By David O’Neill
The recent passing of the legend that is Bernie Marsden has seen a plethora of tributes to the man. These included the recent announcement from Steelhouse Festival of the naming of the Friday night in 2024 as #Berniefest in honour of the great man who was always a big supporter of the festival – so much so that his last album will be released posthumously with a track entitled ‘Steelhouse Mountain’ featured on it. The BM Allstars band who will play that night will include Jim Kirkpatrick of FM and the true “king of the mountain”, in the spritely shape of Nev MacDonald of Skin/Cougar/Hand of Dimes, as well as various special guests.
So with this in mind the opportunity to go to a gig of HoD and Fireroad, with another true gent as frontman, Richard Jones, on stage was one not to be missed…
The Scala is a new venue in the middle of Merthyr Tydfil: small, yet with an amazing sound system this gave life to two of the best classic rock bands in the area.
Richard is one of the smiliest frontmen you will ever see on stage and his soft toned voice is well suited to the style of music the band play. Opening up with the upbeat track ‘Falling Down’ from the first album ‘I Got Sound’ from 2014, rapidly followed by ‘Minute’ from 2018, which has a definite Stereophonics sound to it, Richard is very talkative between the tracks taking it in turn to decry the current government (he was not on his own in the venue) and state of the economy before dedicating ‘Find A Way’ to Linda, another very upbeat track.
A bit more of a gentle track, ‘Your Summer Sun’ shows off his vocal range. ‘Devil’s Letter’ preceded ‘Second Hand Soldier’, dedicated to a family in the audience, which obviously criticizes the continued deployment of forces to other peoples war zones, very poignant in the current period. Tying up the set with ‘I Got Sound’ and my favourite ‘Before The Matinee’ and a cover of ‘Rockin In The Free World’. It’s always a pleasure seeing Fireroad live and this was no exception. They really need to do it more often (and release some new music too!)
On to the main act: Hand of Dimes are regulars “up the mountain” and many of the band members have regularly supported Bernie Marsden in his live performances and recording. So this was a chance to see if they were going to mention #Berniefest at some point.
Entering to a rapturous welcome, this had to be a close as a homecoming gig gets. Kicking off with ‘Come The Hour’, ‘Moonlight Mile’ and ‘Bad Reputation’ before drawing breath was a damn fine start by the sound and smiles on the faces of the audience. The only way to improve on this was to introduce some new music, so ‘No Love In Mind’ was enthusiastically received, as was ‘The Grind’, ‘Burlesque’ and ‘Ain’t Nothing Wrong’. So not one, nor two or three but FOUR new tracks!
After this the regular crowd pleaser (and one of my personal favourites) ‘Jacobs Ladder’ was next. Following that was ‘Guilty’ ‘Looking At You’, ‘Pinstriped Arrogance’ and the final HoD song ‘Sail On’. There wasn’t a note out of place, or any signs of lack of enjoyment on the faces of any of the protagonists on stage, and the audience lapped it up too!
It was at this point that Nev announced the #Berniefest and then rattled into the Whitesnake/Bernie Marsden penned track ‘Fool For Your Lovin’ with full on audience participation in the chorus. To follow that the band added the Skin track ‘House Of Love’ and a track I was not familiar with called ‘Another Sunday’.
Overall, this was a brilliant night by both bands, and as well as HoD up the mountain, I really think its about time that Fireroad made their debut at #steelhousefestival in 2024.