Night Ranger
HRH AOR Festival
www.hrhaor.com
Neil Mach
T
he most important date in the diaries
of AOR fans [world-wide] is the March
HRH AOR festival, held in North Wales.
We were there on 12th-15th March 2015 to
check out this globally significant event.
We met folk who had travelled from the fourcorners of the globe to get to the camp at
Hafan Y Môr — one guy had travelled all the
way from Georgia to see his favorite bands.
For him, and for many others like him, this
was the greatest concentration of talent
that had been squeezed into one place, for
many years. When news reached us that the
sleazy Swedes Crash Diet could not be with
us [the band are having a terrible time at the
moment - our thoughts go out to you guys...]
we were saddened. But luckily Tigertailz’
stepped into the breach at the last moment
to save the day and to bolster the ranks. Their
superb ‘unplugged’ performance on Friday
was one of the highlights of our weekend.
Exceptional acts of the festival included
the mystery and edginess of Sweden’s heat
H.E.A.T who turned the thermostat up to
‘Point Of No Return’ during their exhilarating
show. And we had funky shenanigans and
swaying sentimentalities from those Californians NightRanger.
Oldham’s DARE’took us back to a better time
and place with excerpts from their ‘Blood
From Stone’ album — and with their wonderfully evocative Celtic-tinged accomplishments. The Poodles provided a gloriously
effulgent set — with the Scandinavians collecting a whole new army of fans and supporters in Pwllheli.
The UK band Romeo’s Daughter [fronted
by female vocalist Leigh Matty] - played a
wonderful unplugged set before their main
electric show on the main stage. Leigh’s
voice was warm, husky and sincere. The
youthfully athletic Swedish outfit Houston
(from nowhere near Texas)— have recently
released their ‘Standing on the Moon’ single.
These lads were passionate, emotive and full
of raw poppy energy. Very light, but pleasantly effervescent.
British melodic hard rockers VEGA played
a remarkable set... and we think that one of
the best performances of the festival was
provided by Stockholm’s Eclipse. Their show
exemplified the emotion, focus and skill that
this kind of band can bring. Songs from their
new album ‘Armageddonize’ were heavy without being harmful. Immediately appealing.
One of our favourite bands over the weekend
was UK’s Fahran — who managed to maintain come togethercipline and professionalism (even though they were told to go on
stage 20 minutes before they expected) to
play a lively show, which was simply breathe
taking in clever vocalization, energetic performance and whizzed-up musical exuberance. Other highlights, for us, included the
ever-reliable Falling Red whose show on the
Sleazy Stage was [largely] a smooth operation with anthems galore and excitement
packed tight into every corner of their neat
songs.
A special mention must go to those Greeks
Phase Reverse whose special brand of heavy-hearted blues, groovy percussions and
darkly oozing vocals - combined with copious hooks and some of the most insanely
addictive riffs we’ve heard in a long period of
time — earned the band plenty of praise and
genuine respect.
It was also great to be re-connected again
with the Welsh female-fronted classic rock
warriors Psycho Kiss who played fans a
bunch of old favourites — and even added a
few new numbers to their repertoire.
The 2015 HRH AOR weekend offered more
bang-for-buck excitement than audiences
could have possibly ever wished for. The performances were sometimes profound, often
sparkling, many times beautiful in their complexity and vibrant musicality, and of course
totally entertaining.
A weekend of smiles and spills, emotions and
commotions, and, of course, all-out partymaking merriment.
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