Review: Stonedead Festival 2023

Newark Showground (August 26^th 2023)

Reviewer / Photographer: Dan Mann

And yeah, verily it was again time for the annual pilgrimage to Newark Showground for Stonedead Festival. What started as a couple of music fan’s dreams, has become an annual rock fan favourite. This was the festivals 5th anniversary, and with a capacity crowd of 5000, it was all systems go.

I was unable to make the Friday night ‘add-on’, which was mixed blessings, missing some great bands, but also missing the equivalent of Noah’s launchpad rain wise! Compere duty was once again fulfilled by the legend that’s Krusher Joule, Planet Rock’s Paul Anthony took care of things on the Friday night.

Kicking off proceedings were firm favourites of mine, the mighty Collateral, (who in my opinion should have been much higher up the bill) who delivered a polished and crowd pleasing performance, complete with ‘special effects’ (apparently it’s not called pyro). Judging by online comments, they garnered plenty of new fans, and rightly so.

South Of Salem followed, and same as their performance at Call Of The Wild, gave us a proper stage show. There is nothing about this band that makes you realise that they’re still relatively new to the scene. The look of shock and delight on lead singer Joey’s face when he first saw the crowd reminded me what an opportunity to play to such a large crowd it is for young bands.

Now the next band on the bill, Deraps, I’ll be honest and say I’d never heard of until the line-up announcement. I consider myself pretty well informed, so this was somewhat left field. Judging by comments, the general consensus is that yes they can certainly play, but their own material is somewhat lacking, and the really need a decent singer. I’ll go along with those comments, they are in reality a Van Halen tribute band.

Due to the sudden illness of Mason Hill‘s singer Scott after their performance at Firevolt, Welsh rockers Florence Black stepped in as a last minute replacement. They’re certainly a popular band, very much on the rise, but not really my thing. Musically great, I’m just not a fan of the vocals. We got to enjoy the arrival of the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight, which has become a Stonedead tradition. It was the welcome return of the Avro Lancaster, much to the delight of the crowd.

Next up were blues rockers King King. I’ve seen them in various line-up’s over the years, and whilst not the most exciting stage performance wise, their brand of blues rock is always very enjoyable, one of my favourite’s of the day.

The Answer I was really looking forward to seeing, it was my first opportunity to see them play live and boy they didn’t disappoint one little bit. To hear material from their latest ( and fantastic) album ‘Sundowners‘ live was a real treat, lead singer Cormac Neeson certainly had the crowd in the palm of his hand. One of my favourite performances of the day.

Therapy? have never been my thing, so I didn’t exactly enjoy their set. They did have a loyal and enthusiastic fanbase in the crowd, who they entertained in their own way, I took the opportunity to have a rest and a bite to eat.

What can you say about Black Star Riders apart from they are certainly fan favourites, finally appearing at Stonedead after having to cancel due to covid a couple of years ago. If I had a quid for every time someone said that guitarist Sam Woods (Wayward Sons / Oli Brown & The Dead Collective) was like a young Scott Gorham, I’d of had enough for the petrol home! He fitted in perfectly to the line-up, with the band giving a full on performance that had the crowd jumping.

And so we reach the headliners, Blue Öyster Cult. I guess I could say they were an unexpected choice as headliners, unless your a diehard fan then a lot of their music will be unknown. There was a noticeable movement to the exit before their set which is not what you want to see. I stood in the middle of the crowd with a couple of fellow togs, no pit access for this performance due to last minute special effects placed on the floor of the photo pit, to try and get a few photos. I struggled to make out the vocals, maybe things improved later in the set, but I was knackered and headed for home with my wife and chums.

Click on photos for full size

Now it’s obvious that I didn’t like every performance, but that’s kind of unimportant as for me the bands are only part of what makes Stonedead so great. Superbly organised by a team of volunteers, who all need a huge pat on the back, with the chance to catch up with friends and acquittances, it’s all part of the rock family / community, and long may it continue. I’ve already bought my tickets for 2024, have you?

Stonedead 2024 tickets are available: here