Stonedead Festival, now in it’s sixth year, having started in 2018, and missing 2020 for obvious reasons, has a brilliant reputation as the king of festivals, based simply on a ‘One Day, One Stage, One Monster Rock Show’ ethos. There is also the ‘Friday Night Party’, with a trio of bands playing, sponsored and hosted by Planet Rock and Mercia Whiskey for this year’s bash.

The festival was started in 2018, to capture the atmosphere of the original Monsters of Rock shows at Donnington in the 80s and early 90s, and has really managed to do that, and excel beyond as well. It’s the real ‘Cinderella Story’, come true! Stonedead sells out easily and very quickly in advance of the date, and is revered by everyone that attends it. The atmosphere is just something different to all the others in the genre/‘field’. There is camaraderie and bonhomie at every turn, it’s just a magical place to be.

Stonedead is managed and run, totally by volunteers, from the directors through to an army of volunteers, with no-one taking any pay-cheques, and all doing it for the love of the music and of course fun times too. Indeed, I was working (volunteering) at the festival, so only caught parts of the sets of most of the acts, thus the reviews being fairly short and sweet, but suffice to say, every band delivered!

Over and above the actual planning, setting up and running of the festival, was another ‘monster’ challenge, that being the weather, specifically the winds on Thursday and Friday, which would seem to be threatening the actual festival itself. It is a credit to the whole team that they managed to stage the festival against this monumental challenge. Hats off to everyone!

The stage is set and everything is ready…so let the show begin!

Sponsored by Planet Rock and Mercia Whiskey, the Friday Party was compered by Paul Anthony of Planet Rock, with three bands on the bill;

Scarlett Rebels from Llanelli, South Wales, open up the proceedings with their Melodic Rock, hot on the tails of their new (excellent) album, ‘Where The Colours Meet’. It’s a strong and powerful performance, with the crowd fully engaged and enjoying every minute of it.

Dianno are up next, playing all the key songs from Paul Dianno’s tenure with Iron Maiden all those years ago. This was a fan favourite and there was plenty of ‘sing-alongs’.

The final act of the day were the Quireboys (Spike’s reclaimed named version) featuring Luke Morley and Harry James, both of Thunder fame and also Nigel Mogg (Phil of UFO fame’s nephew). The Quireboys delivered a decent performance of all the great songs they’ve done, and ended the evening off in party fashion.

All that remained were the Stone Dolls to dance along with Paul Anthony at the after show disco, broadcast out from the stage, through to near midnight.

All in all a great evening with fun and frolics all around! The quality of the sound must be highlighted, it was excellent. Bring on the main event tomorrow!

The Saturday ‘main event’ - ‘One Day, One Stage, One Monster Rock Show’ - was hosted by the totally unique and irreplaceable ‘Krusher’ Joule! (Kerrang, Ozzy Osbourne artwork etc), with a total of nine bands in the lineup (that’s a great flush);

Things kick off in real style with the Hot One Two, a hard-hitting Rock band from Cambridgeshire, who won the Poll to be the openers. They deliver a really excellent punchy set, to a great turn-out down the front for an opening band, and rise to the occasion like the future stars that they surely will be. Fantastic!

Next up are Tailgunner, and with their NWOBHM inspired approach, but not copyist, they really pump-up the sizeable crowd, with great songs, riffs and solos aplenty, superb vocals and the odd prop to help deliver the message. Really first class Rock for this genre and audience. They’ve got plenty of friends already, but I think that they gained many more today!

The Bites from LA are next, with their retro style and Garage rock inspired chorus songs. They work the modest crowd as best they can, and deliver a good party-time atmosphere. Jordan Tyler’s shorts were a real focal and talking point too!

Before Bonafide take the stage, ‘William’, who has had multiple medical and health challenges already in his very young years and who wants to be a Rock star hits the stage to a rousing reception, and supported by ‘Krusher’ and other production staff is cheered on in his wishes for his future career. "William!, William!, William!……" A really touching moment.

Next we’ve got Bonafide from Sweden (Malmo), the first of a pairing of Swedish acts, with their Hard-Rock style. They were a great ‘classic’ band for a mid-afternoon slot, and drew plenty of attention from the arena crowd. Overall an excellent performance.

Following Bonafide, are Eclipse, another great Hard-Rock outfit from Sweden (Stockholm). Another class delivery of really polished Metal won the crowd over, with many many compliments being heard around the packed arena. Superb.

Now we move into the ‘bigger bands’ of the day, with Doro (Pesch), previously lead singer of Warlock. Doro really looks far youthful than her age, and delivers a really great vocal performance, ably supported by her excellent band. This was a firm favourite with the crowd, and a great time was had by the thronged masses nearer to the front.

Ugly Kid Joe were probably the ‘marmite’ act for today, with lots of comments being heard around the site, leaning towards ’not that bothered seeing them’ etc. Anyways, when they started, they had what seemed to be the biggest crowd of the day to date (in front of the sound desk), and held on to this crowd too. it was a really well paced and spread set, with the requisite hits being played too. When they finished they had the crowd pretty much in their hands, and the comments had changed in general, to a typical "really enjoyed that, didn’t think that I would" variety.

Now, for me, we’re on to the serious stuff!…. KK’s Priest! I was really looking forward to this, and have to say that they really delivered, with plenty of pyro, back projections, great vocals, guitar and solos of the top-notch variety, and a great mix of KK’s Priest material, as well as Judas Priest classics from across KK’s tenure with the band, including 'The Green Manalishi', 'Sinner' and Breaking The Law', to mention just a few. Really Old Skool and Classic Metal as it should be done. Fabulous.

Finally, the big one… Saxon! This was a master-class in 1980s and beyond NWOBHM inspired classic Hard-Rock. Saxon covered as much and as best as they could of their back catalogue across many of the albums, with a focus on all the really big hits. Brian Tatler (previously Diamond Head) has fitted in very well into the band, and they are a real force to be reckoned with now. It was like going back to my late teens again! Great fun!

So it’s over!, sound quality fantastic again as on Friday evening. Another year to wait for this gem of a festival. Tickets have sold so fast for the 2025 event already, that they were substantially sold by the end of the weekend I believe. If you can, get one and go!

Oz