Blues In Britain Magazine
The Half Moon, Putney
The band were playing on the “Introducing Stage” at this inaugural event hosted by Solid Entertainments at The Winter Gardens in Blackpool.
The event took place over the weekend of 2/3/4 February and featured such Rock luminaries as Colosseum, Man, and Climax Blues Band. There was even a surprise guest appearance from no other than Robert Plant during Deborah Bonham’s set on Friday night.
Long Road Home were kicking off proceedings on the “Introducing Stage” in the Arena room, a beautiful 1000-capacity venue within the Winter Gardens complex.
The band took the stage at 3.45 on the Saturday to a decent sized and enthusiastic crowd. There was a voting system in place for the Introducing acts; the audience voted for their favourite band of each day (4 bands per day) and the winners would be invited back next year to play the main stage in the impressive Empress Ballroom.
The band were on fire, despite a challenging on-stage sound, they ripped through opening numbers “Long Road Home” and “Are We Invisible?” before continuing with tracks for the new album and one solitary cover, Jethro Tull’s “New Day Yesterday” which went down a storm with the crowd, obviously a few Tull fans in the audience!
It was a short 45 minute set, ending with the rocking “Heartbreak Guaranteed”, which, although not on the current album, is proving to be a popular live number with a real crescendo of an ending. The band did good, oh and yes, they won the vote so catch them back in Blackpool early 2025!