Kieran Dargan: Well as usual there are plenty of shows out there and trying to persuade people to come out and watch live entertainment is a tough job. I think bands have realised now that they will always do better touring at this time of the year, post summer holidays and just before the Christmas rush

KD: I would have actually preferred to do it earlier in the year, like May or June but people are preparing for holidays and would say “well we can’t really afford the cost of the gig, the accommodation and the beer money” at the moment…and the other factor that regulates when we do Firefest is the cost of flights which traditionally are a little bit cheaper at this time of the year

KD: Well trying to get sixteen bands into the country is a mini-achievement in itself, for example Jeff Scott Soto’s band are all coming in from four different states in America. So when you are trying to organise this number of people and get them all in on time through different airports and up to Nottingham in can be a huge pain.

And the biggest factor this year is the oil prices and a lot of flight schedules have been reviewed so whereas previously an airline might have been operating six flights per day from Stockholm to London they are now down to two and unfortunately we have had one airline cancel all flights in and out of the UK during the week of the festival and another smaller Scandinavian airline we use has gone out of business. We have also had the larger airlines rescheduling flights which is a major pain in the arse for us when airlines do things like that. But all you have got to do is look around at the World economy and see that things have taken a major downturn, more so since the financial crisis has happened…and so obviously the airlines are cutting their cloth to suit their measure

On average you are looking at an extra $150 per head surcharge and these are additional costs that we wouldn’t have been prepared for back in February when first started putting the show together. The end result is that it doesn’t make our job any easier and I have spent a long time today with our transport manager working out revised details

KD: I think it is to an extent and we also try to come up with a few surprise packages. Over the years we have had Blue Tears, who are one of my favourite bands, and people probably never expected to see them or White Sister, Firehouse, Tyketto and I suppose FM was the biggest shock for everybody.

We have always prided ourselves on trying to deliver something out of the ordinary…I mean you can count on Thunder and Motorhead to tour every year…but a lot of the bands the genre of melodic hard rock is built on are either based in the US or they are no longer particularly active. And at the end of the day Bruce and I are fans and that is why we are dong this…it’s not as if we are going to make a fortune because we’ve never made a penny and that’s being quite truthful with you. We do it because we love the music and we love the bands.

Take White Sister, why the hell not try and get White Sister; I’d love to see them and a lot of people wouldn’t have seen them back in 87 opening for FM. You will always get bands like Asia, Y&T and The Wildhearts touring on the back of a new album or whatever so for us it’s a case of giving people the opportunity to see bands who can’t really tour in their own right.

KD: It was always going to be difficult because we draw from a limited pool of bands and although we approached quite a number of large American bands for this year the fees that they were asking were just astronomical….we are talking well into five digits and one was close to six digits for a one off show.  It is a nice thing if you have sponsorship that can cover those costs but for us that is not the way it works.

In terms of our budget we draw from a small gene pool and we can only go so far before we start to run out of bands to bring in because they are not out there unless some of the American bands are prepared to come and play for a reasonable fee. It's always been a bone of contention with me that people will go and watch Motley Crue or Journey at £45 per ticket and not complain and yet when you get seven or eight top quality melodic rock bands on one bill the first thing they look at is the ticket price. This years show is costing £100,000 and that is hell of a lot of money in 2008 let alone when you are talking about putting on a melodic rock festival in the UK.

But going back to your original question we never really thought we could top last year and we didn’t want to have to rely on the headliners to fill the place and instead wanted to put together a bill that would have something to appeal to everybody so you might like four or five bands on one day and not be so bothered about the other one or two…so we wanted to have strength throughout the bill rather than one big headliner like say, for arguments sake, a band like Cinderella. So this year we have someone like Jeff Scott Soto third on the bill on day one and for me Jeff is one of the finest live performers around….and anyone who has seen him live has been converted and then you have got Tall Stories with Steve Augeri which is someone nobody would really have expected to see over here….to be honest I didn’t expect that either. But you know Steve is very keen to play and with what happened with Journey he really wants to come over here and say to people here I am, still singing and my voice is nowhere near as bad as was made out.

We're also really glad to have Valentine back this year and we’ve done the DVD with them from last time…I don’t know if people have seen it or not…so that is available and they will also be making the new album available at the pre-show meet and greet on the Friday and for me Valentine are one of those bands that when people see them live for the first time they just stand there in amazement at the sheer quality of Hugo’s voice. So I think that we have got something on the bill that will appeal to everybody this year without having to rely on just the headliners

KD: We do feel quite at home there to be honest with you because we know the place upside down, inside out and back to front so that always helps and trying to being people into the area from different locations means that the Nottingham is really central to that and it has got good transport links. With the foreign bands coming in then it would be easier I suppose if the show was nearer to London but the cost base of everything as you get nearer to London increases so much that we would have to add six or seven quid onto the price of a ticket just to cover our additional costs. Rock City is a very well recognised venue on the circuit and a lot of people feel comfortable going there and they know what to expect….they know the area and where to stay and so they are very happy to go there.

We also draw a larger proportion of our audience from the Midlands and the North which, for some reason, seems to be where a higher proportion of the melodic rock audience comes from in the UK and for people travelling from abroad then Nottingham is not too far away from airports like Birmingham and East Midlands and reachable from Manchester and Stanstead. You know we did consider one or two other venues this year, larger and more modern and one of them was the Derby Assembly Rooms but at the end of the day finances dictate that we have to use a venue that we are able to afford and the alternatives were just too expensive.

One thing we did learn is that people were not comfortable with Bradford, the venue has a great sound system and lighting system but there was concern around the safety issue in the area particularly when the last time we were there some of us had to have a police escort out of the venue when unfortunately a number of the Asian community took offence at one of the House of Shakira songs. The song was called ‘Morning over Morocco’ and it starts with chanting and when the band were playing there were some youths passing the venue and they ran to their nearest action centre and arrived back with knives and there were accusations we were being disrespectful to their religion and so a lot of us had to be escorted off the premises by the police…and so as a result of that we have discovered that people feel more comfortable in Nottingham rather than Bradford.

   d

KD: In reality it was purely down to the additional cost… We get so many emails from people after the weekend saying what a great time they have had and could we please do three days next time and I think, for a lot of people to a large extent, it is bravado because when you give them that additional day people suddenly realise it will cost an extra night in a hotel and an extra days holiday from work to give them time to travel from places like Scotland or Germany or wherever it is and also the biggest problem that I find with English venues is that they turn into nightclubs at 11 O'clock and you have to chuck everybody out of the door. So when it came down to it we did have a venue, the Trent Uni, and then the guy we were dealing with left and they couldn’t guarantee us the date and we couldn’t just wait around for two months  so unfortunately we just didn’t think it was viable to go ahead

KD: Given the economy and the fact that it is a two day show and twice as expensive as last year we are probably doing a little bit better than last year…we have about 75% of all tickets sold which is not bad. One thing that has happened this year is that ticket sales are stronger from outside of the UK, it's almost a case of “where have all the UK rock fans gone.

I do get emails from people saying they are holding off buying tickets until a few days before because they have been to other events where they have seen bands cancel but at Firefest we have never let anybody down. We have always delivered everybody that we have promised wit the exception of Saracen because Rob was seriously ill with cancer and he physically couldn’t stand on stage with a guitar and just recently we have lost Tony Harnell due to a serious family illness in his immediate family and that’s very unfortunate but it is just one of those things that is outside of our control…at the end of the day it is a rock and roll show and it is nowhere near as important as the well being of any family member so Tony had to make a difficult choice and he is very upset that he can’t do it because the last time he played I the UK was Firefest I with TNT.

You know recently I have seen Firehouse announced for two UK tours neither of which has happened and Jimi Jamison had a tour lined up that was cancelled and I can fully understand people might want to wait before parting with their hard earned cash but the one thing I would say is that this is Firefest and we have always delivered. You know a lot of people thought we wouldn’t get FM but we did and most people turn up for the weekend enjoy the show and then its all over, but for us we have put nine months hard work into bringing it all together and making sure it happens and then another two or three weeks tying up loose ends after the show. So we are happy enough but like everyone we have a break even point and we still have some way to go to achieve that .

KD: There are no plans for another show after this...to be perfectly honest with you this show has been so difficult to get everything together with different time schedules and airlines and it has been incredibly time consuming and difficult to get everything nailed down, even more so when we don’t have any corporate sponsorship. We have had a few people this year, a husband and wife and an individual and god bless them they have contributed very generously and it is extremely appreciated but it would be nice for once just to have one or two corporate sponsors to assist us.

So is there going to be a show next year… I would have to say no but if someone comes to us and says I own a company and I’m going to give you £10k to get started then that would change the whole thing. Some companies are very happy to advertise at festivals that attract teenagers but if I made a brand of guitar that cost maybe £2k I wouldn’t expect a 15 year old to buy it, I would expect someone the age of the people going to Firefest to have that kind of financial ability to spend that sort of money. And if I was them I would consider it money well spent but we are considered as a minor player and we don’t attract that kind of attention. It’s a bit of a pain in the arse but we have fought on and kept going and it’s not like anybody has made any money because anything we make on the DVD’s has been ploughed back into the show.

KD: We feel that we have given people a value for money product and hope people will look at it that way but as I said at this moment there are no plans for another show. The last thing I would say is that if you like this music then it really is a great weekend out in October time and I hope that people will continue to support us and we can shift a lot more tickets between now and show time.