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High Voltage Festival 2010 Saturday Review
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London's Victoria Park was the setting for the inaugural High Voltage festival, a two day event
with bands split across three stages. The Main stage was mostly classic rock and the 'biggest' names,
and in addition to this there was the 'Prog' stage and the 'Metal Hammer' stage.
It was a bold move by the organisers to add another date to the already crowded festival calendar
but with the resurgence in interest in Rock and Metal music recently it was clear that there was an
appetite from the gig going public for this type of event and it's more-or-less central London
location meant that High Voltage was more likely to appeal to the casual festival goer than, say,
Glastonbury or Download.
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For once the good old British weather played nice and we enjoyed two warm, sunny days perfect
for chilling out and enjoying the bands performing here. On first inspection the site layout looked
very good, particularly having a bar with picnic tables right next to the Metal Hammer stage. It
was from here that 'our' festival started.
The first band we saw were the hotly tipped budding stadium rockers 'New Device', who opened the Metal
Hammer stage to a small-ish crowd that quickly warmed to the band and their energetic brand of classic
metal. All in all this was a promising start to the day.
| Next up were one of the hardest working live bands in Britain. We last saw Black Spiders a
couple of weeks ago in Manchester and here they were again. The Spiders are a band who seem to almost
permanently be on tour and all this practice pays off as their uncomplicated Heavy Rock is super
tight, and they soon got the crown going with tracks like 'Stay Down' and 'Kiss tried to kill me'.
The Black Spiders seem to have an inevitable date with the big time, and with the amount of work they
put in it's well deserved.
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No one could ever say that there wasn't truly something for everyone at this festival. After the
straight up rock of the Black Spiders we headed across to the Prog stage to catch some long time
favourites of ours, American prog rockers Bigelf. Lead by the top-hatted and caped figure of main
man Damon Fox the band took us on a musical journey through their almost 20 year history, including
live favourites 'Evils of Rock'n'Roll' and the amazing 'Neuropsychopathica'.
There is something about Bigelf's presence on stage that makes them fascinating to watch live
and they always seem to stay just the right side of the pompous prog / totally ridiculous line.
Definitely one of the sets of the day.
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| Next we wandered over to the main stage for THE one we had been looking forward to since the
lineup was announced. For the past few years Gary Moore has been indulging in his love of the Blues,
and the days of the astounding rock guitarist with classics like 'Out In The Fields' and 'Wild Frontier'
seemed to be no more than a distant memory. But High Voltage is a Rock festival, could there be any
chance that the guitar god could make an appearance.....
The band came on halfway through an unnecessarily long intro tape and basically stood about until it was
finished. Two things struck you immediately, the first is that Gary has, erm, changed, since we last
saw him and the second was that the guy on keyboards looked awfully like Neil Carter, who worked with
Gary 20-odd years ago. (The last gig he played with Gary was Edinburgh in 1989 on the 'After The
War' tour).
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And although this should have been brilliant, somehow it felt a little flat. As the band opened with
'Over the hills and far away' it became apparent that although there is nothing at all wrong with
his guitar playing, all was not well with Gary's voice. They followed the opener with 'Thunder Rising'
confirming that this was indeed a return to his rock roots. The set included three new songs (Days
of Heroes, Where are you now and A Wild One) and a generous helping of 'old' classics including 'Empty
Rooms' and 'Out in the fields'. Gary's voice didn't seem to improve as the sert went on and there
were places where it was Neil who was performing the bulk of the vocal duties. And there was a distinct
lack of 'contact' with the audience which was unusual.
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In spite of this and the difficulties the set was very well received by the crowd, and Gary proved that
he is still one of the best guitarists in the world. The crowd demanded an encore, the band wanted an
encore but the organisers wouldn't have it. This was bloody annoying as in the time spent on the overly
long intro tape and the minute and half they spent arguing with Gary about wether or not the band
could play on we could have been most of the way through a song. Lots of booing ensued....
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Against anyone's better judgement we all stayed put in front of the main stage for the next
band up. None of us had the slightest intention of seeing Foreigner (well, not that we would admit
to) and you know what, it's a bloody good job that we did as this was definitely the set of the
day. OK, so only one original member remains, lead guitarist Mick Jones, but when they have a Rock'N'Roll
frontman of the quality of Kelly Hansen who cares ? This was one of those things that works at a
festival that probably wouldn't have quite the same impact anywhere else.
And work it did. Like so many bands of their era, Foreigner have songs that you know all of the
words to without ever realising you learned them. They opened with 'Double Vision' and 'Head Games'
before Kelly said "We don't have much time today, so let's get down to business" and get down to business
they did with a blinding 'Cold as Ice', then a new track called 'Can't slow down', before more greatest
hits finished off with 'Jukebox Hero'.....
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But that wasn't all...
Unlike Gary Moore, Foreigner did get an encore but there was nothing unplanned or spontaneous about it.
In scenes so strange that you had to be there to believe it, a children's choir was led onto the
stage and the band turned the festival-cheese up to max as they played a blinding 'I want
to know what love is'. It was cheesy, it was obviously well rehearsed and, you know what, it
was bloody Brilliant. I didn't hear of anyone who saw this set thinking it was anything less than
excellent.
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Heaven and Hell were the band that everyone we spoke to were most wanting to see. The death of
Ronnie James Dio has left a hole in the lives of millions of music fans and to be here to
witness the 'official' tribute was something special but in the end I think it didn't quite live up
to expectations.
Some people had expressed surprise at the vocalists brought in to fill Ronnie's shoes, and as it
turned out only one of them seemed to do the occasion justice.
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Jorne Lande took the first stint on vocal duties and as he put his heart and soul into Sabbath's
'Mob Rules' it was the tall, blonde Norwegian's voice that conjured up memories of Dio. His was a
brilliant performance. Unfortunately the same could not be said for Glenn Hughes who, as a
friend of Dio's and a former Sabbath vocalist, had some 'authenticity' in the role but his voice and
strutting stage persona just didn't seem to fit the occasion. And Jorne Lande should have sung
'Bible Black'...
The biggest cheer of the day was for Wendy Dio, Ronnie's widow. Unfortunately problems with the
sound meant we couldn't actually hear what she was saying most of the time but it was amazing that
she was there. Wendy thanked the fans for their support and told us "My dear Ronnie so much wanted
to be here”.
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| For us there then followed a mad dash back to the other end of the festival site to see Zakk Wylde
and the amazing Black Label Society. Unfortunately we only got to catch the last three songs of the
set, but as those songs were 'Suicide Messiah', 'Concrete Jungle' and 'Stillborn' we'll have to let
Zakk off this time. Although we had no regrets about watching Heaven and Hell seeing how good BLS
were did make us question wether or not we had made the right choice. Hopefully the SDMF crew will
be back soon.
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The day ended with a headline set from ZZ Top. When the headliners were announced there were
many who wondered if the Texan three piece were a sufficiently big draw to occupy this prestigious
location on the bill, and having watched their set we have to kind of agree. OK, they were polished
and they have some catchy tunes and their set was enjoyable enough we just found them a bit, well,
sterile.
And with that day one of the first High Voltage festival was complete. It had been the usual
festival mix of surprises (Wendy Dio), cheese (Foreigner's choir) and some brilliant performances.
We all headed off to our homes or hotels (Very civilised this one, no tents) for some much needed
sleep before coming back to do it all again tomorrow.
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