Stonedeaf 2019

Krusher was a welcome sight acting as compere and adding some old Skool gravitas to proceedings.

Irish competition winners Samarkind opened the stage with plenty of Deep Purple inspired blues influenced hard rock. Impressive vocals and a professional performance kicked off the festival in style.

 

The charismatic Massive always remind me of Jack Black and make me smile. Working class underdog whose chirpy passion wins through reflects the vibe and the band always get the band on side largely due to the wide appear of their hard rockin material and the cheeky comments between songs from vocalist Brad Marr. There’s a cover of ‘If You Want Blood’ for those who just wanna hear a classic, but I thought the band delivered a more diverse set than usual showing that they are maturing and expanding their horizons. They announce they are a people’s band and will be out enjoying themselves in the crowd after their spot at the signing tent.

 

 

The Amorettes return with a new line up headed by Gill Montogomery still on vocals and guitar and expanded to a foursome by Laurie Buchanan of Aaron Buchanan and The Cult Classics and Jacinda and Josie of Tequila Mockingbyrds. Personally I think the change is good with an expanded sound they still deliver your basic heavy metal rock n roll the doctor ordered. There’s a man in wine coloured undies (and nothing else!) looking like a German Iggy Pop doing his nut in the crowd so they clearly hit exactly the right spot for him.

 

Diamond Head are next and although there were power outages on the monitors so Ras the Vocalist couldn’t hear himself he did a fine job. Unsurprisingly he sounds most comfortable on the new songs from the new album that he wrote and singing ‘It’s Electric’ and ‘Helpless’ are a challenge for the most talented vocalist never mind without a monitor, but he carried it off. Most people were there for the titanic riffs of ‘Am I Evil’ from Mr Tatler and he did not disappoint.

 

I am not a Queensryche fan especially, not being a concept album girl really, but I did enjoy Geoff Tate’s set which was presented as straightforward no nonsense old skool metal. Looking like the genie out of the bottle he granted a few wishes for die hards in the crowd. He certainly knew how to be in control on stage and looked like he was thoroughly enjoying delivering his high quality vocals.

 

Wayward Sons sounded so much better than when I saw them support Tesla and I thought they kicked ass in the the first songs I heard. I had to miss the rest of the set as I was interviewing Glenn Hughes something no one turns down. But from what I managed to hear they were on top form.

I really enjoy Phil Campbell’s solo work. They were sounding superb and he’s still producing some of the best stuff he’s done. It was their usual festival set of their new albums plus ‘Silver Machine’ and ‘Ace of Spades’. Always good value.

 

Inglorious were a bit epic. Nathan is a Titan on stage and when you listen to him you can be transported back to the times of vocal giants like Gillan and Dio. They were late due to technical issues, but no one let that spoil the day. There’s plenty of diversity in the set: huge rockers, softer songs and symphonic sounding numbers. Appropriately there’s a bit of a purple vibe at times. Majestic!

 

However the Piece De Resistance was Glenn Hughes with a set of Purple Classics he owned and made his own. Kicking off with ‘Stormbringer’ and ‘Might Just Take Your Life’ there’s no doubt his voice is everything it was and more. Being in charge he is also able to take the time to tell stories about when DC ‘lived above a Wimpy bar and wrote this song in 1973’ and how even with an American passport he will always be ‘British through and through’ bringing a personal touch. When the sound goes off during ‘You Keep on Movin’ he just sings masterful acapella till it comes back on ‘cos I am an entertainer’. He explains he plays ‘Getting Tighter’ by Tommy Bolan every day and will till he dies before treating us to it. However, for me I go to heaven when he sings ‘Mistreated’ and ores that perfect high falsetto. No one else can make a scream sound so sublime! There’s the glorious riff of ‘Smoke on the Water’ And just when we thought after ‘Mistreated’ he can’t go any higher he takes us into the Stratosphere with ‘Georgia On My Mind’. The encore is ‘Burn’ and ‘Highway Star’. The set has run over by 40 minutes but I certainly didn’t care.. Jimi Glenn’s tour manager has taken over on bass leaving Glenn to concentrate on vocals. Glenn tells us that music keeps him alive. We believe him. What a legend, but also so human. A privilege to watch. He also comments that ‘Stonedeaf Fuckin’ Rocks’ I cannot disagree.

Dawn Osborne