REVIEW: MERTHYR ROCK FESTIVAL 2011
Since the closure of the town’s last rock venue, the studio bar, Merthyr Tydfil was a town without a live music scene until the announcement of a new music festival that would see a line up of established artists performing in the Welsh town to celebrate the new Merthyr Rock festival. Thousands of people arrived at Merthyr’s Cyfarthyr Park to catch a weekend full of live music and performances from Ocean Colour Scene, Cast, Young Guns, Funeral for a Friend, The Blackout and many more artists performing over two stages at the festival.
Friday saw the official launch of the Merthyr Rock festival with a spectacular motocross display and a handful of live bands performing on the two new stages. Fridays headline act saw Lost Prophets front man Ian Watkins display a unique DJ set. Within a few hours of gates opening on Saturday, over 2500 people arrived on site at Cyfarthyr Park to catch the first full day of action at the festival. Standout early performances came from the likes of Town who have just came of tour with Lost Prophets, the indie rockers performed a tight half hour set that received one of the best reactions of the day. Saturday evening saw the likes of Goldie Lookin’ Chain perform a fan favourite set on the main stage, the rap group from Newport who later on partied with the mayor of Merthyr performed a set that was packed with hits including songs such as ‘Guns Don’t Kill People’ and ‘Your Mother’s Got A Penis’. This was the start of an echoing sing-along evening when headliners Ocean Colour Scene performed a set that was a favourite from the weekend. The band that have a ton of hits had the Merthyr Rock crowd in the palm of their hands and ended the first official night with a bang! Other highlights from Saturday included the BBC radio wales live acoustic stage that seen performances from Pontypridd’s Straight Lines and Sunday headlines The Blackout performing an intimate acoustic set.
The final day of Merthyr Rock saw a line up that gave the festival a much needed buzz and got people traveling from all the UK to Cyfarthyr Park to catch a line up of fresh new talent and some of the biggest names currently in rock. The start of the day was greeted with sunshine and saw The Guns wake up the main stage crowd, the welsh band are no strangers to putting on a rock show and didn’t allow the early time slot stop them from creating an impressive early afternoon sing-along to the almighty ‘Gordons and Lemonade’. Unfortunately after their performance, typical Welsh weather arrived causing flooding around the site. This caused problems for the bands who were performing on the Big Deal Clothing stage due to the stage not being sheltered or in a tent, crowds went to the main stage tent instead of catching impressive sets from Save Your Breath and Exit International.
Young Guns however were on the better end of the weather deal due to performing in the main stage tent that was packed out with over three thousand people. The Kerrang favourites performed a set that proved to be one of the main festival highlights, their set included new and old songs including ‘Weight of the World’ and ‘Winter Kiss’. Newport five piece Skindred created a wild welsh moshing party, front man Benji Webb brought the sunshine back to Cyfarthyr Park and performed a set that featured numerous hits from their latest album ‘Union Black’, getting the crowd ready for the headliners. Funeral For a Friend returned to Merthyr Tydfil after almost 10 years after their last performance in the town. The band received deafening screams and tore apart the Merthyr Rock stage, chart storming hits including ‘Streetcar’, ‘Into oblivion’ and ‘Walk Away’ were some of the stand out highlights from their set.
Drawing Merthyr Rock to its end saw the triumphant return of the hometown boys The Blackout, who gave a performance that was strong enough to headline the Reading festival stage. The band who were greeted with manic screams opened with crowd favourite ‘I’m A Riot’, which saw both front men Gavin Butler and Sean Smith leap into the crowd and cause a literal riot in the tent. The blackout who seemed packed with overwhelming emotion performed a set that was full of consistent hits including ‘Ambition Is Critical’, ‘Higher and Higher and ‘The Storm’. It really is impressive to see how far the band have come, from headlining The Studio Bar that saw three hundred fans pack out the venue to watch the band perform six songs at Christmas time six years ago to headline the biggest Rock festival in South Wales to over three thousand fans. The Blackout concluded their set with ‘Save Ourselves’ which saw the entire crowd sit down during the song and pop up into the air creating a memorable end to a festival that will not be forgotten!
Words and photos: Mike Lewis
