Review: Maid Of Stone Festival – Day 3

Mote Park, Maidstone (Sunday July 20^th, 2025)

Reviewer – Phil Honley

Photographers – Phil Honley & Dan Mann

And suddenly it’s Day 3, we won’t mention aching feet, honest!

I had seen Absolva both as part of Blaze Bailey and running on their own. I much prefer them like this but that’s down to the fact that I am not an Iron Maiden fan.

There were two changes to the schedule today with Queen Horizon and Battle Horn being unable to play and Karobela and Beth Blade replacing them respectively.

I had seen Karabela a few years ago under their previous guise as Flawless Carbon. They fell under the blues rock genre then but now perform as an alt-indie four piece. The sun was beginning to show it’s face and Karabela put in a fine up-tempo set considering the late call to replace Queen Horizon.

Nashville-based southern rock revivalist Parker Barrow followed and what a performance. I had heard great things about them and they all proved justified. A real powerhouse of a band with the strong vocals from Megan Kane. Behind her Megan had her husband Dylan Turner on drums, Alex Bender and Will Tipton on guitars, Bo Howard on bass and Eric Safka on keys. What no Parker Barrow you ask, the band finds inspiration in the infamous duo of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, thus the name of the band.

The full set was excellent but there has to be a highlight and for me that was the superb cover of Black Crowes’ ‘My Morning Song‘.

I look forward to seeing them again in November when they support The Damn Truth.

The Heat Inc. claim to be London’s loudest Rock ’n’ Roll band, drawing from the likes of The Rolling Stones, Stooges, Ramones, The Clash, Nick Cave, The Doors and Pixies. Not sure about being the loudest but obviously drawing inspiration from the usual suspects. They were were OK but standard fare.

Marisa & The Moths has a solid fan base and seem to be touring endlessly. We had, of course, already seen front woman Marisa Rodreguez when guesting with Sophie Lloyd on the Inferno Stage on Saturday.

A great band that also features Alez D’Elia who you may have also seen wielding his axe for Doomsday Outlaw.

Beth Blade And The Beautiful Disasters was a welcome replacement for Battle Horn. I had not seen or even heard of Battle Horn but seen Beth Blade on a number of ocassions. Beth is a real ball of fun with a great voice and plenty of banter.

Sari Schorr is a diamond, a lovely person with a heart of gold. She was asked to dedicate a song to Des who had just lost his father and we got a Mott The Hoople cover which is more familier as a Bad Company number, ‘Ready For Love‘.

Sari was just getting into her stride when there was a major microphone failure. Sari made a number of hand signals to the mixing desk, didn’t fluster and we soon heard her powerful voice come through again.

Two further covers were included in the set list, ‘Black Betty‘ which Sari had performed in her hometown at Carnegie Hall and Zeppelin‘s ‘Rock and Roll‘. 

Did I mention that Sari had a heart of gold, she wanted to knock on everyone’s tent the night before to say hi but came bearing no gifts so chose not to.

Next up on the Firestarter stage, Less Than Hollow. A powerful threesome kept things rolling before These Wicked Rivers graced the Inferno Stage. Excellent band that always bring a bit of Laura Ashley furnishings, lampshades aplenty, to the stage. They had to withdraw from the festival last year due to a family emergency, leaving Oli Brown & The Dead Collective to replace them, with a superb set!

The audience numbers were increasing in the sunshine and These Wicked Rivers built up a head of steam with a full audience choir joining in with ‘Black Gold‘. ‘Don’t Pray For Me‘ incorporating a little of Neil Young‘s ‘Hey Hey, My My‘ closing out an excellent set.

This House We Built took full advantage of the festival, giving out hundreds of flyers beforehand. I had seen these guys before but I am guessing the majority hadn’t.

These four Yorkshire lads took no time in getting the audience behind them playing, in the main, songs featured on the band’s excellent eponymous debut released in 2022. One exception being a really good cover of John Farnham‘s ‘You’re The Voice‘ which got the crowd participating.

Scott Wardell on vocals and guitar, Andy Jackson on guitar, Chris Mayes on drums and the man who was born to wear sunglasses Wayne Dowkes. I did see Wayne throwing items into the crowd and they looked very much like sunglasses.

Unfortunately this was the penultimate gig for Stone Broken before a hiatus. They have one last gig, a farewell for now at KK’s Steel Mill in August.

This was the setting for my introduction to this great band when they appeared on what was an introduction stage at Ramblin’ Man in 2015, I believe it was, and the following year becoming the first band to elevate to the main stage.

This was a special show for Rich and Robin as had their niece and nephew watching them for the very first time.

Rich is quoted on the bands website “When we first started out, our goal was to write songs that people would leave gigs singing”….They certainly achieved that.

Blue Nation are rising stars and have recently achieved the title of Emerging Act Of The Year in the 2025 UK Blues Awards. It seems to me that the UK Blues Federation is gathering some less than blues acts under its umbrella as I would not class Blue Nation as strictly blues. Neil Murdoch summed it up with the comment “If we are the future of the blues we must apologise in advance”.

This is a band that everyone is falling in love with, not only for the music but the humour and banter that is always aplenty at a Blue Nation show.

Fond memories of those 70s chart toppers from the likes of Sweet, T-Rex, John Kongos remember him he was gonna step on you. Sweet came out on top as they were pure glam and some would say listen to the B-sides and go and see them live as they are a poor man’s Zeppelin but good nonetheless. I listened but it has taken me fifty years to catch them live.

‘Fox On The Run‘, ‘He’ll Raiser‘, ‘Blockbuster‘, ‘Ballroom Blitz‘ and probably everything else on the setlist encouraged audience participation as let’s face it we will never forget the lyrics.

I really like Empyre and drop everything to catch them live whenever I can. They are a prog band but so much more. I had heard the beautiful vocal of Henrik Steenholdt on ‘Only Way Out’ earlier that afternoon when they played an acoustic set in the VIP area and it stopped me in my tracks, such an emotional song. The band headlined the Firestarter Stage with a full electric set and it was very well received.

And in a flash we arrive at the last act of the festival & Sunday night’s headliner, Michael Schenker! Performing his UFO Years set Schenker & Co delivered exactly what the fans wanted. Ex-H.E.A.T and Skid Row vocalist Eric Grönwall brought every number back to life, we were indeed in rock heaven. The sight of the crowd singing along, totally immersed in the music said it all.

Well did dropping the third stage improve the running of this year’s festival? Maybe the Phoenix Stage will rise from the ashes next year who knows? I put my faith in organiser Chris Wright as he always considers the finer points in order that everything runs to the benefit of both bands and punters. Personally I felt it worked really well.

Roll on 2026!

©All photographs are copyright of Phil Honley – Gigsnapz & Dan Mann – RPR Photography. They may not be altered or used without express permission.