Stonedead Festival, Newark Showgrounds, 29.08.26
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The cliche rainy festival weather finally caught up to Newark Showgrounds for Stonedead Festival, but that didn’t dampen the spirits of the festival goers. The parking for both campers and non campers is perfect as the event is easy just to walk in and walk out.
So if you need to put some band merch or goodies from the stalls away in your car or to go and have a nap in your tent, it’s not a long trudge. Held once a year, it was muddy, wet, thankfully not too cold, so still fairly temperate, never the less people sat in their chairs, stood in their spots watching, drinking, eating, enjoying the weekend merriment.
Stalls and food sets are more like a circular layout than this over here or that over there, whether you’re shopping or hungry easy to find for what you fancy being band merch, maybe some patches, a curry, sandwiches or some nice jewellery.
The Stonedead volunteer crew is more like a family than a unit like everyone is familiar with each other than just strangers looking for festival work put together, no egos, no cliques, everyone steps in, Krusher Joule of course was Krusher, being who he’s always been but makes it work as an MC of the festival with anecdotes and unapologetic humour.
Aethoria (7) were up first, energetic, moving between fast and slow parts easily, while also bringing the melodic a mixed blend musical flow. A good opening for the festival, and I’ll also mention that they were very elegant and polite when addressing the crowd not even swearing. (What nice boys – Ed)
Next it got louder with Asomvel (8). All leather jackets, snarling vocals, double kick bass drums, a bassist that plays lead as the band put their sound through a huge stacks of Marshall amps (Remind you of anyone?) Never the less they are their own band and play the mix of rock n roll and speed metal, encouraging audience participation with I Was Born To Rock N Roll and Asomvel want them to shout and be passionate about it. They even gave a sneak peak of new material from Set Your World On Fire as Stonedead was lucky to hear that.
Pennsylvania based band Crobot (6) were following that. Not to be confused with Crowbar, this is very much groove metal/rock that gets your toes tapping, as well as head banging, for those that can of course. They have an element of the American blues still remains in their music which gives you a feeling as if you’re driving and taking road trips or racking up for a game of billards in your local, easygoing an groovy, Crobot were a step toward the calmer tunes.
As soon as The Damn Truth (7) step on stage you’ve been sent back in time. Their look, the music has that late 60s early, 70s rock nostalgia feel while also keeping it present. Despite some minor technical errors, they made it work and giving it everything they got for the festival. They wer also the first band to get the beach ball going, while giving the Stonedead crowd first dibs on their album vinyl before release on Sept 11th this year.
Due to lateness, Armoured Saint’s (7) set time was cut a bit short. Still to great to have John Bush (who most of us we remember from his time in Anthrax as well) with his original band, playing on a stage that wasn’t one of the larger festivals in the UK. Probably a discovery for some, a long wait for nostalgia for others. Enjoyable to see Armored Saint do their thing despite their shorter set.
Power metal graces the grounds of Stonedead with Battlebeast (9), who again had a few technical issues, but managed to get over them. Now fronted by Marina La Torraca (Phantom Elite/Exit Eden) they got the crowd very hyped for their full force power metal.Like many power metal bands they brought fire to the Stonedead stage though or in the case of the weather perhaps brought the storm.
Midlands rock legends Magnum (7) followed but again some more techicnal issues meant the vocals of Bob Catley were a bit off but this veteran band played on. With the audience of Stonedead full of longtime fans, they were warmly appreciated anyway, no matter what happened. So there was plenty of effort that thankfully got picked up later performance, lettinn longtime fans enjoying the nostalgia of this band and pay tribute to the departed Tony Clarkin.
German metal legends Accept (9) made their Stonedead debut and the Teutonic metal crew, brought the pyro, the smoke, the aura with them and some confetti cannons too but they bring it with twin axe attack. With the band celebrating being Half a Century old, this was a celebration. They brought John Bush on stage for a song and while doing their final number Balls To The Wall, halfway through the second chorus,the tech blew out.
There came a chuckle, the band and audience seeing the funny side to it. We all sang along till the tech was fixed and so it was and away they all went back to the song. Accept play heavy metal classics but you must give to the band props for their choreography making it a whole a performance together rather than just playing in their spots, true heavy metal legends.
Mainly known to the world and mainstream listeners as the band who sang the Final Countdown, Europe (9) have many moresongs than that, in recent years releasing some of their best work as they have moved toward a bluesier hard rock sound. Thankfully the Stonedead crowd are discerning and are familiar with the majority of their songs. Europe’s presence now is as just entertaining as it was in the 80s even though the wardrobe, and the hair has changed.
Playing older and newer material the fans were cheering every moment of the experience, which due to the rules of Stonedead will be their one and only time seeing them at the festival so they had to make it count since if you wanna catch them again it will be at a different gig or festival. Closing the festival with ‘that song’ will always make sure you bring the house down and that’s excatly what Europe did.
In closing whether you wish to camp and stay over or just want a one and done festival experience while enjoying bands of both then and now, classic and upcoming, then pop or should I say rock to the Midlands for this soon to be almost a decade well established event from to the fans to the fans.
It’s value for your tickets and wallet plus as said before you have to make the memories count when bands you enjoy or get familiar with for future enjoyment only play here once. So you really make it count big time that’s their choice, not mine unlike other festivals that bring back bands.
So Stonedead festival is worthy of being up there like the steelhouse festival, need I say more.
Though I’ve been aware of Australia’s Airbourne and their unapologetic AC/DC worship for years, I’d never listened to an album before picking up the promo for their sixth LP, Airbourne. Despite not being well-versed in Airbourne’s back catalogue, I spent years absorbing their main muse poolside, barside, and carside. Thus primed, I not only jumped into Airbourne, but the band’s other five albums as well, immersing myself in their blues rock-infested waters. In the promo notes, Airbourne asserts this self-titled effort is their best one yet. Maybe, but we all know it’s a long way to the top if you want to rank ‘n’ roll. So does Airbourne leave us thunderstruck, or feeling like the band’s just beating around the bush?
