JOHN CAFFERTY IN CHARLOTTE, NC

Charlotte's Speed Street Festival, celebrating Memorial Day and the Coca-Cola 600, concluded Saturday evening with a Voices of Classic Rock Concert before an estimated crowd of 12,000 to 15,000 people. "It's the largest crowd we've ever had for the Saturday night concert," said event organizer Jay Howard.

The Voices of Classic Rock Concert highlighted a Speed Street weekend that included a show by "Kansas" on Friday evening, a variety of local bands on Saturday, NASCAR car and driver "meet and greets," and a Question and Answer session on the big stage with NASCAR driver Kyle Petty. The street of Downtown Charlotte were closed for the festival that draws nearly 400,000 people over its three day duration.

The finale of Saturday evening included a fireworks display synchronized to the Voices' encore version of "Smoke On The Water." "While there may have been no water nearby, there was a whole lot of fire in the sky," noted Voices Member and former Deep Purple lead vocalist Joe Lynn Turner, of the fireworks display. "That was cool."

The concert included performances by Larry Hoppen of Orleans, Dave Jenkins of Pablo Cruise, Pat Travers, John Cafferty, Joe Lynn Turner, Jimi Jamison of Survivor and Mike Reno of Loverboy and lasted nearly two hours and forty-five minutes. In fact, the show included a number of firsts.

"We've never performed 'Turn Me Loose' with the Voices of Classic Rock," explained Loverboy lead singer Mike Reno. "In the encore set I suddenly heard the beginning bass riff and knew I was in for a surprise. It turns out the boys in the band learned it on the bus during their trip to Charlotte and threw it into the set. We were just having a blast on stage. I think you could say that it was a crowd pleaser, especially if you judge by the crowd drowning out the band with their singing... 'Turn Me Loose... Turn Me Loose... I've got to have it my way... or no way at all!'"

The fire-works was another first.

"When we accepted the date Jay asked what our final song would be -- the last song of the encore set," recalls Voices Manager Charlie Schmitt. "When we told him it would probably be 'Smoke on the Water' he asked where he might get a live version, explaining that they were going to synch the fire-works to the song. Synch they did... it was spectacular. The view from the crowd of the band playing the song and hundreds of explosions in the sky behind the stage was unbelievable."

THE COCA COLA 600 FESTIVAL CROWD IN CHARLOTTE, NC

JOHN CAFFERTY AT THE COCA COLA 600 FESTIVAL IN CHARLOTTE, NC