As every year around this time in October, fans from all over the world gathered in Nottingham for a long weekend of live music again this year. And again, Robin Hood’s very own Nottingham hosted the already eighth edition of Firefest, the ultimate festival for AOR & melodic rock fans. For a period of three days, the Rock City was the place to be for artists & fans of this genre that currently is undergoing a true revival. A few years ago, FM and Romeo’s Daughter played a special reunion show for this event and also this year, the Firefest team managed to reunite several forgotten glories, some never even having played in the UK before. After 3 days, 18 bands and a long journey back home, yours truly came back with the following review.

English rockers Serpentine had the honour to open this year’s edition on Friday. Earlier this year, Matt Black replaced Tony Mills (who moved to Norway), which seems an excellent move. Although not a household name, Black has a solid set of vocal cords that excellently fit the commercial rock of this five piece and certainly equals the level of Tony Mills. The many gigging during the past few months resulted in a tight performance with guitarist and Zakk Wylde look-a-like Chris Gould in full motion. A second album has already been recorded (admittedly again with Mills), but judging from their performance here the future for Serpentine looks bright.

Sure, this festival attracts mostly middle aged people, but that there is a future too was proven by the ‘young wolves’ of Houston. Their eponymous debut from last year was right on target with pure 80s AOR and tonight’s expectations were evidently high. Eagerly and enthusiastically – sometimes even too much -, they rushed through their set with the will to prove themselves. This is especially true for singer Hank Erix. However, with a backbone of great songs as ‘Pride’, ‘Hold On’ and ‘I’m Alive’ this Swedish band succeeded in their mission. At the end of their set, producer Ricky Delin stepped up to help them sing Touch’s ‘Don’t You Know What Love Is’.

It took him ten years to come up with a second solo album, but when ‘Diamond Blue’ finally hit the racks last year, it proved well worth the wait. Terry Brock (Strangeways, Giant, The Sign, Slamer) is a very occupied man and it has been a long time since his last solo performance. I had a secret, high hope that buddy songwriter Mike Slamer would join him on stage tonight, but that seemed wishful thinking. Nevertheless, with the full backing band of Valentine we got to see a bunch of superb musicians who delivered the goods. Terry just had to add his unique vocals. However, after ‘Face In The Crowd’ and ‘Another Chance’ it was clear that Brock’s voice wasn’t in full shape. The difficult parts were mostly professionally avoided. With The Sign’s ‘Forever Again’, ‘Broken’ and the title track of his latest album the set list was well chosen and very enjoyable, but it lacked that extra touch, which was a pity. The Celtic influenced ‘Coming Home’ and Valentine’s ‘Soul Salvation’ ended this set on a positive note in the end.

Jimi Jamison’s performance last year was regarded as best of the weekend overall and that earned him a new invitation for this year, as a headliner this time. That that decision wasn’t a fluke, we could immediately hear from opener ‘It’s The Singer Not The Song’ where Jamison reached his best level, the one we all know from his Survivor heyday. With the same backing band, including class guitarist Tommy Denander, he brought a wonderful nostalgic set of mainly Survivor songs whom everyone sang along to. Besides classics ‘Rebel Son’, ‘High On You’ and ‘Burning Heart’, this time forgotten songs as ‘Oceans’ and ‘Desperate Dreams’ were given their time in the spotlight too. Also ‘Blood On Your Money’ from Jamison’s former band Cobra, and the new Kimball/Jamison composition ‘Chasing Euphoria’ passed in welcome review. On top of this, during Baywatch tune ‘I’m Always Here’, the Firefest crew took the stage, completely dressed in red Baywatch shirts and equipped with surfboards. A hilarious moment! It was past curfew time when this party ended with the obvious ‘Eye Of The Tiger’. If you missed both Jamison’s impressive shows at Firefest, you might want to obtain his new ‘Live At Firefest’ DVD!