Live Review: Stonedead Festival 2024
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Tim Finch
If you’ll permit me the use of a boxing analogy: Stonedead is – pound-for-pound – the best outdoor festival in the UK calendar. Every year the organisers manage to up the ante and deliver an even more spectacular show than previously and, judging by the annual Sold Out notices, I’m certainly not the only one who thinks it.
Cambridgeshire quintet, The Hot One Two have the honour of opening the whole shebang, with their set starting before noon. They attract a sizeable early crowd, and even the rain is hanging around to watch them.
Not about to let the elements derail their big day, the band bust out their infectious hard rock, driving rhythms and soaring guitars. Taking their entire eight song set from the 2023 debut, Superbia, they crank up the fun factor and thumb their noses at the rain.
Playing with Fire opens the set – and the whole show – Godforsaken Blues and You’ve Got It (I Want It) follow on, receiving a soggy, but enthusiastic response from the swelling audience. The first pyrotechnics of the day fall from the roof of the stage and flames shoot into the late morning air, showing Stonedead aren’t ones to skimp on the show, regardless of a band’s billing.
Feeling Good and Rolling Stone are classic rockers with a little blues flavouring; The Fray goes a bit more into the harsh guitars, while the unfortunately titled, Is It Hot? is a touch tongue in cheek when looking at that grey sky.
Regardless of the weather conditions, The Hot One Two did exactly what they needed to do to get Stonedead 2024 up to speed and, judging by the number of their shirts dotted about the crowd, it won’t be long before they’re invited back. Closer Tie Me Down was a single from Superbia and represent the band in their most pure form: solid low end, hooky-riffs and Simon West’s full-bodied voice, conjuring the desire to dance in the drenched Showground souls.
Two weeks on from their Thursday night Bloodstock appearance, the unfeasibly youthful Tailgunner take to the stage at Stonedead like it’s a birth-right. Reflecting the more Metal orientation of this year’s festival, they bring a fresh take on the New Wave of British Heavy Metal style, ably assisted by a certain Mr Downing, and seemingly now, ubiquitous.
Going from the S.O.P.H.I.E. stage at Catton Park to the big platform at the Showgrounds seems not to phase the five-piece one-iota, as they take Stonedead back to a time when Metal ruled the airwaves. Beast of the Night has a classic Maiden gallop; mixed with dualling guitars and onstage smokestacks Tailgunner have become a portal, taking us back to the Eighties.
Craig Cairns’ multi-octave voice makes short work of Tailgunner’s lyrics, while the twin axe-slingers of Zach Salvini and Rhea Thompson are pure Maiden on Revolution Screams and Crashdive, demonstrating to the giants of the genre, many of which were backstage, that their legacy is in safe hands.
At Bloodstock we had Painkiller, today’s show climaxes with the Dio classic, Don’t Talk to Strangers, but it still takes balls of steel to emulate a legend, whether Halford or Ronnie, but such is the adventurousness of youth.
In from Hollywood, California, is The Bites, a good time rock & roll band who explode onto the Stonedead stage with all the energy of a nuclear explosion. A thundering bass dominates early on for opener, Knockin’ on the Door; Pretty Boys is pure LA Strip from back when Poison and the Crüe dominated that street, and the …Cat Dragged In vibes continues through Dirty City, an anthem about the band’s home town.
An unexpected cover of Leppelin’s Good Times Bad Times lands mid set, giving Newark a chance to singalong, before heading back to The Bites’ debut album, Squeeze, for Good Love and Cold Clean Lady.
Each represents pure enjoyment and enthusiasm from the band, leading to eminently danceable, upbeat tunes. So much of today’s world is dark, so we need bands like The Bites to lift the spirits and remind us that life is worth living.
Singer, Jordan Tyler isn’t averse to busting out an old school Axl shimmy – down to the short-shorts he’s wearing - as Heather Leather suggests the daylight of a Nottinghamshire afternoon in a field is less appropriate to the band than a sweaty LA club at midnight. But a party is a party, and The Bites have anthemic numbers aplenty, ready to raise the roof.
Squeeze, Fire in Hollywood and Do Me a Favor bring the set to a close and remind us all that we’re here for a good time, not a long time.
Krusher announced Bonafide as being “the only good thing to come out of Sweden, other than Britt Ekland’s tits.” Unfortunately, I misheard him and thought he said “Swindon” so was a) questioning my assumption that Bonafide were Scandinavian and b) wondering whether there was some famous story about Ms Ekland and breast surgery in Berkshire that had passed me by.
In the end, I find out I’m just going a bit deaf.
The Uprising 3 headliners come to Newark with nearly twenty years of hard rockin’ and eight studio albums under their belts. The awesomely named Pontus Snibb has been leading the band since its inception in 2007 and is the only surviving original member.
Last year’s Are You Listening album’s title-tune provides the set opener, a dirty rock & roller that perfectly matched the greying skies off to the north. It’s solid rhythms and hard rocking through Dirt Bound and Down, while the Seventies bluesy bar band sounds of Smoke and Fire gives Bonafide some depth.
Hero to Zero, the first single from Are You Listening? comes with an AC/DC style crunch as does No Doubt About It. The set seems heavily loaded with tunes from the band’s 2009 sophomore record, Something Dripping, including Hard Livin’ Man and the anthemic set closer, Fill Your Head with Rock, including Krusher joining for a backing vocal.
Stonedead’s Swedish invasion continues with the arrival of Stockholm’s – not Stockport – Eclipse. But not before the filthy grey cloud barrelling down from the Humber Estuary has done its worse, dropping its load on the Showgrounds as it passes.
There’s a mad scramble across the field to get things covered over and get the cagoules and anoraks back out; all the while, Eclipse’s stage crew are building the band’s set. At just gone half-past-three, with the torrent still behaving Biblically, the band take to the stage, ignoring the conditions like they’re natives here.
Roses on Your Grave and Got It! are hard rockers with some AOR tendencies, a few Thin Lizzy flourishes and, perhaps, a flavour of Scandinavian power metal? Taken from the latest album, The Spark is full of bouncing riffs and good time vibes and greets the sun and a few patches of blue sky.
Erik takes a moment to assert the UK is “scared ground” for Swedish bands as all the artist inspiring them are from these very islands. Runaways is staunchly Scandinavian, bordering on being somewhat Nightwish, minus the operatic vocal; hands are raised and swung in unison for The Hardest Part is Losing You, and the obligatory ballad, Anthem, is a call for unity in a deeply divided world.
Eclipse seem to have an inbuilt fan base already installed at Stonedead 2024 and the final three tunes, The Downfall of Eden’s harsher approach, the AOR Black Rain and the exceptionally popular Viva la Victoria, with its big audience chants, bring the curtain down on what could have been a damp-squib, but turned into a blistering triumph.
No disrespect to the artist who had already made Stonedead a rousing success, but the final four bands on the Showgrounds’ stage are time-served and acknowledged maters of their craft.
I would be surprised if Dorothee Pesch had not been somewhere on the bedroom walls of most Metal males over a certain age at some stage. She might have just turned… well it’s not polite to talk about a lady’s age – but she is still one of the leading torchbearers for the genre and widely-acknowledged Queen of Metal.
Four albums with Warlock between 1984 and 1987 and fourteen solo records since 1989 prove Doro is the real deal, regardless of trends or business pressures, she had maintained the sound we know and love her for.
The weather dares not do anything other than smile on Doro’s stage as her band lay down an opening salvo, pending the First Lady of Metal’s arrival. She takes to the stage looking like she did back at the Monsters of Rock in 1986: leather clad and long blond hair flying.
I Rule the Ruins and Burning the Witches start the show and, for a moment, I wonder whether this means we’re getting a full Warlock set. Later inclusion of Metal Racer and the climactic All We Are means that nearly half of the show is from the old band, and they are handled deftly enough to have the nostalgia wheels a-turning.
On the other end of the spectrum, Doro concentrates on the 2023 album, Conqueress Forever Strong and Proud, from which the more modern sounding Time for Justice, the Maiden-vibes of Children of the Dawn and the live debut of I Will Prevail, with its Zeppelin-thing going on, come.
As you would expect from a survivor like Doro, there’s no let up in the metal and Newark is given the shotgun blasts of tune after chest-beating tune. Her twelfth album – and the end of a blistering run of a dozen studio records in twenty-three years – 2012’s Raise Your Fist gives us two songs: the anthemic Raise Your Fist in the Air, with its Accept sound and visceral instruction, and the speedy gallop of Revenge.
Then she was gone. Disappearing into the night like an angel. The set seemed ridiculously short, but it was nine songs and about fifty minutes in length. Must be something to do with time-dilation.
Talking of which, the squarest of pegs in the roundest of Stonedead holes, Nineties-defining Wayne’s World-featured Ugly Kid Joe shouldn’t really have worked on paper. But this is about performance and UKJ use their hour upon the stage to steal Stonedead 2024 from under the very noses of KK and Saxon, with thousands watching.
A long intro tape makes the most of the slowly setting sun, giving the platform for the band to weaver their magic. From the outset singer Whitfield Crane has the crowd in the palm of this hand, calling for raised hands and getting them instantly.
Only new tune of the set is the opening That Ain’t Living from the Rad Wings of Destiny record, before dipping into the nostalgia well with America’s Least Wanted’s Neighbor. There’re enough fifty-odd years old in the field who remember when Ugly Kid Joe broke through at the start of the Nineties and conceivably treat the band as the soundtrack to that part of their youth.
Whitfield does not let the energy drop and expects the same back from the crowd. Hands raise aloft during Panhandle Prince could fool you into thinking this was Radio Gaga, the loose sounding track a change from the band’s either side of them.
Goddamn Devil would have been a different had the sun not come out to watch Ugly Kid Joe do their thing, and No One Survives comes with the statement it is the band’s intention to bring “the joy to heavy metal music”, yet this is one of Joe’s more oppressive, darker tunes.
The cameras are turned on the crowd, at Whitfield’s insistence, for Devil’s Paradise and he cannot believe how many Stonedeaders are staying around after Saxon to keep on drinking. Seems impressed by the dedication of the host of folk admitting to be doing just that later tonight.
Cats in the Cradle is dedicated to Adele – not the singer, but someone who had visited the band’s signing tent earlier with her kids – and the Lemmy t-shirt leads into their familiar cover of Ace of Spades.
The only way Ugly Kid Joe can end is with Everything About You which, although thirty-three years old now, is still sung word for word, including the opening line about the weather, which seems appropriate considering conditions this afternoon.
This was a masterclass in how to play a festival and anyone not cracking a smile or tapping a foot at least once during the set must have a heart of stone.
That K.K.’s Priest aren’t headlining this event shows the scope of Stonedead’s intentions. The autumn tour and their short-notice Bloodstock 2023 appearance certainly established the band’s credentials, and no one can question the history.
Put together in 2019 after a prolonged hiatus from music, this Priest takes us back to the glory days of KK’s former band, having recruited former Judas Priest and Iced Earth vocalist, Tim Owens, as being the only man guaranteed to hit those Halford high notes night after night.
The set opens with the tour intro and Hellfire Thunderbolt, and it’s reasonable to think we’d be getting the same run-through of those shows. When Strike of the Viper and One More Shot at Glory follow straight after you start to think that may not be the case.
The first three tunes come with flames and other associated pyrotechnic, typically bombastic and as you would expect from an epic metal band.
“What’s my name?” calls Owens, leading the band into the first Priest cover, The Ripper, from their second record. Night Crawler is fast and furious, as is KK’s Sermons of the Sinner.
Sadly, the only Owens’ era Priest tune on offer is Burn in Hell from the underrated – though admittedly not a classic – Demolition record. Hell Patrol is surrounded by covers of Joan Baez’s Diamonds and Rust and Fleetwood Mac’s Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown) before the introduction of Killing Machine’s Before the Dawn slows things back down again.
Included in place of Beyond the Realms of Death is a bitter-sweet inclusion, but one that Ripper is perfectly comfortable with; the law gets broken and Sinner takes us to the finale of Sermons of the Sinner’s Raise Your Fists.
This is my third KK show in twelve months and I’ve loved every minute of every one of them. Pyros and Priest covers – what’s not to love?
After all the pyros and fireworks from KK's set it's down to headliners Saxon to close out the festival. Steering away from the fireballs and wizardry, Biff and the boys deliver a storming set of classic heavy metal tunes without the need to add the bells and whistles.
Opening with 'Hell, Fire and Damnation', the title track of the bands latest album, it soon fires the crowd up one last time in Newark. Despite its young age, the track has already settled into the fans consciousness and they sing along as loudly to this as they will do to the true classics later in the evening.
Biff's approach to heavy metal showmanship has not wavered throughout his career and his commanding figure centre stages dominates the crowd as the band deliver 'Motorcycle Man', 'Heavy Metal Thunder' and 'Dallas 1 PM' to aplomb.
Joined now by Brian Tatler on guitar, he brings a new vigour to the performance with he trademark grin brightening up the dark Newark skyline. 'Never Surrender' is a highlight of the first half of the set, but it's the second half that really gets the fans going as those aforementioned classics start to flow thick and fast.
'The Eagle Has Landed', 'Denim and Leather', '747 (Strangers int he Night)' all get and airing, with the band demonstrating theirs life in this old dog yet!
From here we near the end of the show, three songs remain, but the band look as youthful as ever as 'Wheels of Steel' rings out across the night sky. 'Crusader' and 'Princess of the Night' close out what is possibly the best headline set in Stonedead history and no fan is left disappointed by what they have just witnessed.
So that brings the curtain down on another Stonedead festival; with perhaps the biggest headache yet to come. Every year, the organisers somehow manage to improve on last year’s show but have set themselves a Herculean task for 2025. Might one suggest seeing if Bruce Dickinson would be up for a sing-song, or… no, I’m sticking with Bruce!
See you all next year.
Photo credits: Tim Finch Photography
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