As with my inaugural visit
last year to the 3-day melodic rock festival that is Firefest I again found
myself in Nottingham’s Rock City for the opening Friday night only. This year
the line-up for the remaining days didn’t excite me enough to book the whole
weekend, which I suppose is an improvement on 2011 where other circumstances prevented
me (needlessly, as it turned out, to my immense annoyance!) from catching the
likes of Steve Augeri and Unruly Child (to name but two). This time around
there were again four acts to take in on the Friday alone, the first two of
whom I knew not the first thing about before entering the venue...
2011 opened with an astounding
set from Serpentine, who instantly became my favourite ‘new’ band, so this
year’s openers, Lionville, had the
weight of expectation on their shoulders. While they only had a half-hour slot
for a 5-song set, they made the most of every second and got proceedings off to
a suitably stunning start. One of the
exciting things about Firefest is the black curtain that shrouds the stage at
all times – you never quite know what’s
going to be revealed when it is dropped (especially if you’re unfamiliar with
the bands!), and in this case what I saw shocked me into the realisation
(expressed inwardly only, I hasten to add...), ‘Cor, that’s Lars (Säfsund) from
Work of Art, that is!’. That was the first thing I noticed, the second was
keyboardist Alessandro Del Vechio’s Kansas t-shirt - endearing to a Wheathead
like myself - and the third (these were all in quick succession by the way!) was
that they were brilliant. Lars is simply one of the great vocalists working in
the genre today, and to see him was a joy, not least because Work of Art were
the band I’d most wanted to see out of the rest of the weekend’s acts (but not
enough to justify another day’s worth of ticket/hotel/etc!). Not content with having one amazing vocalist
in the group, band founder/guitarist Stefano Lionetti (who didn’t come up with
the band’s name, believe it or not) also proved to be no slouch in the vocal
department, and when the two harmonised it was especially magical. Suffice to
say I was very impressed and would never have guessed that this was, in fact,
the first time the group had ever played together in a live setting! Within
hours of my return home the album was ordered (with a second to follow when
their sophomore effort is released next month). (10/10)
 |
| Lars Säfsund |
With Lionville having (almost)
matched Serpentine, I was worried that 2011’s pattern would continue, which
would mean second band Dante Fox would
be the major disappointment of the night. My fears were quickly proven
unfounded as they delivered further blasts of hook-laden melodic rock of the
finest order one after the other. After seeing The Reasoning and Touchstone a
week earlier, this set, featuring yet another excellent female lead vocalist in
the form of Sue Wiletts, seems to confirm that I’ve been cured of my aversion
to the female of the species in rock bands (though I may go into remission should
I ever accidentally catch Curved Air live again!). Guitarist Tim Manford may
not have the look of a rock God, but his playing was some of the best of the
night (no mean feat). Their new mini-album Lost Man’s Ground was released at
Firefest to tie in with their appearance, but while I didn’t get a chance to pick
one up (more on this in a moment...) it will certainly be joining the
collection sooner rather than later! (9/10)
 |
| Sue Willetts |
Next up were Ten - a band I had heard of, but was unfamiliar with until the release
of last year’s Stormwarning album, their first after a five-year hiatus. Sadly,
it wasn’t represented in the setlist, although two tracks from the brand new Heresy
and Creed album were showcased to keep the set up to date. With only 50
minutes stage time (and the largest discography of any band on the bill) it was
inevitable that something had to be missed and the old favourites (well, old
favourites for those who knew them, that is!) certainly went down a storm. The
line-up underwent a fairly major overhaul late last year, but the end result is
good for all, with the inclusion of new guitarist Dan Mitchell perhaps the best
thing about it of all. Leader Gary Hughes’ reputation is built more on his
songwriting and production skills than any virtuosity in the vocal department (in
fact he has quickly become one of my favourite songwriters, and the news that
he is to work with Serpentine on the writing of their third album is some of
the best I’ve had all year) and while there were no significant sound issues at
any point of the night, in Ten’s case I saw the keyboards being played a lot
more than I actually heard them in the mix, which combined with the lack of a Stormwarning
track or two, made this the disappointment of the evening for me. As ‘disappointments’
go it was almost too mild to notice, and
there was certainly nothing that would put me off seeing them again – quite the
opposite in fact! (9/10)
Closing the show were Tyketto – a legendary group in melodic rock fan circles, but knowing that and
actually being able to track down their pair of classic albums from the early
90s are two entirely different things, so it wasn’t until the release earlier
in the year of the long-awaited new album Dig in Deep that I finally added the
Tykes to my collection. Fortunately they played a few tracks from that album
(three of the best in fact: Faithless,
Here’s Hoping it Hurts and Let This
One Slide) so I didn’t have to go the whole night without hearing a single
familiar song! Again it was the old favourites that most were there for though,
and based on a first hearing it was readily apparent that their reputation was
well-deserved. As had also been the case with the unfamiliar (to me) Ten songs,
most of Tyketto’s classics had instantly memorable choruses,and other suitable ‘sing
along’ moments, so I wasn’t the lone silent voice in Rock City for too long.
Everybody knows why this band never became huge (horrific timing), but it’s
still a shame that more people aren’t familiar with them, especially as Danny
Vaughn is one of the finest frontmen I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing. He
certainly seems more than content with his lot (the whole band were clearly having
a blast – actually the same was true of every band on the bill), so maybe
there’s something to be said for never breaking beyond ‘cult’ status anyway. With
a reception as rapturous as they received on this occasion you’d be
hard-pressed not to be chuffed – and that is a large part of the Firefest
experience for fans and bands alike. (10/10)
 |
| Danny Vaughn |
Now in its 8th year
under the Firefest moniker this event is a well-oiled machine – turnaround times
between acts is an ultra-tight twenty minutes and technical difficulties are
remarkably rare. The only organisational point I’d query was the decision to
close the merchandise stand early (and with no announcement until it had
already happened) so those of us planning to spend up large on our exits who weren’t coming back for the rest of the
weekend (and they must have known there’d be some as all three nights sold out
at different times of the year!) were left without a chance to part with our
cash. A kind soul at my hotel provided
me with a programme at least (be grateful dear reader, as without it I’d just
be making up names for half of the musicians mentioned above!), but the
inevitable stack of CDs eluded me. Ah well. Presumably this decision had
something to do with the merch being downstairs instead of at the back of the
main room, as it was last year. That seemed like a perfectly good idea to me at
first, but if it really was the cause of the early closure I may have to revise
that opinion! But this is a minor quibble – the night was all about the music
and on that front it succeeded completely. Overall I’d rate it more highly than
last year’s Friday night – while nobody quite
reached the Serpentine and Jimi Jamison level of amazingness, the
remarkable consistency of all the bands gave this year’s line-up the edge. Now,
how will they try and top that this time next year...? (Overall rating...you guessed it - 10/10).
