Yorkshire Rock and Bikes Show 18th -19th August 2006

This years show was an absolute credit to the show organisers Satan's Slaves Motor Cycle Club. Well organised, well policed (by the club) adequate parking, camping , and no trouble, the event at Squires Cafe Bar was fantastic and so enjoyable. The venue could have been purpose built to host this event as it has everything you need for a comfortable days entertainment. Food and drink,  a camping site with a shower block, good toilets, good security for bikes, it's as near perfect as you could get. Apart from the great music the purpose of the show was to judge the custom bikes there which were of a fantastic quality. Well done to the builders and owners.

Friday night saw Angabart headline on the fold out stage from a curtain side trailer. It's a stage and dressing room all rolled into one. What a great idea! We couldn't attend the first night so we went on the Saturday from mid afternoon. This wasn't ideal because we missed two good bands, T Bone Snake and the 8 piece Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute Aynt Skynyrd. Our mates from Stealer, Tivvy and Mick Sawyer are in that band and I was busting to see them in the big band. By all accounts they were excellent and fresh from their Trillians gig in Newcastle where they had a incredible concert surrounded by Skynyrd fans from Geordie land.

As we arrived in the persistent and heavy rain, I thought I saw Lemmy up on stage. The look, the gruff vocals, the Rickenbacker bass, the "burns" and "tash" the cowboy hat was pure Lemmy. It was actually Motorheadache, and what a great band they are. Musically they are very authentic and "Lemmy" is too, right down to the speaking voice. I loved it! Finishing with Ace of Spades...what else, the substantial sized crowd ignored the rain and sent the band off in great style.

After a short turnaround where the PA played the excellent Dosch CD Money to Burn, the Union jacks were prominent as Iron On Maiden exploded onto the stage. What  great showmanship right from the start. From "Steve Harris" with his foot on the monitor and "Bruce" belting out the vocals....and what great vocals they are. Again the soddened crowd ,especially the young uns, were clinging to the barriers and headbanging to their hearts content. All the favourites were included, The Trooper, Number of the Beast and Phantom of the Opera. Makes you realise how good the real Maiden are and the incredible writing talent of Steve Harris. Outstanding stuff

Troopers, Phantoms, or is this The Number of the Beast? Iron-On Maiden keep British Heavy Metal Alive at Squires!

So after those two "Stadium" bands who's to follow? Well, how about Metallica, or the next best thing ....Feral Circus? With Royston's own James Hetfield, aka Rick Denman, and his band of dark warriors, Feral Circus kept up the huge momentum of this very enjoyable festival, much to the pleasure of the gathering on a damp Squires car park. The PA sounded excellent as Feral Circus took us through 25 years of Metallica's back catalogue and with Rick saying big F words in front of four generations of his family watching from beneath a big sycamore tree. His grandma was giggling like a schoolgirl! It was a comical moment! Apart from their great musical talent this band are great people off stage.

Masters of Puppets, Feral Circus control the crowd at The Rock and Bike Show

Logically, you would have thought following a metal rock band with a rockabilly band would be a dodgy thing to do....but it wasn't as The Cathouse Creepers featuring Darren Juvie the veteran Wakefield rockabilly king rocked the Squires gathering with a brilliant set. The emphasis is on entertainment with this band and for although the genre of music is from a bygone era, it still stands up today...well it does today for me as I'm an old fart who was well versed in 50's style rock and roll in my youth, watching bands like Wild Angels, Dave Lee Sound and Hotfoot Gale. Back to the future and The Cathouse Creepers will be rocking at a venue near you! They're great and they played a fabulous set at Squires. Seeing Darren playing guitar whilst stood on a full sized double bass is a nice memory to have.

Badum, badum badum badum badum badum badum badummmmm. Love it!

During the breaks between bands gave me chance to circulate and talk to Rock of the North people such as Tony Easton (Tony of Cas) who was so taken aback by the quality of the bands, he just said every band had been outstanding on the day! Too true Tony and there were more to come. Tivvy of Stealer, Tony of Cas and myself had an enjoyable chinwag during the day and with a combined age of 169 years we had plenty of reminiscing to do! Nice to see youngsters there too and I had to explain the evils of drink to them just before I went for a pint! Well it's thirsty work being a rock journo....you don't think I do it for pleasure do you!

Next band up were the brilliant Castleford sons, The Spunksters. The Spunksters are a punk orientated band and are as lively as they come. No nonsense loud and proud music from the rebellious late seventies. Sham 69's Hurry Up Harry and Hersham Boys stick in the mind as do their well presented covers, and The Sex Pistols' God Save The Queen and Pretty Vacant were brilliant. It's great to see such a varied line up of talent on one bill and this genre of music is lively and good fun. The band played many more songs from the stars of the time but without taking notes and with it being such a big festival, my memory is failing me just a little bit. Led by the very amiable Lenny, and surrounded by excellent musicians with quality gear (nice Ricky bass), the bands final offering was a good natured  "Nelly the Elephant"  We all loved it. Well done lads, what a great set!

The Spunksters: look good, sound good, and by golly they do you good! Great lads too!

Tension was building by this time as Riff Raff were on next. By this time we were in the company of The Erics who were patiently waiting for their slot to close the festival. Accepting a can of Fosters from the bands hospitality package, we watched together as Riff Raff assembled on the stage and played  an incredible set. Jon the enigmatic lead singer just does the business, he's a superstar and the band behind him are just the same. I keep raving about this band and it's all because they are so good. Bon Scott era AC/DC  material presented as good as this just has to be the dog boll*$! And it is. There was a special treat for the lads as two rather attractive young ladies started disrobing on stage during a fantastic rendition of The Jack. Wives and girlfriends nudged each other and whispered things like "They're not real" and the fellahs stood with their chins dropped in awe of the girls expensive assets. No pictures are available unfortunately as my missus confiscated my camera! This band rocked and the crowd loved them. They are in the top flight of bands in the area and we at RotN love 'em.

Too quick for the shutter of my Mickey Mouse camera (complete with ears), Riff Raff deliver the goods in a blur.

After that spellbinding set, who do you put on next? That's easy, you let The Erics loose with their good fun and great musicianship package. Again the crowd were dancing in front of the stage regardless of the wet car park.They were loving it! The band did their customary high quality and fun set which included Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, and The Wall then across the Irish Sea to pick up U2's Vertigo, hits from Green Day which had air guitarists playing some huge chords and some ladies with very mobile bosoms causing some sea sickness symptoms! They were loving it. They should do too, The Erics are a great party band with a good craic between them and are polished musicians .Finishing with Swords of a Thousand Men and a second encore of Hippy Hippy Shake, the band brought the festival to a reluctant but mighty close at about 11:50 pm. The band were elevated to Gods after this set, and the reason is, they were brilliant!

It's a while since I've had a great day like this one. My thanks to the bands, Harry and Sue of Squires, Mal of Big Nonsense PA ably assisted by Steve "the Big man" and Tony Marchant. A special mention to H of the Satan's Slaves must be made for all his hard work with fellow Slaves since Thursday. The show was well worth the effort and I take my hat off to everyone involved in this brilliant festival and show.