Festival of Friends
Monster Truck to headline festival’s opening
Hamilton’s Juno-winning hardrock band Monster Truck will headline the Festival of Friends opening night Friday, taking the place of soul singer Charles Bradley who was forced to cancel his performance due to illness.
“We are thrilled a local Hamilton super-group has come to the festival’s rescue,” festival director Loren Lieberman told The Spectator Wednesday.
“It’s very difficult to replace a headliner in 24 hours,” Lieberman said. “We couldn’t be happier Monster Truck has stepped up for us.”
Monster Truck has been on tour and it just happened they will be home this weekend, he said.
“We’re super-stoked it worked out this way,” said Monster Truck guitarist Jeremy Widerman, adding that the band hasn’t played a show in Hamilton in almost a year. Their last home-town gig was in September 2015 at Supercrawl, he said.
The lineup change will not affect the rest of the festival’s schedule, Lieberman said, but it will make for a “very different kind of show” on Friday night.
Monster Truck, which is made up of Widerman, Jon Harvey, Brandon Bliss and Steve Kiely, won a Juno in 2013 for Breakthrough Group of the Year. They have toured with the likes of Deep Purple, Slash and Alice in Chains and released their second studio album “Sittin’ Heavy” in February 2016. Since then, the foursome have been touring almost non-stop. They will head to Europe on tour with Nickelback this autumn.
Bradley was set to headline the main stage on the festival’s opening night, but Lieberman said he had confirmation from Bradley’s team that the 67-year-old singer would not be able to perform in Hamilton on the weekend.
Lieberman said he has heard Bradley is in hospital in Europe with an infection, but could not confirm any of the details.
The 67-year-old singer has been on tour in Europe this summer and posts on his social media feeds suggest he has had to cancel some appearances.
A tweet from Bradley’s official Twitter account July 31 reads “Charles is feeling better, but unfortunately will not be able to perform in Dublin @BeatYard festival.”
A post on Bradley’s official Facebook page July 30 says, “So sorry to have to postpone tonight, Cambridge. Charles is doing well. We’ll be back soon!”
Lieberman said it’s very sad Bradley won’t be able to make the festival. “We wish him well and a speedy recovery,” he said.
Festival of Friends is now in its 41st year. Headlining the main stage on Saturday night is Randy Bachman and The Sadies. Sunday’s main stage act is Canadian country band Emerson Drive.
Between Aug. 5 and 7, festivalgoers can catch more than three dozen live performances spanning genres from folk to rock and country. Among the festival’s musical guests are Hamilton’s punk-rock band Teenage Head, Canadian indierock band The Elwins, ’80s rocker Ray Lyell and The Storm and country
singer Madeline Merlo.
While festival admission is free, organizers are offering a VIP pass for $100 for access to the pit just in front of the festival stage. The fenced-off area is typically reserved for band members, contest winners and media, but to help offset festival costs, the organizers decided to offer a limited number of passes for sale. VIP passes can be ordered using the online form at festivaloffriends.ca.