Before I go any further it's time for a correction: the Hard Rock Hell event actually commenced Thursday night so the previous blog should really refer to the second night, even if it was my first night there! Anyway, the Saturday was the third and final day/night in Prestatyn, and my second trip into Gogledd Cymru* in as many nights.
As I was being driven this time (I drove the night before) we'd arranged to meet up early evening. As we were coming from different places, it would have been difficult to get there during the day. Anyway, by the time we got to the resort and headed back to the main stage, we caught the end of Rogue Male's set. Based on the one song I heard (Crazy Motorcycle) it sounded loud, proud and ultra-heavy! They're a band I only gave fleeting attention to back in the 1980s but this rendition kicked ass! We then decamped to the second stage in order to catch a few numbers from another 80s band, Demon. They had a pretty dismal crowd for their set, to be honest, as they ran through their old back catalogue including 'Night Of The Demon' and 'The Plague'. A little unfair, as they were giving a decent account of themselves, but their set clashed with that of W.A.S.P. over on the main stage. So we left them after three numbers, and found the floor at the main stage completely and utterly packed out! It seemed like the entire HRH crowd had decided to come over for Blackie and his crew's set, so we were obliged to watch from the sides where the merchandise stalls were and see as best as we could. Considering only Blackie Lawless himself is left from the 80s band, that has to be considered a personal triumph for the W.A.S.P. mainman. They played plenty of the old favourites including 'L.O.V.E. Machine' and 'Blind In Texas' alongside some newer songs, and although only one of the band was an original it really felt like 1986 all over again. They played great, went down a storm and probably were the talking point of the entire weekend. Superb.
Queensryche were the designated 'headline' act for the night and were up next on stage, but once W.A.S.P. had finished there was a total exodus from the main hall. Before they came on we decided to see what was going on over on the second stage, and caught the last number from Onslaught. That also took me back, but high-speed thrash long since lost its appeal to me and we quickly headed back for the Seattle prog-metallers. We had little trouble finding a nice spot in the crowd this time and we settled back as the intro tape began... then stopped again. The start was plagued by a technical problem which caused guitarist Michael Wilton to emerge, then scuttle back off stage again while they sorted it out.
After a short delay they started up again and this time all was well. They played very well, and singer Geoff Tate gave arguably the vocal performance of the entire event, but after the W.A.S.P. set they had a tough act to follow. Their more cerebral brand of rock was probably best suited to either a later slot or a different night after the pure bombast from Lawless and co. Although the vocalist declared early on he'd keep chat to a minimum, as they had a lot to get through (they played tracks from most recent album 'American Soldier' alongside material from 'Rage For Order' and 'Empire'; significantly no 'Mindcrime' stuff), he did actually talk quite a lot between songs, which didn't go down well with everyone. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt though, since those songs are tough to sing even for a vocalist of his calibre and he probably needed a short breather! They did deliver a good if shortened set, and played with the expected precision but the substantially thinner crowd told its own story: the real headliners played during the previous hour.
Following that set we once again decided to check out the other stage; another thrash act were reliving 1985 as we entered and quickly exited. They sounded almost exactly like Onslaught to me, but my moshing days are long behind me!
The last band we wanted to see this night were the New York Dolls; now although I've read plenty about them, and have seen countless bands who cited them as an influence, I'd never seen this band before nor was I particularly well-up on their material. Not that it mattered, since they looked and sounded exactly like I expected, with the frilly shirts, the hats, the posing and pouting from vocalist David Johansen and the sleazy guitar riffs from Sylvain Sylvain and Steve Conte all making up the complete trash rock experience. They managed somehow to show both how much they influenced subsequent bands and also display their own influences; you could see where Hanoi Rocks nicked their look and sound from straight off (notwithstanding the fact that one-time Hanoi bassist Sami Yaffa is now a fully-fledged Doll himself!) and you could also see how much a certain M. Jagger had influenced the stage act of Johansen. Whether or not you consider it a proper revival, considering there are more Dolls pushing up the daisies than there are kicking out the jams these days, it was an entertaining hour of sleaze from the originators (or at least two of them!)
I was ready to call it a night after the Dolls had finished, but once again there was another act to come and close out the night: Lauren Harris was last act up for this year's event. I've seen her before and was surprised when the lads I was with thought they would at least check her out, despite the fact all they knew about her was that her dad is in a very famous Metal band (!). Anyway I elected to take a 'comfort break' at that point, when I came back, she had started her set and the two guys immediately saw me and shouted 'Let's go!!' - with that we made a sharp exit!
It's fair to say I'm not a fan of Ms Harris's singing and, having sat through an entire set of hers once while she opened for another favourite band of mine, I was all too willing to make tracks.
So that was my Hard Rock Hell for 2009, given that I didn't stay on site I cannot comment on the accommodation facilites (which have been slated in some quarters!) but, when you hold a rock festival at an old-fashioned holiday camp straight out of 'Hi-de-Hi', and in the depths of Winter too, you're not gonna please everyone. Fortunately for me the site is reasonably close by and so despite that, I hope they have it here again in 2010 with more great bands!
*North Wales!
Tuesday 8 December 2009
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