Steelhouse Festival - Ebbw Vale, Wales
Live review by; Myk
Friday 23/07/2021
So I arrived in Wales and they weren’t joking when they said Steelhouse was on top of a mountain, a very steep dirt track with switchbacks led us to the festival site on top of a fairly substantial hill. With tent pitched and introductions made to the weekend neighbours I headed for the arena. It started sunny and warm and once in the arena I was impressed with the beer prices and the layout.
Raveneye led by the talented Oli Brown, the last time I saw him was in blues mode in Sittingbourne, Kent. What you get here is a very blues infused rock sound. But in the guise of Raveneye and with the solid support of Adam Breeze on drums and Michael Blackwell on bass it’s a much heavier sound. Oli was clearly happy to be back on stage and in front of a large audience.
The Quireboys hadn’t played a gig together since well before lockdown but Spike has been on a bit of a solo acoustic tour and given the length of time these guys have been going it was unlikely to be an issue. You know what you are going to get with The Quireboys and they didn’t disappoint delivering good time blues tinged rock that you could sing along to and the crowd were happy to join in as Spike brought the party to town.
Local boys and Friday headliners Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons take to the stage kicking off with ‘We’re The Bastards’ signalling their intent to rock hard. The elephant in the arena is front man Andrew Hunt of Buffalo Summer standing in until a permanent replacement is found for the departed Neil Starr. Wow his delivery is fantastic as they rip through a blistering set interspersed with the odd Motorhead cover and not the obvious ones either as we are treated to ‘Going To Brazil’, ‘Ramones, and ‘Killed by Death’. You can occasionally spot Andrew looking down to remind himself of the lyrics but it doesn’t affect the delivery. Obviously they couldn’t not play ‘Ace of Spades’ and as an extra they included a cover of Hawkwind’s ‘Silver Machine’ with Phil nonchalantly blasting out the riffs allowing Todd on guitar and Tyla on bass to strut around the stage geeing up the crowd. A great finish to day 1, but with the wind picking up and a storm expected it was back to the tent to batten down the hatches.
Saturday 24/07/2021
Unfortunately the storm overnight did some damage to the stage, repairs took some time and it wasn’t looking good for Revival Black making an appearance. But then it all came together and they finally hit the stage and treated a fast growing audience to some awesome tunes, helping to make it happen and to make up some time the house drum kit was employed by Ash Janes. Excellent use was made of the extra space the festival stage provided with bassist Jamie Hayward and singer Dan Byrne prowling the edges and engaging with the appreciative audience. The ever imposing Adam Kerbache on guitar strutted up to stage front and centre and even the reserved Alan Rimmer on lead guitar stepped into the limelight. These guys are one of the bands at the forefront of NWOCR and keep getting better and with Dan’s amazing voice they have a bright future.
Hand Off Gretel were next up with their punky grunge rock attitude, proving they are not just another female fronted rock band. They were refreshing, entertaining and worked the stage like seasoned professionals. This was my first time seeing them and I was mightily impressed particularly by bass player Becky Baldwin, but then I’m an absolute sucker for a Rickenbacker. The boundless energy from Lauren Tate on guitar and vocals and Sean Bon on guitar went down really well with the crowd. Sam Hobbins on drums also using the house kit didn’t miss a beat. This was proving to be a good day already.
Another Welsh band and part of the NWOCR movement Florence Black are a band that when I first saw them supporting Those Damn Crows in London I wasn’t enamoured by their sound. But this time it was totally different, the vocals were clean, the riffs driving a harder rock edge. There was no nonsense here just straight in your face rock. I suspect it was me having an off night on London and not them. The audience loved them as they delivered a blistering set, including a cover of Budgie’s Breadfan with a guest appearance from Bullet For My Valentine’s Michael Padget.
The Kris Barras Band are a good blues rock band but I have to say I find nothing exciting in their delivery. Do they have good tunes? Yes, is Kris an engaging frontman? Yes, do they have energy? Yes. So they have all the parts needed but I just find them too safe. They are enjoyable enough but it doesn’t make me want to tap my feet or nod my head. I’ll be seeing them again supporting Black Stone Cherry so I’ll give them another go. Florence Black convinced me at the second time of asking so maybe Kris can do the same.
Toby Jepson delivered a good acoustic set that just did not fit with the moment. It would have been perfect on a hot sunny afternoon where you could have sat down with a beer and chilled. It filled a hole in the line-up.
Unfortunately Those Damn Crows had a few technical gremlins during setup and lost time that ultimately meant they had to cut a few songs from their set. Then light rain descended on proceedings, how would the Crows cope? Easily as it happens, they are a band that are so at home on stage and with frontman Shane Greenall engaging with the audience and playing up to the camera as he looked at his butt on the big screen. It may have been 2 songs short but the quality was unbelievable, we had the obligatory piano led Blink Of An Eye and wow what a song that is. My only gripe would be the lack of guitar solos but give them their due the songs are so good it doesn’t really matter. This was the performance a lot of the crowd had been waiting for and we sang our hearts out to each and every tune. Brilliant.
What could Therapy? the trio from Northern Ireland do to follow the Crows. This was my first experience of the band and I just didn’t get it at all. Time to grab a beer and something to eat and listen at a distance. It didn’t get any better but looking at the enthusiastic response from the crowd it was clearly me and not the band. So not my cup of tea but if we all liked the same thing it would be pretty boring.
Not quite sure who the joke is on, but The Darkness don’t take themselves too seriously and with Justin Hawkins they have a performer of the highest calibre, he struts and leaps around the stage with joyous abandon treating the crowd to his trademark falsetto voice. It would all get a bit silly if not for the fact they have a catalogue of banging tunes and not just from their debut album Permission To Land. Clearly they are a bit rusty after such a long layoff, not as polished as I have seen them previously. This manifests in Justin’s lack of in-between song banter for the first half of the set but the banter increases as his attire lessens. He starts the show resplendent in frilled chaps and ends up in a pair of daisy dukes that only he could get away with. The memorable tunes continue with Frankie Poullain employing cowbell at the given moments for great musical and comic effect. The whole performance is ridiculous, mesmerising and unbelievably glorious, centred around Justin’s camp posturing but ably supported by brother Dan on guitar, Frankie on Bass and Rufus Tiger Taylor on drums. A brilliant end to a fantastic day.
Sunday 25/07/2021
The weather is much improved and Empyre take to the stage in glorious sunshine. They have a large audience and supply their distinct brand of atmospheric rock with Henrik Steenholdt delivering an excellent vocal performance. I really like the up tempo numbers like ‘New Republic’ but the slower ones I personally find a bit ponderous for my tastes.
Collateral’s singer Angelo Tristan loves a big stage and he revelled in strutting around engaging with the large enthusiastic crowd. You can see the band feel totally at home in this setting with guitar wizard Todd Winger throwing some classic seventies poses during each blistering solo. The sing along stadium ready songs are lapped up by the crowd as is the spinal tap moment when Angelo couldn’t get his jacket off without the help of the stage crew. A memorable performance for all the right reasons.
Next up are Glaswegian 5-piece Mason Hill finally able to play tracks from their album, five years in the making. These guys are good, Scott Taylor is such an engaging emotional frontman drawing you into each song. Craig McFetridge is a total animal on the drums, he seems to hit so hard but always maintains a steady beat ably backed up by Matthew Ward on bass who was loving the space as he prowled the stage and even jumped down to get up close and personal with the appreciative fans. The very talented James Bird supplies the guitar solos, coolly, very laid back and understated so rock and roll. There was a brief interlude to present a cake to birthday boy, guitarist Marc Montgomery. The songs themselves are quality like ‘DNA’, the anthemic ‘We Pray’, title track ‘Against The Wall’, the emotion taping ‘Broken Son’ and ‘Where I Belong’ with the crowd singing in unison moving Scott to shed a few tears, such a beautiful reaction. A full album tour is coming in September and October, they have a great future ahead of them.
After the Toby Jepson fill in yesterday, today we get the full band that are Wayward Sons and we get a great show. These guys know their stuff and Toby has the enviable ability to write great tunes. They give an energetic crowd pleasing performance.
Stone Broken are up next with drummer Robyn Haycock resplendent in colourful 2 tone hair with Rich Moss front and centre orchestrating proceedings. They play a familiar set raiding their 2 albums to date and even throw in a couple of tasters from the highly anticipated next album. They are always great to watch, with guitarist Chris Davis and bassist Kieron Conroy swapping sides of the stage. With a headline tour and new album next year their star will only be rising higher ably supported by the Broken Army.
I’ve somehow managed to miss seeing Bernie Marsden over the years so I was really looking forward to this. What I got was so much better than I could have hoped for, he’s like your favourite cool uncle. A few back issues meant he had to sit down occasionally during the set but it didn’t interfere with his amazing playing. A set of mainly old school bluesy Whitesnake tunes with Nev McDonald on vocals belting out each song way better than David Coverdale can manage nowadays. In the afternoon sun this was absolute heaven. Although it was a set of covers and having seen such great performances over the weekend, this was probably my highlight as I sang every word to each song.
Having seen The Wildhearts debacle at the Download Pilot where Ginger walked off stage midway through the second song due to sound issues, I was hoping for a longer set this time. No worries they hit the stage in fine form and we got the full experience, great tunes, well performed and great banter between songs. Including referring to the posing ramp that Ginger wasn’t going to use, until about 3 minutes in he succumbed to the temptation and proceeded along with CJ to pose up a storm for the cameras. When The Wildhearts are in this mood there are few better live rock bands and all my disappointment from Download just melted away. Unfortunately this was my last band of the weekend as I needed to depart for my long journey home.
To sum up this amazing weekend, the bands were fantastic, the people were so friendly, the beer was good and not overpriced and I’ll be back next year for more.
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