By DJ Astrocreep
Time for our 2019 instalment of Hard Rock Hell’s AOR festival, in its temporary home of Presthaven Sands, Prestatyn. It’s my first visit to this particular site, though it has previously held HRH events in the past, meaning the locals should have an idea of what Jonni et al are unleashing upon them. Getting in to some mid afternoon sun, I meet up with some friends before taking my place by the sound desk of Stage One to catch the evening’s entertainment.
Main stage openers The New Breed are an emerging hard rock act from Manchester, who seem to be picking a bit of attention up for themselves. While the room isn’t too busy at the start, it improves throughout their set and they seem to capture the audience’s attention as they come in, with an enjoyable sound that seems carved from the ’70s and ’80s rock, with hints at the likes of AC/DC and Aerosmith present in their sound. They acquit themselves well, and while an hour’s set to open a festival is a generous portion of time, though one they use well.
Second up is Knock Out Kaine, an act I’ve caught at previous HRH events and enjoyed. The boys are on decent form again, bar a mic level issue during the first track, rocking out a now quite busy room, with the crowd seeming to take quite well to their new surroundings. With a sound akin to that you’d have heard in the heady days of Skid Row, they work quite well, drawing movement from a good proportion of the crowd. The ballads seem to go down as well as their more upbeat tracks, though the regulars will have seen these guys on enough occasions to know their material quite well. Interest is lost on a couple of occasions when the band’s joking around gets a bit tiresome, but otherwise good enough overall.
Our main support evening is a man with the skill to survive in Dave Bickler, former frontman of Survivor. The room is really busy at this point, though Dave seems to get a lukewarm reaction at first, as he plays from his latest solo record as well as a couple of older tracks. Being a bit worried about his voice prior to his appearance, I was pleased to note that, while obviously it is not as firm as in his youth, it was fairly well preserved, showing better on more familiar songs such as ‘The Game’, which we get quite early in the set. A couple of songs later, it’s time for our first big one of the evening, as ‘Burning Heart’ rings out around the room, which seems to breathe some life into the crowd, who have been muted until now. This continues on through the Survivor heavy set until we get to our obvious set closer of ‘Eye of the Tiger’, where the crowd even manage to almost sing in key, with the audience apparently sated following this. Slightly creaky at times – not unexpected given Dave is mid-60s now- but the good bits are very good. A positive contribution.
So on to our headliners, Tyketto, and they are as good as ever. Touring for the 25th anniversary of ‘Strength In Numbers’ recently, we get the album in full, as you would expect. Danny is in fine form, as are the rest of the band, with the polish and poise that so many years in the business bring with them. As always, the crowd support them in full, enjoying the set throughout, singing loudly along. Danny even gets some help from Vega vocalist Nick Workman on biggest hit ‘Forever Young’, coming at the end of the main body of the set. A three song encore finishes with ‘Standing Alone’ – the apparent last song for them to play from the album – which is performed with the usual aplomb, before they take their leave from the stage with the audience sated.
- PHOTO CREDIT: All photos courtesy of SD Photography/HRH AOR. Copyright held by the photographer.
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