The sun shone upon Camp Shortland on Sunday for the Live At The Foreshore festival, presented by KOFM and Newcastle Live. With an Aussie music retrospective lineup, gourmet food trucks, craft beer and fold up chairs as far as they eye could see, punters came together for the love of live music.
The action on stage kicked off with two bands from local music institution, Rosie’s School Of Rock. We have to take our hats off to both Teen Spirit & WSA, who laid down solid sets of rock classics and a few left of centre tunes including a rocked up version of Lorde’s smash hit, Royals. A special mention has to go to the drummer in WSA. Way to lay down a solid beat man.
Next up it was locals, Monsters Of Rock. The band featuring Grant Walmsley ‘Freebird’ and Craig ‘Rosie’ Rosevear (Screaming Jets), Dai Pritchard (Rose Tattoo/ Billy Thorpe) and Paul Coxon (Faceplant/ Thunder Monkeys) was well received and they had the early crowd in the palm of their hands with blistering performances of rock classics like Led Zeppelin’s Blog Dog and The Screaming Jet’s song, Better. While we’ve never seen local singer songwriter, Holly Wilson as a ‘Monster Of Rock’ she’s certainly embracing the role, and we’re not complaining.
As more bodies found their home on the grass in front of the stage, Choirboys arrived to huge applause. Mark Gable and the boys delivered a massive set, riding on the vibe from the audience who were clearly into the sing alongs and classic rock performance.
The sounds of saxophone echoing around the foreshore, and the sight of Alex Smith with his shirt undone, moved a huge crowd to the front of the stage for Moving Pictures’ Set. Alex’s voice was right on point, delivering song after song in original key. Besides the duet with Shannon Noll for the band’s smash hit What About Me, the highlight for us was hearing the band play Never. A song they recorded for the Footloose movie soundtrack, that’s very rarely played live by the band. There wasn’t a foot left untapped.
The only grumbles we heard about the Live At The Foreshore line up before the event were all about the inclusion of Shannon Noll. But we have to report that Shannon’s set was one of the highlights of the day. The crowd just love this guy, and it’s easy to see why. His voice is powerful and harsh, hitting high note after high note, he puts on an energetic show, and the audience respond accordingly. We now see why so many promoters add him to their bills.
The duet between Shannon and local songstress, Lyn Bowtell (Bella) on Don’t Give Up, a song made famous by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush and later recorded by Noll and Natalie Bassingthwaighte was both delicate and flawless in performance. A real, ‘I was there’ moment.
Looking at the food trucks lined up at Nobby’s car park, we couldn’t help think that it should become a regular thing. It’s the perfect spot for an outdoor pop up restaurant, and we heard few complaints about what was being served. We tuckered down on a Pulled Pork Roll from Andy’s VIP kitchen and it was absolutely delicious.
Besides Mark Seymour‘s set finishing before he got to play the Hunter’s and Collectors’ big hit Holy Grail, his performance with his band, the Undertow was both rocking and well received. We said before the event that the group singalong for Throw Your Arms Around Me would be worth the admission price alone, and it didn’t disappoint. For us though, it was the opener, Football Train that reminded us just how good Mark Seymour is. We’re big fans of the recording of that song, and it had all the energy live on stage too.
A much smaller market was on hand for punters to browse thought the day. Just as the day before, the markets really added to the overall vibe of the event, but we saw little product being sold.
The beer was flowing freely at the bar throughout the day too, and the lines moved quickly ensuring all punters were well watered. The Stone & Wood Garden Ale was our pick of the day but we also tried a Young Henry’s Reserve that got the taste buds buzzing.
20 year’s ago Australian fell in love with the Baby Animals, especially lead singer Suze DeMarchi. Well, everyone at Live At The Foreshore Festival got to rekindle that love affair with the band delivering a flawless set. We’re not sure which fountain of youth Suze DeMarchi drinks from, but we want some! The 51 year old is smoking hot and her voice and performance reminded us why the band was so popular. A 10/10 without doubt.
As the sun began to fade, headline act James Reyne took to the stage to thunderous applause. It’s easy to forget how many hits this Aussie rock legend has chalked up, but James’ set was like a masterclass revision. From selections taken from his days with Australian Crawl to his solo chart toppers, most in the crowd were on their feet rocking to every beat. It was a fitting end to a day where people came together for the love of live Australian music.
