry mate, but audience response is earned as a direct result of what you are doing, so maybe you should be looking a little closer to home. 

The set ended with “Heading For A Heartbreak”, “Can’t Get Enuff”, “Easy Come, Easy Go” and “Madalaine” which are all great songs and personal favourites of mine, but this was too little, too late and there was no salvaging the audience reaction. Indeed many had already left by then, tired after a long day and in no mood to put up with Kip’s petulant nonsense.

As a final lack of class, Kip W(h)inger completely failed to thank the organisers, thus robbing the crowd of the opportunity to say a massive and well-deserved thanks to Kieran, Bruce and all the other fine people who had worked so tirelessly to put on such a brilliant show for us. The organisers do a fantastic job, for nothing in many cases, and I am sure that I speak for the overwhelming majority in documenting our heartfelt thanks here and now.

Overall Firefest III was a massive and resounding success, despite Winger, and everyone in attendance went home happy, having had a great day (and a half) and eagerly looking forward to next year.