With no chance of rain stopping play, no need to camp in a muddy field, state-of-the-art sound, the O2 Complex appeared to be the perfect place to host Stone Free which offered everything from film screenings, a vinyl market, album playbacks and of course, a variety of artists across multiple stages.
Blackberry Smoke (10/13) were the first band to grace Stone Free’s main stage bringing a little bit of country into the proceedings, there seemed to be a buzz around the Atlanta based rockers, with The Virginmarys’ drummer Danny stating that he was looking forward to checking them out.
Blackberry Smoke just about lived up to their hype, there were moments in which their set sounded a bit samey but for the most part they did a stellar job of opening the main stage and warming up the crowd in the main room.
Cello metal band,Apocalyptica (8/13) were the next band to hit the main stage, whilst the crowd initially seemed excited by the band’s presence and were happily singing the lyrics of Master Of Puppets while two of the cellists seemed to be partaking in synchronized windmilling, Apocalyptica’s instrumental set seemed to wear thin. By the time the band’s touring singer; Franky Perez, came onto the stage, the majority of the crowd had lost interest and were busy refilling their beers or hunting for food.
Penultimate act for the evening; The Darkness (10/13), treated the crowd to a glamorous rock extravaganza. The flamboyant four-piece effortlessly boosted the mood across the crowd - if you class effortlessly as frontman Justin Hawkins’ threatening to shave the middle of his head, and clapping his legs together whilst doing a headstand.
Love them or hate them, The Darkness put on a great show which oozed with passion and self-belief. Songs such as Growing On Me and Get Your Hands Off My Woman got huge responses from the crowd, but it was I Believe In A Thing Called Love that really got the crowd going and was the perfect track to draw their set to a close.
The legendary master of the macabre Alice Cooper (13/13) headlined Saturday’s line-up, with his performance being labelled as an exclusive and branded his only UK show of 2016 (noooo!). We last checked out Alice Cooper around 18 months ago, at which point his voice seemed wobbly and you couldn’t help but wonder if his touring days were up. Thankfully, his performance on Saturday night proved he was far from retirement - he sounded great and his performance was about as impressive as you’d expect from an artist whose career spans six decades.
Cooper belted out a great mix of classic songs and newer tracks, highlights came in the form of Poison, School’s Out and Feed My Frankenstein, as well as his take on Pinball Wizard, Fire, Suffragette City and Ace Of Spades which were played in tribute to Keith Moon, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie and Lemmy. Cooper and his band were on point, hitting every note and giving the crowd a flawless performance.
Overall, Stone Free’s first year was a success and it may become classic rock’s answer to C2C, that is if the sheer number of empty seats in the arena doesn't have too much of a negative effect on the festival’s future.