What a week!
WHAT a week it has been…! I guess it’s safe to say it’s been very – Steel Panterish.
Henrik, the camera guy, finished editing the video interview, and it went live. It was everywhere – again. :-)
Twitter. Facebook. Steel Panther’s own official sites. Blabbermouth. Metalpaths. This blog…
Just a few samples:
MY REVIEW OF THE STEEL PANTHER SHOW IN COPENHAGEN [METALPATHS]
BRING METAL BACK (STEELPANTHER)
I’ve probably bugged the hell out of everybody on the FB-page with Steel Panther-shit, but I’m hooked. Want to go to London on the 31st this month to see their last European show on this round. But my main plan is Las Vegas in July to see their show at the House of Blues. It’s a great excuse to go to Vegas, because I love Vegas!
Last time I was there was for the VH1 Rock Honors (Kiss, Queen, Def Leppard, Judas Priest, Foo Fighters and more) in 2006, which feels like ages ago. Can’t wait to go back to the biggest playground in the world!
It’s been a great week for tour announcements as well. BILLY IDOL is coming back to Europe this summer. A bunch of summer festivals. Frankly, I’m not really a big fan of festivals. People are always drunk out of their minds, it’s always in the middle of nowhere, difficult to get to, you’re walking large areas, if it rains you’ve got nowhere to go, if the sun fries you, there’s nowhere to hide. It’s not all bad, I love Sweden Rock and Graspop, but it’s also very challenging.
BILLY IDOL SUMMER 2012 TOUR DATES:
Tue 26th Jun 2012 Arena Moscow Moscow Russian Federation
Fri 29th Jun 2012 Peace And Love Festival Borlange Sweden
Wed 4th Jul 2012 Tollwood Festival Munich Germany
Fri 6th Jul 2012 Moon And Stars Festival Locarno Switzerland
Sat 7th Jul 2012 Villa Contarini Piazzola sul Brenta (Padua) Italy
Sun 8th Jul 2012 Porsche Arena Stuttgart Germany
Tue 10th Jul 2012 Stadpark Hamburg Germany
Fri 13th Jul 2012 Glam Rock Festival Nr Linz. Austria
One of the best live-bands is going on their 30 years of thunder tour – W.A.S.P. I love that band. You can say all sorts of things about Blackie Lawless, and I’ve got a few stories of my own, but one thing is for sure – he is one hell of a songwriter and frontman. I hope I’ll be able to catch the W.A.S.P-gigs. Here are the dates by the way, with the latest additions:
21 – London, UK – The Forum
22 – Edinburgh, UK – HMV Picture House
23 – Newcastle, UK – Academy
24 – Belfast, Ireland – Ulster Hall
25 – Dublin, Ireland – Vicar Street
27 – Manchester, UK – Hmv Ritz
28 – Leeds, UK – Academy
29 – Nottingham, UK – Rock City
30 – Norwich, UK – Waterfront October
1 – Wolverhampton, UK – Wolfrun Hall
3 – Cardif, Wales – The Great Hall
4 – Bristol, UK – Academy
10 – Hässleholm, Sweden – Qpoolen
11 – Trollhätan, Sweden – Älvhögsborg
12 – Sundsvall, Sweden – Spegelsalen, Stadshuset
13 – Örebrö, Sweden – Kongress
14 – Eskilstuna, Sweden – Lokomotivet
16 – Tallin, Estonia – Rock Cafe
17 – Helsinki, Finland – The Circus
18 – Tampere, Finland – Tampere Hall
19 – Turku, Finland – Logomo
20 – SeinaJoki, Finland – Rytmikorjaamo
21 – Lulea, Sweden – Kulturenshus
25 – Huskvarna, Sweden – Teaterladan
26 – Stockholm, Sweden – Rockklassiker Krysningen
27 – Karlstad , Sweden – Nojesfabriken November
2 – Tilburg, The Netherlands – 0 13
3 – Antwerp, Belgium -Trix
4 – Lille, France – Le Splendid
5 – Paris, France – Le Bataclan
6 – Toulouse, France – Bikini
10 – Lisbon, Portugal – Campo Pequeno
14 – St. Etienne, France – Le Fil
15 – Strasbourg, France – La Laite
AND – the greatest news of the day for ME at least, was THIS! FIREWIND announced their fall tour earlier today! :-))
The album is coming out soon, then pretty much like the last time they released their album, Gus G went on tour with Ozzy, so his own thing had to be postponed. This time it’ll be almost the same scenario, but maybe this tour saves the whole PR-thing that they must do to support the album-release.
Last year was definitely a Gus G-year, saw the dude 19 times, the gig in Athens a few months ago was the 20th, haha! I just think that on stage he is an old-school rockstar. He’s got the looks and the moves of a guitar hero, and he plays like a god. Offstage he is a pretty quiet kind of guy who I really haven’t talked to a whole lot, other than the interview at Sweden Rock last year and occasional e-mails. Compared to most party-animals in the business, he is more interested in working hard and perfecting his craft, than acting like a rockstar once he leaves the stage.
I respect that. And most of all, I love the live-energy and the top-notch musicianship in Firewind, they are damn impressive! Like this one – one of my favorites (funny enough, my favorites tend to be their instrumentals!) SKG:
[Check out bassplayer Petro’s fast fingers…! You’d think I speeded up the video…! So damn cool. Filmed this in Cologne, Germany]
My Firewind-tour from all over Europe, UK and USA last year is in the Firewind blog: www.firewindtour.posterous.com
Tomorrow I get a visitor – Vera from Russian Classic Rock is coming, we’re going to see Electric Boys at KB here in Malmo. Also a kickass live-band!
I think that the summer and the fall is coming together nicely, I can’t wait for all the new adventures 2012 is going to bring! :-)
IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR 