By David O’Neill
Billed as “Chepstow’s friendly festival” Castell Roc is a series of weekend musical extravaganzas, with the bills ranging from tributes to acts as diverse as Queen, Def Leppard and the flavour of the moment, Taylor Swift, to country music (Nathan Carter) and classic-meets-pop, in the form of local hero Russell Watson, to, as is the case tonight, top class NWoCR and blues rock, with the hard-working Kris Barras playing his biggest show to date in the Principality he seems to have adopted as his second home in recent years…
Fresh from his triumphant conquering of the Steelhouse mountain just two weekends previous, Dan Byrne was up first. One of the most prolifically gigging artists around at the moment, there can be hardly anyone who has not seen him at this point. Whilst there is no doubt that he is talented, as are the rest of his band, I’ve seen him so many times it becomes difficult to be objective and add different nuances to reports on his set. Opening up with ‘Hard To Breathe’, Dan and the band continue to captivate audiences with the emotive lyrical and powerful musical content. As usual the set was well received and ended with ‘Death Of Me’. Dan is supporting Tyketto on their tour in September: he really is worth the early arrival.
The Hot Damn! ladies are full of energy and always brighten up any day in their multicoloured attire, even a dull damp day in Chepstow. I love the energy the band bring to the stage. Very “pop rock” and tongue in cheek lyrically, they opened up with ‘Fizz Buzz Crash’ and really lifted the mood. ‘Dance Around’ rapidly followed before the single ‘Jukebox On The Radio’. ‘Live Laugh Love’ occupied the pre ‘Merch Song’ which entertained the crowd, especially when the harmonies went a little awry. ‘Going Down’ preceded the now well established finale and crowd pleaser ‘I Didn’t Love You Anyway’.
Gill Montgomery on vox/guitar is really well supported by Laurie Buchanan in her statutory red suit and hat firmly perched atop her head. Lzi Hayes is no slouch on vocals and bass as well. However, there is a real pocket dynamo on drums in the darkened depth at the back of the stage in Josie O’Toole. It really was pure fun and enjoyment, with rainbows and unicorns everywhere!
- The Hot Damn will tour later this year to support their new album, ‘Dancing On The Milky Way’.
Stone Broken on the other hand have not been so obvious in this part of the world for a bit. However, their latest single offering is yet another banger. With a short tour in July, this special guest slot following their headline slot at Winters End as well as Firevolt festival. It is always good to see Rich, Robyn, Chris and Kieron back on the road.
As with many of their previous sets, the opener is the absolute fan favourite ‘Revelation’. As the special guest slot, a good hour of Stone Broken is ok in my books. The set included ‘Stay All Night’ and ‘Heartbeat Away’ before the crowd had time to pause for breath. Robyn remains the absolute powerhouse drummer and how she doesn’t get a headache or feel dizzy from the amount she headbangs is beyond me. The energy of Kieron and Chris is also readily visible.
After ‘Remedy’ and ‘Make It Out Alive’ Rich did his usual acoustic tribute to a late friend in ‘Wait For You’ before being rejoined by the band to finish the song and the rest of the set. Rich stated he had some explaining to do after ‘Stronger’, and was well supported by the crowd on the revelation that he has been struggling with his mental health: the way to change is to lead by example, and he certainly did by sharing his issues with us all and encouraging others to do the same. Well done Rich.
There was only one way to follow that, and ‘Worth Fighting For’ certainly emphasized the issues, as did ‘The Devil You Know’ and ‘Not Your Enemy’ as the set closer. Well done all, good luck with the rest of your year and see you again soon.
The same about not being so obvious in this part of the world cannot be said of Kris Barras. This guy has been very busy. With the new album, ‘Halo Effect’ being his fourth since 2018 – with two years of a pandemic in there too – and almost constantly touring, this is the sold out show that the band deserves: it is the second time I have seen him in a Welsh castle after his support of Black Stone Cherry in Caerphilly back in 2019, and also the start of an extended period of ÜK/European tours seeing him busy until January 2025!
Despite the furore surrounding the recent Kyle Gass issue, as usual the introduction was ‘Tribute’. It was unusual to see Kris not sporting his usual guitar at the opening of the set. However, the reason became patently obvious very rapidly as he was quickly off the stage and into the pit shaking hands with the front row during ‘Hourglass’ (one of the five featured tracks from ‘Halo Effect’) – a great set opener! Rapidly followed by ‘Dead Horses’ and ‘Unbreakable’, the crowd now knew what they were in for and were lapping it up. The rain had stopped and Kris commented on it being unusual for his Welsh appearances (Caerphilly was a very hot day but Steelhouse ’23 was its usual inclement weather).
Because of the energy exerted by the band there was a brief interlude after every two songs. This was not an issue. Had Billy Hammet been in a hamster wheel I’m pretty sure he could have powered Chepstow for the night! Crowd involvement was clearly evident on ‘Who Needs Enemies’; however, the piano set gave Josiah Manning an opportunity to display his sublime keyboard expertise during ‘Landslide’ and the extended version of ‘Watching Over Me’ where Kris explained the history of the song and phone lights lit the castle like a Christmas tree. There was also an extended ethereal guitar solo where it was obvious that Kris was playing for his late father, I’m sure he was watching over you and was very proud.
With ‘Fall To Fly’ and ‘Apocalypse’ (incidentally getting its first live outing) wrapping up the ‘Halo Effect’ contribution, the crowd were now well warmed up. ‘Ignite’ really did set the fire into ‘My Parade’ and towards the end Kris was off into the audience again, splitting the crowd in half to join in with the halves of the hook for ‘My Parade’ (if you know, you know). This appeared to be the end of the set but the hardened fans knew that ‘Hail Mary’ was going to be the set closer-and so it was.
This is definitely the best I have ever seen the band. Well done, and a well deserved headline set. There will be many more to come, I’m sure.