Review by Rob Billingham, photos by Lisa Billingham
Midlands Rocks has made the trek to the 5* Vauxhall Holiday Park in Great Yarmouth to take in the 2014 Classic Rock Tours “Legends of Rock, The Originals”. It’s a pleasant Thursday evening and the Regency Room is already rocking to the sounds of DJ Garry Rokjok Lewis with his classic tunes cranking up the atmosphere for the opening night party which was destined to continue until the early hours of Friday morning.
MC Krusher Joule had the privilege of opening the live music programme for this festival by introducing Norfolk rockers Walkway. This band has been able to put “support slots with Status Quo” on their musical CV and future supports slots are already confirmed. Walkway got things off to a bang with their solid rock offerings. Chris Ready’s crisp, clean and powerful vocals were particularly impressive. This good looking, great sounding band included a couple of numbers from their recently released Streetwise album in a 15 song set which couldn’t have failed to win them a few more admirers.
South East outfit, StoneWire, were up next and continued where Walkway left off, serving up a helping of Blues and Southern rock with metal infusions. With a somewhat heavier feel to their music, StoneWire’s vocalist Sky Hunter adds an edge that sometimes can be lacking in female fronted bands. Included in an impressive set was the title track from their soon to be released debut album When The Crow Flies, an awesome Led Zeppelin medley and my pick of the bunch, ‘Favourite Bitch’; a hard rocking song played and sung with some venom.
There was a definite buzz in the room as the time for the appearance of the legendary Buster James drew ever closer. The first of the band’s two sets at this festival, Buster James was immediately in his groove, opening with the catchy ‘Western Heart’ and then urging the crowd to “start working it because it’s Thursday night, who gives a fuck!” A menu of A La Carte Blues rock was cooked up by these purveyors of the genre and enthusiastically digested by the party animals now well into the swing of things.
Closing the first night’s party were London rock specialists, Four Wheel Drive who, again, were playing the first of two sets and due to finish at 2am. I’m afraid that after a very long day it was a little too much for this very tired reviewer but we will catch up with them later in the festival.
