Rockfiend Review 2022

Rockfiend Review of WinterStorm 2022

Written by Iain McArthur and Kevin McCallum

The Ayrshire town of Troon is not the easiest place to get to, but all the bands and fans who got there for the 6th annual WinterStorm festival will have been glad they made the effort. Despite the wet and windy weather, Troon is a fabulous wee sea-side town to visit, with plenty of pubs, restaurants and cafes and it’s not even actually that from Glasgow with easy train links. The Town Hall complex is right in the heart of town by the beach and offers a marvellous main stage with standing and a seated balcony, plus a smaller stage, a hang-out room for merchandise and food, and a particularly well-stocked bar. WinterStorm is a very slick and professional operation, with all of the bands made welcome and each granted a great sound and visuals to help them produce their best performances.

This year, the organisers had built a strong and varied line-up focused on acts who had not played the festival before and it’s an intriguing mix. Alessandro Del Vecchio played keyboards here last year with Hardline and he was back this time to open the Friday show as the singer in Edge Of Forever alongside some of his old Italian friends. The band have produced some excellent recent albums and they deliver a very upbeat performance; not least the positive mental attitude anthem ‘Shift the Paradigm’. As Ale said in the song’s introduction; “if you turn on the news on the TV, you just want to shoot yourself in the balls” but their enthusiasm is infectious and they get the festival off to a flying start. They also went back about 20 years to their debut album, including a song called ‘Prisoner’ which originally featured a Jeff Scott Soto vocal. AdV, of course, is a very busy man at Frontiers Music but it would be great to see him back in Troon again next year in some capacity.

Absolva were next and their heavier sound provided a neat contrast. Chris Appleton is an animated front-man (not a cartoon – he’s just very lively) and he’s part of a twin-guitar assault alongside brother Luke. They played tracks from their latest album ‘Fire in the Sky’, including the title track and ‘Burn Inside’ but they also go back 10 years to their debut album for ‘Code Red’. They went down very well and it’s not their last appearance of the day.

False Hearts from Cambridgeshire were chosen to open the Sessions Stage and they deliver some strong messages through the powerful voice of the charming Emma Hodgson. They like it heavy but they also have some very subtle flourishes, such as the heavy-funk of ‘Enough is Enough’ and the title track of their ‘Remedy’ album is another highlight.

Legendary Scottish bass player, WinterStorm legend and ‘character’, Chris Glen gets most of the headlines in The Outfit but he takes a seat and lets his band-mates enjoy the spotlight on the Sessions Stage. They honour his legacy with ‘Midnight Moses’, ‘Faith Healer’ and ‘Armed & Ready’ but it’s their own original material that was most impressive and their songs are delivered in style by talented singer, Chris Aylward, supported by John Clelland on drums and Peter Higgins on guitar & vocals.

Sari Schorr looked like she was enjoying herself, but then, she always does as she’s a right wee ray of sunshine. It’s her second Scottish festival appearance of the year after Wildfire and, if anything, she’s even better on the bigger stage with her glittery wide-sleeved top and Ash Wilson back on guitar. ‘The New Revolution’, ‘Ain’t Got No Money’ and ‘Damn the Reason’ are highlights as the blues brings her to her knees and a slowed-down, stripped-back version of ‘Black Betty’ absolutely slays.

Back in 2018, Mark Pascall was the singer for Departed when they opened on the main stage on the Friday at WinterStorm III and a few hours later, it was Magnum who closed it. Fast forward to this year and Mark is back on the big stage, this time singing classic Magnum songs with Mark Stanway’s Kingdom of Madness. By most peoples’ recollections, the only song duplicated with that 2018 Magnum set was ‘Sacred Hour’ as KoM dig back into the rarely-played early Magnum catalogue with fan favourites like ‘Just Like an Arrow’, ‘Changes’ and ‘Wild Swan’. Mo Birch excels singing ‘On a Storytellers Night’ and they wrap it up eponymously with ‘Kingdom of Madness’ itself to close a triumphant set.

Absolva were back on the main Steve Strange Stage by 8PM, this time providing the backing for metal hero Blaze Bayley. This time, Blaze focused largely on songs from his Iron Maiden period, including a crowd-pleasing rendition of ‘The Clansman’, but he also slipped in some material from his latest work ‘War Within Me’. As ever, Blaze combined a powerful delivery with warm crowd interactions and charisma and it seemed that most of those in attendance enjoyed a chat, a signature and a selfie with one of metal’s good guys after the show.

Llanelli rockers, Scarlet Rebels spotted an old friend in the crowd and gave a shout-out to Bruce Fleming, who was one of only two people in attendance at an early-career gig the band played in Dundee. Fast-forward to 2022 and the band’s massive dues-paying efforts have earned them a top-ten album and a sizeable following, so Bruce was far from lonely in the crowd this time. They rattle through some songs from ‘See Through Blue’ and ‘Show Your Colours’ and it almost feels like a victory lap of honour after a phenomenal year. It will be fascinating to see what comes next for these lads.

Erik Martensson is probably the only man in rock who could rival Alessandro Del Vecchio for the number of projects he’s involved in and the volume of songs he’s written. Eclipse were an inspired late announcement as Friday headliners and unsurprisingly, they blew the roof off with a hard-driving, melodic blast of Scandi-rock. After many years, they are consummate performers and they really bring the energy with a high-tempo set including ‘Saturday Night (Hallelujah)’, ‘Run for Cover’ and ‘Black Rain’. With an extensive back-catalogue, they can’t play everything but of the older numbers, ‘The Storm’ was especially welcome. Sweden is definitely the melodic rock capital of the universe thanks to bands like Eclipse and they fully deserve their seat at the top table.

Sons of Liberty have been here before but they really took it up a level early on Saturday afternoon with an inspired start to the day on the main stage. No one made better use of the new cat-walk in front of the stage than their new singer, Rob Walker, and he absolutely owned it with a powerful and charismatic performance. Their barn-storming brand of southern rock must have blown away a few day-one hangovers but probably also inspired the big crowd down the front to start working on their next one. With the current version of Molly Hatchett cancelling their Troon trip at short notice, maybe the future of southern rock is a bit closer to home?

It was disappointing to find out that Hardwicke Circus are named after a roundabout in Carlisle and not Mr & Mrs Hardwick, the candle store proprietors in Debbie Does Dallas. That’s the only disappointment though, as the questions changed from ‘who are they?’ to ‘how have I missed them’? They’re definitely channelling a bit of Springsteen / Southside Johnny, with a dash of Exile-era Stones and even the pop story-telling sensibilities of Squeeze all wrapped up in their own Cumbrian gumbo. Jonny Foster leads the way in his plain-white T-shirt, sprinkling in a bit of improv comedy and story telling but they’ve got saxophone and keyboards in the mix too in a very ambitious effort overall. They’ve got an album out called ‘The Borderland’ and some tracks from that which stood out are ‘Walking on Broken Glass’, A Reason to Believe’ and ‘Lets Make New Mistakes’. They’ve had some impressive support slots and good radio play and are probably the only band to play Winterstorm and Glastonbury in the same year? They’re back in Scotland later this December with gigs in Edinburgh, Kinross, Inverness and Orkney, so check them out.

Young Merseyside band Ashen Reach went down fantastically well at the excellent Wildfire festival a couple of years ago and they’re even better now, bringing the heaviest sounds of the weekend to the main stage and a set of banging tunes from their album ‘Homecoming‘. With a couple of years of hard work and experience under their belts, they’ve grown into a confident band of performers, especially frontman, Kyle Stanley, who gets everyone downstairs head-banging and jumping, even though they’re old and it’s only 3:30 in the afternoon. ‘Heir to the Throne’ is a highlight and they mix in “some dark shit” too and a very theatrical, almost Fish / Gabriel-esque performance from Kyle on ‘Prey’. They arrived the previous night to make sure they were ready and then spent the whole day and evening by the merch stand making new friends, so hopefully they will get the success their efforts deserve.

One of the joys of WinterStorm is the variety of musical styles on offer. After the preceding Southern Rock, Alt-americana and Scouse-metal, Rebecca Downes added some welcome Blues tones to the mix and there was more melodic rock and some NWOBHM to come after her. Rebecca has quietly built up a strong portfolio and she’s got a stunning new album ‘The Space Between Us’ which she and her excellent band showcase brilliantly. After Chantel McGregor’s performance last year and excellent sets from Rebecca and Sari Schorr this time, it looks like lady-blues might be ‘a thing’ for WinterStorm so it will be interesting to see who pops up next.

Marco Mendoza and his two Croatian friends on drums and guitar arrived in Troon after playing in Czechia the night before, and quickly hit the ground running. Although he’s a man of many bands, this WinterStorm repertoire is mainly drawn from his solo material, such as ‘Take it to the Limit’ and Viva La Rock’. A responsive Troon crowd also enjoy covers of Ted Nugent’s ‘Hey Baby’ and Neil Schon’s ’Hole in my Pocket’ with a timely snippet from the classic ‘Give Peace a Chance’ thrown in. He’s a great showman who thrives on crowd engagement so what’s not to like about the persona and musical ability of Marco Mendoza? Like Blaze Bayley the previous day, there were not many punters who left without a souvenir selfie with the very amiable Marco.

Veteran Brummie rockers Dawn After Dark delivered a top-quality, high-energy set up the stairs. Sharply-dressed singer H (not that one!) put on a very stylish performance, backed up by his very professional band-mates as they powered through a fine set of groovy and grooving material, both new and re-released with some very catchy tunes among them. Definitely a top-class live band.

Apparently, this was the first live show from this incarnation of Frontiers project band Sunstorm Current singer Ronnie Romero had flown directly from Japan for the show and he was made very welcome on the main stage and again in the small hall for an acoustic set on the Sunday where apparently his vocals were even more extraordinary. Most of the set is drawn from Ronnie-era albums ‘Brothers in Arms’ and ‘Afterlife’ but they also dip into the Joe Lynn Turner fronted back catalogue. Ronnie’s powerful vocals were a good fit for Rainbow but he can clearly do a neat AOR turn too and he certainly impressed on the day.

Stormchaser are a well-renowned blues-rock band from Alva, Clackmannanshire with a solid classic rock sound. They’ve been together since 2017 and released their debut EP in 2019. There was a good crowd in The Sessions Room to hear its title track ‘Breaking the Silence’ and six other songs in a quality set. ‘Empty Space’ echoes back to some of Scottish rock’s heroes with nods to the styles of Frankie Miller and Maggie Bell and a timely and cleverly-arranged cover of John Lennon’s ‘Working Class Hero’ goes down very well. ‘Calling Out My Name’ and ‘Depths of My Soul’ close the set and there should be a debut album to follow soon.

There has been a very strong tradition of NWOBHM bands playing at WinterStorm but this year, there is only Steve Zodiac’s Vardis on the bill from that era. They fill the Main Stage tea-time slot with aplomb and rattle through some of their best-known tunes. It will be interesting to see how many of the denim & leather brigade are back next year.

The only folks who might have questioned The Treatment's lofty spot on the Main Stage bill must be those who have not seen them recently. They’ve certainly had a few different line-ups over their 14-year career but their musical strengths are clear with great guitar sound, melodies and lyrics and the current incarnation have stage presence, charisma and style in bucket loads. Highlights included the set opener ‘Let’s Get Dirty’ from their 2019 album ’Power Crazy’, ‘Vampress’ from last years ‘Waiting for Good Luck’ album and the older track, ‘Let it Begin’ from the 2016 album ‘Generation Me’. They’ve impressed on recent support slots and crowd feedback suggests they were many punters’ band of the day.

Aussie Steve Janevski is a Rockfiend favourite and he’s got a lot of friends in the crowd after previous UK performances with his band Radio Sun, who had graced the stage at HRH AOR and venues like Dreadnought Rocks in Bathgate. Steve is back in the country with his new heavier band Wicked Smile and also performing with his 20-year-old daughter Cassidy Paris. It’s Cassidy who plays first and she delivers a charismatic and very professional performance. The Wicked Smile guys act as her band and it's clearly a huge advantage to have their backing and dad, Steve on hand with backing vocals and guitar. New single ‘Danger’ and a cracking cover of ‘I Hate Myself for Loving You’ are highlights and bass-player Glen Cav is a giggle with his YMCA style actions on the song ‘Give me your L.O.V.E.’ It really was a very mature and enjoyable performance from young Cassidy and she should have a massive future ahead of her.

The Wicked Smile guys are back on stage a few short hours later, this time in full-band format with the leather-lunged Rapunzel of rock & roll, Danny Cecati providing astonishing metal vocals. They’ve been on a UK tour all month and they’ve been going down so well that all of their merch had been sold and they had to get more shirts and hoodies printed to bring to the festival. Cassidy pops back up to reprise her duet with Danny on ‘Stronger’, while ‘Daze of Delirium’ is a highlight and Danny delivers a spine-tingling performance on the ballad ‘Don’t Wait for Me’. It’s a big commitment to travel from the other end of the world for a month-long tour, so top marks to Wicked Smile and Cassidy Paris for backing themselves and their talent in difficult times. Hopefully it’s been worth it and we’ll see them again soon.

Swedish glam metal band Crazy Lixx were an inspired choice to close the festival. They brought the party tunes with them and their presence brought a fair-sized posse of rock chicks to the front of the stage. Singer, Danny Rexon has been the Svengali behind Chez Kane’s recent success but his band have got a sack-load of great tunes in their back catalogue too, like ‘Wild Child’, ’21 ‘til I Die’ and ‘Anthem for America’. They had a few songs on the soundtrack of the ‘Friday the 13th’ video game too so that’s a great excuse for Danny to get out the Jason Vorhees hockey mask and a replica knife-shaped microphone. Before they played their hit ‘Girls of the 80s’, Danny reminded everyone that they had played in Scotland before, back in 2008. Let’s hope they don’t leave it another 14 years before coming back or some in the audience will be girls in their 80s!

Just before Crazy Lixx’s closing set, festival organiser Ian McCaig delivered some heartfelt thanks and tributes to the many folks who helped deliver such an excellent event, before confirming that the festival will be back again next year. “The Legends and Legacies of WinterStorm” event will run from 23rd to 26th November 2023 with the title perhaps suggesting that the focus might be on the return of some old friends? The exact details have yet to be confirmed but it appears that the main festival will still be a two-day Friday and Saturday affair, plus the now traditional Sunday add-on “After the ’Storm” events: this year there were afternoon acoustic performances from Sandi Thom, John Corabi and Ronnie Romero plus an evening gig featuring The Skids, Big Country and From the Jam. Plans for the Thursday event have not yet been revealed.

It’s guaranteed to be a grand affair again and anyone who has yet to enjoy the unique delights and comforts of WinterStorm in Troon should be looking into travel arrangements already. Rockfiend will see you there.

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