On any given Saturday in August, MV would find itself in a football stand watching our beloved Stoke City. But on the 23rd of August 2025 I was in a field in Newark, Nottinghamshire instead, and that has everything to do with the fact that one of our favourite bands were second on the bill at Stonedead. The Dead Daisies’ relationship with the festival has always felt special — and now, for the first time in their history, there’s a live album to commemorate it.
The set leans heavily into the latter-day Daisies approach. Ever since Glenn Hughes departed and John Corabi returned, the band have rediscovered a rock ’n’ roll party energy that suits a festival field perfectly. “Long Way To Go” kicks things off with intent, while “Rise Up” is absolutely thunderous in the open air.
Even when Corabi digs into newer material like “Bustle And Flow”, he makes it feel like a classic — and when he takes on the Hughes–era songs, as he does here, they carry a different vibe entirely: less soulful, more swaggering, but absolutely convincing.
“I’m Gonna Ride” arrives with a dedication to everyone who came in on a motorcycle, and it fits the mood of the day perfectly. “Going Down”, lifted from their blues album, is one of the few covers in the set, and as ever with The Dead Daisies, covers matter. Their version of Creedence’s “Fortunate Son” is built for a crowd this size, and “Midnight Moses” keeps the party rolling either side of their own material.
“Mexico” still feels like a guaranteed highlight, but it’s “Resurrected” that resonates hardest — almost a metaphor for the band itself, continually reborn with different line-ups yet somehow always unmistakably The Dead Daisies.
They close with the wonderful “Helter Skelter”, and let’s just say it’s a far better song in the hands of the Daisies than its original creators ever managed. Because here’s the thing: it’s not just that they’re a tremendous live band. They’re a tremendous festival live band — and those two things are not always the same. As I said in my review of the day, The Dead Daisies belong on big stages.
This album is the proof.
