Stonedead Festival Newark Showground 24-8-24
Last weekend and with huge thanks to Mark Ellis and all the volunteer staff at Stonedead Festival I attended Newark Showground for the first time to saviour the memories of the original Monsters Of Rock shows at Donington under the festivals strap line of One Day One Stage One Monster Rock Show.
Those were the days when you gave it everything you had for one day seeing all the bands not like now with it spread over 3 days with numerous stages and hundreds of bands you see for 10 minutes if you are lucky.
Sadly with it being a Bank Holiday the weather tried it's best to dampen things with a deluge on my trip to Nottinghamshire and it hadn't abated as I arrived and with no queue of traffic I was quickly parked up and ready to explore.
Again no queues getting in and decent toilet facilities too I passed under the Stonedead arch just like the old days at Donington.
I loved the fact there was no anti fun police on the gates with a bring your own food and drink policy and also bring your own chairs in for the seated area at the back of the the arena with a very good view including a screen playing all the stages entertainment too.
Standing at the front was on a slight slope giving a great view from anywhere and apart from one band's sound issues a very good sound for all with screens left and right at all times.
The first festival I have been too with litter being collected all day and the joy of not falling over a weekend's pint glasses and all done by volunteer's with a smile on their faces. A joyful place.
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Tailgunner a young UK 5 piece hit the stage at 150 miles and hour and never slowed down. They could do with some light and shade in the set as it was at permanent warp speed and with Craig Cairns on vocals doing his best to keep up. He also fell on his arse due to the wet stage to much laughter from all and it will be interesting to see their development over the next few years with their twin guitar sound getting lost in the weather conditions.
The Bites had me heading for a change of clothes and the toilet soon after they started with their Hollywood humour and supposed sleaze falling flat to these old ears.
Quick mooch around the abundant stalls had all sorts of rock memorabilia and attire with the event T shirts coming in at 20 pound and food at decent prices too.
Back to the arena for Swedish 4 piece Bonafide who my colleague Nigel was looking forward to after his Covid find of the band and he was very happy with their AC/DC style going down well with the crowd. Frontman and guitarist Pontus Snibb impressed with Smoke And Fire and set closer Fill Your Head With Rock written about their Sweden Rock experience particular highlights.
With 9 bands on the bill and with as little as 20 minutes between sets it was all handled very smoothly with no issues with set times across the day a huge shout out to the team. Sound as I said earlier with one exception was excellent with a good bottom end and everyone being heard.
I was looking forward to seeing Eclipse for the first time since Covid and we were suddenly drenched by another biblical deluge leaving the stage flooded and again the team did a great job keeping things to time with Erik Martensson Eclipse frontman telling us it's all ok as long as nothing gets touched !!
Eclipse's 10 song set showed off all their powers of melodic rock heaven with huge hooks with melody and tunefulness and enough heavy riffing and solo's from Magnus Henriksson to keep the rockers happy. Erik's vocal melodies shone through the rain with Roses On Your Grave a great opener. So pleased hearing Run For Cover for the first time live with Magnus throwing shapes during the end song extended guitar solo as the rain stopped !!
A good mix of pre covid tunes to new material and with the band only slightly restricted in stage movement due to the stage flooding Eclipse impressed Viva La Victoria ended the set with us all wanting more and here's hoping for a full UK tour soon.
Next up was Doro who was warmly welcomed and straight into 2 Warlock songs I Rule The Ruins and Burning The Witches with her band all chosen from the Xtra Large section making Doro look even more petite.
She was in great voice and new songs Time For Justice and I Will Prevail held up well against the older material. Set closer Warlock's All We Are gave us the first audience sing along for the day and here's hoping for more UK shows in the future.
Ugly Kid Joe do what UKJ do and went down very well with Whitfield Crane as always the opiniated frontman . For me the best song of the set was Motorhead's Ace Of Spades but you cannot argue that they gave the masses what they wanted.
KK's Priest were next and with huge pyro and fireworks they were off with their 70 minute set a combination of Judas Priest songs with some original material added.
With Ripper Owens on vocals they do a good job of covering all bases with Night Crawler a welcome older addition and Diamonds In The Rust giving Ripper and KK the chance to take it down a notch too.
The crowd seemed a bit subdued as a couple of deep cuts were played in Before The Dawn and Sinner with more reaction to Breaking The Law.
KK showed he can still riff and solo to his heart's content with original number Raise Your Fists ending the set with the backstage screen lights and pyro all at mach 10.
Saxon were simply fantastic. Their 18 song set started with newbie Hell Fire And Damnation and the large light rig and on screen sound were superb with the evergreen Nigel Glockler's double bass drum assault wonderful.
Brian Tatler has fitted in like a glove and his teamwork with Doug Scarratt is top notch and both are audible and fleet fingered.
Nibbs Carter on bass was in fine head banging form and centre stage Biff was majestic with his vocals supreme.
When a set has the greatest hits and Power And The Glory, Dallas 1pm ,The Eagle Has Landed, Broken Heroes and Crusader how could they go wrong and they showed that into their 5th decade at the top they show no signs of slowing down and due back in the UK in February as we were told by Biff that will continue.
Stondead Festival lived up to it's promise and delivered in spades.
Even the British weather couldn't stop a great day out at the friendliest best run festival I have ever attended and long may it continue.
2025 is already sold out with no bands known and that says it all.
Long live Stondead.
