Every year in August, Chepstow Castle hosts “Castell Roc - Chepstows Friendly Festival”, which is more a series of concerts rather than an all out Festival. It's also quite an eclectic affair, offering very diverse shows, one night could be rock music, the next could be classical. That being said it is an absolutely terrific Venue. Surrounded by the huge Castle walls, providing not only good music but great food and a very reasonable bar (selling 'proper pints' of 'proper beer'). We are a big fan of this Festival and its relaxed atmosphere....It all adds up to something very special and you can see why the Venue quite rightly attracts some very big names to this little corner of Wales.
Tonight was well badged as “An evening of Blues & Grooves” featuring three great bands that fit into that title pretty much perfectly.
First to hit the Castell Roc stage was “The Worried Men”. If you like your Blues to be fast and furious, well these guys are the guys to see, playing a quick fire array of Blues numbers at warp factor nine. Fronted by the vintage singer/guitarist Jamie Thyer, wielding a vintage Gibson guitar plugged simply in to a vintage Marshall amp. This attitude sums them up. Plain, simple and in your face. The songs are ballsy blues and Jamie's solo work is both rapid and relentless. We wondered how he does it without his fingers catching fire...The band are a hard working bunch regularly seen around the pubs & clubs. 7/10
Next up are a Welsh Band with a tremendous amount of pressure to prove themselves worthy of the huge amount of hype being thrown at them from all angles. The band consisting of Chris Buck on guitar, Sally Anne Evans on vocals & keys, Dominic Hill on bass & Bob Richards on drums kick off a mini tour with this show. With Chris being labelled as “Best New Guitarist 2017” by Total Guitar magazine, the bands fan base including names such as Bernie Marsden, Adrian Smith and Slash as well as BBC Radio 2 hailing them as “unquestionably major talents”, they have to do the business tonight. All this hype without financial backing or even a debut album (until now) is a very rare thing indeed! So, did they live up to all that hype? Put very simply yes...... and then some. With Evan's sublime soulful vocals ringing out around the Castle, interspersed with what can only be described as truly epic guitar work from Buck sitting behind the solid backing, made a massive impact on the crowd and judging by the response, we would be surprised if they are not headlining such shows in the very near future. If you get the chance, see them. If you can't see them, buy the debut album “Write A Better Day” as its a total stunner. 11/10
Finally the headliners “King King” hit the stage and they did it running. It was not actually that long ago that they were at Steelhouse Live Festival in Ebbw Vale, plus a show in Ponty, but judging by the enthusiastic response from the crowd, their fans are just hungry for more, much more. The big kilt clad front man Alan Nimmo is one heck of a front man, great guitarist and so much more than credible singer. The band are definitely a class act and tonight again, showed just why they continue to win awards in the Blues circles. They played a mixture of tracks from the formidable and ever increasing back catalogue, with all the songs wreaking 'quality stuff'. That being said, the opening track “She Don't Gimme No Lovin”, (which is a brilliant tune) does bend itself towards sounding a bit more commercial, which is no bad thing. If you're a King King fan and you were at this show we are sure you enjoyed yourself immensely, if you missed it, well you missed a real belter! If you've not checked out King King, you are missing out. 10/10
We have two highlights of this show. One being the incredibly diverse guitar techniques of Chris Buck who eases himself between countless styles effortlessly (yes he really is that good), and secondly the Festival itself which is a real hidden gem. Inside a stunning Welsh Castle that could have been designed with Concerts in mind. A big stage, quality lighting and an astounding sound (aided by those thick stone walls), with some brilliant line-ups (last year they had a triple header with The Quireboys / FM & Gun which was totally class), oh and some great real ales thrown in to round it off... Check out for the rest of the shows at Castell Roc and definitely keep an eye out for the 2019 shows (we will be).
Photos by Paul Johnson of pixelsintime.
Paul Cairns
Founder, Presenter and Co-Director
