By David O’Neill
One of the best opening acts I have witnessed at Steelhouse was in 2022 when Mother Vulture opened up with 30 minutes of frenetic activity that was impossible to keep your eyes off. Described as a hectic blues-punk band but dressed in a brown striped suit the guitarist Brodie Maguire and the bassist Chris Simpson barely stood still. The vocal style of Georgi Valentine is unique. I don’t think Ive seen so much activity on a stage since the Sex Pistols were around. At the end of the set Maguire and his beautiful Green Gretsch leapt across the barrier to play guitar on his back among the crowd. The majority of the small audience looked at each other with mouths agape thinking “WTF just happened?”
The reason for this reminiscence is that I feel that the Saturay opening act, Jayler, are going to do the same thing. In a review of their Camden Underworld support gig for Kira Mac last year, Steve Mascord labelled them as “Greta Van Fleet but better”. Having listened to a few tracks on Spotify, I can hear stylistic similarities to GVF but without the pretence and also there is definite vocal similarities to a young Mr Plant. Sod your hangover get up and see what is promising to be another Saturday sonic onslaught, you can always have the hair of the dog at the same time!
If you can recover from that then don’t hold your breath too long so better be quick at the bar after because next up are the alt-rock/grunge trio MuddiBrooke, two girls and a guy but holy crap, they are not going to take any prisoners either. A quick look at ‘You Don’t Own Me’ will tell you exactly what to expect,
However, there is still no time to take a break as one of the local bands who have been making huge waves over the past few years and were at Steelhouse in 2022, so this will be a welcome return for Wayne and the boys from Scarlet Rebels as they are one of our Secret Drugs.
If you thought things were going to relax after that then now way Jose, get ready for some Oklahoma outlaw country rawk! With appearances at Planet Rockstock last year under their belt, Hillbilly Vegas are deservedly picking up fans across the ÜK.
Raising the temperature higher is going to be easy for phenomenal guitarist Sophie Lloyd. Having played guitar with some stellar international artists (including Machine Gun Kelly, Avril Lavigne and Jellyroll) her debut album, ‘Imposter Syndrome’, hit number three on the rock chart and she supported another of the South Wales favourites, Those Damn Crows, on their sellout headline gig in Cardiff at the end of last year. She also played on the Chris Robertson (of Black Stone Cherry) track ‘Let It Hurt’.
Well, what I haven’t written about the next artist is probably not worth reading. As an ex MMA fighter I wouldn’t dare to say anything derogatory, but having interviewed him at Download a few years ago for Über Rock I can safely say he is a very nice man to talk to but more importantly for Steelhouse festival he is also an exceptional guitarist and singer/songwriter and a very hardworking live performer. This is his third appearance on the top of the mountain and appearing as third from the top of the bill is recognition by the Steelhouse team that he is always well received. His latest album, ‘Halo Effect’, is much heavier than his previous more bluesy music as can be seen in ‘Hourglass’:
The ladies appear to be taking over on top of the mountain, after the very impressive Brazilian trio The Warning last year, Steelhouse has managed to negotiate the appearance of a legend of the rock scene, the one and only original queen of rock, Lita Ford. So you can expect to be ‘Hungry’ for some ‘Relentless’ ‘Playing With Fire’ in ‘Black Leather’ before the ‘Cherry Bomb’ goes off!
As if that wasn’t enough to get the party started the final legend of the day is W.A.S.P. So if you ever ‘Wanna Be Somebody’ on the ‘Love Machine’, ‘The Flame’ of your ‘School Daze’ will come rampaging back through your mind to put you ‘On Your Knees’ to ensure you are ‘Forever Free’ as a ‘Wild Child’ for the rest of the Saturday night.
- Steelhouse takes place at Hafod y Dafal, outside Ebbw Vale, over the weekend of 25 – 27 July.