Tagged: copenhagen
RECKLESS LOVE at High Voltage 10th Anniversary party in Copenhagen
Festivals can be a goldmine sometimes, cause that’s where people “stumble upon” something they would normally dismiss or simply not be exposed to anywhere else.
I went to see Gus G and Marty Friedman at the Stockholm Rocks Festival recently, and playing right before Gus, was this Finnish glam band called Reckless Love.
In all honesty, I thought I would be rolling my eyes at them, cause I’ve seen bands like this before and the lipstick-bands worked in the 80’s and early 90’s, but all those retro-versions that came AFTER that, have left me quite unimpressed.
But, what’s good is good, regardless genre. And I have to admit that I liked Reckless Love. They left a lasting good impression so when someone told me they were playing in my “second home town” Copenhagen last night, I had to go see them. :)
The club was fairly crowded 30 minutes before the band was due on stage, plenty of sleaze and glam fans.
When Reckless Love finally hit the stage, it was Party Mode ON.
These guys transformed that little stage to a Party Central! It was impossible not to smile – cause it was just such a fun band to watch.
Good sing-along songs that stick like glue after the first listen. Anyone can pick up on the choruses after two minutes and join “the choir”. Cool vocal harmonies, whether or not they’re “fake”, real or both, doesn’t even matter – as long as it helps the song and it does.
Frontman Olli is a total strutter, a glam-version and mix between Sebastian Bach, Mike Monroe and David Lee Roth in his prime. There’s no question that he’s using his looks and his stage persona to appeal to the ladies. And yeah – it’s working!
There are three other guys in the band, obviously, but it’s hard to compete with an attention-demanding singer like Olli.
It’s not a virtuoso kind of band obviously, and they’re not trying to be, but they do what they do very well and in this case the only thing that matters is that they are entertaining people and providing an hour of musical fun and escapism. And that goes quite a long way!
MEGADETH, tiny fans and assholes
Had barely had a chance to get enough sleep after the Whitesnake-show in Manchester, before it was time to get on a train to Copenhagen to see Megadeth.
Talk about contrasts. One evening you’re in a huge arena with mostly older, excited but civilised fans. The next, you’re off to see a band that, dispite their many years in the business, have mostly young, teenage dudes as their audience.
When I got to Vega, the venue, there were a few guys sitting there with a beer case and a boom box that was blasting the “Peace sells….But who’s buying?“-album.
They were pretty entertaining though, as they decided to score goals between two empty beer bottles… Given that they were anything but sober, you can imagine how that went. :) I wish I had filmed that. ;)
As it started filling up with people, I realized that I was the only girl there. Must have looked pretty weird. I wasn’t there with a boyfriend as my excuse, I was the only blonde person and definitely the only female in my “age range”.
One guy even asked me if this was “my first time”. THAT was pretty funny! :)) I told him that my first Megadeth concert was probably more than 20 years ago, so, most likely before he was even born. ;) He quickly realized that maybe he had judged a little bit too fast.
Once the doors opened, I thought it was going to be a riot, but it was pretty civilised, much to my surprise. Eventhough people were very impatient to get in, they behaved like normal people. Thank god. I’ve been to Megadeth-shows before and their fans are usually insane. :)
I got my front row spot and was happy. Mission accomplished. The guy next to me started talking and it was nice to kill that waiting-time with a fellow rock fan. He was very young though, hadn’t been to many concerts yet. It was quite a sight to see how enthusiastic he was once the band got onstage! :)
It’s a funny thing with Dave Mustaine – he always looks grumpy. I guess it’s just the face he was born with and it works perfectly within his line of work where you have to look cool. It’s sort of “built-in” in Mustaine’s case.
A few years ago when I took the day off to see Megadeth in Aarhus, Denmark, he looked so pissed off the whole time, and suddenly he goes: “You’ll have to excuse me, I’m having such a good time up here that I forgot to say hello”. He was having a good time? Lol! He wasn’t being sarcastic either. Priceless. :)
Somewhere towards the end of the show, his face did light up and he was smiling as he was pointing at something in the back. Turns out that there was a kid on somebody’s shoulders, with long hair and a leather jacket, that had been headbanging like crazy. Dave wanted to know his name, and the crowd passed on the info so it would reach the stage. I think it was August or something. “That’s a cool name! Makes “Dave” sound so fucking boring. DAVE… I want your name! he laughed.
So the crowd helped the kid get to the stage, where he got Dave’s sweatband and a chat. I don’t know how much he understood English but he liked his present at least. :)) Very cute. You can see all the pics from that HERE. <-Click
In the meantime, there was some idiot up on the balcony in a red t-shirt that was pouring beer at the people on the floor (I was totally marinated in beer…. but I hear it’s good for the hair so what the hell…) and doing F U-gestures at Dave. (why the hell did he pay for a ticket to see the show, I wonder???)
Dave in turn had a few well chosen words for the asshole, something along the lines of “you have a teeny-weeny….” – you get the picture. The guy wouldn’t stop picking a fight, and Dave walked all the way over to the side of the stage, looked up at the idiot, and eventhough I couldn’t hear what he was saying, I could read his lips – “Get down here, I’ll fuck you up you son of a bitch!”
Security finally got something else to do than bugging the front row fans. They were running back and forth telling people not to film the show. I mean, yeah whatever…. It’s so ridiculous to me. It’s 2013 – have they been on Youtube lately? Seriously, what’s the point? Even if people at the front aren’t filming, you can bet your ass that people in the back, WILL….! It’s not 1984 anymore, just sayin’.
I didn’t care, video or no video, I got great stage-footage at Graspop last year so I’m good. I got a few decent photos instead. Once again, go to the Facebook-page for that. :)
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.512736135441485.1073741836.170129566368812&type=3
The crowd turned out to be pretty civilised after all. I’m glad, cause I was way too tired to deal with drunk moshers.
Another memorable Megadeth show over, glad I went. Really cool stage this time as well! And it’s a bit entertaining to see Dave’s constant guitar-changes. I think he used different guitars for every song, almost. I’m guessing most of them are made by Dean Guitars custom shop, awesome work.
Now I’ve got about three days “off” (still have to go to work though) before the next show – Whitesnake at Wembley next week! :)
[A FEW OF MY HIGHLY “ILLEGAL” VIDEO CLIPS FROM LAST NIGHT…! ;P]
Whitesnake, Manchester and other thoughts…
Third move to another blog provider. Let’s hope I won’t get any trouble with this, and thanks to Metalpaths for the kind offer to help out when I was struggling trying to get the other blog to work.
Those of you who used to subscribe and get the updated posts directly in your e-mail (a service that was offered by Posterous) – you can do that now, as WordPress offers that service as well. :) Just scroll down a little and you’ll find the subscription button to the right.
Today is a day off. But my “to do”-list is still long, tomorrow I’m off to Manchester for the Whitesnake (Journey/Thunder) show at MEN Arena. I’m as excited as ever about that, I just don’t like that it’s a seated arena.
Everything is “seated”. I just don’t think that the floor in front of the stage at a ROCK concert should EVER be seated! I want to stand there in the front with a bunch of other maniacs and feel the PULSE, the ENERGY and just get into it. At least at a Whitesnake concert I do. You can’t get that feeling in a CHAIR. :-/
Keep the seats for the Symphony Orchestra, and give the rockers space to go wild.
Other things that are on my mind today are all the losses in our rock’n’roll extended family…
This week has been a sad one for many fans of the Doors and now also for the fans of Uriah Heep.
Ray Manzarek – founder, keyboardist/bassist of the Doors, died of cancer in Germany, Monday evening, at the age of 74. I’d say that the credit for the sound of the Doors goes to Ray. Another historic rock icon has waved farewell.
Uriah Heep‘s bassist Trevor Bolder lost his battle against cancer at the age of 62 yesterday.
English: Uriah Heep’s Trevor Bolder, Live in Milan, 09 November 2008 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It seems that we are losing one after another now.
There’s probably going to be a lot more in the years to come. Hard rock/heavy metal was invented in the seventies, if you don’t count the bands and artists that inspired the development of it, back in the sixties.
The Black Sabbath or Deep Purple guys were young back then – in their early 20’s, and they are hitting their 60’s now, at the very least – and although 60 is not old for a rocker, it’s still an age where many are beginning to battle various health issues. Doesn’t have to be lethal but our heroes are simply not going to be around forever.
And it’s just now that this is beginning to sink in, cause we grew up with these guys, they are such a natural part in our lives. Much like parents, they’ve always been there, it’s hard to imagine the day when they won’t be, eventhough you know that that day WILL come.
Just makes you think. I’m going to as many shows as I possibly can – especially by the great legends of metal, because you never know how long you’ll have that privilege. Might be 10 more years, might be tomorrow.
Sad thoughts aside – hectic times ahead. Whitesnake in Manchester, UK tomorrow, Megadeth in Copenhagen on Saturday, Whitesnake at Wembley next week, and then shortly after that – 4 days of metal madness at Sweden Rock festival. A week after that – Whitesnake again in Zagreb, Croatia.
But it’s the kind of “busy” that I love! See you all out there, somewhere! :)
MY YEAR IN ROCK – retrospect 2012 (Part 1)
Every year when I look back on what I’ve been doing, it seems like it’s been longer than just a year. 2012 was no exception.
Even just the Firewind-tours were enough to fill a lot of space and bring back great memories – you’ll find those in this separate blog: http://firewindtour.posterous.com/firewind-tours-of-2012-recap
But there have been plenty of other highlights that I thought I’d take a look back on, now when there are only a few more days left of this year…:-)
TONY IOMMI DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER – AND OZZY & FRIENDS….
The year started with bad news that shook the whole heavy metal community – one of the godfathers of metal, Tony Iommi, had been diagnosed with cancer. The Black Sabbath reunion with Ozzy that had been announced and that had been so highly anticipated, was off. However, not to disappoint the fans too much, Ozzy decided to do the scheduled dates as “Ozzy & Friends“, bringing Slash, Zakk Wylde and Geezer Butler on tour. And of course his own band, which made a lot of people happy – myself included, as “the new kid on the block”, Gus G, was with Oz on those dates. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have bothered.
FIREWIND IN ATHENS
Speaking of Gus, my first concert trip of 2012 took me to Athens, Greece where they kicked off their year at the Fuzz club, and also recorded a video for the single “Wall of Sound” that was released later in the spring.
I remember Athens as easy to navigate with the metro going all through town. I was guided through some must-see’s, such as the Akropolis, by Jon, a good friend of Jon Oliva’s Pain (they were the ones who recommended him when I was looking for a contact in Athens – just in case). He’s also a singer in the band Need and we had lots to talk about, so it was a great guide! :) Always nice to get to know new people.Jon:
As for the Firewind-show (which was on January 14th, by the way), it was one of the best or worst, depending on how you look at it – their Greek crowd is absolutely freaking NUTS! I must have lost ten pounds at least getting crushed against the barricades before and during the show. My god. But – as always – worth it, ten times over! :)
STEVE STEVENS & SEBASTIAN BACH AT THE IRIDIUM JAZZ-CLUB IN NEW YORK CITY
At the end of January, on the 27th, I left for New York City. This time it wasn’t a major arena-gig, quite the opposite. Steve Stevens, one of the coolest guitarists alive (known from Billy Idol, Michael Jackson, Vince Neil etc…) and Sebastian Bach were performing together at this small jazz-club somewhere on Broadway.
The whole idea seemed so bizarre that I had to see it. I had also scheduled an interview with Steve through his wife Josie. Josie rocks! People look at her and judge her by the way she looks, it’s way too easy to think she’s just some bimbo, but I loved that girl. She was very professional but at the same time also very friendly and open. She had never even met us, but greeted us with a hug and made sure that we felt welcome. I wish all interviews could be planned through people like Josie.
Josie Stevens:
I got a great interview with Steve after the two sets at the Iridium (with a seated audience). My friend (and photographer) Beatrice and I were lucky to get absolute front row seats – right at the stage. I remember when Sebastian walked out on stage, he dropped his jaw and started doing sign language and grimacing kind of to ask “Did you fly over just for this?”
He shouldn’t be surprised, after 23 years he should be used to seeing me anywhere in the world, so why not a jazz club in New York?
Anyway, the backstage story, the review, the interview, photos and all from that can be found here:
BLOG: http://lita77777.posterous.com/first-day-in-new-york-tomorrow-steve-stevens
REVIEW: http://lita77777.posterous.com/steve-sebastian-the-iridium-nyc
PHOTOS: http://lita77777.posterous.com/steve-stevens-sebastian-bach-photos-by-beatri
INTERVIEW: http://lita77777.posterous.com/the-guitar-sleeps-with-me-in-the-bed-steve-st
WHITNEY HOUSTON PASSED
After the Stevens/Bach show at the Iridium, I took it easy during February. The music world was hit by more bad news, not specifically metal, but one of the great voices in modern music, had passed – Whitney Houston. It shocked a lot of people, including a lot of rockers. Whether or not you were into her music, I think most of us would agree that Whitney’s voice was one of a kind and it was a tragic fate. This was on February 11, 2012. R.I.P Whitney.
STEEL PANTHER INTERVIEW IN COPENHAGEN
Next on the schedule of 2012 was Steel Panther. I heard that they were coming to Copenhagen, and I actually hesitated whether or not I would request an interview with them. They are funny, but that’s exactly the thing – how do you interview a band like that?! It would certainly be…different.
It was actually my friend Kevin, from JOP, who talked me into it. “What’s the worst that could happen? If you don’t like the result of the interview, don’t post it!” True enough. So, I contacted Universal in Copenhagen and set up an interview with these crazy guys.
It was a pleasant surprise. They were absolutely “normal” before the cameras went on, and especially Michael Starr who we met down in the lobby 30 minutes before the interview. But the minute the cameras were rolling, they became the out of control Steel Panther that we all know and love.
I had it all figured out, or so I thought. However, they wouldn’t let me finish a sentence, so they missed some of the jokes that I was hoping they would pick up on. But, I realized that the best way to deal with these dudes, was to just shut up and let them do the talking! :))
The interview has passed 24 300 views, that’s crazy. :))
BLOG: http://lita77777.posterous.com/getting-together-with-steel-panther-in-copenh
INTERVIEW…..
PART TWO OF MY YEAR IN ROCK COMING UP………..!
Getting together with STEEL PANTHER in Copenhagen….
Wednesday, March 14th 2012 was a beautiful sunny day in Copenhagen, Denmark. One of those mild days with blue skies – the kind that we love so much here in Scandinavia.
I was heading for the SAS Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel, where I had a scheduled interview with Steel Panther and I was about 45 minutes early.
I found “camera guy” Henrik and long time friend Mari sitting right across from the hotel entrance, seizing the day as well. We decided to go inside.
We got a table in the lobby bar, cause I wanted something to drink. Just as I was piling all my stuff on one of the leather chairs, I heard somebody behind me yelling “Oh, WHITESNAKE!!”.
I was wearing my WS-jacket, so I turned around and saw the back of a blonde, long-haired guy with a studs-decorated black denim vest. I just smiled to myself and went to get a Coke in the bar. That was the MOST EXPENSIVE Coke I’ve ever had, by the way – $11!!!
“The guy” was Michael Starr. He looked at us and went: “So…. who are you guys here for…?”
I laughed and was about to say “Who do you think??” but Henrik replied: “Steel Panther”.
Michael stops, looks at us, a bit puzzled and goes: “Well… I’M in Steel Panther!”
Once again, I smiled and said: “We’re early and you’re not working, so we’re not gonna bug you. We’ll talk later, it’s cool.”
He ordered a chicken salad and continued: “Oh man, you’re not bugging me. I’m just so bored. There’s nothing to do and I can’t even call anyone at home cause everybody’s still sleeping back in L.A…”.
We all shook hands and introduced ourselves, and he pulled out a chair by the table right next to us.
My first impression of Michael was – what a down-to-earth, pleasant kind of guy. I read somewhere that these guys never step out of character, but I didn’t detect any “acting” when talking to Michael in the bar.
My cell rang and it was the Universal Music-representative who wanted to know if we were all there and if we would like to do the interview right away.
While I was on the phone with her – Stix Zadinia and…hm, my guess is tour manager, or stage manager, cause he kind of looked like one of those, joined Michael.
The rest of us went with the Universal-ladies up to the 26th floor, Suite 2618.
Remember that – crazy Steel Panther-fans.Next time you’re in Copenhagen and want to plant your delicate little tushies on the same leather [-couch] that the Panthers have been sitting on, that’s the room you want to reserve.
The suite was quite impressive. Large windows, amazing view – and 206 m² to move around on. Not exactly the budget-suite. :-)
Henrik started re-arranging the furniture in there cause he had an idea of what he wanted “the set” to look like. In the meantime, I was chit-chatting a bit with the Universal-ladies, very nice people as well.
It didn’t take long before it knocked at the door and the Steel Panther-guys had arrived. There was no way you could miss it, it was close to a Sebastian Bach-sort of entrance.
In other words: You HEAR them when they walk in a room…! :-)
This time, they were all “in character”, no more incognito-being-normal. It was Steel Panther that entered the room. I was gonna shake Stix hand but he just smiled and hugged me instead. Well, the informal approach totally works for me! :-)
I turned around, and there’s the incredibly charismatic Satchel (oh, come on girls, you know you all love him!). He’s all smiles and goes: “Hi! I’m Satchel!” and I wasn’t sure what to say other than “I know!”. :-) And bam, there’s another hug.
He turns to Stix and says: “Uh-oh…! She’s got a Judas Priest necklace and a Whitesnake-jacket. Do you know what that means??”
Both shouting: “YEAH, SHE’S METAL!!” followed by a loud high-five. I mean, it was entertainment from the minute they walked in!
I can’t even reproduce the whole “conversation”, and that was just BEFORE the actual interview. I explained I wasn’t Danish, but Swedish, which brought back some memories for Satchel apparently, as he mentioned once having a Swedish girlfriend from Gävle (but he pronounced it like “Geffeley“- I think…!).
Then he went on with some Swedish phrases that reminded me of the Swedish chef more than anything!
Lexxi was busy with his pink can of hairspray, brush and sparkly mirror, but even he greeted me with a hug. Guess I’ve officially been almost-group hugged by Steel Panther then. Can’t be bad!
(I said HUGGED! Get your minds out of the gutter. ;P)
When it was time to start the actual interview I quickly realized that whatever scenario I might have had in my head of how this was going to go down, it was anything BUT what I had thought, planned or possibly expected.
There was a mix of questions, some of them my own, some of them coming from other creative fans, and it could have been pretty funny hearing their answers to those. However…. they weren’t quiet long enough to let me finish a sentence, so I quickly realized that I was going to get answers to stuff I hadn’t actually asked. But the cool thing about that is that the whole thing was improvised and you really had no idea what was going to happen from one second to another.
The first question for instance was about how spandex works in cold Scandinavian weather as it makes stuff shrink and, well – you get the picture. The somewhat unexpected answer to that was that Stix had batteries in his pants (you’ll hear the whole explanation in the video eventually) and the others had “natural heat”. Once again, use your imagination.
The next question, submitted by Sean in Canada, asking if they would have sex with Gene Simmons to maximize their “count” (as they’ve often said that when you’re having sex with someone, you’re actually also sleeping with every person they’ve ever been with). Michael quickly replied that he would never want to suck Gene Simmons tiny d**k, followed by a few well chosen words by Satchel before they all started singing God Gave Rock’n’Roll To You.
I sent that video to their website and next thing I know, it’s been submitted everywhere, on every official Steel Panther channel – bringing the count up to 5100+ views in less than 24 hrs! I’ve never seen such amazing enthusiasm and steady fanbase.
The Tweet had a few re-tweets, the Facebook-post a whole bunch of “likes” and “shares”, I was blown away watching it as it was happening! Crazy! Only goes to show that this band is making it BIG.
But I guess I saw that later in the evening outside the venue when Michael walked by some female fans and one of them went totally nuts SCREAMING for all she was worth: “OH MY GOD!!!! THAT’S MICHAEL STARR!!! WEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Ouch.There goes my ear drum…
[From outside the venue, hours before anyone else showed up…]
But, back to the suite at SAS Radisson and the interview with Steel Panther. I mean, you’ve all seen the interviews – they are out of their minds. :) The Universal-ladies were trying to hard not to laugh, and quite honestly, at times I even forgot that I was there to ask questions!
I was sitting there watching them like I’ve done so many times before on YouTube, wishing that I was just a spectator who could sit back and just enjoy the show! So, if I sound unfocused when you see the video later, it’s because I was!
In most interviews, you ask a question, the artist answers and you either ask your other question on the list or you ask a follow-up question based on what he or she just said. With Steel Panther is was hard to do either of those things. And most of all – you’re not even sure when they’re kidding or when they’re serious. Are they EVER serious? :)
Time just flew, I could have stayed there all day as far as I was concerned. Who wouldn’t? You’ve got 4 funny and good looking men in front of you, where else would you rather be? :)
I felt a hand on my shoulder, and a voice whispering: “Last question….”. OK, there were other people waiting to talk to the band. The timing was perfect though, I only had one question left.
When we were done, Satchel asked if we could take a photo, all of us, with me in it. I’ve never been asked BY THE ARTIST to take a photo. :) I don’t even like to be in pictures really, but how could I say no?!
Much like his character requires he said: “So, let’s get naked!” and I repled: “I DARE you! You first!” He started laughing. “You dare ME?” Hell yes. If he would dare to get out of the spandex right there and then, I certainly would flash something, lol! I knew he wouldn’t though, bummer! ;-)
Henrik quickly dismantled his cameras and lights and we left to make room for the next reporter.
I wanted to finish my super-expensive Coke. If I paid 11 bucks for it, I sure was hell was going to finish it before we left. So we went back to the lobby bar and relaxed in the leather chairs once again.
After a few minutes, Henrik smiles and nodds to somebody who’s just passing behind me. I took a quick look and all I saw was a bald guy with tons of tattoos. Didn’t think much of it thugh. Henrik and Mari both started laughing. “Didn’t you see who that was??” I don’t know, didn’t really look… “It’s Stix, the drummer!” Oh boy – without the WIG, you could barely recognize him! He stood in the bar for a while, probably waiting the the other guys to finish.
About 15 minutes later, he was joined by Michael and some other dude with black, short hair and a carry-on suitcase. Holy mother – Satchel “au naturel” – without the wig! Still a handsome dude though – Mari and I started laughing because he reminded us a LOT of a guy who used to be with the European touring group Chippendales back in 1993!!!
[It was difficult finding pics to show EXACTLY what I mean, but I hope you’ll see the resemblance when you see this…!]
I loved Michael’s cool snake-pattern carry-on by the way, very rock’n’roll. :-)
Lexxi looked exactly like he did during the interview when he walked through the lobby, so I guess that the interview they did after me didn’t take long.
Mari and Henrik drove me to the venue where I spent the rest of the day being pretty bored. With some bands, you’ll always find fun people to talk to while you’re standing there waiting for the doors to open.
But the first fans that got to Amager Bio were probably around 18 or 19, with boom-boxes and shit, yelling rather than talking and drinking los of beer. Might have been my type of crowd when I was 20 but not now. :-)
There was not a soul in the “Guest list” line, I was the first. Doesn’t surprise me, most professionals don’t REALLY care about the music or the band. They usually go just because they can, because it’s free. I actually already had a ticket that I bought months ago, just like everybody else. The only reason I got in the guest-list line was because I didn’t have to wait to get in. :-)
The show was beyond anything. I don’t even know what…. I mean…I’m just speechless!
The biggest difference between Steel Panther and all other bands out there, is that they don’t just entertain you with their musical brilliance – because believe me – they KNOW what theyre doing. No question about it. But they also keep you laughing.
You don’t want to leave, because you might miss a really good joke. With any other band, you know that even if you leave, you’re not missing much. You’ve heard the songs on the records or you can see it on YouTube. But with Steel Panther, every night is different. They’re full of surprises and you just don’t know what they’re gonna do. THEY probably don’t know either, they just make it up as they go.
I love their insanely funny vulgar humor. I often hear people comparing them to Spinal Tap. I don’t think they’ve got much in common at all, other than the rockstar-satire idea.
Steel Panther are kickass musicians and they’re for real, not actors. While Spinal Tap was dry British humor, funny in a totally different way, I love the American vulgar Steel Panther kind of humor a lot more. I suppose my mind IS in the gutter a lot of the time, so their shit is just killing me…! :-)
I was a bit nervous to upload one of the videos from the show on YouTube cause I’m pretty sure it’s in breach of ALL of their policies…!
But I just had to anyway..:! This one is unlisted so enjoy the last minute and a half of it…! ;))
DO NOT WATCH IF YOU’RE UNDER 18! (yeah there’s my share of bullshit for today!)
Concert review and video interview coming up soon!
IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR 