Artist: HRH Aor X
Venue: Great Yarmouth, Vauxhall Holiday Camp
Date: 7-9th March 2024
"HRH is a wonderful Rock ‘n’ Roll mix of huge stars and upcoming talent, and still retains a very personal feel compared to giant impersonal corporate festivals. It remains one of the most important places to be if you still care about Classic Old School Rock."
It would be madness to try to leave the Monsters of Rock Cruise in Miami on a Thursday and try to be back to a Hard Rock Hell in the UK on the next day, Friday, wouldn’t it? Perhaps, but I managed it. I was sorry to miss the HRH AOR pre-party the Thursday night including Tigertailz, Renegade and White Tyger, but White Tyger also played again (see below).
And so I arrived on Friday, the first full day, in time to see The Jokers from Liverpool who provided a good time Hard Rock set with a nod to Angus Young on guitar. With originals like ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Bones’ and ‘Silver City’, they have an energetic engaging style amping up the crowd with singalongs and a rousing cover of ‘Pinball Wizard’.
Enuff Z’Nuff were on the Monsters of Rock Cruise with me, but there’s no sign of jet lag. It was a pretty short set of only nine songs which seems to fly by. Kicking off with the Beatles cover ‘Magical Mystery Tour’, we then hit four originals, ‘Kiss The Clown’ and ‘In The Groove’ from the first album sandwiching ‘Love Train’ and ‘Baby Loves You’ from the 1990s. One surprise was the Wings cover ‘Jet’ and finale ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ the Beatles cover, where Jizzy Pearl joined for joint lead vocals. Of course, ‘New Thing’ and ‘Fly High Michelle’ took prime position, so the set was a great mix of classics and surprises, making it lively with the usual beautiful Pop Rock harmonies. Chip Z’Nuff still has a good line in patter: diverse topics included the things he loves about the UK, it’s “fish ‘n’ chips, vodka and pot” (I’m pretty sure there’s an import or two in that list), the stellar line up on the Monsters of Rock Cruise and his “Noddy Holder hat” which is a grey topped with an unusual cut out felt crow on the side).
Marq Torien of The BulletBoys has lost none of his eccentric energy as he eyeballed the crowd, opened his huge mouth with impressive gnashers and threw his arm to his head is an exaggerated “I can’t hear you” gesture. I haven’t seen them for a few years and so it was a delight to hear favourites of mine like ‘Hell On My Heels’, ‘Hard As A Rock’, ‘Crank Me Up’ and the essential ‘Smooth Up In Ya’ from the first album, all made a little fashionably heavier, which suits the songs no doubt. Although he loves R ‘n’ B he knows the crowd and stuck to the Rock agenda. He’s still got a tiny frame, accentuated with ever so tight drainpipe trousers with diamanté accents. Bending over completely backwards in an arc with his guitar and jumping high as you like, he’s clearly still extremely flexible and fit. When the audience don’t scream back at him as loud as he would like, he does not take no for an answer, assuring the crowd that we might be a little bit older, but we can still be hot and sexy. He mentions International Women’s Day declaring how much he loves women. All music to my ears and very Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Friday’s headliner was FM and they executed a flawless performance of exceptional musicianship and wonderful harmonies and vocals. They are rightly proud of their last few albums and there’s a lot of new material in the set, but they also threw in several classics like ‘Frozen Heart’, ‘That Girl’, ‘American Girls’, ‘I Belong To The Night’ and ‘Other Side Of Midnight’. They are consummate professionals and made it look effortless. Sheer Class! (It was also amazing to find out that Steve Overland used to come regularly to Great Yarmouth for his holidays as a kid.)
Saturday
To kick off Saturday I take in a number of the baby bands on the second stage, starting with Venomous Rose, a solid Hard Rock band, dressed quite Glam with bandanas and Def Leppard T-shirts. They do a competent version of ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’, but could probably do with a few more stage moves.
Thieves Of Liberty have lost their pretty female drummer, but still bring their accomplished vocals, epic ballads, and Boogie Rock sometimes with a Southwestern feel.
Whyte Tiger stepped into Feral Sun’s slot and showed themselves to be great sports, having been given no notice that they were gonna play again, they have apparently been out all night drinking, but their “bring it on” attitude and slightly rougher set than usual just added a rawer edge to their usual eighties glam band, Dokken-like performance. Although the singer sounded a bit more throaty when he spoke, he still hit that long high note at the end of the Steelheart cover ‘We All Die Young’. In fact it all went rather well: the singer’s baseball cap fell off, but no one cared, including him. They were clearly doing quite well as when they gave the audience a choice between an original of their own and a cover, the audience overwhelmingly plumbed for an original and we got the title track of the album ‘This Is The Life’. At the end of it I had more respect for them. Great job guys.
At this point I switched to the main stage for Waking The Angels who, despite being an older band with a history of commercial singles like ‘Redline’, were completely new to me. They got the crowd going with a singalong of the chant ‘Sin Is In’ and threw in a bit of politics and common sense by querying why we are sending people to the moon when many people on Earth are going hungry. I had to agree. They started haranguing each other on stage, trading monickers like “Goldilocks” and “Phil Collins” which was mildly entertaining. They finished with a heavier, track, eponymously also called ‘Waking The Angels.’
The next band was one we are extremely familiar with and who are old hands at HRH: Bai Bang. Starting off with newer material, they demonstrated that they are still as catchy and good fun as ever. Classics such as ‘Everybody Everywhere’ and ‘I Love The Things You Hate’ kept the old fans happy. They introduced everybody to their new bassist, one of the best bassists in Sweden, Magnus Rosen formerly of Hammerfall, who reminded me a lot of Dave Hill of Slade, albeit with wilder hair. He’s a showman, raising the bar, spinning and turning his bass upside down and playing the bass above and behind his head for theatrical effect. As befits his status they gave him his own bass solo, which is a new thing for the band. Despite the Rockin’ atmosphere, there’s a demonstration of excellent harmonies in a touching tribute to singer Diddi’s mother ‘Alone’. There’s a comedy moment when whoever was operating the video camera zoomed in on Diddi’s crotch for at least ten seconds. The lady next to me joyfully shouted ‘They’re showing us the singer’s cock!’ I simply nodded and smiled. Following a little intro about Frida they did a Rocked up Abba cover, ‘Rock Me’, which fitted in quite well with the set of smiley party Glam Metal.
A band who also need no encouragement to party followed: the Gypsy Pistoleros. They included several new tracks (I think I counted six) in the set, showing justified confidence and keeping things fresh. Vocalist Gypsy Lee Pistolero made a point of thanking the crowd for charting their album. Not afraid to reinvent himself, he promised a brand new album and concept to come. The crowd pleasing covers ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’ and ‘Come On Eileen’ were still in the set. He threw in a few bits of comedy: saying the band are not political, while dedicating a song “for every Tory c*nt”; when the audience are quiet, commenting “Sorry I thought you had gone” and joking about the Slade tribute band coming up and Jizzy being a friend, “well he was”. In a lyrical pun he referred to the HRH community as “far too old and clever”, on a roll when telling the story of a journalist who called them the Dexys Midnight Runners of Metal, leading to them having the idea to do the famous cover from that band (and to protest that they are not Metal!).
Trixter were bright, enthusiastic and fully on, for what they said was only their second ever show in the UK. They stuck to their mandate of eighties style MTV Rock and totally Rockin’ out guitar solos, indeed when they play the power ballad ‘Surrender’ they mentioned it was the last ever track played on the MTV “dial in” show, commenting that “Bad Boys have a softer side too” and quipping “They make a pill for that now”. They are not afraid to tell it how it is, explaining that the video for that song was so expensive they are still paying for it and yet “it was the most expensive turd ever”. HRH experimented with half VIP seats, half standing at the front this year and the band naughtily asked if the mosh pit were waiting for music and the VIPs were waiting for bingo. To finish, what else but their classic ‘Do Me Good’ which Steve Brown noted that he wrote in fifteen mins and which launched Trixter to the big time in the US.
There’s no doubt that it’s a thrill to have Quiet Riot as Saturday’s headliner, including original member Rudy Sarzo and charismatic vocalist Jizzy Pearl (much loved in the UK for his work with Love/Hate; indeed the version of ‘Blackout In The Red Room’ mid set got one of the loudest cheers all night). The band were looking super healthy and gave a great energetic performance with Sarzo throwing his bass around and lifting it above his head as if it weighed nought. Obviously the Slade covers ‘Mama Weer All Crazy Now’ and ‘Cum On Feel The Noize’ and the snippet of ‘Crazy Train’ were hugely popular. The poignant tribute to Randy Rhoads and Kevin Dubrow was much appreciated. Following finale ‘Metal Health (Bang Your Head)’ the crowd refused to leave and shouted “We Want More”. Devoted though the HRH crowd are to this genre, that hardly ever happens, as HRH custom and practice is often no encore. The band do not re-appear, but one thing’s for sure that they will be welcome back!! It is familiar territory for Jizzy as he has been a stalwart of HRH. He paid tribute to the crowd for partying all night and still going at 7am “which was too early for me even in my heyday” and expressed amusement that he had to decline offers of “pick me ups” as he went past morning revellers on balconies. He will be back in another guise with Love/Hate and the 35th anniversary of ‘Blackout…’ next year. HRH will be waiting for him.
HRH is a wonderful Rock ‘n’ Roll mix of huge stars and upcoming talent, and still retains a very personal feel compared to giant impersonal corporate festivals. It remains one of the most important places to be if you still care about Classic Old School Rock. Johnny Davis is not afraid to push the envelope to keep this scene alive. Usually he gives out the awards, but he and his team definitely deserve medals for what they do. Is there a dangerous streak of chaos at the festivals and an element of risk. No doubt, but that’s one of the most important elements of genuine Rock ‘n’ Roll and he who dares wins.
Review & Photo: Dawn Osborne
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