Festival season at the award-winning Legends Of Rock is well and truly underway at Vauxhall Holiday Park, Great Yarmouth. Noon, Friday, commences with some stellar tribute acts, including State Of Quo, Bravado and the Ultimate Rush, whose ‘Geddy Lee’ looks more like the real Geddy Lee than Geddy Lee does. Followed by the king of shock rock Gallus Cooper who performs with snakes, guillotines and monsters just like the real deal.
Legends Of Rock 2023, Great Yarmouth
Words: Sara Harding
Photography: Sally Newhouse
Time for our first original band, and ironically they are called Bad Luck Friday. The Brighton-based quartet kick off with a stunning mouth organ intro from frontman Will Wilde and instantly, the dance floor is packed.
Easy on the eye and very easy on the ear too. Performing their latest single, Rebel With A Cause, it’s an instant and sooooo catchy anthem that has us all singing along. If you love your blues extra dirty, then this is the band for you, with nods to Black Crowes with a touch of Joe Bonamassa but with their own unique stamp.
Dust And Bones is a slower song that really demonstrates their chops with killer lead guitar solos and a tighter-than-tight backline. Up next is their hit song Bad Luck Friday from their album Bad Luck Friday, another solid tune and as the band finish with 666 On The Crossroads, the Fridays receive a well-deserved standing ovation. So bloody good, we bought the T-shirt.
Next to the stage is our favourite AOR icon, Jimi Anderson, famed for his “I wanna see your hands at the back” rock ‘n’ roll quotes. Jimi has one of the best rock voices ever. The six piece take us on a tour of their new songs, from Revolution to the covers we love. Anderson’s voice, as ever, is on point and proves his prowess as Scotland’s greatest powerhouse vocalist.
Back to the tributes now and all the way from Canadia, as well like to call it, is Danny Deane taking on Dave Lee Roth with a brand new incarnation Dan Halen. This set was a Lycra-splitting, ball-busting rummage through the Halen setlist, and Danny looked mighty fine in his tiny tight trousers and huge cream faux fur boots. Want!!!!
Back to the V lounge for the highly anticipated Xander And The Peace Pirates. Like Tony Iommi, the frontman/guitarist has fashioned a steel hand in order to play his guitar. The five-piece are the resident band at Liverpool’s legendary Cavern Club, and you can feel the Beatles vibes from these dudes with a slight tinge of Sgt Pepper.
The crowd react instantly to this talented band of brothers with sublime vox/BVs, atmospheric guitars and a bass/drums combo like no other. Each song is carefully crafted and beautiful to experience. The Pirates are definitely a group to watch out for.
And so to Maet Live, who are one of the best live Meat Loaf tribute acts out there. I’m not a huge fan of the Loaf, but we were running the charity raffle in the V Arena, so we had to stay and watch them – and I have to say they were meat-tastic.
Our lodge mates Gav and Helen had just cooked up some vile-smelling meatballs in our lodge, and they reeked. Wherever they went in the venue, folk were asking what the bad smell was – all I could think of was this tribute act should be called Meat Balls.
Carrying on the tributes are Cult Fiction. Shut your eyes, and it really was like listening to Mr Astbury et al. We danced so much that my thighs can now crack walnuts.
Representing West London were the truly awesome Rainbow In Rock, who were, as always sublime, as were The Floyd Effect with a light show just like the real deal.
Keep up to date with our Legends Of Rock 2023 coverage by using this link: https://www.metaltalk.net/tag/legends-of-rock-2023.
You can find a nice selection of film from the event by PunkRockSal on YouTube.
