Waiting for the roar
With the other arenas having finished blues rockers Fastway get a big crowd. Featuring Fast Eddie of Motorhead fame and vocalist Toby Jepson of Little Angels Fastway have been somewhat rejuvenated this year after a series of failed line ups. The key to this is the consistency of Fast Eddie's guitar work, which once again is near faultless and Jepson's vocals, which as at Download earlier this year are simply outstanding.
The excellent sound means they come over well and once again it's clear that Jepson and Clarke enjoy playing together as they exchange the odd nod and smile throughout the set. Behind them the drums sound powerful and the bass player is highly animated, which makes for an entertaining performance and they go down well in front of a knowledgeable crowd. They were decent enough at Download but tonight everything just seems to be working for them and they sound great. It's heavy blues rock and not much beyond that but it's very well done.
They churn out all the old favourites such as 'Say What You Will' and 'Non Stop Love' and get the crowd clapping along. To be fair you probably wouldn't want to sit through much more than the forty five minutes that they get as it does get a little samey after a while but it's impressive nonetheless. Whether Jepson continues to be involved after this year is open to question but it's hard to see how Fastway could find anyone else to match him and his contribution to their well received sets this year is marked.