Mearfest is truly different. This is a metal festival for charity and for keeping the spirit of Molly Mear alive. I suggest you read the page Mearfest.org to get the full story behind the festival. I alwyas felt an immediate sympathy for the festival and it's cause as we have our own Molly named Taina who would have been 20 years old this year. So I know what Brian and Claire have been through in a way and admire how they put so much time and effort in creating this beautiful annual gathering. This year would be my third attendance at the festival after the Borderline and Slough editions before Covid.
Over the years it turned into a true underground NWOBHM event, where most of the bands I did not know in advance. This year would be not much different, but I did prepare myself for some bands after checking them out online and really loving their stuff. My first serious gig was January 1983 when I attended the Saints & Sinners tour of Whitesnake. This means that I started gigging just after NWOBHM high. Further in The Netherlands some bands that were big might have not been huge in the UK and vice versa. (Talking about Satan, Jaguar, Tokyo Blade here). So I was ready for first seeing bands and discovering others and man I would have some great discoveries indeed.
New this year was that Magchiel (that is Michael in England) joined me on the trip. We have some traditions while gigging abroad, but more on that when Saturday comes (hinting here).
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After a smooth flight, training into Nunneaton and finding our hotel we arrived in time at the venue. This turned out to be a perfect place for a festival. Upstairs the hall with bar and merch, downstairs a proper metal pub the Crew. The Dead List were the first band of the festival. They played metal of the groovy kind and sounded more American to me. Luckily the voice spoke and sung in English. Warming us up was their task and so they did.
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When a band is called Spreading the Disease one hopes for Thrash metal. After all it is Anthrax' best album. Well again I was put on a wrong foot,as this was possibly the heaviest band on the bill, at least in the vocal department. More groovy metal again I was ready for some NWOBHM by now.
Well my wishes were heard as Seventh Son was one blowing their NWOBHM over us in great fashion. Formed in 1980 I did not know them in the eighties. Those days either you bought an album or a friend of you did, otherwise you would miss bands. The best alternative would being played on Stampij radio's metal show. None of the above I believe and boy did I miss out. This band brought the first very highlight of the festival. In advance I could not find music by them, now got A CD and an EP to correct that. With darkness ruling over the merch area I did not realize their See Emily Play T-shirt is awesome. So that stays for a next show, as I will see this lot again, even if they stated noone wants to invite them to play live apart from Mearfest, This show alone was worth the whole trip and so much highs were still to follow.
What to think of Cloven Hoof for starters. They now have Harry The Tyrant Conklin on vocals on their latest album Heathen Cross (awesome btw). I believe this was their first ever show in the new line-up. I saw Cloven Hoof before, but with the Tyrant singing songs like Nova Battlestar, Astral Rider or Crack the Whip they upped their game. Actually this line-up was very strong as the young solo guitarist gave us some very spicy solos throughout. You could see that main man Lee Payne was pleased with the band too and they played on and on. I believe some 100 minutes we got and they did not even get to play their "hit" Laying Down the Law. A very nice end of the Friday night, after which we returned to hotel fast, tired of trip and metal.
Saturday morning at breakfast it turned out that we were not the only ones staying at The Chase Hotel. Even Brian and Claire were around at breakfast as many people from the crowd. Talking about the same, this year it was rather international, more so than previous versions I attended. With fans from Belgium, Germany, Sweden and even the USA around this was an internatoional celebration. Now it was Saturday and Magchiel and I have a tradition that day. When going for metal to the UK, we try to combine the trip with a football match in the region. I am a Gashead ever since attending Stampede in Bristol. Now the festival started early and for me music beats football, Magchiel was not liking the foresight of standing 12 hours on his legs, so he opted for football. Got himself a ticket for Leicester - Aston Villa after which our ways parted till the evening.
Clientelle opened the day, an acoustic duo. Now I am not that much into acoustic sessions by bands, but this turned out to be a very pleasant opening. guitar and (very good) vocals bringing us 30 minutes of music. I don't take notes during shows, but the finale was great when Rock and Roll woman was sung, moaning and bitching when she does not get what she wants (or something along those lines).
Next band were General Jack and I found the trend for the Saturday. All bands would have good if not great vocalists. Here there rock was not too heavy, but still very pleasant to my ears. Their T-shirts were in strong liquor style, but meanwhile I fell in love with Belhaven Black in the Crew. Actually a second theme of the day now became clear as well. Where is te drummer. The huge drumset blocking centre stage at the back turned out to be from Thunderstick today's headliners. This meant all day the other drummers were sat in a corner behind the band. I guess no other solution could be found, but sad for the drummers today I felt.
Slander were another new band to me and wow they blow me away. They were formed in 1990. Their Heavy metal is heavy with a bite and their presentation was lively and dragging you into their show if you wanted or not. This is exactly what I love about this festival, making new discoveries. For me Slander came, metalled and conquered at least one new fan. The vocalist Whitty did win the price for the most alive presentation to me. This band played so tight and bulldozering onwards that their 40 minutes or so flew by. I thankfully picked up their two CD's and playing one now.
Due to a late arrival of another band Tröjan would be next. Now I was looking very much forward to them as I recently bought the box the complete Tröjan and Taliön recordings '84 - '90. Their NWOBHM is off the fast and furious kind. Well expectations might have been high, but Tröjan had no issues in meeting them, if not surpassing. This is exactly the kind of metal I love. Fast guitars, strong solo's and good vocals over it all. My only worries after this set were if I had seen the best of the day with the double Slander/Tröjan and it would be downwards from here. Well the first a definitely maybe, but the second a gladly no. I proudly wore my Tröjan Tee on the flight back home.
Rhabstallion were on next and when I recently ordered some CD's I found they just released a new album Bat Shit Crazy and added it to my order. Their music is more mid tempo, but again vocals are very nice. This band rocked on, to a slihtly emptier hall due to fatigue and needed food breaks I guess. I liked their set focussing a lot on their new album and they did bring the most varied Tees in red blue and even pink available. As I promised Josie not to bring five shirts again I passed.
The next band would be yet another very positive surprise. Overdrive formed in 1977, but some band members were at the time a blink in their grandfather's eye. This meant a mix of older and younger band members, but what a perfect mix they made. A great vocalist gave us even a ballad he hates and the band were steaming hereafter. As guitarist Tracey also played with Wicthfynde back in the day, the set was closed with Give 'em Hell. A highlight of the day for the nostalgics among us. On the merch front I made a mistake here. I intended to pick up their new CD, but did not do so immediately, as I needed another Belhaven Black first. Then the footy was on and when I remembered some two hours later their merch had left the building. Great band though so hoping to seeing them again.
If Mearfest holds one houseband they must be GanG from France. Even if not teh full band I saw their vocalist on stage in Slough and they played as a band before too. Now I was suffering from a food need a bot, so they were the band I did not see in full. Thei rheavy metal sounded good and tight , but the falafel wrap from across the street won after a while.
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Sacrilege are a weird one for me. They often come to Holland, but never when I get the chance to see them. 2024 shall be no different as I am at Progpower when they play Eindhoven. In England I did see them two times before at Mearfest and at The Rock Den. A strong band who now had two new members. Well that did not mean they got less good as the professor on guitars soloed away while on fire. The band was very good and they even wrote a song about Mearfest which was played of course. Good seeing them on stage again. The battle jacket Bill won at the Raffle fit him well.
Saturday did not have one, but two special guests and I was very much looking forward to the second one Gypsy's Kiss. The top of the Iron Maiden family tree (Steve Harris co founded the band) are celebrating 50 years of existence (Fok me, you look far too young for that). I checked them out, found some clips online and ordered 74 and Heat Crazed Vole hereafter. So I knew their songs and was curious how their mid paced rock would come over alive. Well that was yet another feast and the final highlight to me of this Mearfest. A great band that came over sympathetic on stage and later on in the hall. Enough dry English humor inbetween songs made this one great feats to me. On setlist.fm you can find no songs on any of the bands that played (audience too old for that) but I remeber great versions of Smoke and Mirrors, Better than Me and Heat Crazed Vole at least. They also had keyboards on stage you could actually hear. 50 years of existence (wit ha 40 year break) and still sounding very fine, I loved this set.
Headliner on the Saturday were Thunderstick. When hearing that name I think of Samson. I did not know any music by the band Thunderstick really. Before they kicked off the huge drumset was hidden as many attributes and gates were to be placed still. When they came on, a few things stood out. Lots of attributes really. The first female vocalist of the festival, but the colourfull clothing and many attributes made this a show too watch possibly more than to hear. The vocalist at one point even got sawn into half, to recover fully later on. Clothes were changed and the spectacle was there to watch, but the songs were missing a bit of a punch for me. So Thunderstick are more a band to watch, than to listen to on CD, at least to me. With the circus going on, they were an appropiate ending of a very succesfull Mearfest. Well not acomplete ending as in the Crew a metal cover band would give us Maiden, Saxon Leppard, AC/DC and more still. Such a fine festival came to an end closing down over breakfast the next morning. I can't express thanks and admiration to Claire and Brian for pulling this off in such a fine way again. Very pleased with some great new discoveries and proven highlights of bands I knew in advance I believe the only aim can be returning in 2025.
