The Steelhouse Festival (The Welsh International Classic Rock Festival), is an institution now, having been running since 2011 (and in it’s 13th iteration), located on top of a ‘Mountain’ at Hafod-Y-Dafal Farm, in beautiful South Wales, near Aberbeeg/Pontypool. The festival is a single stage variant and with a really decent PA (and a nifty ‘walk-way’ into the crowd), so there’s no clashes and the atmosphere/crowd are really just superb!

There’s plenty of fancy dress, all over and through the weekend, with some inspired ideas and creations to boot! This Festival is a special place and holds a very special place in people’s hearts (once they’ve been). It also gives a lot of support to Welsh bands, local to the area too, but also pulls in talent from the rest of the UK, Ireland and from overseas as well (note that the origination of bands outside England is shown below as applicable).

The Festival is partnered with Planet Rock, which gives it another level of influence and clout. The Planet Rock DJ’s introduce the bands, interview them (with the interviews being broadcast on the big screens). There is a Rock ‘Disco’ every evening after the bands finish, for a couple/few hours …always good fun! The layout is great, with sun/weather shade options, good bar/beers and cocktails etc, and some great shopping and food outlets too. All reasonable prices in general.

We had won VIP tickets at Planet Rock Winter’s End in February and were really looking forward to attending this one (having also been in 2023 too, when the South Wales weather messed things up a little on the Sunday!). We arrived (at the foot of the ‘Mountain’) on the Thursday afternoon, and the trip up the ‘Mountain’ in the Motorhome was a slow ‘thrill ride’ …but we made it safely and more importantly, with the Motorhome still in one piece! (always a bonus).

A number of the bands had been at the Maid of Stone Festival (MoS) the previous weekend, although not too many to trouble the overall content of this festival. Note this reviewer had covered MoS for the WRC last weekend, and whilst attending Steelhouse, was not technically ‘on-duty’ for the WRC, so the reviews are often generally more short but hopefully sweet!

Friday:

Friday, being the opening day, and this being Steelhouse, is ‘Crazy dressing day’! And what a fabulous day, lovely weather, although it’s a shame about The Zac Schulze Gang having to excuse themselves earlier in the band planning cycle (but they were out supporting Samantha Fish in the States), as well as Elles Bailey being ill….. but the Bernie Fest would be just fantastic!

Trucker Diablo (Northern Ireland) opened the festival and put on a great show, using the walk-way from the off. They played some older tunes, and also new material from their new album ('Social Hand Grenade'). Their brand of ‘Muscle Rock’ being just what was needed to get everyone going. Trucker Diablo have played Steelhouse four times now. They finished all too quick with the crowd left wanting more! A great start! Also watch out shortly for our Trucker Diablo interview!

Dan Byrne was next (standing in, in part, for Elles Bailey, and playing/singing acoustic solo). Dan gave a lovely afternoon performance and this was enjoyed by many.

Oli Brown and the Dead Collective, who were at Maid of Stone last week, were as epic and awesome again, with their brilliantly created songs and arrangements, giving another show of Power-Trio Blues and Prog with sublime harmonies and amazing guitar work. A real classic again and the enjoyment in the crowd was palpable.

Toby Jepson (also standing in, in part, for Elles Bailey, gave a really punchy acoustic guitar and vocal set and was very engaging, covering much of his career’s work. Toby went down really well in my opinion and pulled a decent size crowd who all seemed to be enjoying it too.

King King (Scotland) had the sunset slot, which really added to the feeling and atmosphere of their ‘King King’ Blues. The last time I saw King King was at Surrey's Alfold festival in early July this year and it was WET, so wet that their headline set there was virtually wiped out. This time, they had the weather, and the crowd, and managed to ‘convert’ another decent amount of the audience to their sound to boot. It was a great set, with their ‘Long History of Love’ classic going down really well. Overall, excellent!

The Bernie (Marsden) Fest All Stars (the core band being predominantly from Wales), was the main event for today (and possibly the main event of the whole weekend in my opinion). Bernie held a special place in the hearts of ‘Steelhouse’ and Steelhouse holds Bernie so firmly in their hearts reciprocally. The whole set was primarily made up of classic early Whitesnake songs that Bernie wrote and played on. There was also some solo Bernie material included too. You could feel and smell/taste the anticipation from the crowd.

The All Stars were in fact much of Hand of Dimes, lead by Neville MacDonald (the former Skin singer and frontman), including Neil, Colin and Dave, plus backing singers Alex and Cherri too, and then Neil Murray, mainstay of Whitesnake for all those early years. Plus Jim Kirkpatrick, the FM gunslinger and journeyman guitarist (who was the ‘musical director’ for this show), along with a whole host of special guests, including Chris Buck (Cardinal Black and Buck & Evans), Luke Morley (Thunder), Toby Jepson (Little Angels/Wayward Sons etc), Dan Byrne (hats off to his covering of ‘Walking In The Shadow Of The Blues’), plus Alan Nimmo (King King) to round things off nicely.

The hits/songs that were played are too numerous to mention, but just suffice to say that they were all there, all the ones that mattered ….hits and classics/deep cuts etc. The show was just the best, and I’m guessing that you won’t see the likes of this again, to this level, unless of course this ‘crew’ decide to take this on the road, perhaps as a ‘special occasion’ event …that would be a seller I think …..please!

The set overran and the expected end time of 11pm slipped to around 11.20pm or so, with ‘We Wish You Well’, the classic Whitesnake auditorium emptier from the album 'Lovehunter’ being played live by the band …….very emotional. Just fabulous, take me back (to my youth and to last Friday), please, please!

Friday’s stand-out performances had to be Trucker Diablo, Ali Brown and the Dead Collective, King King, and of course, The BernieFest All Stars!

Saturday:

Saturday this year is primarily for the Welsh talent and there’s a large crowd in support too.

Zac and the New Men (Wales) gave a punchy opening set of classic but contemporary Rock, and sounded great.

Creeping Jean were on next, and very interesting, with all types of ‘sounds’ mixed in (essence of Classic Rock plus rapping vocal overlays, sometimes even a feel of ‘Disco’ back beat). Again, overall, a very engaging and entertaining performance which had people listening.

James and the Cold Gun (Wales) were really energetic and made a lot of effort to engage the crowd, which paid off. This was powerful Rock with a thundering beat. They were another good band and well worth looking out for.

South of Salem, again at Maid of Stone last weekend, were great, with their infectious tunes, darker themes, and mesmerising stage show, complete with ‘smoke’ and ‘flame’ shooters. They brought the full show, with props and dancers too. They definitely won the crowd and made more new ‘friends’ again as expected, working the walk-way perfectly. Always a great crowd engager/pleaser, this was a riveting and rocking performance!

The Warning (Mexico) with the three sisters (Daniela, Paulina and Alejandra), who were also at Maid of Stone last weekend, are a good Hard-Rock band, who are starting to make in-roads over here. Four albums into their career, they have a good choice of material and thus, pulled in a good sized crowd. Positive comments were aplenty.

Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons (Wales) played their own set (rather than the sometimes used full Motorhead set), but included a good selection of Motorhead tunes as well. They always go down well at Steelhouse (and anywhere really) and today was no exception. A fun way to spend a lovely sunny afternoon!. Great stuff.

Accept (Germany) were ‘Special Guests’ today, and I think that a lot of people had previously seen Accept a long time ago, but didn’t really know what to expect this time (in terms of their delivery and performance). Well, wow!, this was another of those shows to behold, and to say "I was there/I wish I had of been there"! Last time I saw Accept was at Donnington (Monsters of Rock) in, I think, 1984. They deliver perfectly, Old-Skool Metal, sitting in and around Scorpions and Judas Priest territory, which is ‘tight’ and includes synchronised playing….. It’s so impressive, and actually, they were probably ‘band of the weekend’ in hindsight ….bar the Bernie Fest All Stars. The stage set was excellent (a robot and lots of ‘Industrial’ supporting staging). So many of the audience felt the same, many of them with tears in their eyes!

Skindred (Wales) playing pretty much a ‘hometown’ gig, changed the whole festival around, with their genre crossing music, routed in Metal and Reggae, with some Rap too. A real party atmosphere opened up and everyone that wanted to be there had a great time. Some left as it wasn’t for them (the old ‘Marmite’ moment), but the overall feeling was ‘it was brilliant’! As is always expected, the ‘Newport Helicopter’ was running and had a really good spin this evening …some people even losing their shirts in the melee!

Saturday’s stand-out performances had to be South of Salem, The Warning, Accept and Skindred.

The Saturday night disco closed off a great day, with some spirited ‘moshing’ on display, which made for a fun end to frolics, but was a little too ‘energetic’ for some people.

Sunday:

Not quite so packed today, but a great one nevertheless, with some excellent US, Canadian and Australian talent on offer, as well as the return of The Almighty!

Cassidy Paris (Australia) opened up Sunday morning, sometimes an unenviable job after a party-hard Saturday night up the ‘Mountain’! The crowd turn-out was solid, and Cassidy hit the walk-way from the very beginning, working really hard to whip the audience up and out of their hangovers! The whole band play great Hard-Rock, with a lot of catchy/melodic elements, all in the name of good fun times. It was a great start to Sunday morning.

Dan Byrne (and his band) played a really good set and worked hard to win the crowd over. Great vocal ability and Classic Rock underpinnings are evident here. Really enjoyable I thought.

Jared James Nichols (USA), another performer who also played Maid of Stone last weekend, was up next and they gave a great performance with a good sound. Catchy tunes and nifty guitar work over a solid power-trio basis gets everyone moving! The stand-out of Jared’s show was the excellent cover of Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’, fabulous again!

The Commoners (Canada), another Maid of Stone act, played a Rocky/Rootsy and energetic set, but seemed to be struggling with audience reaction/response (probably something to do with the hot weather and nothing to do with their efforts), but eventually livened up the crowd and got the place rocking. The Commoners played a good range of their material, with a decent nod to the current new album’s numbers. 'The Devil Teasin’ Me' and 'Body & Soul' were excellent, in a solid and consistent set. Most enjoyable.

The Last Internationale (USA) are a really high-energy outfit with a touch of the ‘Rebel’ in the air. They have a very engaging and talented front-lady (Delila Paz) leading them out front. They worked really hard to reach the audience and positive feedback was heard all around the field. Very watchable and one to see again I think.

Living Colour (USA), another Maid of Stone ‘veteran’, play their genre-crossing show, with a heavy ‘covers’ content and including the expected hits too.

Mr. Big (USA), fresh from their issues at Maid of Stone (lead singer Eric Martin was ill and nearly missed the show last week) delivered a really great set and personally, I enjoyed this far more than last week’s one. A really good sound helped their overall show, and the musical ability from the whole band was fully evident. Really enjoyable and memorable.

The Almighty (Scotland), performing their first show since around 2009, came on to what seemed like two PA’s worth of volume! Man, it was load. They blasted through their back catalogue, seeming to not even take in any air! It slowed down a little further in, but then the pace picked up again. It was a bludgeoning set, but that went down well with the loyal fans and others too. A fitting closer to the whole weekend.

Sunday’s stand-out performances had to be Cassidy Paris, Jared James Nichols, The Commoners, The Last Internationale, Mr. Big and The Almighty.

The closing fireworks were awesome (not an over-statement) and ran for pushing two minutes …very impressive!


In overall summary, the weather was just fabulous all weekend, and the atmosphere and lineup with the range on offer was brilliant, with something for all tastes within this overall genre(s) of Rock music. Personally, it was great to bump into Krusher Joule (ex Kerrrang etc) and have a chat. The crowd and the campsite atmosphere was fantastic. The Farm was left pretty much spotless once all the campers had vacated, what a great sight! Now for the journey back down the mountain on the Monday morning and the drive back to the South East along the M4!

Oz