Steelhouse Festival 2024 / Friday Review Part One

Steelhouse Festival 2024 – Friday. Glorious sunshine greets the early bird campers waking on the mountain at the start of the 13th Steelhouse Festival. It bathes the mountain top in its golden rays, warming the early morning chill and providing welcoming encouragement for the thousands who will pour up the rocky mountain way in the next 12 hours.

Steelhouse Festival 2024

Hafod-Y-Dafal Farm, Ebbw Vale – Friday 26 July 2024

Words: Paul Hutchings

Photography: Manuela Langotsch

Steelhouse Festival, located in the heart of the Gwent Valleys in South Wales, is unique in many ways. The setting is phenomenal, overlooking the edge of the Brecon Beacons. Rolling mountain tops cascade from left to right and provide the setting for a festival that has grown steadily over the past decade. You are at the top of the world. Literally. 

This year promises a slightly different line-up, although several of the bands on the bill are returning acts. Rumours of lower ticket sales have circulated in advance of the event, but there is a healthy number pitching their tents as soon as the gates open, and with all day tickets for Saturday sold out, it seems that the popularity of the event has waned not one iota. 

4.25 pm and Planet Rock’s Ian Danter makes the first foray onto the ego ramp, which extends out into the crowd in the main arena. A couple of words of welcome, and it’s time for the 2024 festival’s opening act.

Trucker Diablo

Few bands are better suited to kicking off an event like this than Northern Ireland’s Trucker Diablo. They are returning for a fourth time and were here the first time I attended the festival in 2013.

It is fair to say that these boys are the quintessential party band, with a bombastic yet occasionally sensitive style that demands you grab a beer and shift those feet. They are in good form, exploding onto the stage and into the new single, Kill The Lights, aptly released to coincide with the event.

It’s a powerhouse three-minute track, grabbing the attention of those who may be tucking into a pint from the Tudor Brewery or availing themselves of the fine range of food stalls towards the back of the arena. 

A rousing Proud Mary and their anthem Drink Beer, Destroy follow, with bassist Jim McGurk and guitarist Simon Haddock adding harmonies to frontman Tom Harte’s rip-snorting vocals. It’s a strong set, and the band is confident enough to throw in a couple more new songs, including Dig, “guaranteed to get your muscles moving”, Harte tells us.

Drive has its usual heart tug with the gorgeous melody before the band wrap things up. It’s been a cracking opening set by a band that combine big riffs with delicious groove. The party has truly started. 

Dan Byrne

Heading back to the stage, I see Oli Brown heading up the ramp at the rear, but I’m confused to see Dan Byrne lurking stage right. There are quizzical faces all around at the presence of one of Steelhouse’s favourite sons, and Danter reappears to explain.

Sadly, Elles Bailey, fellow PR presenter and Bristolian Americana / Blues rocker is unwell and has been forced to pull out at the last minute.

Disappointing news, for she was one on my list of must sees, but ever the trooper, Byrne steps in for the first of what will be three appearances on stage. 

Dan Byrne does a blinding job. His relentless touring has made him a much more confident player and performer than the shy frontman of Revival Black, and he is at home in front of the Steelhouse crowd with just his acoustic guitar.

He does a 30-minute set, drawing from songs from his recent EP Beginnings and throwing in an elongated Simple Man. The Skynyrd classic gets the audience completely onside, and we have crowd participation and singalongs before he brings a short but very sweet set to a close with Hard To Breathe, which he reminds us is the first single he ever wrote. He is maturing into every inch the rock star with every performance. 

Oli Brown

Talking of rock stars, it is the reinvention of Oli Brown that has warmed my heart as much as anything else in the past two years. Now with the reliable and fantastic duo of Sam Wood and drummer Wayne Proctor, Brown and his outfit, The Dead Collective, have released three stunning EPs in Prelude, Prologue and Epilogue.

They draw the choicest cuts from that during a spellbinding set that leaves the jaw hanging at times. The combination of ethereal, delicate passages of music that explode into almost heavy metal chaos at times has been carefully curated by Brown, and this was a set that simply set the hairs standing. 

Brown and Wood are rock stars, pure and simple. Stage presence is simple, yet the duo fills almost every inch, although they avoid forays along the ramp in the main.

Their interplay is mesmerising, feeding off each other’s energy in a style that few can manage. It is totally captivating to watch, and there is a warm feeling as we see Brown once again in a good place on stage.

As they tear the place down with an elongated jam on Home Sweet Home, the joy of seeing musicians at the top of their game sweeps across me.

There can be fewer, more pure feelings than this. Brown throws his guitar to the floor at the end, almost snapping the mic stand in two as he expels the last ounce of energy.

The evident wave of relief that rushes over him fires the sinews one last time.

Toby Jepson

Another Steelhouse stalwart stepped up for a brief acoustic session. Toby Jepson, fresh (or maybe exhausted) from his recent excellent storytelling and songs tour, was also willing to step in to fill Bailey’s absence.

A treat for those who may not have caught him live, his effort was rewarded with an audience singalong to some Wayward Sons, Little Angels and solo work. A real trooper, it’s another the Planet Rock presenter ensured that the programme kept moving in fine style. 

King King

The last time I saw Scots King King was at Stonedead Festival, and I admit I was rather unimpressed by their set. Not so today, as they provide one of the best sets of the day with a glorious hour of deep, rich, hard-rocking blues.

All eyes invariably focus on Alan Nimmo, a frontman of extraordinary quality, but this is a band whose sum of the parts makes everything good. Nimmo is gracious in the extreme, pleased to be back at a festival he and the band last played in 2018. He is not the first artist to mention the weather. Most of those who have played here before are scarred by encounters with driving wind and rain but it’s sunny blue skies that accompany the band’s soundtrack to the early evening.

It’s an uptempo set, with guitarist Steve Nimmo and Jonny Dyke’s deep keyboards interplaying with Alan for the star of the show. All are scintillating musicians, playing with heart and soul. It’s the deep bluesy workout on A Long History Of Love that takes the plaudits, a beautifully elongated workout that has the crowd gasping across the afternoon as they witness Alan’s extended lead solo wonderfully matched by Dyke.

At times, it is reminiscent of Blackmore and Lord’s Deep Purple battles of old, but in a softer, less aggressive manner. With plenty of opportunity for the crowd to interact as well, this was a set that restored my spirits with this band, reminding me that when they are on form, there are not many that can match them.

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