Category: Uncategorized
Doro rocked Malmö!
Went to see Doro. She was playing pretty early for a rock show on a Saturday night, so the place wasn’t packed when I first walked in. But more and more people kept coming and by the time Doro hit the stage, there was a decent crowd at KB.
I saw a familiar face at the merch stand. Christoph – I got to know him during the Jon Oliva’s Pain tours, then I met him a few times when he was out with W.A.S.P. Now he’s out with Doro and his next tour will be with Arch Enemy. Was glad to see him. He immediately laughed when he saw me and went: “I KNEW you would be here! I had a feeling you would!”
It was nice seeing him and get a short update on what he’s been up to lately. As I was talking to Christoph, another familiar face walked in. Sara, from the band Come Alive, she was one out of two female metal singers in town back in the day (the other one was me..).
Check out the video she made way back in the day (couldn’t be embedded so you’ll have to click your way there: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=394175707033 )
She came to KB on her own to see Doro, cause much like my friends, she couldn’t get her pals to join her either. But we have both been very inspired by metal queens such as Doro, you can’t miss the lady once she’s in town. And still going strong.
What can I say about Doro… What a POWER PACK! The lady is so full of energy, I get exhausted only thinking about it. She doesn’t stand still for one second – and I’m not kidding, it was impossible trying to take pics of her, every single one is a motion blur of her hair cause she’s headbangning non-stop! :) Same thing when I tried to film her. Just when I thought I had a good zoom-in, off she goes.
Her voice is so powerful, Doro DELIVERS!! It also strikes me how true she is to what she does, she is pure metal, no bullshit, no fake, she is a rock chick to the core. And the crowd loves her. No, they adore her. The guys in the front were almost climbing on eachother trying to get closer to the rock goddess on stage.
They wouldn’t let her leave! After “All We Are”, you’d think that was it. Evening over. But no – people kept making noise and she started taking requests. Whatever people wanted to hear, she sang it. Amazing band, amazing lady. Great show. Talk about inspiring. She is in fantastic shape in every way – physically, vocally…. And she truly loves metal and her fans. We love her right back!
[Doro live on stage – about an hour ago… :)]When BRUCE DICKINSON spills his coffe…..
Donington – the classic metal festival that was THE festival back in the 80’s… It was an absolutely crazy festival for me personally, where it would have been easier to just have a camera crew to follow me around to get all the details. In some way I guess I did…. But that is a different story. :-)
This is only one of many stories from the Donington festival 1992. There will be more – and there will definitely be more clips from the interview with Bruce Dickinson. Right now I won’t have time to upload more because Doro is playing tonight, but I’ll be back with the rest of the Iron Maiden-story.
THIS interview with Bruce Dickinson has a pretty unusual story behind it. I didn’t get it “the usual” way. Far from it.
The day before the actual festival, I was at Donington and the backstage area. There was lots of stuff going on, interviews, press conferences, preparations of all kinds… I went to the big catering tent to see if there was anything good to eat, cause I was starving.
A bunch of people in there as usual, and somehow in that crowd, cause we were all looking at the table, someone accidentally bumped into me and spilled his coffe (or maybe very black tea) all over me. What the…?! My first reaction was exactly that. “What the f…. you stoooopid……” – something along those lines.
I looked up, and at first, all I could see was somebody with a cap whose face I couldn’t see cause he was looking down trying to make sure I wouldn’t get more of that coffee on my shoes or something.
He apologized very politely and when he looked up again, I saw who it was. It was Bruce Dickinson.
Talk about LUCK, just the person I had been looking for! :)
I had been trying to get an interview with Iron Maiden for my radio station, but Maiden’s schedule was so tight that we DID get one for the TV-show we were also doing at the time, RockShow, but not for the radio.
So I figured, what the hell, it couldn’t hurt to at least ASK. Bruce was most cooperative and said he wasn’t doing anything in particular in THAT moment or the coming few, so if we could find somewhere to do the interview, he would be happy to do it. Maybe he felt he “owed” me that for having marinated my t-shirt in black coffee.
We found one, a small room in the back, right next to the production office or something, and I had to do this VERY improvised interview. I’m just glad that I had my recorder with me that day!
Bruce was very nice, then again, he usually is. This short clip is from the radio (Radio MCB which we changed the name of during the summer months, and called “Sommarpuls” as in “Summer Pulse”). And like I said, there will be more from that interview.
Next time I’ll also tell you the story of the Cameraman from Hell who went to Donington with me to do the Iron Maiden interview the day after this. So check back for that. :)
[Bruce Dickinson, from a small barrack backstage Donington 1992 after he had spilled coffee over me. One of those more rare, spontaneous interviews :-)]
…but nobody’s got anything to say
I was watching this very interesting interview with Sir Bob Geldof last week – and found it online, so I thought I would share. I hope others will find this worth watching too.
It’s taken from Swedish television, so just wait about 50 seconds for the host to finish presenting the clip in Swedish, and you’ll get to the actual interview. :)
I admire Bob Geldof for his fire, for his fearless way of sticking out his nose and speaking his mind, for being a man of action – for so many things.
Total respect and admiration, I wish there were more of them out there.
I don’t have much more to add, he says it better than anyone, so listen to what he’s got to say and feel free to contemplate. :)
You can’t stop rock’n’roll
You can’t stop rock’n’roll – classic words from Twisted Sister dated 1983.
Rock has managed to rediscover and reinvent itself, I see it everywhere I go.At least here in Sweden it’s very evident. And it’s such a relief, cause I still remember the identity crisis that rock’n’roll went through in the mid- and late 90’s. I came home to Sweden after having lived in NY for a year and was bummed that there were no rock-clubs anywhere. It was The Great Rock’n’Roll Depression if you ask me – the post-Nirvana and pre-nothing period.
The golden era of rock died over night. They all just disappeared – all those bands who sold out arenas worldwide, had those huge over-the-top stage-productions, topped the Billboard-list…
It was the exclusive time when hard rock actually had its own show on MTV (remember MTV when it actually WAS Music-TV??).
Europe had Headbanger’s Ball with Vanessa Warwick. The US had Headbanger’s Ball with Adam Curry and later Riki Rachtman. I loved that era. You can laugh about the hair, the spandex, the glitter and the lipstick today, but rock’n’roll was alive and kicking!
Then came Nirvana and everything just went downhill. I’m sure there are people out there who beg to differ, but that’s my humble opinion. Rock clubs closed, there was nothing nowhere… Rockers cut their hair and stayed at home in their flannel shirts being depressed. It was a nightmare.Something had to change, and eventhough you can’t change everything – you can always change something.
I decided to do something about it.
I wrote to my favorite nightclub at the time, Heartbreak Hotel, and tried to convince them to open a hard rock club.
To make it easier for them, I included a bunch of ideas, probably two pages full of brainstorming – and sent it to the owner. He called me the next day and next thing I know, I was in charge of the rock club Hard Break at Heartbreak.That hadn’t been my plan, I just wanted a place to go to, not run it, but what the hell – I took on the challenge.On the day of the premiere there was no doubt that people had been STARVING for rock’n’roll! The owner couldn’t believe it – he had been struggling to stay in business and figured that my idea at least couldn’t make things any worse…
The opening night of Hard Break – there were people lining up, rockers as far as the eye could see! People couldn’t even get in – an hour or two after we had opened the doors it was already crowded! A club with a 800-guests capacity, nobody really believed me when I said that it would work.
I knew it would.
But you can’t stop rock’n’roll – it’s an undefeatable force! This clip is from a TV-interview after the premiere of Hard Break:
Things have changed a lot since then. When I look around now, there are rock clubs and rock pubs/bars on every corner. You can even choose your particular niche – from AOR to death metal. Take a pick. It’s all there.
Even fashion is now rock’n’roll. The catwalks are hailing black clothes, chains and studs. Shoes are cool again, high heels, straps, studs, just very metal in general. Hard rock is “okay” now. It’s the first time in 30 years I think, that I can say that rock has finally been accepted.
Since Finnish rockers Lordi won the Eurovision Song Contest with “Hard Rock Hallelujah” a few years ago, you suddenly have rockers competing in mainstream music competitions (such as the Eurovision), which was totally unheard of ten years ago. Hard rock never really died. It was more like a sleeping grizzly in its den. And it’s just such a kick to see it back on track with full force!Bands are out touring again, clubs are up and running, rock radio is getting just as many listeners as regular mainstream stations. Years ago people would have laughed and said that that could never happen. They had another thing comin’…!
Oz-TV is back, at last…! :)
Finally! A new Oz-TV is up on Youtube. I missed those when the band had a break. Now when they’re back out on the road, in South America, I can enjoy these episodes again.
I don’t understand why so many people watch what I think is meaningless TV, such as Big Brother. That is only stupid people locked up in a house, being just…stupid. It doesn’t inspire me, it doesn’t give me kicks, it doesn’t do nothing.
This stuff does.
Life on the road has always been appealing to me, but very few people are privileged to do that on a regular basis. Being in a rock band nowadays is a struggle for the most part. There is not any money in it really, you can talk to almost any band today and they will tell you how hard it is, and how much you have to sacrifice to even be able to DO that.
A few artists can make a good living doing that, the legends, the Metallicas, the what have you…. And Ozzy, duuh, of course.
My first experience of life on the road was when I was managing an all-female band, Modesty Blaise, back in the early 90’s. We were out travelling in a rented van, staying in cheap hotels that the promoters had us stay at, and of course you never had your own room, you always had to share. Well, if you were lucky enough to even have a hotel room. Sometimes they had you sleep on the floor in some room at the venue or whatever. When you’re a small band from nowhere, nobody cares. Show up, do your thing and get out of here. :) That’s the attitude.
But I loved it. It makes people bond like family because you’re together 24-7 doing something that you love to do, travelling around. It’s something that can’t fully be explained unless you’ve done it I think.
The best thing I’ve ever done in my life was the tours with Jon Oliva’s Pain. Had my own bunk on the bus, loved falling asleep to the jokes and laugs where people in the front of the bus kept yapping till 2 or 3 in the morning. I loved sleeping in a bunk because I sleep like a baby when something is moving. I loved opening the bunk-curtain in the morning, not quite knowing where we are, to the smell of coffee.
I loved that whole crazy life, where you never knew when you were gonna get your next meal or what was on the “menu” (it all depended on the place they were playing and the budget of that particular venue..). The first time I tried to put on makeup in a bus I gave up. I ended up looking like Alice Cooper.
Trying to get dressed in a bunk is impossible too, so I gave up trying to be “private”, nobody cares anyway we’re all in the same situation.
Being around music people was great, I felt like I belonged 100%. I never had to explain myself to anyone, people just GET IT because they are the same. You could sit there and talk about anything music-related and people would just add their own stories, they’ve all been out on the road doing this for years. It’s just a great thing, that feeling of being “home”.
Anyway, when I got back from touring with the band (I’ve said it a thousand times and i’ll say it again, the JOP-family is great, I love them dearly) I felt empty, I just wanted to get back out there.
I still dream of being on the road. Every day when I’m stuck with my everyday job, I wish I was out doing what Ozzy and the boys are doing – right now. In this very moment. And through these videos, I get a taste of their current everyday life which is the closest I’m gonna get to being out touring.
At least until this summer when I go out on my own rock’n’roll galore!
IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR 