Hopping onto the back of my boyfriend's motorbike is always the best way to start work at a festival, and when said festival is less than 10 minutes ride away from my comfortable bed, all the better I say!  Welcome to High Voltage Festival, custom built by rock fans, for rock fans.  It's kind of odd walking around Victoria Park with music coming from every direction and seeing high-rise blocks of flats within touching distance of where I'm standing.  This is testament to the fact that not all festivals need to be held in a field in the middle of nowhere.

Saturday

Getting my bearings straight away with a bacon roll, I head to the press area to check out where I have to be and when.  It's still fairly quiet, so off I roam to see which bands I can catch live between my interviews begin.  Unfortunately, interviewing and reviewing doesn't allow me to see everything but if the God's of Classic Rock are with me, I've planned my two days well enough to be able to catch highlights of the bands that I've been wanting to see play a festival stage or maybe haven't seen before ... it's kind of all worked out like this ...

So catching Black Spiders over on the Metal Hammer Stage I'm once more over impressed with these rockers who, as they always seem to successfully manage, had the whole crowd with their middle fingers extended screaming, "Fuck You, Black Spiders", 'Just like a Woman' is quickly becoming my favorite track and it's played with so much grit that even the dust flying around us seems tame.  'St Peter' seemed to be a crowd favorite too.  This leaves me very much looking forward to catching up with the boys backstage a bit later.

Orange Goblin's vocalist Ben Ward does a fine job in making the stage appear far too small for his frame!  Playing an incredibly raucous set and declaring that High Voltage was all about Ronnie James Dio they play 'Cities of Frost' which is uncompromising and the closest influenced sounding Black Sabbath song. Walking back to the press area, I manage to catch The Answer introducing a song "from a very famous Australian rock 'n' roll band" and I slow my pace in the hope that I'm going to hear an AC/DC track but alas this was not to be, but they were still pretty impressive with a cover of Rose Tattoo's 'Rock 'n' Roll Outlaw'.

Interviews at festivals often mean you hang around backstage waiting on previous interviews to finish or watching PR guys running around trying to find their bands. Bigelf were no different until their PR girl came back and told us that vocalist, Damon Fox had collapsed and been taken to hospital.  I was absolutely gutted as I couldn't wait to have a jibe with him about being Wonka Metal and the fact that he had been dressed up in his full Wonka battle wear for hours in the blazing sun ... I do hope he's ok though!

I've grown up listening to Gary Moore the blues player but today's set sees him playing a far rockier set, which is a real treat.  'Thunder Rising' had a big sound as was 'Where Are You Now" which sounded very Thin Lizzy-esque.  Zappa plays Zappa on the Prog Rock stage are absolutely gob smacking!  I'm a massive fan of Frank's music and despite what naysayers would say, Dweezil's not riding a cash-cow with what some could call the ultimate tribute band, as the prodigal son is a musical genius.  Playing iconic songs in their own style shows off the credibility of each of the musicians and it was with great joy that I videoed 2 kids (around the ages of 10 & 7 I might add!) air guitaring and singing along to the music ... what an awesome start to their lives they will have!

Running back towards the Press Area to take on a few more personal words from various bands, I race straight into the rocking Foreigner fans and manage to catch the opening notes of 'Double Vision'. They set out to make this audience dance and dance they did.  Panicking that I'm going to miss their uber sexy hit 'I Wanna Know What Love Is', I race through my interview and witness what could be the greatest moment in my festival history, sung with a massive backing choir, I'm now quite content that I actually missed Saxon's set to witness a song so powerful that I was rendered to a tearful 13 year old, with all the memories of heartbreak years gone by!

I'm now all set to catch what has been pegged as the show of the weekend, Heaven & Hell.  Butler, Iommi and Appice take to stage and the sombre crowd perks up and cheers their proverbial rock asses off.  Delivering the ultimate tribute to a man gone but not forgotten, there seems to be lots of whispered questions about who the vocalist is.  Well it was none other than Jorne Lande of Masterplan fame who admittedly does a stunning job, but for me it is the joy of seeing Glenn Hughes some how manage to better Jorn's masterful show.  Swaggering through songs like 'The Mob Rules', 'Heaven and Hell' and 'Die Young', there were a few tears, even from the big biker dudes to my left which got heavier when Wendy Dio took to the stage to deliver a message for the cancer charity, Stand Up and Shout.  Phil Anselmo also dashed onto stage during the encore of 'Neon Knights' and snatched the microphone off Hughes, it was a moment that no one was expecting and it couldn't have been made up even in history books!

I only got to catch a snippet of Black Label Society as I was due back in the press area to interview none other than a freshly off stage Glenn Hughes, and what an honor it was to meet such an amazing gentleman who oddly smelt like old wood. Imagine walking into a library with polished floors; it was something like that with undertones of incense!  Wrapping up day one are the bearded beauties, ZZ Top.  Kicking straight in with 'Under Pressure' and the setting sun gives way to comical graphics behind Frank Beard's drum riser.  Of particular amusement to us all though, was the fact that it seems as if Beard has started growing some of the fluffy stuff himself! Playing 'Cheap Sunglasses' gets the sunburnt drunken revelers into fine form and they don't disappoint with hit after hit and a bit of comedy action between Billy and Dusty.  Cue the furry sheep skinned guitars and we know our day is coming to an end ... only to start off with another day of Classic Rocking ... at least I'm not in a dusty tent tonight!

Sunday

As the Quireboys look to open the main stage of day two it's a bit strange to see Paul Guerin actually sound checking himself, when all the other bands seem to have techies!  I personally think this is a band back at the top of their game again right now and front man Spike throws the microphone stand dangerously around the stage with a few near misses of various members' heads.  This is dirty rock, the way I like it.  Is it possible that Spike has matured into his rocking shoes? It certainly sounded like he had during 'Mona Lisa Smiled'.  And this performance is possibly the best I've seen from the Quireboys live!

Back into the press area for a tight schedule of back to back interviews with none other than pioneers, Marillion and Joe Bonamassa to name drop two greats, I then have to leg it as fast as my short pins allow me to leg it, to the opposite side of the field where I'm determined to catch High on Fire, and I end up fucking missing em. I'm gutted, as I absolutely love the band and their foul-mouthed front man Matt Pike.  I did interview him later though so I still managed to get a little bit of stoner loving in my life!

Luckily for technology and for myself, I get a text message off one of the PR guys to say that my next interview is being moved back an hour as he can't get his band out their dressing room which I thought was a brilliant gesture on the band's part as I then got to witness Clutch.  Delivering an incredibly positive psychedelic blues set that even had the beer seller gyrating, they rightfully claim their title as Gods and the audience is left spellbound.

Back up to the Main stage (which is quickly becoming my excuse for a beer stop on the way back to the press area), the legendary Joe Bonamassa is walking on stage to an earsplitting welcome.  He opens with 'The Ballad of John Henry' and proves his worth as an incredibly gifted guitarist and vocalist of outstanding ability.  I'm off backstage to get my Stoner loving in with the Pike and also to catch up with Clutch - my grin is wider than a volcanic chasm et al!  Clutch are off stage but refusing to do any press just yet so I have a hysterical time with Matt who races off refusing to do his next interview in order to catch mates Opeth.  I head out to catch Joe Elliott with his band Down 'n' Outz. (for this read as Joe Elliott plus The Quireboys!), and to be honest I'm not overly impressed, but I did find it a bit refreshing to lie on the grass and relax for a few minutes when Ian Hunter walks on stage and sets off into an acoustic version of 'Once Bitten, Twice Shy' ... the man is a legend.

I then get a message to say that my Clutch interview has now been cancelled and I'm bummed for all of 2 minutes when I suddenly realize that I'm actually now going to be able to watch Down's set instead.  Energetic and in your face, Anselmo delivers song after song and it's looking like they've stolen the title of overall brilliance for me as far as this festival goes.

I've now got 10 minutes to spare so I head over to catch the low-key sounding Marillion, they truly are mesmerizing although I spend my first few minutes crowd watching as I had heard that Fish was in the audience watching too.  Alas, I seem to be a very bad fisherwoman, as I didn't mange to get a bite! Unfortunately I miss Emerson, Lake and Palmer due to more interviews and some networking but from the sounds going on around me they certainly appeared to go down extremely well. 

Overall then High Voltage Festival kicked some serious ass and I' already looking forward to the event in 2011 already (apparently the headliners are already booked).  I'd like to also to take the opportunity to thank Concert Live who gave me live copies of 'mixed in real time' CD's of Marillion, ELP and Asia ... so at least I did get to hear what the fuss was about regarding ELP.  Also maximum kudos to Duff Press for being the stars of backstage and keeping us journo's watered and beered up whilst doing our dirty job.

And don't miss my exclusive High Voltage Festival interviews with Black Spiders, Glenn Hughes, Marillion, Joe Bonamassa and High On Fire, which will be up on Uber Rock later this week.

Photo kudos Ross Cooper, Extant Photography - extantphotography@gmail.com  http://www.extantphotography.co.uk/