Firefest is one of a number of melodic rock festivals that have been set up over the past decade or so, others include The Gods of AOR and Z Rock, but apart from a singular visit to the Gods I’ve tended to avoid them.  The main reason being the paucity of bands that are actually any good or have an original take on the genre, like the Journey clones who tend to proliferate the scene.  This time though I was prepared to bite the bullet, after a bit of a shove from Gill, and get my ass down to Nottingham.

Billy, Gill and I set of from Newcastle at about 8:30 and made it down to our hotel in great time.  We changed in our rooms and headed for Rock City which, it turns out, was situated on the road behind the hotel.  Very handy.  We had a small problem with the non arrival of our tickets but a quick email to the organisers sorted the problem with three tickets awaiting us at the box office.

The first band on the bill were Jaded Heart who had already started their set when we arrived.  I have their 2nd (I think) CD, Slaves and Masters, which is Ok but nothing special and have resisted any temptation to purchase any more of the back catalogue, so I wasn’t expecting too much from them.  They put on quite a nice set (only recognised one song) of mid tempo rock that seemed to be a bit of a crowd pleaser.  Nothing to entice me to rush out and spend my hard earned but pleasant enough.

Crunch were the next band up and they intrigued me.  They started out life a Christian hair metal band (Guardian) before morphing into a modern rock band (Adriangale).  I have some Guardian on vinyl and the first Adriangale CD; all picked up on the cheap and all fitting into the OK but nothing special range in my collection.  Oh that Crunch were that good but boy did they stink.  The most interesting thing about them was wondering why the vocalist thought wearing the outfit he chose was a good idea.

We missed the next band, Valentine, due to the desperate need for some food.  Not that I was unduly worried, lead vocalist Hugo has built his reputation on being a Steve Perry look-alike/sound-alike but without any of Perry’s range or power.  So burgers and margaritas won out over poor Journey clones.  Taste for the win!

Speaking of people who have pretty much built their career due to sounding like someone else, next up was Jorn Lande.  The David Coverdale/Glenn Hughes clone strode onto stage and proceeded to indulge in as many Spinal Tap-isms as he could fit in during his 45 minute set.  Adding insult to injury his voice is obviously struggling at the moment and he insisted on doing more covers than original stuff.  His butchering of Deep Purples Stormbringer was particularly cringe worthy.  Next!

The blessed relief that greeted the end of Jorns’ set also marked what could be considered the end of the first half of the show.  Up next would be the 3 ‘special events’ of the day, more of which tomorrow.