Stonedead 2025 review and photos by Dawn Osborne

Stonedead is a gem of a festival: friendly, small, with the very manageable format of one day and one stage and a preparty which has pretty much as many attendees. They even allow people to bring in an alcohol or water allowance. No wonder tickets sell out in a few days a year in advance before they have even announced the bands.

Friday Pre Party

2025’s pre party began with hot young whippersnappers Jayler immediately taking everybody back to the seventies with Led Zep style fashion and sounds. They are clearly thrilled to be opening the whole shebang and must have been excited to hear compère Paul Anthony announcing them as “welcome to the future!”. It is great to see a fresh young band celebrate classic rock and “love and peace” and do it so well! They are growing in confidence and singer James Bartholomew even blew close up kisses down the video cameras to the crowd. They receive an enthusiastic reception and people only expressed disapproval with a “boo” when they say they are getting to their last song, so people clearly wanted more.

Sweet Electric from Germany are always up for a party indicated by Brad Marr’s bright golden cracked mirror jacket! There’s always an element of humour in Marr’s posturing and despite not looking like a typical Rock star he always always takes the mood to the max with his Massive-ly outgoing nature (see what I did there!). They have songs that are easy on the ear and bring on the ‘Rocket Queens’ dancers to liven things up with a good line in pole dancing without poles!  They even surprise a lady who was told she had won a competition to be side stage only to find her fiancé had engineered it all and asked her to marry him on stage. This just added to the family atmosphere and impression that this band are a band of the people.

Tyketto are the Friday night headliners and with the world class voice of Danny Vaughn they always hit the spot. They always try to mix things up making sure they don’t repeat the same setlists again and again. Tonight they storm the crowd with ‘Strength in Numbers’ complete with pyro and beloved songs ‘Wings’ and ‘Rescue Me’. It’s nine years since their last album and Danny Vaughn is quick to tell the crowd that he will fulfill his promise made last year that they would bring out a new album this year and is even able to announce the title ‘Closer To The Sun’. He also points out that they were due to play Stonedead the year of the pandemic which was cancelled, and tonight makes up for that! For a veteran of the scene his voice is completely untouched by time in purity and clarity and is showcased by the high long notes of ‘Reach’ on which he also played acoustic guitar. On lead guitar Harry Scott Elliott looks very pleased to be back after a short hiatus.

A slight surprise was a cover of the UFO track ‘Mother Mary’ it certainly made a change, but personally Tyketto have so many amazing songs I would have preferred another original. We don’t have long to wait with ‘Circle The Wagons’ in which Danny orchestrates a giant sing and sway-a-long. ‘Seasons’ is more of an easy listening number, it was therefore most amusing when the camera circled in on a couple of youngsters on the barrier headbanging to it all the way through! Danny confesses that after a near miss he was not really a biker, but his veteran uncle had worked through his PTSD from war by doing the Sturgis bike rally twice, before performing the song dedicated to him ‘The Run’. Danny is still full of energy, hopping around in circles with his acoustic guitar. Referring to Johnny Dee on drums as a former bandmate in Waysted ‘Heroes Die Young’ with more superb vocals is next. Even the giant inflatable T Rex in the crowd is bouncing along. Another surprise as the exotic dancers Rocket Queens take the stage again for ‘Lay Your Body Down’ and after giving them a run for their money with a bit of hip shaking Danny jokes “I need a nap now!”. Danny announces the song that most people say means the most to them ‘Standing Alone’ during which Harry does a beautiful melodic solo. With a thank you to the crowd and a promise to keep on rollin there’s a mammoth singalong to ‘Sail Away’. Johnny Dee comes to the front with a tambourine for the very appropriate ‘The Last Sunset’. Humorously Danny orders everybody to “bounce if your knees still work” for ‘Forever Young’ as pyro punctuates an unforgettable song to bring matters to a close.

Saturday

First up are King Kraken and their appearance on the back of their new album is causing much excitement, if the comments on my shuttle bus from the hotel and the size of the crowd early on in proceedings are anything to go by. They certainly pulled out all the stops with proper flame pyro and an actual reenactment of a Viking style sword battle and the resurrection of the homicidal Frankenstein’s monster on stage for a pretty epic start.

Frontman Mark Donoghue never ceases rousing the crowd to cheers with both arms up fist aloft. The giant inflatable octopus being bounced around the crowd kept up the sense of occasion right to the end and that’s before you get to the music, epic riffs and heavy blues like ‘Hero’ dedicated to all those feeling grief or loss. All this from the very first band.

Head honcho Chris Sumby came on stage to let us all know how much it means to him that people place faith in him by purchasing tickets, even before they know which bands are going to play. He also introduced the Ozzy tribute featuring the singer of Crowley whose vocals were fantastic for ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ which she performed with Myke Gray and members of King Kraken and Florence Black also did  ‘Children of The Grave’, ‘Supernaut’ and ‘Paranoid’.

Black Oak County, more heavy Blues from Scandinavia, are next up with singer Niels Beier who has that raspy bluesy voice like Chris Robertson of Black Stone Cherry (who have certainly been an influence given their snippet of ‘Blame It On The Boom Boom’). They too tip their hat to Ozzy with ‘Paranoid’ and a bit of ‘War Pigs’. Their set culminates with their own song ‘Boom Boom Baby’ highly infectious and a great track in its own right made even more special by a double flyover by a Spitfire with a nod to Maiden doing the same at Donington in 2013.

Krusher came on stage with a young lady Charlotte who had given a t-shirt saying ‘Krusher says f*ck a lot’ to him and had worn one of her own to her local library. Krusher couldn’t be more delighted to continue the controversy of his swearing. He doesn’t need encouragement, but he’s not going to refuse it!

Enforcer from Sweden -complete with a blonde bassist who is challenging Derek Smalls with a competing moustache -have a set which has ‘HEAVY’ written on one side and ‘METAL’ on the other. In case this message wasn’t clear enough they declare immediately “We have come to crush some skulls. If you’re into the real stuff – so are we!’. In the same spirit as Skull Fist and Tailgunner they are a younger band who are dialled into 1983 early English metal complete with blonde hair die, spandex, chains, studs and Explorers. (If I hadn’t been taken sufficiently into the past, a blow up giant green Triceratops brushed past me at that point to take the Time Machine experience one step beyond.) It’s great to see another young band take this pre death growl NWOBHM and make it their own. “Do you want to hear some fast shit?” As they launch into ‘Live For The Day’ and “How about another fast one?- Hell Will Fall”. Synchronised guitar swinging, horns and fists up, and an evil laugh like vintage Blackie Lawless, there probably isn’t a trope from that era they don’t display – and they didn’t have a slow one, in case you couldn’t guess. Their relentless energy makes them compulsive viewing.   They thank everyone for supporting metal in the 21st Century and even the Triceratops from 66 million years ago is headbanging.

Krusher regales the crowd with talks about a night out with Paul Di’anno and Les McKeown of the Bay City Rollers “that made a night out with Ozzy Osbourne look like Andy Pandy” and other stories which I am not going to repeat. Make sure you get to Stonedead next year and ask him yourself!

The New Roses from Germany are more straightforward hard rock, rather than metal. In a completely different way to Enforcer they are also ideal for the Stonedead crowd.  The singer Timmy Rough has had a hair cut. It’s very rare when I say a man suits short hair rather than long, but he looks much better, handsome in a George Michael kind of way and no longer reminds me of Charles Manson (always a blessing I guess). I also think that they have improved their songwriting which is far more accessible now. Rough is highly personable with the crowd, explaining that when they started about fourteen years ago in a small room in a small German town their dream was to play English festivals like this. He jumps into the crowd for the singalong and a banana gets thrown onto the stage in response which he brandishes joking about not being sure of the intended meaning! He asks if everyone is having a good time, preaching to the converted. The Triceratops has found his mates the T Rex and the Veloceraptor and they are pogo-ing together bumping chests.. I think that is Jurassic for yes!

Krusher told a story about how Ozzy loved stink bombs and would try to throw them to land in Rob Zombie’s hair (for no particular reason at this juncture, Krusher never needs a reason).

Primal Fear are a heavier German band, a bit heavy for me. New member the beautiful Thalìa Bellazecca shreds like a maestro on her black Flying V and gets a lot of attention from the photographers! I always welcome seeing amazing new talent at Stonedead!

At this point I go backstage as I have a prearranged interview with the lovely Andy Scott of Sweet. While I am waiting for him I bump into Danny Vaughn of Tyketto, and also chat to John Corabi and Doug Aldrich and catch glimpses of Tommy Clufetos and David Lowy of The Dead Daisies. Andy has made it to Stonedead despite a recent fall -what a hero! Catch the whole of my interview on the TotalRock You Tube channel including news of a new album.

I make it back out in time to get some pictures of DAD and see my favourite tracks ‘Bad Craziness’ and ‘Sleeping My Day Away’. They are their usual wacky selves with Stig Pederson wearing the very summery outfit of a silver lamé vest top, blue shorts with silver stars and silver leather thigh length boots to compliment his two string bass guitars.

It’s time for The Sweet and if anyone doubted the vintage of this crowd it is no exaggeration that whatever their age everyone was taken back to the Seventies and the screens are full of the completely packed out arena with everyone dancing and singing like they mean it. Crowd favourites ‘Action’, ‘Hellraiser’, ‘The Six Teens’, ‘Set Me Free’ and ‘Teenage Rampage’ are delivered with wonderful harmonies and time just flies by when you’re having fun.

Andy Scott tells the crowd that he is feeling “quite well Stonedead – and definitely NOT dead’ some dark humour about his terminal stage four cancer diagnosis. He is looking great with his perfect now completely white amazing thick hair with a ruler straight thick fringe and a black and red military jacket. Everyone is so pleased to see him there. He has said in the press it would kill him not to be onstage. He is delighted that suddenly the UK Festival scene has woken up to the band and they are playing multiple festivals and dates through to January. I’m not surprised based on the reaction they got today at Stonedead, frankly they stole the show. No other band got as big a crowd or had the crowd making as much noise. They finish with ‘Love Is Like Oxygen’, ‘Fox On The Run’, ‘Blockbuster’ and ‘Ballroom Blitz’. In a kind of Lazarus style miracle someone in the crowd is thrusting both crutches into the air to the beat. Even if they knew they would feel it the next day, the sheer joy of hearing this band had them throwing everything else to the wind. This experience is the very reason why anyone goes to a festival in the first place.

Krusher has caught the vibe and comes out saying his ears have been having orgasms! He then leads the crowd in a singalong of ‘Warpigs’ with the lyric video playing on the large screens.

Up next are the supergroup The Dead Daisies put together by wealthy Australian businessman David Lowy with members that have played with Motley Crue, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath and Ozzy and they deliver a barnstormer of their set based on the set of their recent UK shows, although slightly shortened to fit a festival format. As such they kick off with ‘Long Way to Go’ it’s much easier to see them in this outdoor venue with natural light and less dry ice, and catch every shape that Doug Aldrich throws with his Les Paul, and every expression pulled by irrepressible frontman John Corabi (including his horned God Pan face). Corabi has lost a lot of weight and is looking very svelte. Their material is very well known by the UK crowd and it’s a classy American Hard Rock set, made a little heavier I think by the driving sticks of the super fit shirtless Tommy Clufetos and heavy bass of Michael Devin, followed by a bluesier section based on their recent covers record ‘Lookin For Trouble’. Nobody sings a heavy Blues cover better than John Corabi and tracks like ‘Fortunate Son’ are a joy. Doug Aldrich is a complete guitar hero and it’s great to see him play delivering world class solos, being so handsome not hurting at all. John Corabi comments it’s great to finish their UK tour on a high and they certainly seem to be kicking ass again with Corabi now having his feet firmly under the table again. They finish with ‘Helter Skelter’ a complete win with its reference to Corabi’s time with Motley Crue, and being a Beatles cover that everyone from every generation knows.

The crowd are shouting ‘All – F*ckin- Mighty before they went on and headliner The Almighty with their original reformed line up provides a special end to the festival with a setlist chosen by the fans. They always had a punky energy and tracks like ‘Power’, ‘Full Force Lovin’ Machine’ and ‘Devil’s Toy’ hit the spot! Warwick is always self-deprecating and told a story about him writing the lyrics to ‘Devil’s Toy’ when his mother asked if he was trying to channel the Devil, but his dad said “no the devil’s got way better taste in music”. But the band are well received and the only band of the day that I notice got a swirling mosh pit going. It’s been a long day and they do not retain the full compliment of The Sweet’s crowd – The Sweet are a very hard band to follow and many might argue they should have headlined – but with the final track of the main set being ‘Free ‘n’ Easy’ and the final track of the encore being ‘Wild ‘n’ Wonderful’ it was a set about which no one was complaining.

Once again Stonedead pulled a blinder of a festival with a wide variety of bands that all appealed to a classic rock crowd and provided a friendly environment where everyone can have a good time and feel safe, with the best range of food on offer I have seen this year at a festival. They have already sold out 2026 and with rumours swirling about the headliners I think next year’s going to be another truly great event.

Dawn Osborne