Z
ROCK 2009
SATURDAY
www.rockunited.com
Bugger
all sleep and too much fried food for breakfast later, I’m back
at JB’s about an hour
too early and pass the time by chatting with Austrian openers Cornerstone.
This isn’t exactly
a hardship, as they’re great people. If anything, it predisposes
me towards enjoying their
set. As the come on, it’s apparent that the early bands are once
again going to have to play
to a crowd that wouldn’t fill the small room downstairs, let alone
the main club. In fairness
to the band, the overcome a few sound niggles (such as losing the lead
guitar for most of a song)
to deliver a good set of hard rock tinged with hints of Indie and Pop.
Singer Carina has only
been with the band five months and I hope they keep hold of her, because
not only is she cute as
hell she’s got a brilliant voice that could take them to the next
level given the right material.
There’s a spirited cover of Blondie’s “Dreamin”
that gives off a few nice sparks, and overall
Cornerstone can be proud of their effort. My only real criticism is
that Carina has little or
no stage presence between songs, although she is fine when she’s
singing. If she and the band
are to reach their full potential this really has to be worked on -
maybe a trip to see Doro
and learn from the master (or Mistress). To hear some of their stuff,
go towww.myspace.com/
cornerstoneaustria
Anyway, I’m
pretty happy once more with the fact that the opening band showed promise,
and it’s
good to see Hungarian melodic crew H.A.R.D setting up keyboards. Up
to now no one else has had
them, which is pretty odd for a melodic rock festival! It’s a
funny name, H.A.R.D, and apparently
it may or may not stand for Hungarians Are Rockin’ Dudes, although
yesterday photographer Sonia
Waterfield made a bit of a tit of herself when she asked the promoter
if “The Hard guys have
arrived yet”, to which Michael Shotton of Von Groove (who was
nearby) replied “A hard guy is good
to find”. Well, I found it funny, you can all please yourselves.
Back to H.A.R.D,
and it’s quite clear from the start that these guys play what
you could call pretty
generic melodic rock. Mind you, although they start off slow, as the
set progresses and they hit
their stride the audience really starts to come on side, and by the
end there’s no doubt that
they’ve won a few more fans. I certainly enjoyed them and will
be keeping an ear out, as like
Cornerstone I’m sure the best is yet to come. Mind you, their
current stuff is still pretty good,
so check it out at www.myspace.com/hardhungar
Lec
Zorn isn’t here for whatever reason, and it’s down to Newman
to raise the roof for the first
time today. Steve Newman is one of the UK’s better
melodic rock exports, and I’m pretty excited
to be seeing him for the first time. Apparently he doesn’t go
out that much with a full band, and
there’s enough interest to ensure that he’s the winner of
the “get the punters to the stage area”
award for the day. Those that stagger bleary eyed to the front are glad
they did so (me included),
as hangovers are forgotten when Newman put their collective
foot down. As a front man, Steve does
everything right, coaxing a reaction out of the crowd and encouraging
as many singalongs as he
thinks he can get away with. The music is just right, with enough guitar
to keep the shred heads
happy, plus melody all over the place for the purists. Put simply, this
is just the sort of
performance that the Z Rock festival was made for. There’s a great
new song debuted, “Stay With Me”,
plus old favourites such as “One Step Closer”.
My favourite of the day is “Coming Home Tonight”,
from the recent “Decade” collection, which
has a chorus that just won’t get out of your brain.
Definitely the second best performance so far (behind Wig Wam), if you
haven’t heard Newman you
really should catch up (at www.newmansound.com if you didn’t know).
With Newman
raising the stakes, it’s not going to be easy for Eden, as they
play a very similar
style of melodic rock. Although I’m not familiar with the band
at all, I do recognise vocalist
Nick Workman (pictured above on the right, next to the Newman photos),
who used to be in the
excellent Kick, and it’s good to see him onstage again. He’s
a talented, charismatic bloke, and
comes across well onstage as he and the band crank out punchy melodic
rock with some great pop
hooks. The set goes down well, but I’m sticking with Newman as
the better act, mainly because his
songs have a bit more punch to them. Even so, I’ll be checking
out Eden a bit more closely in the
future, and so can you at www.edentheband.co.uk
There’s
a sense that everything up to now has, regardless of the quality, been
a warm up for the
next guy. There’s no fanfare as Dan Reed comes onstage with his
acoustic guitar and starts to sing.
After four accomplished guitar heavy bands it’s a real jolt to
the system, but a welcome one. As
he cronns his way through a track there is chatter going on around me,
and I wonder if this is such
a good idea after all, but when he stops the place erupts into the biggest
applause of the day so
far, and from that moment Mr Reed gas us in the palm of his hand. With
just himself and a guitar,
it’s like watching the world’s best busker, and I reckon
he would have doubled his fee had he put
a cap in front of him and a sign saying “% Ex Bandmates to support”
or something. The set is a great
fan pleaser, with terrific songs like “Lover” and “Rainbow
Child”, both of which have Dan going
“La La La” where the guitar should be and amazingly not
sounding like an arse at all. He moves to
the keyboard for a beautiful version of “Stronger Than Steel”
which has all the loved up couples
weeping at each other, and even has time to do one of my favourite songs
“Long Way To Go”. All in
all, this was a superb performance, showcasing what a talented, charismatic
guy he is. At one point
he even sang the theme tune from “The Wombles” to keep a
fan happy, and there’s not many who would
do that with a smile on their face.
Everything’s
running a bit late by now, as a band that can sort of be described as
Von Groove take
the stage. It’s actually vocalist Mike Shotton and three other
fill in guys including the talented
Vince O’Regan from Eden on guitar. Shotton is very casual in jeans
and t-shirt, and the band is
admirably tight considering the very short space of time in which they
have had to learn the set.
The problem here is with the sound. I’ve avoided this mostly,
but several bands have had sound issues
here and there, but with Von Groove it really comes to the fore. It
seems to be down to the drums,
which are so fucking loud they just put me off the rest of the instruments.
When you concentrate
on him, it’s obvious that Shotton is a very good singer and a
good front man to boot, but I just
find the poor mix too much to bear and spend half of their set getting
some fresh air and apologising
to my ears. I drag myself back in at the end for a fun version of “Fat
Bottomed Girls” that seems
pretty much on the spot improvised, but I don’t think I’ll
be remembering Von Groove for much more
than that drumbeat, more’s the pity.
We’re
getting pretty close to the main event now, as everyone’s favourite
Tigger impersonator
Ted Poley bounces onstage. Right from the beginning, however, there’s
a massive echo on his
voice that completely bollocks up the performance. Poley gamely does
his best, and there’s a
big sigh of relief when, halfway through “Bang Bang”, some
bright spark behind the desk realises
that perhaps the echo is up a bit too high. From here on it’s
plain sailing, as Poley brings out
some gems, mixing solo and Danger Danger tracks with Poley/Rivera stuff.
This is appropriate as
Vic Revera is to his left playing some cool guitar. There’s just
something about Ted Poley that
challenges the audience not to have a good time, as he stands there
with an ‘I’ve just humped
the neighbours cat‘ grin plastered on his face. He plays with
the audience like a cat with a ball
of wool, and the atmosphere is almost as good as it was for Wig Wam
last night. It’s very very
hard not to enjoy a Ted Poley show, and it seems that everyone has a
great time at this one - I
know I certainly do, so thanks to Ted for coming all this way to entertain
us. Consider your job
well done, sir.
Well, it’s
been a long time coming, and the end is finally nigh. We’re about
an hour behind
schedule which means that John Waite and his band don’t get to
the stage until after midnight.
Those that have been here for both days are predictably knackered, but
it’s my first time with
this guy so I don’t mind a little delay. The first thing I notice
about John Waite is that he’s
the only performer who has decided to wear a suit, and it does give
him that little extra bit
of class that his stature demands. Nice touch. It’s the music
that counts, however, and John
has more than enough experience in classic bands to deliver some classic
tunes. I was always
a bit of a Bad English fan, and predictably get all excited over the
likes of “Straight To Your
Heart”, “Best Of What I‘ve Got” and the world’s
bestest ballad “When I See You Smile”. We also
get some great older songs, including the excellent “Back On My
Feet Again”, and the inevitable
airing of Waite’s biggest hit “Missing You”, which
is still a great song even after hearing it a
billion times over the years. Vocally, the man is indeed the master,
with a storming performance
that really breathes life into the songs. Sadly, the sound problems
are back, as he is often so
far back in the mix I have to strain to pick him out at times, which
is a bit of a crime in my book.
Not as flamboyant as some of the other acts, John Waite nonetheless
delivers exactly what he is
supposed to, helped by a band whose talents on their instruments match
his with the vocals. The
man seriously rocks, and does it with an air of cool that is hard to
fake. Maybe some would have
preferred a more typical melodic rock act to headline, but I am grateful
for the chance to see
John Waite, something a little different to the normal acts that permeate
these festivals. A great
act to round off what has been a fun couple of days, all those of you
who missed it missed out.
Maybe next year…
Review
by Alan Holloway, alan "at" rockunited.com
Photos by Alan Holloway
09 June 2009
(c) 2009 RockUnited.Com
