HRH Sleaze 2025 – Review and Photos by Dawn Osborne

HRH Sleaze was at Leicester 02 again this year and was completely sold out! It has loyal attendees which come year after year and it’s great to catch up with them, and also make some new friends who love the same music. There are also a fair number of younger people showing that there’s new life in the genre still.

Friday Pre-Party

Opening the whole shebang are Steal This Band, their name a parody of the ‘Steal This Album’ and, being, of course a System Of The Down tribute band. Great songs, excellently delivered, they went down well.

However, Hotter than Hell take the tribute thing to the next level. From the costumes to the guitars, to the set with a huge KISS logo at the back and banners of the ‘Hotter Than Hell’ album, they are one of the best tribute bands around. I love that they have ‘Ace Frehley’ as the space man. He is extremely popular, probably because he has not been available in the real KISS for a long time and people shout out ‘Shock Me’ when they see Ace is about to take the mike. Their ‘Paul Stanley’ is very convincing and has all the between-song-patter and mannerisms off pat. He even smashes a stunt guitar at the end. ‘Gene’ does a mini-Demon fake blood bass solo.  Musically they take the rich back catalogue and make the most of it. Indeed they cut to the chase. No drum solo, no deep cuts, just the best known KISS songs keeping everyone entertained. A great start to the festival.

Saturday

As I walk through the green room to get to the pit I am greeted by Bret Patrucci, former guitarist of Wrathchild. His band ‘Disciples of Sin’ are first up and they provide a combination of Soho-era Rock n Roll with a gothic horror slant to the vocals. Unsurprisingly some tracks are commercial singalongs, Wrathchild style. They have a great image and it’s a glammy start with some great guitar work.

Filthy Filthy are a band with a tall guy with an 80s Bryan Ferry style floppy hair do as frontman and a guitarist in a flat cap who keeps flipping the bird to the crowd. They have a punk Clash/Stranglers style heritage, a bit like The Dirty Strangers. Topics of songs revolve around drinking and women. They do a bit of Toni Basil’s ‘Hey Mickey’ as an intro to their original song ‘Trying Too Hard’. Their stuff’s intentionally not rocket science, but it’s catchy and instantly accessible and their singer has a good repertoire of jokes in his back pocket. As they leave the stage he shouts ‘Find us on Grinder!’.

Waking The Angels brought a touch of AOR and since they are old hands at this game have loads of songs known by the growing crowd. Frontman Mike Deeley has a powerful voice and is an old school Northern entertainer, cocky and self assured: little could ever phase him I think. Musically the are pretty polished. Their songs tackle some heavy subjects such as ‘Lost Child’ about children in wars, and grief and loss, but as they are delivered in an upbeat way, it’s not preachy or a downer. They do a storming version of ‘Warpigs’ remembering Ozzy. Deeley had wanted to give out chocolate in the venue, but was not allowed to and afterwards in the car park I score a Wispa and a crème egg. No bribery involved I promise!

Frontman with The Death Rattles, Jimmy B also has a strong voice. Apparently their bass player quit two weeks before the gig and they have teenagers doing drum and bass duties, but they sounded pretty good nevertheless. They verge on the alternative/gothy side with the occasional ethereal vocal and songs like ‘Witch In The Woods’. Their material’s pretty accessible. They also do a little snippet of ‘Black Sabbath’ the self titled track.

With Swedish band ‘Bulletrain’ things start to ramp up a notch. Charismatic frontman Sebastian Sundberg is completely ripped and, before the photographers have left the pit, removed his shirt. He has a killer metal voice and all the dramatic moves, reminding me a little of Olli Herman from Reckless Love, and has the audience in the palm of his hand. Their guitarists are great. All in all they are a mesmerising watch. They remind me a little of Steelheart, although cite their influences as Motley Crue and Skid Row. With lyrics like “your wife’s got a secret she won’t tell” they are truly sleazy and, as a result go down a storm. Even Sundberg looked astonished at the roars of applause they got from the now packed out venue.

Jetboy are up next and Mickey Finn goes all out to keep up the energy with the crowd. Billy Rowe is not with them, otherwise engaged with Buckcherry, and so tonight they appear with Ben Marsden of The Wildhearts/Spangles on guitar and Rob Lane on bass. It’s a spirited effort, while not really recognisable as the Jetboy of old.  It was good to hear ‘Feel The Shake’ again and it gets a great reception from the crowd.

Pretty Boy Floyd take to the stage reaching for the stars: “every Pretty Boy Floyd gig has to be better than the last one”. Summers got on the barrier twice before the photographers even leave the pit. They have a great roster of party, memorable songs that everyone knows, play all the hits and are preaching to the converted. Steve ‘Sex’ Summers comes on stage with a highly glam black and white furry coat, spiky goggles and leopard print boots. He also bring the full on rockstar attitude that we probably expect in this genre and don’t see enough of these days “every day is the weekend .. don’t hate, just appreciate”.

When he announces it is their farewell tour, the crowd groans in disappointment, but he follows up with “that was a joke, only bands that suck do a farewell tour”. New guitarist Jake also seems to be a keeper, doing a great job and also very easy on the eye.

They do a few Motley Crue songs ‘Toast Of The Town’ and ‘Live Wire’ which is a bit of a surprise, but fit in well to the set. As they are winding up Summers says “hey I wore a fur coat on stage for the first two songs, I gave it my f’n all”. They did! Don’t invite Steve Summers to the party and not expect the slightly dangerous rock vibe of the Sunset Strip, he won’t disappoint.

 

I was delighted to be asked to do a few pictures of Babylon AD pre-show, they’re a great bunch … and they still sound amazing like they always did, in large part due to the distinctive timbre of front man Derek Davis. They still have original guitarist Ron Freschi and with the addition of John Matthews doing duel lead guitar duty, Craig Pepe on bass and Dylan Soto on drums (the latter still in his twenties) they pack a powerful punch.

As with the show in London it is great to see young people on the barrier who know all the songs and sing along. It’s the same set as the London show (see my prior review also on this site), with the addition of ‘Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day’ and mammoth ballad ‘Desperate’ which I had missed hearing at the London show. Davis is tireless in his efforts to keep the crowd going and kicking off with ‘Back to Babylon’ and including other monster tracks like ‘Bang Go The Bells’ and ‘Maryanne’ mid-set ratchets things up to 11 early on. They finish with ‘War Pigs’ and ‘Paranoid’ with a mammoth singalong from all the crowd!

Sunday

Sleazy Money open Sunday afternoon. Frontman Connor Palmer is a big guy with a personality to match coming on in a pink leopard print shirt. Despite being the first band on, with a smaller crowd due to the excesses of the night before, he takes on the task of enlivening the crowd extremely seriously, making sure to make eye contact with everyone within sight. They finish with ‘It Ain’t Ez’ “being sleazy” and although they may not be the first band people would think of being in the Sleaze genre they are a diverting starter and certainly not boring.

Voltstorm are more of a power metal band with a singer with a powerful expressive voice that reminded me a little of Rob Halford, not too shabby.

Ablaze were good fun with an antipodean singer that reminder me a little of John Corabi and a smiley skater girl bassist that they really shouldn’t lose, she’s a great asset to the band! They have a lovely friendly family orientated vibe. They’re really a straightforward hard rock band with a funky undercurrent. Their material is accessible and I would definitely not mind seeing them again.

Smashed are an older band with a country music streak and a guitarist in a Stetson and fancy western shirt, although their drummer looks like Stevie Jaimz, the original Tigertailz singer! They are mainly straightforward country rock, but they occasionally sound a little like Tyla/Dogs D’amour and have some honky tonk jamming that fits in well with his crowd.

The Senton Bombs from Blackpool are more of a mash up. Their frontman has an easygoing manner with the crowd with friendly patter between songs, although he doesn’t always manage to keep in key. They have a slightly punky sound, sometimes like old Soho glam.

New Generation Superstars are old hands on the scene with an established roster of Rock ‘n’ Roll catchy songs like ‘Come Over’ (covered by Wrathchild, with whom they share a bassist Jonny Suicide). Singer AJ is a man of fewer words than most frontmen and explains that they want to play as much as possible in the time available. A long list of punky R ‘n’ R ensues. They’re the first band that are really my cup of tea so far this day and I’ve been watching them for decades now.

Speedstroke from Italy are a Classic New Wave of Heavy Metal type rock band from Italy. Their frontman with eye make up on one eye which is a kind of a cross between Alice Cooper and Commedia Dell’arte speaks good English and is full of chutzpah: “we are from pizza land, not to be mixed up with Switzerland, they have the money, we have the style” and “you have now seen one of the best Italian guitar bands, there are three!”. He is full of admiration for England “we don’t have a Rock ‘n’ Roll culture, you have it on every cobblestone” and they are clearly delighted to be playing in England to an appreciative audience. They are straightforward meat and potatoes metal with a lot of screams and some melodic solos.

At this point although I had planned to catch the whole of Spreadeagle’s set, the festival is running late and I miss most of their set interviewing Kory Clarke (check out the interview on You Tube). I make it back for an extended jam and in time to see their most famous track ‘Switchblade Serenade’ which got everyone going. Ray West is still an energetic frontman and from what I saw, I thought they were a little heavier than I remembered.

Kory Clarke still looks decades younger with a full head of blonde hair and a frame like a whippet. He comes on in eye catching gold and black sequin pants and a glittery black jacket and literally throws himself into the roll of rock icon launching himself on the monitors towards the crowd, climbing the drum shields, throwing himself on his knees, and suffering for his art. A head butt of the monitor and a backwards roll from the reverse momentum into the drum riser was the first time I had seen any such move on stage, and I’ve seen a lot of gigs. Goodness knows what drummer Ivan Tambac thought when Clarke rubbed his bare ass on the transparent acoustic shields in front of the drums. Thankfully only he could see and all naked butt cheeks were quickly re-covered before security stepped in. Once again you never know what might happen when you recruit a real rock star, they are not rock stars because they drink cups of tea in dressing gowns and slippers.

Warrior Soul have many amazing songs to choose from and they have varied their setlist on this tour. Tonight was orientated towards the fast paced tracks such as ‘Punk and Belligerent’ and ‘The Wasteland’. Kory’s voice has got raspier over the years and suits this material best.  They do, however, do slower melodic track ‘Lullaby’ as a counterpoint mid set. I missed ‘The Losers’ and ‘We Cry Out’ but there’s always a next time. Lifers like Clarke don’t ever retire. A new album ‘Rock ‘em Sock ‘em is in the works, a book is planned and newly discovered never released tracks have been discovered from the late eighties which will be released as ‘Warrior Soul Vault’. Kory told me he thinks he has at least another ten years in him and from watching his energetic performance tonight I have to agree. Roll on next year!

HRH Sleaze was more diverse this year than it used to be. I think this is partly due to the trends in rock moving away from glam and sleaze and getting generally heavier, but it is also a good tactic to keep things interesting. I saw bands I had never seen before and every band had strengths in their own particular way. Headliners and the more seasoned performers towards the top of the bill demonstrated fantastic showmanship and kept all eyes glued on them from start to finish. Next year the festival returns to Sheffield with another line up of great bands planned. Count me in!

Dawn Osborne