he second annual Z Rock festival returns to Wigan for more melodic rock mayhem. 8 bands were on display Covering a wide variety of melodic rock styles and after the runaway success of last year's show they had a lot to live up to. We arrived at the venue to find things a lot more organised than last year, they [24K] were next and after Danny they had a lot to do to keep up.

Featuring an all star cast, Johnny Rogers (Brighton Rock), Stan Miczek (Honeymoon Suite) & Mladen (Von Groove), plus the vastly underrated Phil Naro who was last heard of in this country with his Press Play CD. With a band of this calibre you would expect nothing less than a great performance, and a great performance was what you got with Naro being one of the best frontmen of the day, a consummate professional whose years in the business shone like the brightest star on the night.

They opened the set with “Masquerade” & “Standing In The Middle” & Mladen for reasons known only to himself played in sunglasses & a red hooded top with the hood pulled tightly over his head, strange. In the song “Meeting This Way”, 24K have one of the best AOR songs released this year. Its hook is so infectious and it was beautifully sung by Naro. Mladen pinned the riff down to the '70s groove rock of “Gypsy In Me”, while “Whiskey River” was from Naro's Press Play CD. The next song, “Once Is Not Enough”, has been the star of a thousand dance floors in rock clubs all over the U.K. and is one song that people associate most with Von Groove. Michael Shotton may have sung the recorded version but Phil Naro made this song his own. He is a master frontman who covered every inch of the stage on the night.

On “Now's The Time” I noticed that Mladen's clothes seemed to be getting less & less, while the song reminded me of Zeppelin in their prime. “Black Sheep” was a full on relentless assault that sounded like Mr Big at their best. If Naro sounded like Robert Plant on “Now's The Time”, then the next song just confirmed it. Led Zeppelin's “Black Dog” was an inspired choice of cover and showed exactly where Naro was coming from, classic 70s British Rock at its finest, performed to perfection by 24K & putting the finishing touch to an excellent set of classy rock.

The attendance figures were way up on last year and the day was organised much better. My thanks go to Mark Alger for his hospitality, Seven Wishes for the heavy metal and blatant disregard of fashion, Robert Warnquist for being the happiest man on stage, Phil Naro for being the best frontman, 24K's “Meeting This Way” for the best song of the day, Contagious for having the most potential, Danny Danzi for being just awesome and finally Vaughan for being the best band of the day by far. It has to be said that many people left the show shell shocked, Z Records have definitly proved themselves to be the leading force within this genere and seem to be leading the the melodic rock revival within Europe. Let's all do it again sometime soon and until next year, see you then.

Reporter: Rob Evans