Caz Parker here from MMH The Home Of Rock Radio – usually you’ll find me DJing, interviewing or compering, so I’m going to do my very best to bring to you a review of this fantastic festival.  It’s a mammoth task reviewing a 3 day, 3 stage festival on my own, so I’ll do my best to deliver an overview and my highlights, because if you weren’t there – you missed out, so get it on your radar for 2025!

I’m British so I’ll start with the weather.  Our Achilles heel when it comes to outdoor festivals, will it or won’t it rain? How many layers do we pack? Do we need wellies?  We lucked out – the Gods of Rock n Roll, our Dear Lord Lemmy was smiling on Maid Of Stone this year, not a drop of rain and it stayed so warm into the night I didn’t even need the token hoodie I carried round in my bag every day.  That’s an actual first for me, usually the slightest breeze and I’m layering up.  I mean, there were a fair few sunburnt people, but we’ll take that over soggy and muddy any day!

If you’ve not been before, or previously went to Ramblin Man, the more compact size and scale of Maid Of Stone is infinity better, although I’m sure it’s going to continue to grow.  Three stages all in close proximity, with plenty of food stalls and a huge bar right in the middle, this festival isn’t hard work, it’s just easy and lovely and I really appreciate that as a seasoned festival pro.  No clashes of bands between the Inferno Main Stage and Phoenix Second Stage, however there naturally is for the smaller Firestarter Stage, so you still have to keep an eye on where you want to be when, so you don’t miss any of your faves.

If you upgrade to VIP you get a nice bar and toilets and there’s a ton of picnic tables where you can take a load off or sit down to eat.  There are also some sporadic acoustic shows in the bar tent, which is an extra treat and a little gift bag of goodies for VIP ticket holders.

I found all the staff to be helpful, accommodating and friendly. We’re a good crowd so I guess that helps, but it definitely allows you to come away feeling looked after and considered, and these are the reasons you’ll put a festival on your agenda each year without even knowing the line up, it does matter!

I swear I could just book to sit in a field with my friends and cold beer for a weekend, but let’s face it, it’s the music that brings us all together and makes it a festival and not just a party, so I shall now talk about the bands!

Friday night is the Opening Night and that gets you wristbanded up, settled in and warms you up for the two full-on days that follow.  Literally warmed up this year, it was 35 degrees at its peak on Friday, so I was still melting in the warmth of the evening, but no complaints, it was a delight.  Our very good friends White Raven Down kicked the weekend off with their usual energy and as always got the crowd singing with them to the anthemic Salvation.  They make a big noise for a 3 piece and it’s great to see them on a big stage, totally owning it.

📷 Myke Gray

With there only being the Phoenix stage live on Friday night, it keeps us all cozy and makes it a great atmosphere.  They also have DJs doing sets in between the bands to keep it lively.

We were then treated to Blaze Bayley for his 25^th Anniversary of Iron Maiden set, it’s fair to say it’s the lesser known Iron Maiden era, but Blaze is the consummate performer and he knows how to engage the crowd.  Blaze has the crowd in his hands when he says that he is “having the time of his life, thanks to you guys – you keep me going, I live my dream because of you” and that there was a nasty rumour on socials that he’s retiring.  He said “I’m absolutely not retiring, my gravestone will say NOW I’m retired!”  They finish the show with Blaze inviting us to take the future into our own hands and make it Future Real. I saw a huge queue at the merch tent for meet n greets with Blaze, he’s a good guy and very accommodating of all the fans, because he genuinely appreciates us so much.

📷 Adrian Hextall

Rounding up night one, you can’t go wrong with having Gun headline.  One of my favourite live acts for many reasons, but mainly because they always look like they are having the best time, and that energy is infectious.  The sound was a bit muffly to start, but that soon got on track and the set was bangin’ comprising of new tracks such as Fallen which was written during lockdown and Take Me Back Home, which as Dante said has a “dead easy chorus” and he got the crowd doing “Yeah eh’s” back at him.  They played all the bangers that we love such as Don’t Say Its Over, Everybody Loves Her, Word Up, Better Days, Inside Out and Steal Your Fire. Drummer Paul McManus got on the mic with a heartfelt “thank you guys, what a fucking show”.  Before they closed Dante also iterated “Fantastic fucking night, biggest thanks to you guys, without you there is no music” and followed that with big hit Shame On You and closed with one of their classic covers of Beastie Boys Fight For Your Right.   When the power cut on stage just before the end of the track, it didn’t even matter because the crowd just carried the last few lines at the top of their voices. Night one completed on a high, we may have peaked a little, but that’s what festivals are all about, go big or go home 🤣

📷 Myke Gray

No one’s going home yet though, we got two more full days with all three stages to look forward to.  I can’t comment on the camping vibe as I was in a hotel for this one, so if you need the deets on that you’ll have to tap someone else up I’m afraid.  I was having a decent night sleep, proper shower and hotel breakfast to blow away my hangover, smug bitch, lol.

Saturday and Sunday being full days with three stages, you’ll have to bear with me as I couldn’t be everywhere at once so I’ll cover my highlights for you.  Most importantly, the sun was still shining in epic proportions, which is joyous in itself and more people arrive for these main two days, so the atmosphere across the park is busy but still comfortable.  I never had to queue to get served at the bar, which is a huge win, there were plenty of lovely friendly staff again and of course there is always live music happening at any point.

Fast paced, full throttle Swiss hard rockers Daxx & Roxanne kicked off the Phoenix Stage at 12.30pm with a 45 minute high energy set to wake everyone up and set the bar high.  They never fail to deliver and nailed it as always with their hooky choruses and relentless riffs.  Their set amongst other tracks covered Hard Rockin’ Man, Evil Eyes, Ticket To Rock, Strange Woman, Lust & Love, Faceless, Interstellar and finished on Fast Lane.

📷 Myke Gray

Over on the Firestarter Stage at 1.20pm Blind River delivered half an hour of fist pumping heavy classic rock, with setlist of Punkstarter, Made Of Dirt, Snake Oil and  Second Hand Soul all from their latest album Bones For The Skeleton Thief, with previous hits Acid Tongue and finishing on Can’t Sleep Sober.  They got a great response from the crowd with huge cheers, that’ll do it guys!  Awesome stuff!

Always a big highlight for me is seeing my good friends South Of Salem, I loved seeing them take to the main stage holding the sizeable crowd in the palm of their hands.  SOS know how to put on a show and never fail to deliver, now with a fresh new set including tracks from their latest album Death Of The Party: Jet Black Eyes, Hellbound Heart, Vultures, Stitch To The Wound, Static, Death Of the Party and Left For Dead. From the debut album the classic anthem Let Us Prey kicks the show off, with Made To Be Mine also in the set and finishing on Cold Day In Hell.  The show contains everything you need – killer riffs, anthemic choruses, that we all sing back to them, splitting the audience for the Whoa ohs – always great for thoroughly engaging with us, we love a bit of crowd participation!  And you can’t beat pyro and those big puffy smoke machines to make it visually epic as well.  Frontman Joey Draper always give the audience plenty of eye contact and cheeky smiles and post show spends time in the arena taking to everyone and doing selfies, as do all the band.  I’ve followed and supported them from the start and it’s great to see them gathering more and more support.  I don’t know who hasn’t seen them live yet, but if you’re reading this and you haven’t, you need to.

📷 Myke Gray

Another gorgeous friend of mine Kim Jennett put on an acoustic set for us in VIP tent.  Kim is so warm and friendly with the crowd, you can’t help but love her.  Her set included covers of The Cranberries Zombie with plenty of yeahs and whoas back at her from the audience and she also smashed Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song.  Kim also performed Counts For Nothing, a song written by the awesome Myke Gray (who had his other hat on on Photographer duties) which she’s performed live with him previously.  She said this song was very special to her, it’s about losing people and heartbreak and it means a hell of a lot to her. These special performances in VIP are another reason to upgrade if you can!

One of the main reasons for me attending was of course to see my friends and faves Tyketto who graced the Inferno Main Stage at 4.45pm. It’s still blows my mind that there are rock fans out there that haven’t seen them before, seeing as they’re originally a US band that have always toured the UK way more than they ever have the US, but they attracted a big crowd as I would expect and I know those seeing them for the first time will have walked away glad they did.  They kicked off with the belter Remember My Name from the 2016 Reach album and followed that with Meet Me In The Night from Strength In Numbers that got all hands raised and clapping.  All the faves were in there such as Wings, Strength In Numbers, Reach, Rescue Me, Burning Down Inside, Lay Your Body Down.  It was frontman Danny Vaughn’s Birthday on the Thursday before, and he said that he’s always grateful to be back on stages like this, enjoying a recipricle relationship with audience.  We all sang Happy Birthday to him, he said on the day he had put on a playlist at home and Dad danced for 30 mins, but probably should have put some clothes on, lol.  With a voice as impeccable as it’s always been, when DV had the crowd singing back at him, he said “we don’t get you singing because we can’t, but because we love hearing your voices”. The set closer always has to be their biggest hit, that has stood the test of time and is still loved by us all so passionately.  As DV put it, “The greatest honour is that people can take a song that you wrote and make it part of your lives” and Forever Young just about sums us all up I reckon. 

📷 Myke Gray

At 5.40pm Ashen Reach took to the Firestarter Stage and as one of my fave bands on the NWOCR scene, that was where I needed to be.  Again, a fresh set of almost all new music, sounding heavier than ever but with all the same vibrant energy they’ve always had, this is a band you don’t stand still to watch. You will jump and they will make sure you do.  The set covered their latest releases Broken Column, Ghosts, D1V1DE, Neophobia, The Dark and Lost and finished with the epic and now classic Homecoming.  The only band of the weekend to get a circle pit going* and there was so much bouncing around they couldn’t choose the one craziest person to win a tshirt, so it just got flung out and grabbed immediately, of course.  

*unconfirmed but pretty certain, lol. 

The day I can clone myself can’t come soon enough as I was only able to catch the end of Wayward Sons set on The Phoenix Stage, but they had a fantastic crowd and as always were on fire, looking like they were having the best time.  There’s nothing better than watching a band that just love what they do and appreciate their audience so much and these guys are not only seasoned pro’s but they still love it every bit as much as ever.

📷 Adrian Hextall

Which is a nice segway to the mighty Those Damn Crows who followed Wayward Sons as the Phoenix Stage Headliners and again always give us everything they’ve got and that fun factor is infectious which is one of the reasons they have grown as big as they have in a very saturated scene.  It’s also down to the quality of the songs, of course and the set was stellar with 3 albums to pull from they kicked off with Who Did It, followed by Man On Fire, Send the Reaper, latest single Let’s Go Psycho, Wake Up, Find A Way, Take Down, I am, Lay It All On Me, Blink Of An Eye, Kingdom Of Dust, Sin On Skin, Rock n Roll Ain’t Dead (Definitely not!), the beautiful ballad about a break up This Time I’m Ready and left us with the epic See You Again.  You definitely will!

📷 Adrian Hextall

📷 Myke Gray

The Warning on the main Inferno Stage seemed to be going down a storm and were playing to a huge crowd, however I was taking some time out to eat and chill, and I’m only a little familiar with their music, but I know it was a huge win to get them at MOS while they were doing another festival in Europe and an even bigger win was securing Wolfmother as main stage headliners for their only UK exclusive performance ,and on Andrew Stockdale’s Birthday as well, what a treat!  They broke onto the scene way back in 2006 with their hit ‘Woman’ so it was awesome for me to see that live at last.  The 70’s hard rock vibe is perfect at MOS and other highlight tracks on the set were Pyramid, Joker & The Thief and of course a superb cover of Rock and Roll showing their Led Zep influences.  And as the show closed, it was still too warm to need even a hoodie, which is unheard of for British festivals, it was like being on holiday, especially given the relaxed atmosphere, cold beer and ice cream.  

📷 Myke Gray

Now for Sunday and we do it all again 😍

The weather is still outstanding and I’m not broken at all because this festival is easy work, and yet I still need to be cloned because I’d love to be everywhere but there’s only one of me so here’s my highlights of the day.

📷 Adrian Hextall

I did make attempts to see Sons Of Liberty perform an acoustic set in the VIP but there was a delay due to some missing equipment being located, so I had to go see Preacher Stone on the main stage, as I caught Covid and couldn’t see them on their last tour, after interviewing frontman Ronnie Riddle. Preacher Stone hail from America bringing those Southern Rock vibes which work so well in a big field with the sun shining.  If you don’t know much about Preacher Stone, they gained significant notoriety immediately as the first song they wrote ‘Not Today’ was used on Sons Of Anarchy, which of course was on the setlist today.  They kicked us off with Ain’t As Easy As It Looks, although Preacher Stone’s groovy, swagger laden performance would say otherwise.  Tracks from across their 4 albums such as Hard Life PHD, My, My My, Damage Is Done, Old Fashioned Ass Whoopin Sum Bitch and Horse To Water which Ronnie said “may be autobiographical about his life, just listen and judge” and we were, lol.  As they finished with Remedy and Day Late, Ronnie said to the crowd “We’re grateful in our hearts that you came out to spend the afternoon with us” and right back at you Ronnie, we’re grateful you travelled over to perform for us too 😊

📷 Adrian Hextall

My musical tastes are pretty diverse and I do love loud, heavy, crossover styles and Seething Akira are right up my street describing themselves as Electronic Nu-core.  For me it’s hard, heavy and crazy energetic and my god this band will blast those hangovers out of your head.  They took to the Phoenix stage at 2.20pm for a 45 minute set with Punishments Instructions and Something In The Water from their 2022 album Nozomi.   They bring a whole new energy to the festival, asking us “Who’s up for a little bounce? Or a big one, it’s your choice!” it seemed like pretty much everyone was indeed up for a lot of big bouncing.  They can wear you out just watching them, they’re a 6 piece, they never stop running around and jumping all over the place, it’s almost sensory overload, so much going on for your eyes and ears!  I’ve got the rest of the setlist for you too, they went on to Times Change, Metaphors, You Don’t Want None, Resilient, Ded, Ixnay, Hyperbolic, How Are Things Up North and finished on Dioxide.  Personally, I love that Maid Of Stone provide a range of genres as it keeps the vibe really fresh.

📷 Myke Gray

And this leads me very nicely onto the opposite end of the spectrum in style, the dark and emotive Oli Brown & The Dead Collective were drafted in last minute to replace These Wicked Rivers, who had been at the festival the day before but sadly had to leave for a family emergency, big love to John.  OB&TDC delivered an outstanding performance on the main Inferno Stage and as I said, it’s dark, emotive, moody and spectacular.  I saw that Myke Gray had commented that “The songwriting and composition is spectacular.  This band is something very special and I recommend you see them at the earliest opportunity.”  For those who haven’t yet, put them on your ones to watch list and see if you agree! 

📷 Myke Gray

Mid afternoon a band very close to my heart took to the Firestarter Stage, the awesome Twister. Introduced by compere Pete K Mally as “something utterly special – they simply make life better” and I concur. However, this was a little more special than anyone would have realised because it’s been kept under wraps, for obvious reasons, but was actually the last show they played as Twister.  If you follow them you’ll by now be aware they’ve been beavering away on a rebrand and will play their next festival show as Juliet’s Not Dead and there’s going to be an epic new album coming soon. For now we got one sneaky preview of a track within this set, so if you were there, you should feel very privileged have been part of the Twister swan song.  The atmospheric intro with co-ordinating imagines on the white Marshall cab wall backdrop builds beautifully to kick off with Number 1 Rock Charted single Secrets from the Only The Strong Survive EP, followed by getting the crowd involved early doors shouting one, two, three, four back to kick off Don’t Play Nice from the same.  Then that cheeky little treat, we heard the dark and relatable Sinner Or Saint which is due for release over the coming months, showing the boys are taking it to the next level, which they are grafting their asses off for.  Next up “dedicated to each and every one of us because we can all at times be our Own Worst Enemy”, followed by Stevie saying he feels like the band have been “adopted by this neck of the woods recently” and “it’s nice to be back down here miles from home”. Leading into the anthemic fan favourite Monroe which segways straight into the punchy, hard hitting Fist Fight, are we ready?  Yes we fecking are, and this track gives us another chance for crowd participation with a whole bunch of Whoas that we sing back. Stevie commends us that “for 4pm on a Sunday afternoon, that’s fucking marvellous”.  I can see heaps of Twister t-shirts in the crowd, again last chance before they become vintage!  They close the set with Favourite Underdog and then said they would love us and leave us with the epic 64 White Lies with the classic lines, “we came and we conquered, got drunk and fell asleep” Yes Twister, you certainly did.  I’m super proud of these guys and can’t wait to see what the future holds for them as Juliet’s Not Dead. I think it’s gonna be a bright one, lads – the world is definitely yours 😊

📷 Adrian Hextall

I then had a mooch around backstage and got a few pics with the fabulous Jared James Nichols and nearly made him late on stage, but he made it, of course, to the main Inferno Stage at 16.45.  Jared brings blues drenched rock n roll – perfect vibes for this gorgeous summer day. Even with his band Jared is, of course, the star of the show, this man knows how to pull off a high energy, riff-tastic performance and notably he plays plectrumless.  Song highlights include Easy Come Easy Go, Down The Drain, Hard Wired, Threw Me To The Wolves, Bad Roots, Good Time Girl, Nails In The Coffin and an epic cover of Black Sabbath’s War Pigs.

📷 Myke Gray

I then had to leg it over to the Phoenix stage for another of my favourite bands and good friends the mighty Massive Wagons – although as Baz noticed if you looked at their backdrop you could only see the word Massive, but they don’t need a banner, they are the epitome of stage presence!  There’s not many frontmen with the energy, stage presence, talent and fun factor as Baz Mills.  When he says no one gets away without clapping, firstly you can’t be standing still when Wagons are playing and secondly, Baz will hunt you down if you aren’t participating, because this is a “show”, this is a band who’s energy you feed off.  You come away from a Wagons show feeling infinity better than you did before it started.  Enough gushing, but I do love them so forgive me.  They come on stage to The Dandy Warhols Sleep and then play a set of bangers, mostly from the latest two albums House Of Noise and Triggered including Fuck The Haters, House Of Noise, Skateboard, Please Stay Calm, Generation Prime, Back To the Stack (as Baz said, “Rest in peace Rick Parfitt, what a legend”)  and Bangin In your Stereo, with classic hits Nails and Tokyo in the mix and their latest single Missing on TV.  And of course concluded with the heart warming In It Together that gives me the feels.  Baz left us saying “It’s been a long weekend and you probably didn’t need our bullshit but you stuck around for it, thank you!”  No, thank YOU Massive Wagons for bringing all of everything, in bucketloads as always.

📷 Myke Gray

The Sunday headliners on Phoenix Stage were Nashville based sisters Larkin Poe – who brought a southern bluesy vibe to the stage.  I didn’t catch much of the set, but I did hear them saying “We can’t believe it feels like summer over here, so we have to do a summer jam as it’s a sublimely summer day”. It’s as if they know how surprised we all are to have such good weather… in July! I know it was exciting to get them to Maid Of Stone while they were doing other dates in Europe and they had a huge crowd and went down a storm. 

📷 Myke Gray

I was particularly excited for the last band of the weekend, one of my all time faves Mr Big headlining the main stage.  This show is part of ‘The Big Finish’ tour and having met the band a few times previously and interviewed Eric Martin on his solo acoustic tour , I was hoping to say Hello to him backstage as he was so happy with the interview I did (which can be found on YouTube if you fancy a watch, it was a lot of fun!).  However, things were not quite going to plan as Eric was in hospital for most of the day with a back issue, I believe and the rest of the band were rehearsing in their dressing room for a contingency set as a 3 piece in case he didn’t make it to the show.  Nail biting stuff, but Eric did make it, and if you didn’t know better you would have been none the wiser from the performance he put in.  The show began with Eric calling out “Are you addicted to Mr Big?  Are you addicted to that rush?” Which of course kicked off the set and then he said “It’s time to Lean Into It” and for me a set that covered one of my all time top albums was a massive treat!  I don’t need to list all the tracks as you should know the album, if you don’t get it on NOW!  I love all the tracks but My Kinda Woman is a huge highlight for me and Just Take My Heart gets me every time.  Of course Paul and Billy get some solo moments, Shy Boy was also in the set and they brought out their cover of Cat Stevens Wild World and concluded with a cover of the epic Baba O’Riley.  Eric said as they finished “We will remember this night for the rest of our days and it’ll stay with us forever” Mr Big… so will we!  Eric was scooted straight back to hospital afterwards, so it really was a very special show.  He pulled it off so as not to let us down and for that, all the kudos and love to Mr Martin.

📷 Adrian Hextall

I really didn’t want the weekend to end, I had such a brilliant time.  I hung around for a while backstage with my friends and was still buzzin for days afterwards.  I love reliving a good time with all my photos and I’ll say a big thanks to Chris Wright, Colin Emery and Darren Wilson and to the brilliant staff, the security, bar staff, accreditation, band hospitality, comperes – it was such a great vibe, I’ll be back again next year for sure.  A huge apology to the bands I haven’t been able to cover in this review, it’s no reflection on their talent and performance, just the fact I’m STILL unable to clone myself and be in 3 places at once, which is a travesty!

Big love to all involved, see you next year! Over and out, for now 🤘🏼♥️