REVIEW: Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024 with Michael Monroe, VHB, Chris Holmes & The Damn Truth

The third day at the 11th Planet Rockstock

The Damn Truth at Planet Rockstock 2024

Author: Steve BeebeePublished 1st Dec 2024

As Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ famously informed us, “we’re halfway there”. If anything, the action at Planet Rockstock becomes even more intense at this point, with no fewer than six bands making their presence known on The Graham Harding Stage.

Saffron Gorman

Those ready to rock at 11am witness the welcome return of Northern Ireland’s Saffron Gorman – she played Trecco Bay with her previous band at 2023’s Winter’s End, and impresses this morning with new outfit The Black Eagle Band. Painted As Monsters’ shadowy alt rock is a welcome diversion, but it’s The Heat Inc that are the first outfit to really capture the imagination.

The Heat Inc

You’re likely to hear a lot more about the London quartet, partly because they’re very good and partly because they’re very good without sounding like anyone else. It’s dark without being goth, heavy without being metallic, tuneful without being cliched – basically this is a band baking its own cake, one of the hardest things to do. Any way you slice it, ‘Draw Blood For Proof’ is a killer song.

Ransom

Lovers of more traditional fare are well suited with Ransom, the nation’s self-proclaimed ‘greatest pub rock band’, while the more alternative leaning The Black Vultures mark themselves as ones to watch via buzzsaw guitars and cool, off kilter hooks. Gypsy’s Kiss have the strange honour of sitting at the top of the Iron Maiden family tree – they once boasted no less a bassist than Steve Harris in their ranks. Having reformed in 2018 (without Harris, obviously) they’re probably sick of hearing about it, and their no-nonsense hard rock is worth a listen.

King Kraken

Bernie Marsden Stage openers King Kraken won a poll to land this slot, and it doesn’t take more than a minute to understand why. Planet Rock listeners like loud guitar music and if you want a working, living definition of such a thing, these guys are it. Like early Pantera or even Metallica, ‘Reaper’ goes full pelt before riding out via a plunging time change, but the seasoned South Wales metalheads save the best for last in the shape of ‘Chainsaw Saviour’.

The Damn Truth

Lee-la Baum, singer and guitarist with Montreal’s beautifully feral The Damn Truth sure knows how to celebrate her birthday. Out she comes, beaming the sunshine smile that she will wear throughout, waving an incense burner around the stage. Onwards they plough with the ecstatic ‘This Is Who We Are Now’. During instrumental sections the band move together in sinewy, sensuous harmony as their roots-filled music works its voodoo. Fans David and Angela are invited on stage for a thankfully successful marriage proposal, before Lee-la leads us into the buoyant riffs and melodies of ‘Only Love’. If you were there, you shared in the sheer joy of this special band’s practised magic.

David proposes to Angela during The Damn Truth's set

How in hell does W.A.S.P. legend Chris Holmes, supposedly long fallen into self-inflicted hardship, follow that? Well, how about this for starters? ‘On Your Knees’, ‘L.O.V.E. Machine’, ‘Blind In Texas’, ‘Sleeping (In The Fire)’, ‘Wild Child’… Oh, and yes, Chris and band (fronted superbly by Oliver Tindall) even play that predatorial W.A.S.P. classic so notorious we cannot even name it. It all evokes memories of the days when heavy metal was at its most ribald, in your face and consciously confrontational. Chris Holmes was born to be wild – but thankfully, incredibly, miraculously, he is still with us.

Chris Holmes

So too, much to our gratitude, are the Von Hertzen Brothers, successfully making a fourth Rockstock appearance – and it’s a contender for their most memorable yet. The array of instrumentation and open-mindedness of the songwriting create the impression that pretty much anything is possible. ‘Flowers And Rust’ and ‘Sunday Child’ erupt in floods of colour, the somehow comforting vocal harmonies of the latter lighting up the very rafters. It’s the aural equivalent of lying on your back in a field watching the aurora work its magic. The quite brilliant ‘All Of A Sudden, You’re Gone’ snares all eyes, as one, to the stage. The Finns are now light bulbs and we’re just moths. It was written during the pandemic and if you lost anyone to that nightmare this song is frankly heartbreaking. But there lies the power of music, and there are few more soul-searching exponents than this unique collective.

Von Hertzen Brothers

A legend is built in the telling, the passing of stories from one generation to the next, and sometimes those legends have the feel of fiction. To see such a legend in front of your disbelieving eyes, however, obliterates any suggestion of hyperbole. Were it not for a tragedy that claimed the life of their drummer, Hanoi Rocks – fronted by tonight’s headliner Michael Monroe – would have become one of the biggest rock acts of the 1980s. Tonight we’re seeing that legacy for ourselves, and it’s immense.

Michael Monroe

Still somehow the same blonde bombshell dynamo at 62, Monroe moves like a man half his age, and when he doubles up on the mic with bassist Sam Yaffa, also ex-Hanoi, it’s like actual time travel. Yaffa’s bass riff into ‘Motorvatin’’ is a shudder-inducing moment and Monroe tooting on a crimson sax during ‘Underwater World’ is another, two among many. There’s the Mockney sleaze and four-part harmonies of ‘Boiler’ – that laddish humour coupled with guitar tones from Steve Conte and Rich Jones that could take down tanks. The end of night coupling of Hanoi punk classic ‘Malibu Beach Nightmare’ with their iconic reinvention of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Up Around The Bend’ are like fireworks going off in all four pockets at once – a reminder not just of the glories that could have been, but a seal on the victory that very much still is.

Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024 in photos:

Saffron Gorman

Saffron Gorman opens The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Saffron Gorman

Saffron Gorman opens The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Saffron Gorman

Saffron Gorman opens The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Saffron Gorman

Saffron Gorman opens The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Saffron Gorman

Saffron Gorman opens The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Saffron Gorman

Saffron Gorman opens The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Saffron Gorman

Saffron Gorman opens The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Painted as Monsters

Painted as Monsters play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Painted as Monsters

Painted as Monsters play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Painted as Monsters

Painted as Monsters play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Painted as Monsters

Painted as Monsters play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Painted as Monsters

Painted as Monsters play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Heat Inc

The Heat Inc play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Heat Inc

The Heat Inc play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Heat Inc

The Heat Inc play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Heat Inc

The Heat Inc play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Heat Inc

The Heat Inc play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Heat Inc

The Heat Inc play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Ransom

Ransom play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Ransom

Ransom play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Ransom

Ransom play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Ransom

Ransom play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Ransom

Ransom play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Black Vultures

The Black Vultures play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Black Vultures

The Black Vultures play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Black Vultures

The Black Vultures play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Black Vultures

The Black Vultures play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Black Vultures

The Black Vultures play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Black Vultures

The Black Vultures play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Black Vultures

The Black Vultures play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Gypsy’s Kiss

Gypsy's Kiss play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Gypsy’s Kiss

Gypsy's Kiss play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Gypsy’s Kiss

Gypsy's Kiss play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Gypsy’s Kiss

Gypsy's Kiss play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Gypsy’s Kiss

Gypsy's Kiss play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Gypsy’s Kiss

Gypsy's Kiss play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Gypsy’s Kiss

Gypsy's Kiss play The Graham Harding Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

King Kraken

King Kraken open The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

King Kraken

King Kraken open The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

King Kraken

King Kraken open The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

King Kraken

King Kraken open The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

King Kraken

King Kraken open The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

King Kraken

King Kraken open The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

King Kraken

King Kraken open The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

King Kraken

King Kraken open The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

King Kraken

King Kraken open The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

King Kraken

King Kraken open The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

Darren Redick

Darren Redick introduces The Damn Truth

The Damn Truth

The Damn Truth play The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Damn Truth

The Damn Truth play The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Damn Truth

The Damn Truth play The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Damn Truth

The Damn Truth play The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Damn Truth

The Damn Truth play The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Damn Truth

The Damn Truth play The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Damn Truth

The Damn Truth play The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Damn Truth

The Damn Truth play The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Damn Truth

The Damn Truth play The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Damn Truth

The Damn Truth play The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Damn Truth

The Damn Truth play The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Damn Truth

The Damn Truth play The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Damn Truth

The Damn Truth play The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Damn Truth

The Damn Truth play The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Damn Truth

The Damn Truth play The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Damn Truth

The Damn Truth play The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024

The Damn Truth

The Damn Truth play The Bernie Marsden Stage on Saturday at Planet Rockstock 2024