Category: Uncategorized
Festival time – again!
Only 2 days until I leave for Balingen, Germany and the Bang Your Head-festival…
I’m not a big fan of festivals, really. People are asking if I’m going to Wacken for instance. I tend to avoid festivals the size of Wacken or Roskilde. It’s too far away from all civilization and the main criteria for me is that it needs to be accessible by car and there has to be a HOTEL/hostel nearby.
After the Midfyn festival in Denmark back in 1994, which turned into a nightmare, I just knew I would NEVER do that again.All I remember is not sleeping for 2 days, drunks everywhere, stolen items and shared showers.
I wasn’t exactly dying to do THAT all over again.
I’m not a fan of tents, I don’t drink at festivals or gigs and I need a good nights sleep and a SHOWER (and I don’t mean shower with a bunch of strangers, I prefer privacy in the bathroom/shower thank-you-very-much).
Cause you’re out there walking around all day long, you barely have time to eat or go to the bathroom or whatever from early noon til after midnight – and then you’re being pushed and shoved everywhere you go – not to mention standing in the front row at the shows.
Being a girl doesn’t get you any favors. Metalheads aren’t known for being the greatest gentlemen in the world, so in that sense I guess that the metal community is the most coequal. You get treated like any other dude. Take it or leave it. :)But the point is – festivals are challenging. Unless you’ve got VIP/guest pass, that makes things a lot easier of course. We were offered Wacken-passes this year and I didn’t even respond, didn’t want to go.
Anyhooo……..
Sweden Rock Festival is cool, it’s not far from home, I can drive home every night and get some sleep. Graspop is just a weekend and it’s definitely near civilization.
Bang Your Head? I have NO idea. It’s totally new to me. :) Was talked into it by Jon Oliva’s former tour-manager, she said I had to come and check it out, that I would enjoy it.
Why not – I’m off on Friday! :-) She’s arranging everything so for once, I’m just tagging along. :)
At the time I didn’t even know who was on the bill. Talk about a BONUS when I noticed that FIREWIND are playing pretty early in the afternoon. Looking forward to that!Speaking of Firewind – there will be more of them three days later when I fly back to Thessaloniki, Greece, to see them play in their home-town.
This time I’m prepared. I know now that Greek fans are crazy, lol!
THAT trip will be in the Firewind-blog, http://www.firewindtour.posterous.com
I’ll never forget my trip to Thessaloniki LAST year, you can read all about it here:
Part 1: http://lita77777.posterous.com/rockin-thessaloniki-day-1
Part 2:http://lita77777.posterous.com/magic-and-nightmare-in-greece
Part 3: http://lita77777.posterous.com/current-destination-london-sonisphere
I think it will be easier this year though – hotel is closer to venue. That helps!
Looking forward to meeting Panagotis from the Greek site MetalPaths too, always nice to get to know new people. :-)
Will be a busy week, but that’s the way I like it. If I’m home more than a month I get restless and bored. The road is calling! :-)
RJD – Happy Birthday and R.I.P…..
Today would have been Ronnie James Dio’s 70th birthday.
I was just talking to a friend two days ago about Dio, what a shock it was when he passed away. It shouldn’t have been, he had been sick for quite a while and he wasn’t young anymore. Still, he was one of those people who was immortal, because he had ALWAYS been there. Every year, pretty much, he would release something. A new album, a live video, live album, best of, whatever – I mean, there was always so much LIFE in him. He was a part of my life since I was 13 and first discovered heavy metal.
The first album I ever heard that Ronnie was singing on, was Rainbow’s Rising. It’s probably not “rock’n’roll politically correct” to say that I never got into that album, but I was never much of a 70’s fan. I didn’t like the sound and the production – I’ve always been more of an audio-nerd who loved the clean, clear, powerful productions of the 80’s…
Anyhow…. Holy Diver was great but my favorite Dio album was always The Last In Line. It was great all the way through – not ONE weak track! The album that followed, Sacred heart, had a few great songs as well – I could listen to King of Rock’n’Roll over and over. There were no CD’s back then so I couldn’t put it on “repeat”. Instead I recorded it on a tape a few times – guess that was how you created your own “repeats” back in those days…
I met Ronnie a few times as well. Fantastic, kind man.
I remember particularly one time when he was playing in Malmo and we had an interview and a photo session scheduled – but the band was late. I don’t remember why but they arrived so late that they barely even had time for sound check. 99% would have told us “sorry – another time“. But not Ronnie.
He walked up to us, smiled and apologized for the “inconvenience” and said: “If you think you are able to do the shoot and the interview in 10 minutes tops, we can do it”.
It was more than enough, we got a great interview and great pics. I just wish that I knew WHERE the hell that material IS right now.
He ALWAYS took time for everybody. Back in 1998 (maybe 1999) he walked out of the elevators at SAS Royal Hotel, also in Malmo, only to be stopped by a bunch of fans who wanted their things signed.
He smiled and signed everything, had a kind word for everyone and actually looked everyone in the eyes. It’s THAT kind of acknowledgement that means everything to people who love an artist’s music. Ronnie knew the value of that, or maybe that’s just what came natural to him. Either way, I always had the utmost respect for him.
Happy 70 th birthday Ronnie – hope you are celebrating it over there on “the other side” with Jim, Janis, Jimi, John and all the other legends. To us you will always be The King of Rock’n’Roll.
STEEL PANTHER-day at Sweden Rock
Thursday – June 7 was STEEL PANTHER-day for me. I came running to the festival area early in the afternoon like I had rocket-fuel up my ass. I had ONE thing on my mind: Being FIRST in line for Satchel’s signing session in the guitar-tent.
It was actually a wonderful, liberating feeling knowing that I could just go there and blend, fit in, be a FAN. It’s so simple to be a fan, and act like one. Haven’t done that in years. I can’t remember the last time I asked anyone for an autograph for instance – unless it was for somebody else.
So, I stood there, with my pink Steel Panther-hoodie (the blinking one, check this video of it) maybe an hour before the signing. But it was also because I liked to hang in that particular “guitar-tent”, they were nice in there and it wasn’t as crazy crowded as the rest of the festival.
As I was standing there, a tall guy with a notepad and a pen walked in and started babbling like a machine – asking if I would like to be in a photo cause they were doing this report about fans at Sweden Rock Festival and blah-blah-blah…. I just looked at him and smiled – and tried to getactual eye-contact. When I didn’t succeed, I just stopped him, waved in his face and said: “Uh – HELLOOO Pär!”
It was a former colleague from the newspaper where I got my very first job, Kvällsposten. I was 18 back then. And here I was, 24 years later – STILL being the crazy metal chick that he once got to know. :-) Only, thanks to Kvällsposten, that gave me my first break, I’ve met everyone and their mother since then.
He finally stopped and took a look at me – and went: “Oh…! It’s YOU!”
I got in the photo he needed for his report, and went straight back to the Satchel signing-line.
They started playing Steel Panther songs and I gave Vera my camera, asked her to take a few pics if she got a chance.
I don’t know what I was doing or looking at, but before I realized it – Satchel was “in da house”!
He smiled that BIG WHITE smile, and immediately went: “Wait a minute.. I know you from somewhere, right….?”
Instead of informing him that he saw me only two days before in Dortmund, Germany – I replied that I did the Steel Panther-interview in Copenhagen.
He was just incredibly sweet, one of those people with a positive energy that you like, instantly. Not only is he a hot dude, but he just has a very cool attitude. And he wasn’t “acting” Satchel too much, he was… pretty normal. Well – until he was about to sign my Steel Panther-hoodie, that is…
I made the mistake of replying “Whatever you want!” to his question: “What would you like me to write on this?”
So, of course – I ended up with THIS!
I also brought the pick that Suuded had managed to catch for us both at the Dortmund-show, that said:
Handed it over to Satchel and said that I wasn’t about to RETURN it, as instructed – however, I WOULD like him to SIGN it for me, cause it will make a nice little souvenir from the Dortmund-gig. :-)
Got an autograph for Suuded as well. I have to admit that the guy is incredibly charismatic. I guess they all are (the other guys in Steel Panther) in their different ways, I just like Satchel’s cheeky, extrovert style a lot. :-) No wonder people all over the planet are fallng for these guys!
I stuck around for a few minutes, enough to see some guy’s round belly get signed and whatever else – you can find those pix on the FB-page: www.facebook.com/intherearviewmirror or here.
Then I had to run to the backstage/VIP-area, because it was time for the Steel Panther PRESS CONFERENCE. And as you all know – that is far from what you would expect from any other press conference. :)
I didn’t get in the front row for a change – because I know that anything can happen, and you don’t want to be too close when it happens, lol! Poor girl in the front who wasn’t aware of that – you’ll see in the video. ;)
After the press conference (which you would actually need a few minutes to get back to NORMALITY from…!) I had a dilemma.
Cause the press conference schedule looked like this – Sebastian Bach was up next, and I didn’t want to miss THAT…
At the same time, I didn’t want to miss Steel Panther’s gig either. So I decided to stick around and see if Baz showed up on time. If he didn’t, I would leave. If he DID show up on time, I would stay for a few minutes, then go see Steel Panther.
I got the best of both worlds. Baz was right on time (only a few minutes late…) and the press conference didn’t take long, so I managed to see both. Woo-hoo!
[Photos by Henrik Hansson]
The show was great, I LOVE those guys, they bring THE PARTY wherever they go, you can’t stop smiling! I’m laughing, singing, jumping, smiling – feeling GREAT when Steel Panther is in town! The only thing that pisses me off is when I read bad reviews written by people who LACK all those qualities – a sense of humor, the ability to have fun, write good music and not take themselves too seriously.
Like Skid Row once said when they wrote “Get The Fuck Out“: “Fuck you if you can’t take a joke“.
I was exhilarated after that whole day, Steel Panther is a FEEL GOOD kind of band. It’s impossible to be in a bad mood after either meeting them or seeing one of their shows!
Booked a bunch of SP-gig trips for this fall, can’t wait to see them again in a few months, that will be all the refueling I need to make it through a dark and gloomy, Swedish fall. :-)
And, kind of like I did with the Firewind-tour, there will be a separate Steel Panther tour-blog when it’s time to “hit the road”! http://steelpanthertour.posterous.com/ (there’s nothing up there yet – but there will be, after the first European show that I’m going to). Looking forward to it.
GRASPOP METAL MEETING 2012 – Last Day memories and reviews (Part 5)
Sunday – last day of the festival – started out as a total nightmare. The last thing you want when you’re in a field in the middle of nowhere – is rain! And it was pissing down. Vera didn’t even have a rain poncho or umbrella or anything, so we had to wait until the worst rain passed to we could go and get her a poncho asap. She would have been soaked without it.
And this last day we didn’t get any VIP-treatment, no backstage passes like the day before. Well – I had my press pass, I had that all 3 days, but Vera didn’t so we were out in the rain. I wanted to see Sebastian Bach but as the rain kept getting worse, even I wondered if I really wanted to see that show that bad…
The minute he got on stage, I knew what to do. I didn’t want to watch it. Actually, I was pissed off. No disrespect to Sebastian as an entertainer but the “problem” in this case was that I’ve seen SO many shows with Sebastian since 1989, I lost count already in 1992… He has ALWAYS been this bundle of energy, TNT dynamite on stage – I’ve come to expect that. When it was pissing down like this at Donington 1992 he ran out on stage, slid and fell on his ass – but continued singing! That’s what a true artist does.
But at Graspop he looked like a primadonna who didn’t want to get his hair wet! I’ve NEVER seen Sebastian act like that before. In 23 years this was the first time he had that attitude and I was disappointed.
When he just stood there, doing nothing, looking like he just wanted to go back to the backstage area it felt like it was anything BUT rock’n’roll. And when he stated “Belgium! This SUCKS!” I was even more pissed off because I was thinking to myself, as the water kept running into my eyes and my clothes were about to get soaked even through the rain poncho – “It’s not YOU standing out here getting soaked mothertrucker! I’m not gonna stand here if you’re not going to make it worth the trouble!”
[Seriously – what the hell was THIS all about…?]
THESE VIDEOS (each was less than a minute long) WERE REMOVED FROM YOUTUBE BY “GET OFF MY BACH PRODUCTIONS INC” (=Sebastian Bach).
Further comments not necessary…..
So I left. The first time ever that I walked out on a Sebastian Bach or Skid Row show. Later on I heard from somebody who had stayed through the whole thing, that it got better towards the end of the show… Well, too bad my patience or the lack thereof, got the best of me in the rain and the cold. The last thing I need is an artist with a bad attitude.
The Marquee tent was a lot better. I had no idea who was playing in there, I didn’t care. I just wanted to stand somewhere where it wasn’t raining. The only problem was all the SMOKING in there. I felt like I was gonna puke. I get sick from cigarette-smoke, I really can’t handle it, it makes me panic. And people were smoking EVERYWHERE.
I couldn’t hide from it, it was the same outside actually. Every time I wanted to take a deep breath of fresh air, I got a cloud of someone’s SMOKE in my lungs instead, which almost made me faint a few times. Smokers just don’t understand what it’s like to be subjected to their smoke. Some chick at Sweden Rock told me that “this is a festival, we SMOKE here!”. Okay – people pass out in their puke on festivals too, so what’s that got to do with anything?!
So I had my nose stuck in my jacket the whole time, the only way to avoid taking a deep breath of nicotine when I least expect it… Shouldn’t have to be that way. Maybe someday smoking will be a thing of the past.
Jan from JOP showed up, they had just arrived. Had a short chat with him, then he took off to check out the sound board the would be working with. I texted JOP’s former tour manager Anett to ask if she was there cause I knew she was going to the festival. She texted back saying she was up on the stage (Ugly Kid Joe’s stage).
Everybody’s impressed with UKJ – it’s like time stood still with those guys. They are still as cool and as valid as they ever were. There is still the naughty boyishness in them, the middle-finger teenage punkish attitude. They sound great and most of all I’m super impressed by drummer Yael Biz. She is freaking amazing!
Here she is with Alex Skolnick in a different project, she kicks major ass:
Whitfield Crane sounds great still, so all in all it was great seeing them live again. It was raining when they were playing Sweden Rock Festival as well, but at least this time they were in a tent. :)
When they finished their set I RAN out of the tent cause I could hear that EUROPE had started playing. It was still raining but I absolutely wanted to see them. Here is my shaky video of the powerwalk from the tent to the main stage – prepare to get sea sick! ;))
To be honest, I haven’t seeen Europe in many years because I chose NOT to. I remember them from their hayday, from the “hair-days” when they were on top and I didn’t want to ruin my good memories by seeing a bunch of old(er) family-guys with short hair. Just didn’t feel right. However, seeing them at Graspop was different somehow, it was a festival so I decided to go check it out.
Now I regret that I wasted so many opportunities the past few years to go and see them. They REALLY made me proud to be Swedish! There was nothing about them that felt “old” in any way, they are still great on a big stage.
Joey Tempest was strutting – owning that stage. Unlike Sebastian he didn’t give a fuck about the rain. He put on a show like there WAS no rain! And he looked like he loved every second of it!
It sounded great – Europe is a perfect old-school arena-band. They know how to handle a large crowd and a big stage. I’m glad that I went to see them and it was WORTH standing in the rain for! Joey Tempest still knows how to entertain, I’ll be back for more.
[Still kicking butt!]
After their show, I met up with Anett for just a few minutes and took a walk around the area. It was cold and damp so I decided to go back to the tent. Jon Oliva’s Pain was coming up.
Jan was busy working, Hanneke (light-tech) as well but she was so glad to see me, she jumped down to give me a hug. “You are welcome to join me up there if you want“, she said, so when she show was about to begin, I went up there. Hanneke rocks, always happy always up to something, it’s impossible not to like that girl. :)
Saw guitar-tech Fabio on the stage, haven’t seen him in ages, hoped to be able to get together with “the family” later and catch up a little! That didn’t happen though. I don’t know why, but at least I got to hang with the funniest bunch in the backstage bar afterwards – Fabio, Hanneke and Anett. We were laughing and having a great time, always a pleasure to hang out with them! :-D
The Jon Oliva’s Pain show…. Jon lost a lot of weight since I last saw him, he looked good. The new band sounded good but… I’m not sure why the band (or Jon) has chosen to just play songs from one album (Hall of The Mountain King).
Personally, I think it’s a step back, because this band has created some great music under the name Jon Oliva’s Pain since 2005 and I missed hearing those songs. Going back to the Savatage years feels unnecessary and wasn’t my cup of tea at all. Maybe it pleases the hardcore Savatage-fans but evenso they must have followed Jon’s work the past few years and learned to appreciate what he does now, so I don’t know who this was for, really.
But that’s only my personal opinion, it has nothing to do with the execution of the songs or the quality of the musicians. That is, as always, top-notch.
A bit sad and disappointed that I didn’t get to meet Jon this time. Maybe some other time.
Instead, I went to check out the merch, it had stopped raining. Met up with Vera, grabbed a bite and got ready to see Motorhead. But by the time they went onstage, it was raining again. I went to the VIP-bar and for the first time noticed that they had direct streaming of the show on the TV:s back there. Couldn’t be more perfect! I was under a roof and I could still watch the show! :)
What can I say about Lemmy…? Not too many surprises there. He is cool. He is very cool. He sounds like Lemmy and he gives the crowd what they want. Motorhead is a sure thing. You always know that they’re gonna deliver and WHAT they’re gonna deliver.
After Motorhead, I met up with Anett, Hanneke and Fabio in the backstage bar and nobody was particularly eager to see Guns n’Roses. First of all, we all expected them to be late as fuck, as usual. Then – we expected them to suck, like they have the past few years. Everyone I talked to that day hadn’t planned on seeing GnR. “Maybe the first two songs or something…” – that was the general attitude. Nobody had high hopes for Axl & co.
No wonder, he’s screwed up so badly so many times that people just got tired of it. You can’t act any way you want nowadays because there’s always gonna be some other band that will steal your fans. Not even if you’re Axl Rose, will you get away with just anything.
We were just taking it easy back there when suddenly we heard this BANG and music from the stage. We all stood there with puzzled faces. “They started – already???” It was 20 minutes too early..???
I went out there to check if it was indeed GnR or something else. It WAS Guns…! They had opened with Chinese Democracy. I still didn’t think that they would deliver anything that would be worth staying for, so I stood there, far away from the stage with no intention of moving closer. I was sceptical.
The set continued with Welcome To The Jungle. At this point I was beginning to realize that Axl sounded freaking GREAT. He looked a lot better than the last time too – he lost weight and was actually MOVING on stage. Whooah!
A few songs later I was hooked. This was a different Axl than I remembered, and definitely a different Axl than I expected! It was as if he was pissed off at the criticism and had something to prove.
So you think I’m fat?
You think I can’t sing anymore?
You think I can’t deliver the goods?
WELL – TAKE THIS MOTHERFUCKERS!!!
He was on a mission and I was blown away! I’ve never even been a GnR-fan ever. Never in a million years did I think that Axl Rose, of all people, would get my attention and even have me contemplating to miss the early flight home…!
We had to leave but first Vera wanted to see “just one more song“. And then I ended up thinking the same “just ONE more song…”. And Anett, who was supposed to go with us so we could drive her to her hotel, didn’t want to leave at all..! She said she would grab a shuttle or something – at the time nobody cared HOW they would get back to their hotels or airports, it was just a show that you didn’t want to walk out from…!
It dawned on me, for the first time ever, why Guns n’Roses once became the biggest rock band in the world. THIS was the reason. Axl had a fantastic evening – he created magic!
I read a review in Metal Hammer UK that said he “had the passion of a dead sheep” at some other gig, and I had to wonder if this show at Graspop was just ONE great show that we would see in years…? Cause if the band would continue to sound like THAT and Axl continue to sing flawless – and communicate with the crowd – I would GLADLY travel to see GnR again.
But I guess you never know with that man. I’m glad and feel privileged that we got to witness a great GnR show that actually made people STAY and enjoy the show! I dragged Vera away from there somewhere after “Civil War” cause we HAD to beat the crowds and get out of there before all those thousands of people started heading for the exit.
We could hear Knockin’ on Heavens Door, Whole Lotta Rosie and Patience as we were walking to the parking lot.
The PERFECT ending to a PERFECT festival.
THE GRASPOP BLOGS:
GRASPOP METAL MEETING 2012 – memories and reviews (Part 1)
GRASPOP METAL MEETING 2012 – memories and reviews (Part 2)
GRASPOP METAL MEETING 2012 – MEGADETH memories and reviews (Part 3)
GRASPOP METAL MEETING 2012 – TWISTED SISTER memories and reviews (Part 4)
GRASPOP METAL MEETING 2012 – Last Day memories and reviews (Part 5)
Next up – Bang Your Head festival in Germany……….!
GRASPOP METAL MEETING 2012 – TWISTED SISTER memories and reviews (Part 4)
When it was time for Twisted Sister, the crew-guy Rob (who had invited us as his guests) showed up with a funny smile on his face. “Come on, I wanna show you something!”
So we followed him to the right side of the stage where he had placed a road-case on wheels right in front of the sound guy, yet still so perfect that we weren’t in anyone’s way. The BEST seats in the house! “This is reserved especially for you guys!” Jesus, I had to laugh, Vera couldn’t believe it either, that was just so great.
It didn’t end there. Only a few minutes before Dee & co were about to enter the stage, someone PUSHED the case so hard that I thought we were gonna end up ON the stage in front of all those thousands of people! I’ve got it on video – when I start screaming, that’s when the case is being pushed!
It was Twisted Sister’s manager Danny Stanton – a guy that I think everybody knows. He’s also managed Sebastian Bach, Lita Ford, just a bunch of bands over the years. “You can see EVEN better now!” he laughed. My god – crazy dude! :-))
Dee showed up and I could tell he was totally psyched. He was jumping and by the concentrated look on his face it was like a bomb ready to explode. “Let’s DO this!!”
And off he went – like a missile! When Dee enters a stage, it’s full speed ahead and he never stops!
Not only is his VOICE better than ever – it’s strong, clear and powerful, but he also has an endless energy, at 57 he is in far better shape than dudes half his age!
Watching the crowd was also a fantastic experience. I almost got tears in my eyes, it was mindblowing. Dee had every single person’s attention. Such total control of thousands of people, that’s something that you don’t see every day.
You can see some of it in this video for instance. First he introduces Mike Portnoy (ex-Dream Theater, now with Adrenaline Mob, among others…) – we were all standing there watching the show in awe. Mike P had his family with him, his beautiful daughter Melody and his son Max, and their mother. :) They were sitting right next to me on the road case, and I thought it was so cool to introduce the kids to the world of rock’n’roll at such a young age. :)
So anyway, after Mike & band were introduced, Dee barely even got a chance to start singing. Thousands of people started singing “The Price” with their hands and cellphones up in the air. At THAT point I was really glad that I had the privilege of being up on stage! What a sight that was! You don’t see that every day.
[The CROWD!]
I got to hear some of my favorites – You Can’t Stop Rock’n’Roll (and nobody sings it with more conviction than Dee Snider!) Stay Hungry, Burn In Hell (another big favorite!) S.M.F and of course the Twisted Sister anthems that no TS show could ever be without: I Wanna Rock and We’re Not Gonna Take It.
The Graspop-crowd loved Twisted Sister – so much that when he introduced the headliners of the evening – Limp Bizkit, people booed…!
We went backstage after the show cause Limp Bizkit apparently didn’t allow anyone back there when they were preparing for their gig. Rob escorted us back to the artist room and the Twisted Sister band+crew, plus the Adrenaline Mob-guys had just ordered pizza – so there was a PILE of pizza boxes in there!
Vera stopped Dee as he was passing by, cause she felt she wanted to tell him how much he had affected her life with his writings and his music. Dee was super-cool, really took time to listen. There’s just something with his whole persona that makes you like him and respect him. He is tall and walks straight, he is confident without being arrogant, and he’s very bright.
One of the Twisted Sister guys brought me a glass of white wine in a champagne-glass, but I couldn’t drink it – I was driving. :-( I tried a little sip though and regretted even MORE that I was driving because the wine was fantastic! So the guy got up, went back to the room where he got me the glass of wine and came back with a whole bottle of it. “Here you are, you can have a bottle. Nobody’s gonna drink that now anyway, we’re leaving as soon as they’re done here….”.
[Gift from the Twisted Sister-guys – we couldn’t even keep it]
At first I was happy about the gift – then I realized that I couldn’t take it home because I wasn’t checking in any luggage and you can’t bring a bottle of wine on board in your carry-on. So…. we had to leave that great wine to whoever cleaned the AVIS-rental car the next day! :-(
We couldn’t even get out to the buses and vans because the whole area was closed until Limp Bizkit started playing. So we were just hanging there, and I was checking my Twitter on the Graspop artist-WiFi. Mike Portnoy was doing the same. Suddenly one of his Tweets showed up on my Twitter-timeline. I laughed and said “You just Tweeted!”. He leaned over to check my phone “Oh, it’s up now? Can I see how it looks on your cell?” Total nerding, lol!
If you think that people are partying and taking drugs and screwing groupies backstage in 2012 – forget it. They are TWEETING and updating their FACEBOOK-statuses! :-)
[Empty backstage-area, everybody’s leaving for the next gig]
When they finally opened the parking we went with everybody to the buses and vans to say goodbye and then continue on our own way back to the hotel. Said byebye to Rob who was really a cool and generous guy – we had a great time thanks to him. AND – he had worked for Lita Ford too, that gives him a few extra points in my book, lol! :)
The NEXT day (Sunday, last Graspop-day) was just RAINY – I’m surprised I didn’t get sick after that ordeal:
SEBASTIAN BACH, UGLY KID JOE, JON OLIVA’S PAIN, MOTORHEAD, EUROPE, GUNS N’ ROSES
THE GRASPOP BLOGS:
GRASPOP METAL MEETING 2012 – memories and reviews (Part 1)
GRASPOP METAL MEETING 2012 – memories and reviews (Part 2)
GRASPOP METAL MEETING 2012 – MEGADETH memories and reviews (Part 3)
GRASPOP METAL MEETING 2012 – TWISTED SISTER memories and reviews (Part 4)
GRASPOP METAL MEETING 2012 – Last Day memories and reviews (Part 5)
IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR 