The Rock and Bike Festival 2024 review

The Rock and Bike Festival returned for the second year running to the show ground on Longmoor Lane for its 20th anniversary.  Over the previous 19 years it has changed sites numerous times but hopefully this relatively new location will be a venue that they can call home (provided the council give their blessing each year).

This year’s site was compact, which was a wise decision considering the chaos that the rain can cause on a field. The two stages were in separate marquees that were parallel to each other and there was a licensed bar that was accessible from either marquee.

This year the toilets were placed on the outside of the arena. Which even if you were at the furthest point away from the toilets, it was only a two-minute walk to get there. Although I would imagine the organisers did this so that at least if the rain turned the field into a mud pit, at least the toilets would still be accessible.

 

 

As usual there was a child’s play area and a kid’s cinema. It felt like there were more food and drink options than in previous years. There was even a themed toastie stand (The rock and Roll toastie company) where you could order items such as a Metallica toastie or a war pigs toastie, prices ranged from £5 for a Bon Jovi toastie to £8.50 for the Metallica toastie. There was a pizza stall and depending on which pizza you wanted the prices would be around £10. Hot dogs were around £5 again depending which toppings you were wanting to excite your tastebuds with.

For the 20th anniversary, the organisers had managed to book a variety of bands (some new, some old). The main headliner was an unexpected surprise- Showaddywaddy, of course you would be forgiven if like me you wondering if the organisers had lost their minds? Showaddywaddy the seventies pop band given a headlining slot at a Rock music festival? Come on, surely being a rock and bike festival, that would make Showaddywaddy the last band on earth to be invited to play.

Other than that anomaly, the line-up was looking like it would be business as usual with 3 days of music from mostly tribute bands that fell into the category of rock music.

High on DC were headlining the first night, just in case you aren’t familiar with them, they are an AC/DC tribute band and by all accounts a good way to finish the opening day of the festival.

 

 

The second day of the festival saw the return of Ellie Owen who delivered an acoustic set to gently guide the rock and bike crowd into a weekend of heavier rock music. From this point on the music became a bit more of an assault on the senses with various bands doing their best to bring a good mixture of original material and cover versions to the event. Bands such as VOLBEATen entertained the fans with their renditions of Volbeats songs. Even though I am not a huge fan, I was clearly in the minority has quite a few people had turned up to watch VOLBEATen perform. The only song that I was familiar with was “Lola Montez” which VOLBEATen included in their setlist.

UK Chicago Blues Brothers brought a feel-good energetic vibe to the event with their covers of the Blues Brothers music and for a brief moment made us all forget about the rainy muddy field that we were stood in (albeit underneath a marquee).

Ultimate Whitesnake drew one of the biggest crowds of the weekend and gave the fans a good dose of nostalgic rock with songs such as ‘Is this Love” and “Here I Go Again”. This band stood out from most other tribute bands because they included some of the lesser well-known songs by Whitesnake. If you are Whitesnake fan you would be more than happy seeing Ultimate Whitesnake live.

Unfortunately, no matter how good the bands were, none of them were going to be able to compare to the legendary headliner that was Showaddywaddy.

Things didn’t get off to a good start with the set up on stage taking a lot longer than scheduled- therefore delaying the start time. Although to be fair, when you have band like this performing, you would want everything to be perfect. The band members arrived on stage in their colourful suits and got straight down to business.

Once Showaddywaddy started their set, it was nothing short of a blast down memory lane with hits such as “Heartbeat” and “Three steps to Heaven” and of course their number one hit “Under the Moon of Love”. If you are lucky enough to be too young to remember this group in their heyday, they now only have one original member in the form of the drummer- Romeo Challenger who appeared to be happy hiding behind his drumkit and letting the music take the limelight so to speak.

Even though they are not strictly rock music, it was an interesting spectacle seeing how the rock music crowd reacted to a seventies pop band. Thankfully, the crowd welcomed and embraced the music from the chart-topping pop band.

The Rock and Bike Festival crowd had clearly taken kindly to the nostalgic pop tunes of yesteryear and looking around the marquee, it wouldn’t be an understatement to say the tent was rammed to the rafters with people. Some punters were even standing outside of the marquee to try and catch a glimpse of the action.

After such a wonderful trip down memory lane, the bands that were on after Showaddywaddy didn’t really stand a chance, as talented as Floyd in the Flesh (Pink Floyd tribute) and Tom Jovi (hybrid of Tom Jones and Bon Jovi) were. You couldn’t help but feel sorry for them having to follow such a memorable performance.

On the final day of the festival, around mid-day there are usually other things to see as the music takes a backseat and doesn’t start up until 2.30pm. For those lucky enough to have recovered from the previous night and had managed to stagger into one of the marquees. They were greeted with a full-size wrestling ring that had been set up overnight ready for day three. Elevation Wrestling had decided to show off their skills, their bouts were entertaining, and they had both female and male wrestlers showing off their skills. It was a great addition and brought in something a little bit different in terms of variety to the event. Good family entertainment, and the wrestlers even had a bit of tongue in cheek banter with the crowd.

 

 

Once the wrestling had reached its climax, it was time for the motorbike competition in the main arena. Luckily there was a break in the clouds and that big hot golden circular thing in the sky made a rare appearance to ensure there was at least some warmth for this part of the festival.

Before any of the trophies are handed out, the motorbikes are parked in the main arena for attendees to have a walk round and have a nosey. Then the trophies were handed out with each winning bike being ridden towards the trophy stand to be given a handshake by the festival director.

Throughout the duration of the festival there were various things that took place such as Morris Dancing courtesy of the Black Pig Border Morris Dancers. Tattoo and fancy-dress competitions also took place.

Some of the highlights from the final day include a band called Oasis Jam, armed with a guitar emblazoned with a union jack pattern on it, they provided a nice bit of Britpop as they covered tracks by Oasis, as well as including cover versions of the Jams material.

Midnite City were one of the bands that were able to do a full set of their own songs, lead vocalist Rob Wylde (ex TigerTailz) brought a welcome injection of glam metal to the event and with their style of infectious 80s glam music, they were unable to put a foot wrong. They also metaphorically won the award for the most memorable moment of the weekend, when they gave permission for a young child to come on stage and rock out with an inflatable guitar with the band. What an incredible heartwarming moment.

A Foreigners Journey have played the Rock and Bike Festival numerous times and always create a wonderful singalong with the audience on some of the well-known power ballads, to be fair its near impossible not to sing along to ‘I want to Know What Love is’. Their set list was a well-balanced mixture of Journey songs such as ‘Anyway you want it’ and Foreigner hits.

Anti-Nowhere League delivered a full throttle set, and even after all the years of playing live, they still seem able to pack a punch with their delivery of songs such as “So What” and ‘I Hate People’, It was a night of pure unapologetic punk rock at its finest.

Meanwhile back on the other stage, A Foreigners Journey was always going to be a hard act to follow, but thankfully ‘Queen Tribute-Now I’m Here’ were more than capable of raising the bar with songs from the legendary band.

‘Under Pressure’ and ‘Its’ a Kind of Magic’ and ‘Another one Bites the Dust’ to name just a few of the mammoth hits that were included in tonight’s set. Of course, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was always going to be the epic tune that the entire crowd joined in with. There was some concern that the band might over run the 11.30 curfew set by the local council. But on the stroke of 11.30 the band finished.

Rock and Bike Festival is family friendly and really good value for money. Ticket prices started at £38.50 per day, and £71.50 for a full weekend camping ticket per adult. You would be hard pushed to find another festival that offers so much for such a modest price.

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