Maybe it’s because I’m Swedish, but I guess that my idea of what’s truly shocking is on an entirely different level than what Americans think is shocking. :)
This Miley Cyrus-scandal is pretty amusing. People are going absolutely bananas over…what? :)
The pretty little virgin-Disney-princess has been playing it safe until now, pleasing parents by being that perfect role-model for their kids. NOW, she rebels against it all, crosses all barriers, hell, it’s rock’n’roll and it’s BRAVE. I love the song too!
She’s 20 years old and she looks good, if she feels like using that for her benefit, well, why not. Her career won’t last forever, most artists today don’t. But at least she’s going to be remembered for something.
Five years from now, people will be laughing at this “outrage” much like we’re laughing about how “obscene” Elvis was with his “rolling hips”-dance or how shocking W.A.S.P were back in the day. There are worse things out there, this is just ridiculous!
[I remember when THISwas the big shocker back in the 80’s – Madonna, singing about losing her virginity, crawling around on stage at the MTV Music Awards. Imagine – THAT was considered obscene back then…!]
What Miley Cyrus is doing isn’t new, it’s been done over and over throughout the history of music – and art in general. Push the limits, see how far you can go – and piss off a lot of people.
Remember little innocent Christina Aguliera who suddenly turned into a stripper-wannabe in “Dirty“? It wasn’t that long ago, but who thinks THAT video is particularly “shocking” today? We get used to shit so quickly. Britney Spears kissed Madonna woaahh!! THAT is the stuff people remember.
[Yeah, THIS was terrible at the time, people were just as shocked as they are now, with that new Cyrus-video]
What Miley does now is old shit in a new package. Some have mentioned Wendy O Williams as an inspiration. I bet my life that Miley has never even heard the name Wendy O Williams. Wendy was a totally out-of-control former stripper punk-bitch. She never sold millions of records, but she was the badass chick of the “underground” rock/punk scene.
[Wendy’s left boob pretty much falls out in this video when her bra-strap slides off. And she doesn’t give a rat’s ass!]
In Miley’s case I’m guessing it’s a combination between good girl gone bad and the usual artist exploatation. If she hadn’t done this – she would have drowned in the sea of nice girls in the pop business who come and go. It’s a smart move.
The question is if she’s going to be comfortable with her choices when she’s 40, but that’s a different story.
It works NOW and she can probably laugh all the way to the bank, while the rest of the world is bitching about her “pornographic video”..! :) Way to go.
[Yet another “shocker” – Britney and Madonna in this “lesbian” video, what an outrage that was at the time…!]
it’s Rob “Metal God” Halford’s (Judas Priest) birthday today – so here’s a loud shout out from Sweden: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROB!!
It’s not a secret that Judas Priest is my number one favorite band of all time. They got the ball rolling, they’ve been a source of power since I was 13 years old. The story has been told many times in this blog before, so I’ll spare you. :-)
It’s just amazing how music can be so important and become such a religion. I remember going to one of their gigs with a 42 degree Celsius fever, the best reason in the world to stay in BED, and totally forgot about it once they started playing!
There is no Aspirin in the world that has that power!
I’ve been pushed, pulled, beaten, scratched, stepped on and squished in the front row, but I always figured that if I was gonna die, I couldn’t think of a better place than at a Priest-concert. :-)
When you really love your music, it becomes your source of inspiration like nothing else. I would judge guys on whether or not they liked the band, even “cast” band members that way – that’s still a joke when we remember that episode every now and then.
I was totally drunk (I was in my early 20’s, I was allowed to, haha!) and had almost passed out on a couch outside the ladies room at this rock club. The other guitarist in the band poked me and went: “Daniela! Here’s Lukas, who’s interested in joining the band”. I looked up at the guy, said: “Do you like Judas Priest?” He said “Yes” and I replied: “Good! You’re in the band!”
Slightly different from how normal bands choose their members, lol! ;)
Anyway – my “heavy metal phase” that my dad used to call it when I was a teenager, is still alive and kicking, and I owe it all to the Metal Gods – Judas Priest.
So once again a big, huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROB!! And thank you for the music. :)
This year has been pretty slow so far, travel-wise – by my standards. And the reason is that I wanted to do something DIFFERENT this time. Instead of travelling all over Europe and occasionally to the US, I figured that I want to go to AUSTRALIA. But as I’m not the “touristy” type, I was looking for a good excuse to go – and I got it! :-)
The band that gets me out there on the road most of the time (it’s a great band to follow if you’re into the whole travelling-thing, cause they’re out there most of the year, all over the place) – FIREWIND, is going on a short tour to Australia in October/November. And I’ve just bought my ticket to go see those gigs. Woo-hoo!
And this time, I’m really making it a trip to remember. I chose to travel with Emirates – voted Airline of The Year 2013. And I’m booked in business-class.
If I’m EVER going to spend money on travelling in business-class, it’s for a trip like this where you’ll be spending about 30 hours in a plane! You want to be comfortable for that.
So I booked that, and started reading about all the benefits, and it starts even BEFORE I board! I’ve been so excited all day about my forthcoming Aussie-trip!
Complimentary chauffeurthat picks me up to drive me TO and FROM the airport! How nice to arrive somewhere and have someone waiting for you with your name on a sign! No standing in line fighting for taxis…..! HEAVEN!
You get access to the business-lounge at Copenhagen airport, Dubai airport….
You can breeze right through security in your own fast-track (same goes at check-in).
The seats can be turned into real, flat beds (and has built-in massage and all!). Your own large work-table, entertainment-system, Wi-Fi on board, complimentary champagne, drinks – a menu to choose from anytime you want…
I mean, the list goes on. If there is EVER a good reason to pay up for this kind of luxury, it’s when you’re travelling for more than 24 hours. :)
Take a look at this presentation of their lounge and business-class seats!!
I got my “local” Australia- flights sorted out as well – this is my route:
Sydney – Brisbane
Brisbane – Adelaide
Adelaide – Melbourne
4 gigs in 4 days, I have NO idea how I’m going to cope, cause I suspect that the jetlag is going to knock me out… I’ve never gone east before, so I will most likely be beat…. However, it’s just another adventure, but an Adventure DeLuxe!
I love all the planning, the hotels, the detective work to find addresses, the best ways to get from the airport to the hotel, from the hotel to the venue, from the venue to wherever… I mean, all that stuff is so much fun, I get such a kick doing the preparations!
I should be working with this full time, but it just never happened that way.
If there are any up and coming bands out there looking for someone to plan their tour – gimme a shout!
I know how to find the best options at the best prices, I’ve been doing it for myself for years already, this is definitely my turf. :)
Also looking forward to meeting my long-time online-friend Clint from Melbourne, this trip will absolutely, totally rock! :))
The year was 1983 and I was taking my first baby-steps in the new and exciting world of heavy metal.
Back in those days it was very much a man’s world (a lot more than it is today) and eventhough I worshipped Judas Priest (who got the ball rolling) and all those other classic bands, I didn’t have a female rolemodel.
So – I dressed like the guys. Denim and leather, 80’s style with patches, back patches, badges and all that stuff.
[Remember this? ;P]
One day I was flipping through Swedish music magazine OKEJ and saw photos of this “new” rock chick who just released her album “Out For Blood“. Lita Ford.
I thought Lita looked so cool. With that logic, I was also convinced that she SOUNDED good, so I went and bought the album. In two versions, as the cover had been censored in the UK for being “too vulgar”. THAT, of course, meant that I absolutely HAD to have it! :)
[This was the very first article I saw, that made me go buy Lita’s debut album. I’ve still got that scrapbook, these articles are in surprisingly good shape still, no soda-stains or anything :)]
Scrapbook 1983
The CENSORED version from 1983 – now signed!
Long story short – Lita has been the source of inspiration ever since. Besides Judas Priest, she’s the reason I’m still here, in this crazy rock’n’roll circus. She paved the way, showed that women could be a part of the business, and not just as groupies (you always get that shit anyway from ignorant people).
She was talented, beautiful, successful, determined and had tons of attitude.
It’s been 30 years since I first got “Out of Blood“. Always wanted to meet her but the opportunity was never given. She just didn’t tour over here much – and the one time she DID, with Bon Jovi in 1988, I had a gig with my own band (major clash!)
I ALMOST met her a few years ago though. At Sweden Rock, I was with Jon Oliva’s Pain who had the caravan next to Lita’s and I could see straight in. But she had what you might call a bad day. Could happen to anyone. I wasn’t going to push anything. The chance was right under my nose but I respected her privacy and chose not to bug her.
Sweden Rock Festival 2009 – Lita Ford’s dressing room.
My friend Kevin from Jon Oliva’s Pain brought me up on stage during LIta’s gig. Just shot this very short clip from that – we were drinking wine, watching Lita from up close, couldn’t be better. :)
And now, it’s 2013, 30 years later, the teenage girl that was me, who thought the badass chick with the bleeding guitar was the coolest thing ever – finally got to meet her idol face to face for a long and openhearted talk. :)
That’s every fan’s dream. It doesn’t even matter that I’ve been meeting “rock stars” on a regular basis since I was 18 and therefore “should” be jaded. When you get to meet someone who’s actuallymeant something in your life, you go back to being a nervous, stoked KID!
Lita was great, she is totally down to earth – has a unique quality that makes you feel like you’re long time friends. So, here’s what happened…
MALMO, SWEDEN – JULY 25, 2013….
I woke up at Hotel Palace in Gothenburg early in the morning. I had just been to see her show at Sticky Fingers the night before. Took the bus back to Malmo and slept all the way home while the rain was pattering against the window.
At this point, I didn’t even know if the interview was going to happen. It’s always like that. You get the details in the very last minute, it just goes with the territory…
Around 3 in the afternoon I finally got a text back from the label-guy who informed me that my interview was taking place at 5.30 at the venue. That was when I realized that this was actually happening, finally. When that sunk in, I started getting nervous. Man! Lita Ford has not only been a rolemodel since I was a kid, she’s also the last name on my list of people I want to meet before I die. The circle was about to be completed!
I grabbed my interview-bag and drove down to the venue, KB – my second home. I just wanted to find a good place to do the interview where there wouldn’t be sound check-noise or people running in and out. Johan, alias “Dr AOR” was outside and he was one of the DJ’s of the evening so he let me in.
Bengan, who’s been working at KB since forever, suggested the main dressing room, which also serves as a hospitality room. It was empty and it was perfect.
Lita’s tour manager introduced himself, a nice man, and I stayed watching the sound check preparations while waiting for Henrik “the camera man” to show up.
Then…. Lita arrived. Her comment just made me laugh, because I know exactly where she was coming from with that question: “Do I know you from before, or are you doing the interview?”
I’m exactly the same. I never freaking remember people, so as to avoid awkward situations, it’s better to ask first.
She came over a few times, asking me when and where we would do the interview, and when I mentioned that I was waiting for my camera-guy, she realized that it was going to be recorded, so she took her makeup bag and asked where the toilet was. :)
Henrik and Mari arrived just when the sound check was about to begin. I told the tour manager that they didn’t have to worry about us. KB is our second home, and we know our way around. We could handle the setup ourselves while Lita was sound checking (I stayed and watched one song before I went upstairs to prepare).
It was unbearably hot in the dressing room. No airconditioning or anything. When Lita walked in she felt it right away and just went “Oh my god! Isn’t there an airconditioner in here?” The idea of doing the interview dressed in her cool, black leather jacket was out of the question.
The KB guys brought 3 different fans, and a cooling-machine of some sort and plugged it in, so we could kind of survive….
She was chit-chatting while fixing her makeup. Again, she did what I always do – took the makeup bag and flipped it upside down so that everything in there just fell out on the table in one big pile of mixed random makeup-products.
“I bought all this new makeup, haven’t tried some of it yet so I don’t know what it does exactly”, she laughed and continued fixing her makeup over at the floor mirror. She was upset that one of her guitars had been smashed by United Airlines on her way over to Europe, and it was one of her favorite red guitars. The neck was broken, couldn’t be fixed.
Small little talk about coffee and staying awake when you need to (I gave her my energy-gums, the ones I use when I’m out on my own “tours” and she tried one right away. Then after a few seconds commented: “Wow! That is one serious gum!” It is – it’s strong and you feel it working right away. Don’t know what I’d do without those!
I was still a bit nervous, but Lita was just so easy to deal with that I felt like I was talking to someone I’d known for a long time. She just has this open attitude that makes people feel relaxed.
She noticed Henrik’s designer t-shirt, liked it and asked what designer it was.
The first few questions were just a bit of standard stuff, to get things going. And as some of this material was equested by another media, I won’t be able to publish any of that until it’s been used for what it’s intended to. But the second part of the interview will be up here soon, transcripted and edited within the next few weeks.
[A short random clip from the interview – we’re talking about tattoos here]
The thing is…. I’ve followed Lita since the early 80’s, and when you read so much about an artist and watch them on TV or Youtube or whatever, it feels like you already know them. I guess that’s why you like certain artists more than others – because there’s something about them that you can relate to and understand, and Lita has always been that person.
I smiled when she said that during the Runaways-days she wanted it to be dark in the studio where she recorded her vocals. She didn’t want people to look at her making her faces while she was singing.
I did the exact same thing – I turned out the lights in there and I’m sure the guys were thinking WTF, but it just made me relax. I didn’t know that Lita did the same. It’s just those small things…!
It got to a point where the conversation got pretty deep and I had to really use every bit of strength and concentration to stay professional in front of the cameras.
We were talking about death and she was telling me about her mother’s last three days in life. Lita never left her side. It was hard for her to talk about it. She also mentioned her father who had passed away a few years before her mom. Lita and her parents were very close, and the song “Lisa“, that she wrote for her mom, always made me cry. Still does.
It was difficult for her to talk about it still, eventhough it’s been 23 years since her mother passed away. I wanted to say something, just a short comment that I could relate because I just recently lost my father. But as I started the sentence I realized that I couldn’t continue – I just felt how hard it was to even go there. I couldn’t. This wasn’t about me anyway,
So I was holding back the tears – so was Lita. But you know… It helped me, as another piece in processing my own grief.
You never stop hurting and you never stop missing those you loved and lost, but you get on with your life, because you must. We had the same ideas about life after death, or “life on the other side”.
She wasn’t afraid to talk openly about pretty much everything and anything. In her opinion, there are 2 kinds of people in the world: Leadersand followers.
In order to change something, somebody had to be first and lead the way. She was okay with being one of those people.
“I’m not alone thinking or feeling the things I do. There are others out there who have similar experiences. But they are afraid to talk about it. When they see somebody else bring it up, they can say “that’s how I feel!”
So, basically, Lita said a lot of things that I can relate to 100% and I definitely respect and admire her even more after finally meeting her.
Another important aspect of the interview dealt with the family tragedy she’s going through. I will post that part of the interview soon, it’s very sad. It doesn’t matter which parent made the most mistakes in a marriage or what the reasons are that people get divorced. But when kids are being used as weapons in those battles, it sickens me.
Lita started this Facebook-page which deals with the subject – check it out:
I could have stayed there talking with her for hours. She wasn’t looking at the clock or going “one last question, I gotta run” – which is almost standard. EIther the artist or some manager interrupts an interview by letting you know that you need to finish. Lita was totally cool, no stress.
We continued talking after the cameras were turned off, and I could not have asked for a better first meeting. I’m thankful it turned out that way. Cause when you’ve admired someone for so long, it would have been somewhat disappointing and almost devastating to find out that that person was a prick and that you wasted 30 years of your life following his/her career.
That didn’t happen with Lita. I can still relate to her, maybe even more now than before. Go check out the photos from the interview and the shows at www.facebook.com/intherearviewmirror
I thanked her for her time and instead of shaking hands, like I usually do, I instinctively gave her a hug. I never do that. It’s happened maybe once or twice before that I’ve hugged a “stranger”, and especially not in interview-situations.
And ten minutes later, when I was leaving the venue to go home and leave some of my stuff before going back to the show, she hugged me. So, I think it was a good chemistry and after 30 years it feels like the best things in life are worth waiting for!
My hometown Malmö (Sweden) was graced by no other than the mighty IRON MAIDEN last night. I can’t say anything but just sum it all up in one word: AMAZING!!
These guys are the best at what they do, and if you’re looking for a live show that’s gonna blow your socks off, a show that’s gonna leave you with your jaw on the ground and a show that you’re going to be talking about for years to come – go see Maiden!
This is really the “creme de la creme” of live metal shows. Kiss may have more props and pyro, but when you look at the actual ENERGY of the band and the show as a whole, nobodybeats Iron Maiden. And I say that without even being their greatest fan, I’ve always been more of a Priest-follower. But I’ve gotta hand it to them – they totally RULE.
Bruce Dickinson flies all over the stage like he doesn’t know what gravity is, he’s got more energy than a guy half his age and he continues singing flawlessly like it’s nothing.
Jannick Gers is a one-man show, enough to keep you entertained for two hours, he’s flipping his guitar all over the place like a martial arts stick crossed with Yngwie Malmsteen poses and antics. Steve Harris is incredible, but even if he didn’t do anything, it’s enough for him to just be THE Steve Harris, people worship him.
Dave, Adrian and Nicko are all great musicians, but they also have strong personalities, especially mr McBrain who always has a smile or ten to share – all in all, there is something for everybody and the energy that goes back and forth between Iron Maiden and their crowd is unique.
I drove down to the stadium eary in the morning because I know that when it’s Iron Maiden – people WILL be lining up early. If I wanted a front row spot, I had to get in line as early as possible.
When I got there, people told me to go speak to the guy who was first in line. He got there 9 am the day before and had already spoken to security to set up a system.
Whoever showed up before noon, the day of the show, would be on a list that security would let in 5 minutes before everyone else. I was no 64 out of the 79 people who were given that privilege.
It was tough standing there for so many hours, but worth it in the end – it’s the price you have to pay for that precious front row spot.
I’ve had laminate passes and access to the stage or in front of the stage where photographers and security normally stand, but it doesn’t give you the same kick. You wanna get into it, with a few other crazy fans and just feel it – the proper way.
[My laminate from the 99-tour]
I didn’t drink anything all day (no water, no soda, no nothing…) because there were no toilets anywhere, I barely even ate, but I’m used to that, I handle thirst by chewing chewing gum on occasions like this. ONE day is fine. But after the show, I was beat.
The whole city was “Maidenized” with thousands of fans everywhere. Didn’t go out, I was way too tired after the all-day-waiting.
[The press today was just as impressed as the rest of us – fantastic reviews everywhere!]
And just a short mention – there were also two opening acts yesterday. A band from the UK called Voodoo Six and the very popular Swedish band Sabaton.
When Voodoo Six walked out, I noticed something that has since made me change the name of the band to Wood-o Six….:
(noticed anything in particular about the guitarist…??) No?
Well, I’m sorry but that sort of had me lose concentration a little bit because I couldn’t believe he kept that throughout the whole show! THAT dude must REALLY love what he does! :)
As for Sabaton, they are awesome live. They definitely have some Maiden-elements in their live performance, such as a frontman who runs across the stage with such ease and just loves what he does. It’s contageous, the crowd loves these guys!
[Jump!!]
I had a great time, and my friend Bianca who came from Skovde to see the show was glad that she finally got to see Maiden for the first time ever. :)
They were amazing, absolutely amazing. Always worth the time, effort and money – and there are not that many bands nowadays that give you that kind of value for your trouble and hard earned buck!
Two thumbs up for Iron Maiden – they shone Brighter Than a Thousand Suns! :)
For PHOTOS from the show – go to my Facebook-page and check them out!
IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR 