By David O’Neill

Poster for Steelhouse 2024Well if my musings for days one and two didn’t inspire you to snap up some of the few remaining tickets for Europe’s highest festival, then maybe those for day three will do something for you.

KIcking things off on the final afternoon will be young Australian songstress Cassidy Paris, a massive talent who has been on our radar for quite some time, having most recently featured on our Singles Club Daily Pick earlier this month. I saw her a few months ago on a tour but cannot remember where or who she was supporting. What I do know is that this is going to be another great hangover set worth getting up for.

Now another young man who has been to Steelhouse almost as much as me is Dan Byrne. He has been persistently touring the ÜK over the past 12 months and made his Steelhouse solo debut last year. He has also been on tour singing with Myke Gray. He has an incredible voice so if you missed him last year (and the year before with Revival Black) give the lad your huge Steelhouse support this year.

If you really want to see a guitar slinger extraordinaire then Jared James Nicols is your man. I first saw him supporting Wayward Sons and again at Steelhouse a good few years ago. With plenty more music under his belt this is going to be a true guitar masterclass.

However, my potential band of the day is going to be Canada’s The Commoners. A blues/rock band with really good songwriting and musical skills, rammed witj catchy hooks and riffs  can guarantee you will be glad you saw them. My first introduction to them was as support for Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton in SWX in Bristol and they blew me away. So much so that I mentioned to the band that they would be just right for Sunday afternoon at Steelhouse. I even told Max Rhead the same, and lo and behold-here they are. I can here everyone singing along to ‘The Devil Teasin’ Me’ already!

Next up are New York alt/rock revolutionaries The Last Internationale. With lyrics that can be thought provoking and sometimes address a wide variety of social issues, there may be  division in the crowd at this point.  The vocals of Delila Paz strike me as a bit late 60’s rock/soul protest songs and she sounds a bit like Marianne Faithful.  They have been touring with a wide variety of artists from Robert Plant to The Who, so they have a considerable following of rock legends. This might seriously get the crowd going, it impressed me!

Living Colour have previously graced the Steelhouse Stage and the American political social commentary via a mix of heavy metal, funk, hip hop and punk will continue the international theme for the day. Whilst many will know them for the film Living Colour from the ’90s, and the track ‘Cult of Personality’, I think many will be surprised by the later music such as ‘Thousand Lifetimes’ as it is a bit more alt rock and may garner a bigger crowd than the Sunday early evening crowd has a tendency to deliver.

Sunday’s “special guests” slot goes to Mr Big on their farewell tour. With hits like ‘Addicted To That Rush’, ‘Green Tinted 60s Mind’ and ‘Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy’, this could be a great choice for Sunday from the organizers of Steelhouse.

Now we all know that the majority of Steelhouse regulars are of a certain age, shall we say. As a result of this “lifetime experience” of music that there will undoubtedly be a large contingent of Thin Lizzy fans in the audience and so a certain Mr Ricky Warwick and The Al-Fu$Kin-mighty will undoubtedly get a huge welcome as the Sunday night headliners. Now, Mr Warwick has appeared at Steelhouse on a few occasions with both Black Star Riders (2014, 2018) and Thin Lizzy (2019 Black Rose anniversary set) so an opportunity to see himself, Stumpy, Floyd London and Tantrum reunited at the top of the mountain s going to be too good to miss.

That’s it for my preview of Steelhouse 2024, see you from the photopit – or, better still, at the bar! Hopefully with the sunshine too!