Posted by On July 25th, 2025 I attended the Churchill Park Music Festival in St. John’s, Newfoundland for the first time.
With a past roster of artists including Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette, Nickelback, Pitbull, and The Lumineers (an impressive list to be sure, especially for Newfoundland – but one that leans heavily towards “not my thing”) I’m not very surprised that I had previously given the fest a miss. In fact, looking back at past CPMF lineups, the only night I sorta kinda wish I had seen was the opening night of the festival’s first year, back in August of 2022. That show starred Ann Wilson of Heart and Randy Bachman – both whom I quite like and have never seen live – and David Wilcox, whom I love and have seen several times (a slight added bonus was the evening’s opening act Harlequin, a Winnipeg-based pop/metal/hair band that I used to blare from my ghetto-blaster back when I was fourteen). But semi-alas; I had been otherwise occupied seeing Phish in Toronto that weekend.
For their 2025 edition, once again the Churchill Park Music Festival was in direct conflict with Phish – this time it was the band’s three-night run in Saratoga Springs, New York – but the socio-political climate in America at the time and the subsequent breakdown in international relations that came with it directly conflicted with my desire to step foot in the United States that summer. So when the fest announced a bam/bam/bam/semi-bam lineup for their opening night (namely: Def Leppard, Sam Roberts Band, Honeymoon Suite, and Haywire) I was in.
Not only had I never been to the Churchill Park Music Festival before, but as m’lady and I weaved through the long but brisk lineup to get in it occurred to me that I had never actually been to Churchill Park before. Small and situated dead-centre in the middle of Town, the crowd of 20,000 or so (along with the stage, VIP bleachers, and a small handful of concession and beer tents) reached to the very edges of the modest greenspace. We began our exploratory walkabout just as Haywire launched into their biggest song, Dance Desire (I knew the song – this was my third time seeing the band – but it is waaayyy more famous for being the main sample in Maestro Fresh Wes’ bona fide hit song Drop the Needle). Haywire was a few songs from ending their opening set when we settled into a good-sounding spot halfway back and parallel with the soundboard.
Hailing from Prince Edward Island and easily filling the same niche that Harlequin would have filled for me had I attended back in ’22, Haywire were clearly pretty unrehearsed and simultaneously very happy to get the gig (facts confirmed when I checked their website and saw they had a total of two shows booked for the remainder of the year). But no matter, they were a fine backdrop for taking in the scene, and I was slightly impressed that the guitar player was slinging a Peavey Wolfganger – Eddie Van Halen’s signature guitar – which is something you don’t see very often.
So imagine my surprise when the lead singer/rhythm guitarist for Honeymoon Suite was also playing a Wolfganger*! And lest you think that was the most impressive part of the ’80’s hit machine, allow me to inform you that Honeymoon Suite is a solid, hard-working rock band with a hundred thousand miles of entertainment experience and a downright impressive, wailing guitar player taboot.
I had seen the band a few times way back when they were at the top of their game and once more a few years ago in Kemptville, where they had knocked my socks off. My socks stayed on pretty good this time – I already knew they would be good so they lacked the oomph of surprise – but I did really enjoy their set.
I’m not sure whether or not it was an easy call to put Sam Roberts Band on after Honeymoon Suite but it didn’t take long to know that the choice was obvious. I don’t think that Sam Roberts has a repertoire that is as ubiquitously familiar as Honeymoon Suite has (Wave Babies, Stay In the Light, Feel it Again, Burning In Love, New Girl Now…) but he and his band hit the stage with a rollicking Where Have All the Good People Gone? and kept things at a similar pitch for the rest of their set. Turned out I knew quite a few of his songs after all (Bridge to Nowhere, Brother Down), but I suspect the main takeaway for me was the way the band’s name was projected onto the backstage curtain throughout their set. From my angle I couldn’t see the first two letters of “SAM ROBERTS BAND” so I am left to forever refer to them as “Mr. Obert’s Band”.
And while pound-for-pound Mr. Obert’s low-BS rock and roll was probably the most genuine, honest, and maybe even best music on the Churchill Park stage that night, one cannot deny the pure, unadulterated classic ’80’s greatness of Def Leppard. And I would blame it on nostalgia and cheese, were the songs not so blatantly great.
When it comes to cassette deck staples it’s pretty hard to beat Def Leppard. Back in the early ’80’s Pyromania added just the right amount of pop syrup to AC/DC’s hard edge to completely take over FM radio, and then Hysteria took pop power-chord production to a hitherto unheard-of level of slickness with untold layers of processed backup vocals wrapped around irresistibly catchy guitar riffs and appropriately inane and endlessly singable vocal melodies.
Speaking of backup vocals, at the concert they were canned** and if I could be so unkind, there were plenty of times when I thought Joe Elliott’s lead vocals should also have been canned. He was singing all the right notes, but after so many decades of mileage his voice lacks the power that was always so present in every Def Leppard song. Nowadays when he reaches high Elliott must resort to a much less robust falsetto, like mere mortal men.
But enough nitpicking; the show rocked!!! Armageddon It, Photograph, Animal, Rock of Ages, Rock Rock (Till You Drop)…it was great! There were some fun surprises, like Die Hard the Hunter (which I didn’t really think was a big enough hit to include in the setlist though it is probably my favourite DL song) and Bringin’ On the Heartbreak, from one of their earlier, lesser-known records High ‘n’ Dry. Another surprise*** was when they played their hit Love Bites. Why was that a surprise? Because back in the day my high school girlfriend met Joe Elliott after their Moncton concert and she asked him why they hadn’t played the song. He replied that he’d had a real struggle recording it because the melody fell above his usual vocal range, so they didn’t play it live. When they played it at this show I noticed that they had lowered the key, and while I’ve always really liked the song and was genuinely excited to hear them play it live it just doesn’t work in the lower key.
But there I go nitpicking again! You might be surprised to hear how genial I was with the group of absurdly drunk 40-somethings beside us who got so legless they simply couldn’t stop falling into everyone around them. I saw one of the girls fall four times (twice into me) and another guy twice (once into me)****. But no worries; drunkies will be drunkies.
But not me! I walked out of that park sober as a judge and ready to be directed through one parking lot after another until our car was finally spit out onto a road that pointed us towards the highway.
*For the record, they aren’t actually called “Wolfgangers”. I used to work at a Peavey dealership and I somehow got into the unwaverable habit of calling them that, but the guitar is in fact called an “EVH Wolfgang”.
**Pre-recorded.
***The final surprise of the night came when Joe Elliott introduced the members of Def Leppard. I guess I used to be a pretty big fan because I knew all of their names instinctually, but I didn’t know (or forgot) that Vivian Campbell had replaced guitarist Steve Clark when he died in the early 1990’s. I know Vivian’s name from the guitar magazine days of my youth when he was a shredder playing with Dio and Whitesnake and others.
****Several days later I noticed a cigarette burn-hole in the back of my coveted Grateful Dead hoodie that doubtlessly came from when dude fell into me. Glad I didn’t notice it at the time.
Todd Man Out 