Saturday starts rather drizzly and the first band up are Mother Vulture. They are heavy blues and I was prepared not to like them but wait, what’s this? They have the worst pants ever but they move, they dance, they fall over - it's all a bit mental but it's also kind of fun. Musically they're average but visually they are superb. The music gets a bit experimental, there is lots of deep fuzz and a few screamy shouty bits but even the drizzle doesn't dampen their enthusiasm and I find myself clapping along like a good’un. 

Anchor Lane at the moment are still a three-piece band without a bass player and therefore used backing tracks to fill the sound out a bit. The sound’s okay but not special. They've got plenty of energy but there's just something missing (as well as a bass player!) The crowd isn't enthusiastic either but I think that was more to do with the rain. I'd like to give them another chance, they have some good songs but they just didn’t hit the spot for me this time. 

Cardinal Black is Chris Buck from Buck and Evans new project, and there is a fair old buzz about them in the industry at the moment apparently. He's a good guitarist but I would really like to see his man bun come down and him letting himself go a little bit more. The singer is Joe Cocker reincarnated and many of the songs also have that '70s blues vibe. The slow ballad is pleasant with good harmonies but it all feels a bit safe, a bit average. It's soulless soul - perfectly performed but just a little bit cold. It's a bit Blues Brothers only without the mad dancing. There's a lot of emotion on stage but it's not really transferring to the crowd, or not the bit I’m in anyway! A decent band but again they just don’t seem to have the wow factor that I was hoping for. 

Black Spiders on the other hand are classic rock with their tongues firmly in their cheeks. They start a bit slowly and then go more upbeat and danceable. Let’s be honest, any band that can write a song called ‘KISS Tried To Kill Me’ are going to be worth a watch right? Not groundbreaking, but good at what they do and classic in sound. 

Next band up for me was H.E.A.T. and I'm really going to struggle writing my review of them because all I've written on my notes is WOW with about a hundred !!!!!!!!!! This young bunch of Swedes have been around on the scene for some time now. Their claim to fame was that instead of going for the lucrative popstar market the winner of Sweden’s Got Talent (or one of those tv talent comps) decided to join this hard-working but obscure rock band instead. Just when they started to make an international name for themselves covid hit, Erik Grönwall left for health and personal reasons (Skid Row) and it looked like it was all over. Step forward their original singer Kenny Leckremo and it turns out that they have come back bigger and badder than ever. Eric was an amazing frontman but I think Kenny is the better vocalist, and for a band with huge choruses where every song is an anthem that’s just what they need. The band are tight and together, the songs are well crafted, energetic and fun to listen to, fun to dance to. I just loved them, they were amazing and got an easy band of the weekend for me. Wow indeed. 

Graham Bonnet on the other hand was a proper nostalgia trip. I was just 16 when Rainbow’s “Down to Earth” came out. I still have it (on clear vinyl!) and back then I played it to death. These songs are old friends. The kind of friendship where you don't see each other for years but when you do get back together you just pick up where you left off. Graham's struggling a little bit with the vocals but overall he still has it. He's getting on a bit now and moves very carefully onto the catwalk but the voice is mostly still there. He’s built a decent band to take his show back on the road and it was a bit like having a time machine. I knew every word to every song, and sang every note. It was good to see so many people in the crowd who weren't even born in the 70’s also singing every bloody word! If I’m honest I could have done without the instrumental bit in the middle but I think that's probably to give Graham a bit of a break. He threw in a couple of Michael Schenker Group songs and his famous hit ‘Night Games’ and suddenly despite my own rapidly advancing years I’m a teenager again. 

That carries on to headliners Saxon who were also arguably at their peak during my teenage years in the very early 1980s, They have a big stage set and a big sound but it's still Saxon, It's still the same old same old. You know what you're getting and if it's what you want, all is good. Despite all the years of back-catalogue to choose from the songs are still very familiar. They are another band whose songs are old friends, each with a story or a memory not only woven into the lyrics but also burned into my brain to remind me what I was doing when I first heard them! They are now the grandfathers of British metal, but they are far from ready to hang up their guitars in favour of pipe and slippers just yet. The crowd lap it up, this is exactly what they want. The songs encompass their whole 40 plus year career, in fact some of them are older than some of the crowd! By now the weather is not our friend, we're in the cloud and the rain is relentless but we don't care we just want to rock and so the band played on (did you see what I did there?) The 80's stuff takes me right back, it's been a day of contrast today mixing some of the most exciting new rock with some of the oldest surviving metal and it works, there's room in rock for all of it. One final thing about Saxon; someone has given Biff a KISS denim cut off (or battle jacket as they are known these days). Considering who should have been the headliner today I found this rather Ace!