Sunday review at Planet Rockstock 2023 with Glenn Hughes, Martin Turner and The Dust Coda

A last-minute line-up change did nothing to dent the success of Rockstock’s final day, a fitting climax to mark this event’s ten-year anniversary. Sadly, special guest Danko Jones and band are stuck in Munich with no flights going anywhere, an unfortunate scenario for all save flamenco rock rogues Gypsy Pistoleros who make the best of an unexpected promotion to the main stage.

The resourceful Troy Redfern, having delivered a main stage masterclass on Friday’s bill, serves up a well-received ‘stripped back’ set on the Graham Harding Stage earlier in the day. The slide guitar guru is part of a typically mixed bill comprising amiable rock n’rollers Takeaway Thieves, the darkly romantic Bastette, honed heavy rockers The Hot One Two and the old school blues rock of guitar-toting troubadour Jack J Hutchinson.

As if that’s not enough Kim Jennett completes a nightmare journey to Porthcawl just in time to explode on to the stage like a confetti cannon via such killer songs as ‘Psycho’ and ‘Black Mirror’. Sadly her bassist hasn’t made it from the frozen wastes of the English north, but Kim’s voice is almost otherworldly in its feral power. Good things are coming – or they will be when the whole band turns up.

Gypsy Pistoleros know the value of entertaining a crowd. Given the unexpected opportunity to play the main stage, they take it and run with it. Daubed in their distinctive death-bandit make-up they mix their own songs – the flamboyant ‘Ballad Of Tommy Shelby’ – with some well-chosen covers, including a storm force take on Dexy’s Midnight Runners hit ‘Come On Eileen’. It’s all done with self-effacing humour from frontman Lee. No fat or filler, no self-indulgence; just fun.

It's soon apparent that The Hot Damn! have been drinking from that same fountain. ‘Dance Around’, ‘Damn!Damn!Damn!Damn!’ and ‘Live Laugh Love’ are sprightly songs full of joie de vivre and enough bounce to put trampoline makers out of business. There’s a bit of a sly nudge, a devil-may-care humour to it all. At the same time, Laurie Buchanan’s often beautiful guitar tone pushes buttons that normally only get pressed by more epic fare, and when they leave the stage you have to check drummer Josie O’Toole has only the four limbs because it sure looked like she had eight while she was playing.

The Dust Coda bring on their own vibe, mostly set up by sturdily built, serious-as-nails rock music. As always, it’s frontman John Drake who garners the most attention, that voice occasionally bearing comparison to the great, late Chris Cornell. The breezy, summertime overtures of ‘Love Sick’ contrast effectively with their darker-hued fare. ‘Come The Night’ was written in memory of the Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins and is tonight also dedicated to Bernie Marsden. On occasion, as in ‘Sweet Love Is Gone’, The Dust Coda is the sound of hard men confronting their feelings; at other times it’s muscular hard rock swaggering and flexing its pecs.

Martin Turner wasn’t just the founding member and bassist with Wishbone Ash; it was he that stamped his identity over that band’s old curiosity shop of a sound. Tonight, just as then, that sound is a fusion of blues, jazz, folk and rock, effectively marshalled together into a credible whole. They’re not songs that leap off the page in big, shouty noise – they’re subtle, well-orchestrated and oddly compelling, perhaps because of their uniqueness. It turns out that Martin is also an engaging ringmaster, a great leader who has surrounded himself with equally great musicians, including guitarists Misha Nikolic and Danny Willson, the latter a former member of Showaddywaddy, no less.

“It’s Sunday night and you’re all still here,” marvels headliner Glenn Hughes, flashing a gleaming grin. Well, of course we are – Rockstock’s main room is at maximum capacity as the former Deep Purple, Trapeze and Dead Daisies legend brings the curtain down on the event’s tenth edition. Tonight’s set is all about the first of those bands – Hughes has the quite bizarre distinction of being perhaps the best singer Deep Purple ever had without ever having actually been the lead singer!

It's a concept that’s tough for younger fans to get their heads around, but none of it really matters when the hirsute, lean-bodied and ever-enthusing Mr Hughes is wrapping his seemingly ageless larynx around the likes of ‘Stormbringer’ and ‘Might Just Take Your Life’. At times, it’s incredible – the control and precision of the delivery; high notes that no male human should be capable of. The range is only matched by the soul, while his band almost effortlessly reproduce not just every note Deep Purple originally impressed us with, but the tone of it all too. There’s a salute to Tommy Bolin’s time in Purple by way of a magnificently funky ‘Gettin’ Tighter’ and things come to a fitting climax with a thundering ‘Burn’. Classy, classic and utterly imperious. Phew – thank you Rockstockers and here’s to the next ten years!

Sunday at Planet Rockstock 2023 in photos:

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