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Fragile Things. A great start to the weekend, they take the stage with attitude, and long journeys are soon forgotten to the sound of their tuneful, somewhat sleazy rock, Richie Hevanz making full use of the stage walkway. Following, are a band from my part of the world, Departed. This is a band finding a new lease of life and potentially ready for a big step up. They went down brilliantly at Download and their reception here is just as enthusiastic. Mark Pascall brings a voice with range and power as well as commanding stagecraft, Ben Brookland cranks out some glorious riffs, Howie Spring has a mane that is designed to be flung around, and new drummer Matt Chalk looks like he has been there for life. Their sound is pure classic rock, and absolutely perfect for the Steelhouse crowd. They don’t come much more local and loved than Phil Campbell, and as he wanders out from the side of the stage with low strung guitar and rock star shades, the crowd go nuts. With Phil Campbell and The Bastard Sons we get a mix of old and new stuff that goes down a storm. Introducing Silver Machine, there is a dedication to the members of Motörhead that have unfortunately passed on before the band lay waste to that classic with one of the most powerful versions I have heard. When they follow with “Ace Of Spades”, every person present joins in with passion and I would swear Lemmy heard and had a smile. Friday at Steelhouse has traditionally been a sort of freebie, a cheap date to keep those who turned up early occupied, but this year the festival was a complete sell out, and the arena was pretty much full by the time Stone Broken took the stage. This is a band making all the right moves. They have a huge social media following with the “Broken Army”, great stage presence, and all the right visuals, musical ability and a “brand” that a band in this era need. Could they really headline after being fairly low down the bill last year? Absolutely! “Heartbeat Away” is a perfect song to open a set. It immediately sets the tone for what we are going to get; a bloody good show with catchy, well crafted songs. There are little examples of how they are looking to broaden their style, particularly the piano version of “Anyone”. Rich Moss confesses afterwards that he has never played the piano live to a crowd like this, and how nervous he was, but he needn’t have been, as it was delivered perfectly. The bond between fans and band is never clearer than the encore. A photo of a long time fan of the band is displayed on the screens, and Moss explains that he had passed away of cancer and that the last show he saw was their set at last year’s festival. He dedicates the encore to him, and even without knowing him personally, you could feel the emotion amongst those that did. A really classy thing to do in one of their biggest gigs yet. Stone Broken truly are a band on the verge of something big. For me, they now need to find their own style so other bands begin to be called “a bit like Stone Broken” rather than hearing their influences quite so clearly in their music. If they can do that with their next release, then the sky truly is the limit for these likeable, canny Midlanders. Review and photos: Rob Wilkins Day two review here. [gallery type='flickr' user_id='132278830@N06' view='photosets' photoset_id='72157696607533392' media='photos' columns='3' tag_mode='any' sort='date-posted-desc' per_page='55' layout='square' caption='title' thumb_size='s' main_size='z' ]]]>
