It was just after 1pm and openers ROADSTAR kicked off the day’s festivities. The largely unknown young Welsh rockers actually didn’t do a bad job as they showed plenty of confidence and certainly weren’t overawed by the huge stage and massive sun-soaked audience who were now desperate for some live action, with the festival gates having been open for over an hour.

The tunes were upbeat, groovy and had more than a hint of classic 80′s rock with opener ‘Killer’ causing more than a headbang or too and the ultra-catchy ‘Lets Get Started’ was an outstanding little number. These guys are worth keeping an eye on – well played lads!

After a short technical delay (no bass guitar!), patriotic American guitar legend TED NUGENT ripped through a short ‘best of’ set, wooing the audience with his stylish guitar licks and bags of yankee cockiness.

No prizes for guessing the highlight of the set, described by the man himself as the world’s greatest guitar lick, ‘Cat Scratch Fever’ was undoubtedly one of the day’s best moments and it has to be said that overall Nugent’s inclusion was a definite success with his exuberant style raising a smile on the face of most of the crowd – only his foul mouth probably let him down with plenty of parents and young kids in attendance.

Next on the bill were American heavy metal legends QUEENSRYCHE, who on paper seemed a little out of place on the strictly ‘classic rock’ line-up. The set they delivered was a hybrid of the classic ‘Operation Mindcrime’ concept album and it’s brand new sequel ‘Operation Mindcrime II’.

The performance was as tight as ever from QUEENSRYCHE and the added dramatics (including frontman Geoff Tate wielding a gun) were also pretty impressive, if a little over the top. However, despite the quality of the QUEENSRYCHE material and performance, they didn’t hugely set the crowd alight thus reiterating my earlier point about their place on the bill. Perhaps the slot would have been more ideal for a more straight ahead rock act such as Y&T or SAXON, particularly considering the array of the latter’s t-shirts on show in the audience. Maybe next year?

It was now time for some home-grown talent, and the crowd’s reaction to the arrival of THUNDER was proof of just how popular these boys have become in recent years, particularly following last year’s very well received ‘Magnificent Seventh!‘ album. Today though, it was the classics that dominated the set with a noteworthy highlight being debut album power ballad ‘Love Walked In’ which was performed with all the emotion that came across on the original.

Vocalist Danny Bowes was the best frontman of the day, having an excellent rapport with the crowd – including the announcement of the England football team’s 6-0 win over Jamaica, a game that had just taken place. Overall, THUNDER delivered a top performance and fully justified their place high up on the bill.

Next up were the American Arena rock institution JOURNEY, playing what amazingly was their first English date for 20 years. JOURNEY are now lead by vocalist Steve Augeri, who proved that on the live stage (as well as in the studio) his voice is more than equal to the challenge of replacing original frontman Steve Perry.

One of the best moments of the day had to be the performance of a trio of the best power ballads of all time in ‘Faithfully’, ‘Open Arms’ and ‘Don’t Stop Believin’. For me, this is what JOURNEY do best and not many do it better. Arguably the most highly regarded guitarist in AOR is JOURNEY mainman Neil Schon, and his efforts today were nothing short of superb, but it was drummer Dean Castranova who stole the show with an outstanding vocal performance on ‘Where were You?’ confusing the crowd into thinking Steve Augeri had disappeared into thin air!

All in all, JOURNEY were technically excellent and the reaction of the audience (which including a fair few of their loyal followers) would certainly indicate that there is enough interest to ignite the possibility of a JOURNEY headline UK tour sometime in the near future – fingers crossed.

Just after the sun set behind the towering stage, it was time for the penultimate act of the day, the legendary ALICE COOPER. A man who needs no introduction and always guarantees a top performance both visually and musically – and today wasn’t about to be an exception.

The setlist was an excllent cross-section of ALICE COOPER’s career taking in newer highlights such as ‘Woman of Mass Distraction’, but never forgetting the ageless classics such as ‘I’m Eighteen’, ‘Schools Out’ and sing-a-long set opener ‘Department of Youth’. Vocally, the man himself was in top form and his band too sounded on top of their game with KISS member Eric Singer producing a typically pummelling performance behind the drums.

The show was finished with the now infamous medley with ALICE COOPER having various things done to him (mostly by his daughter!), resulting in the removal of his head via a guillotine – brilliant entertainment! However, that wasn’t quite the end as COOPER soon resurrected himself to perform a fabulous encore of ‘Poison’ and ‘Wish I Were Born in Beverly Hills’ rounding off a top show in style. ALICE COOPER rocked, and judging by the crowd’s reaction, you could have easily been mistaken for thinking that the day was over, and you had just seen the headline act.

Of course though, that wasn’t all. One of the largest rock acts ever to come out of the UK, the mighty DEEP PURPLE today had the honour of closing the show. It’s not quite the classic DEEP PURPLE we all remember, with no Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord, however, Ian Gillan is still backed up by a high calibre of musicians and with the success of last year’s ‘Rapture of the Deep’ record, DEEP PURPLE are once again somewhere close to top form.

From the opening notes of ‘Pictures of Home’, it was there for all to see that DEEP PURPLE were certainly up for the show and ready to do utmost to ensure the ‘Monsters of Rock’ climax lived up to expectations.

A couple of songs were played from the new album with the title track ‘Rapture the Deep’ about the best. More warmly appreciated though were classics such as ‘Space Truckin’ and ‘Hush’ – although mindblowingly impressive were the guitar skills of Steve Morse during a mini-jam with Roger Glover towards the end of the set – this guy can play some mean guitar!

The only real scar on DEEP PURPLE’s performance was a very disappointing vocal performance from Ian Gillan. The signs of his advanced years are definitely beginning to show as tonight he failed to hit the vast majority of the high notes, often resulting in desperate screams and regular pleas for audience participation. Still, how can you knock a headliner who are able to end the set with such gems as ‘Smoke on the Water’, ‘Black Night’ and ‘Highway Star’ – what better music is there to listen to at 10.30pm on a warm summers night after a few pints of ale?

Overall, the day had been thoroughly enjoyed by all and the ‘Monsters of Rock’ Festival 2006 was undoubtedly a major success. Excellent weather blessed a very well organised festival, and first and foremost the lineup catered 100% for the classic rock fan and not a single band failed to deliver the goods. See you next year!

Ratings:

ROADSTAR- 4.0/5.0

TED NUGENT- 4.2/5.0

QUEENSRYCHE – 3.8/5.0

THUNDER – 4.3/5.0

JOURNEY – 4.4/5.0

ALICE COOPER – 4.7/5.0

DEEP PURPLE – 3.6/5.0

Review by James Allman