I haven’t seen them live since their Empire tour rolled into Belfast, I was charged with excitement for their set and judging from the rapidly increasing audience I clearly wasn’t alone with my feelings.
The blame for this lies squarely on the shoulders of the festivals soundman.
Geoff Tates phenomenal set of vocal pies was reduced to largely inaudible mess, despite adjusting my position several times, the sound emitting from the stage didn’t improve.
Classics "Empire”,” Eyes of a stranger" Jet city woman" and my all-time favourite Ryche tune "NM156", from their debut were all chewed up, and spat out by an unrelenting PA!
The name ‘Low Voltage Festival’, would have been more appropriate!
THIN LIZZY were on next and despite detractors (yes, I was once one) the bands current lineup to quote another HV band "Delivers the Goods" With a setlist overloaded with hits, which made the crowd energetic, bouncing and rockin away, with many clearly revisiting the anthems of their youth.
Frontman Ricky Warwick successfully capturing the very nurture and essence of Thin Lizzy, while still retaining Phil Lynott’s heart and soul.
Bringing Michael Monroe back on stage to play sax on "Dancing in the Moonlight" was a nice touch.
Lizzy generated a huge wave of audience positivity!!
As id already seen Lizzy twice the previous month, I left towards the set end for nourishment, and the Queensryche signing.
Finally the sound was now improving with each act and next up was SLASH.
Hats off, quite literally to the legend who successfully managed to fuse all his musical history in an all too-brief set.
Snakepit,Velvet Revolver and a tasty 4play of Guns N’ Roses anthems truly satisfied the punters.
With Sun shining, and a general feel-good factor of rocking bonhomie was all around, especially as the beer continued to flow!
With abit of time to put in before headliners Judas Priest were due on, I decided to head over to the Metal Hammer stage to see the Swedish trio GRAND MAGNUS half way through their set.
After witnessing their well-attended signing, I was curious to see what exactly the fuss was about.
In the true definition of Heavy metal, and in the spirit of Manowar their style was earthy, doomy, and undoubtedly heavy.
Like the receptive large audience, I soon found myself nodding along to their crunchy riffs!
It was then back to the main stage for JUDAS PRIEST, who closed the main stage on their farewell "Epitaph" tour.
Over 2 hours, 22 metal anthems, full power restored, lights, motorbike, Rob Halfords voice soared majestically!
Painkiller and all the standards that people loved and had come to expect from Priest.
Nice to hear "The Sentinnel" included in the set, an old tune not played for quite some time live!
It was hard to believe that there was a new young guitarist in replacing KK Downing!
Ritchie Faulkner did a solid job in fitting into the classis Priest twin-guitar sound.
A guy beside me turned and said "That is true heavy metal!" and I could not disagree with him!
Lets hope that once again we will hear Rob scream those immortal words "The Priest is back"!!!!
