Legends Of Rock 2025 was a fabulous festival of fifty bands, crazy fans, wild parties and even the loss of a prosthetic limb. Just like Legends Of Rock 2024, whatever happens here in Great Yarmouth stays in Great Yarmouth.
Legends Of Rock Festival 2025
Words: Gavin Archer, with Sara Harding
Photography: Sally Newhouse
The award-winning Legends of Rock festival just gets bigger and better every year with a sharp mix of original and tribute bands. This festival is by the fans for the fans, where the groups and music lovers all get to hang out side by side and party in their luxury caravans.
Its legendary creators, Eddie and Elaine Yates, are fondly known as Mr and Mrs Bastard. Ably assisted by their son Jus and Debbie Soper, they are all, once again, treating us with a stellar rota of rock from Prog Metallers Hekz to grunge giants Suns Of Seattle.
Thursday
Thursday is welcome party night, and as the name suggests, there are four party bands on show this evening. Mr Spankey And The Hipthruster’s provide the early fun with their party rock combo. They feature The Reverend Kenny Petrie on guitar, famous for his turn on Britain’s Got Talent, who got things going with a mighty bang.
Up next was the best Bowie tribute out there, Aladdinsane, followed by Twisted System, who look more like Twisted Sister than the original Dee Snider.
Finishing off the whole shebang on Thursday were The Bohemians, who took us on a deep trawl through the Queen back catalogue.
Friday
Kicking off Friday were West Midlands blue rock trio The Davidson Trio. This band are fronted by the incredibly likeable and immensely talented Owen Davidson on vox/bass, backed by virtuoso guitarist Ben Bicknall and the equally amazing Ellis Browns on drums.
The threesome have just released their debut album Cougar (which we stress is not about Sara Harding) and it is a blues belter. The band played a fiery 55-minute set of originals interspersed with the odd cover.
Stormbringer is a particular highlight that showcases Owen’s amazing vocal range but takes nothing away from the band’s own compositions. The Davidson Trio stomped and growled through their soon-to-be anthems and no wonder the CDs they brought to the merch stand soon sold out. I’ve got mine!!!
Next up in the smaller V Lounge is a brand new four-piece from Nottingham, Long Pockets, who are a seasoned bunch of musos. Fronted by Legends regular Rob Reid, the band delivered us a hard-rocking, blues-influenced sound, very Free/Hendrix/Zeppelin in its DNA.
Single 3 am is a toe-tapping mid-tempo rocker, and Hit Bottom takes us through an aural soundscape. Quality!
The last original band for the day are The Hot One Two who hail from Cambridge. The five-piece burst onto the stage with fists pumping, all-black T-shirts and attitude. This is what we like.
The lounge is rammed for this performance, and the set flew by. Most of The Hot One Two’s anthems came from the debut album Superbia, which is, of course, superb. They have the vibes and chops of the ’70s if you add in some Black Stone Cherry tones with a modern twist. 
As for today’s talented tributes, a few seriously stood out. New act Suns Of Seattle, who feature three of Four Wheel Drive, and Stuart Simpson from Stone Free, took us on a journey through the highlights of the grunge era from Soundgarden to Pearl Jam and beyond. We cannot wait to see them tear up more British stages again.
Other highlights were the superbly charismatic Danny Deane who flew in from Canada to deliver standout performances as Steven Tyler from Aerosmith and Dave Lee Roth from the Van Halen days.
Also gobbing on the packed V arena were the Sex Pistols Expose. Not only do they look like Rotten, Vicious, et al., but they sound like ’em, too. And to top off the night are nine-piece arena act The Floyd Effect, who are always mesmerising and top-notch with full-on laser show – far out.
Legends of Rock 2025 – All the MetalTalk coverage is available from here.
All the MetalTalk Legends of Rock 2024 coverage can be read here.
You can relive Legends of Rock 2023 by visiting this link.
For Heavy Metal Legends Of Rock news, click here.
For film at Legends Of Rock, visit Punkrocksal on YouTube.
