Tagged: Judas Priest
Marshall – 50 Years of Loud – a night we will NEVER forget!
Marshall – 50 Years of Loud….
Wembley Arena, London. Saturday night.
Guess it took me at least two days to have the whole thing kind of… “sink in”.
That show wasn’t even just a gig, I wouldn’t be able to sit here and review it – cause it was just way beyond that. It was MUSIC HISTORY IN THE MAKING. It was a once in a lifetime experience. I am so glad that I got a ticket (and such a great seat too) because I could probably never get over it if I hadn’t.
My main reasons for going were Yngwie and Paul Gilbert, long time heroes, both of them. But I also discovered artists that I thought I didn’t like. That evening they decided to show something else that I haven’t seen before, and I’m open for more in the future.
The greatest surprise of the evening for me personally, was Joe Satriani. Never been a fan really, don’t know why, I simply never got quite into his music. But of all the guitarists trying to outdo eachother that night, he was the only one who played (Always With Me, Always With You ) with such emotion, had us hear and feel the beauty of the guitar, the sounds you can get from that instrument… It was just so classy, so beautiful, I was in heaven. Amazing.
I had a few minor “heart attacks” during that Wembley show, like when Yngwie was presented and he made his rockstar entrance. The man IS an old-school true ROCK STAR, he is the GUITAR GOD of guitar gods, the embodiment of guitar hero, I mean…. I’ve admired that guy since I was a teenager pretty much. Met him, interviewed him several times but he never became a “normal person” to me, he always remained the Star, and I like that. Not too many have that quality. :-)
[One of my “heart attacks, Yngwie entering the stage!]
I simply love what he does. I hear people complaining about him being “too much”, playing too fast or calling it guitar masturbation, but I subscribe to his simple philosophy – More is more! Damn right it is.
I’m just not worthy. You hear that it’s Yngwie the second he plays his first note, you will never ever mistake him for anybody else. Nah, I’m lost for words. Oh and he tweeted out one of my videos of him this morning, which made me feel like a happy teenager, yeyyy right on!
Then, of course, there’s Paul Gilbert. The other guitar hero in my book. He’s the most unique rock guitarist I can imagine, basically because he’s got the groove, he’s got the sense of humor and he can be as nerdy and dorky as he damn well pleases, because nobody can do what he does. I’m sure it has something to do with his ridiculously long fingers, which I’m sure makes it easier to do a lot of the crazy stuff that he does.
Kind of like this pic – which might just as well have been Paul! :)
So, Paul walks out on stage with those headphones, joined by Drummer Extraordinaire Mike Portnoy and mrs Gilbert on keyboards – looking like any guy from the crowd… and just starts doing his thing. And you never want him to stop, the guy is simply brilliant!! He can do anything, yet he knows when to not get “too much”, it’s fun and impressive. Wow.
[Pardon my shaky filming, couldn’t decide on whether to watch through the camera or “irl”. :)]
I could sit here all night and just reflect on each and every artist and artist-combination that we saw that magical evening at Wembley, but there’s no point really. The best way to try soaking in the atmosphere and the GREATNESS of all these fantastic musicians playing together for the first – and probably the last – time, is to watch it for yourself – in these videos.
My favorite combo? Yngwie with Glenn Hughes and “the Whitesnakes” Doug Aldrich/Brian Tichy teaming up with Ripper Owens in “Slide It In” – THAT’s never to be heard in that version ever again…! :) Freaking COOL!
And – this might surprise a lot of people who know my usual taste in metal, but… I thought that this combination of Slipknot’s Corey Taylor kicking ass with Slayer’s Kerry King in the Pantera-classic “Mouth For War” was the most aggressive, cool and most METAL performance of the whole evening!
Just seeing all of those BEST OF THE BEST musicians teaming up, playing together – songs that they would never have a reason to play anywhere for any other reason – was so huge and so unbelievable, that I actually left the arena seriously thinking that if I got hit by a car, I would die happy.
I mean – watch this and you will understand. That’s all I can say. :)
AMAZING PERFORMERS – the best of the best
The times they are certainly a changin’.
The record industry is struggling with poor record sales and illegal downloads, but there is one thing that they can still cash in on, something that will never go out of style: The magic of LIVE SHOWS.
There are people in less famous bands and in local bands that “have IT” : that spark, that natural ability to work a stage and a crowd, that makes you come back for more time and time again. It’s not a competition and you can’t really compare musicians because they are all so different – it’s not the Olympics of Rock – but these are some of my personal favorites. Note that this is 100% a list of people who I think are outstanding LIVE PERFORMERS (which is not necessarily the same as favorite musicians or bands)
When this man walks out on a stage – he OWNS every single person in the crowd.
He has a unique quality of making every individual feel noticed and a part of the show. Although he is a larger-than-life rock star who works best on the biggest stages of the world, he always makes it feel like he’s playing just for YOU.
He mixes a sense of humor and self-distance with sex, confidence, authority and pure professionalism. Not to mention the way he moves on a stage like a rock’n’roll-emperor, using the micstand as his #1 tool. There is only one David – Coverdale be thy name. :)
When he’s about to hit the stage, he’s like a missile! The man oozes of pure, raw energy and rock’n’roll, nothing and nobody comes even close…! I’m not the biggest Twisted Sister-fan in the world, I don’t even have all their records, but watching this man on stage is a kick beyond belief! He is genuine and a real punch in your face.
If you could take everything that rock’n’roll is all about, and transform it into human shape – Dee Snider would be IT!
The ULTIMATE frontman. The one and only King of the Stage. The energy and the raw frenzy is beyond what I’ve seen ANY other artist produce on a stage – ever! He is the only frontman I can think of that was truly BORN to do this. If you took it away from him, he would languish, stop breathing, cease to exist. In 23 years I’ve only seen him suck ONCE. Don’t even ask how many shows I’ve seen with either Skid Row or Baz solo, but it’s more than enough to state that this guy is very unlikely to let you down if you’re looking for an action-packed show.
Entertainment personified. It’s enough to just mention the name David Lee Roth and people will immediately start thinking of a rock’n’roll strutter with his body as his main tool. He was THE sex-symbol back in the day, moving in a way that would make the ladies blush.
He would impress us all with the martial-arts high kicks while at the same time looking like a kid in a candy store who LOVES what he does. His sense of humor is contageous, and even to this day he hasn’t lost much of all that. He’s never been the world’s greatest singer, but it’s safe to say that he’s most definitely one of the world’s greatest entertainers!
Yngwie Malmsteen
The one and only ULTIMATE guitar hero – and probably the only one who turns a prolonged guitargasm into a show unlike anyone else! He was (and still is) WILD on stage!
Like a super-model, he will strike 30 different poses in one minute, yet continue playing that guitar like nobody’s business. How can you do all that running and posing and headbanging and still play making it look like a piece of cake??? The man is a guitar god and a top notch live performer in every sense of the word!
Those are my Top 5 live performers, but the list goes on – and on…
Joe Elliot of Def Leppard had an amazing charisma on stage, he just caught your attention from the word go and kept it there for as long as it took. I was mesmerized the first time I saw Def Leppard. Fantastic frontman. I don’t know what happened though, because the last few times I’ve seen Def Leppard, the magic wasn’t there. I guess there’s a peak in every band’s career and a fall – sooner or later. After 30 years of kicking ass on stage, I guess they are entitled to lose the spark.Same goes for my #1 hero Rob Halford (Judas Priest). He was never a “run-around-the-stage-like-a-marathoner” type of singer, but he had “IT”. All he had to do was stop and LOOK at his crowd and they would go freaking CRAZY! He just had what most entertainers don’t, it’s within your personality and he would make me forget that there was even a world outside whichever arena Judas Priest would be playing….
However, just like Joe Elliot, Rob Halford has lost some of his magic. I can still see it when he’s with his own band Halford, but it’s like he’s a parody of himself when he’s with Priest nowadays.There is a reason why this man has been on the top for more than 4 decades! It’s not because he’s Pavarotti, but because he has this wonderful way of truly loving what he does, just being OZZY.
Watch this and try NOT to smile! :-))
Speaking of Ozzy automatically leads me to another, fairly new, aquaintance and favorite performer: Gus G (guitarist w. Ozzy & Firewind, in case you’ve managed to miss it)
I was stuck after the first time I saw him with Ozzy. He walks onstage and becomes a true old-school Rock Star!
He owns the stage in a very natural sort of way, with a charisma that few “new” musicians possess. This guitar wiz handles Madison Square Garden just as well as the smallest, tiniest little dark club in the middle of nowhere.
The posing, the hair-fan, the guitar-hero moves all that stuff makes Gus a true arena-entertainer.
Another kick-ass live-performer is Kevin Rothney (Circle II Circle, JOP) who played bass with Jon Oliva’s Pain on the 2006-2010 tours, when I saw the band countless times.
Jon Oliva might be the songwriting genious, but Kevin was the one who brought rock’n’roll to the live performances of JOP.
I’ve always been impressed with Kevin. When you see musicians like that, you realize that the music business is all about being in the right place at the right time, there are amazing showmen (and -women) out there that don’t get the recognition they deserve.
Moving on to a more local level, where singer Andy Pierce (Nasty Idols) without question, makes it to my list of favorite performers. It was his natural talent as a frontman that made me notice the band in the first place – 25 freaking years ago! He was a real rock star before people even knew it and he will be till they have to roll him out on stage in a wheel chair!
PART TWO – THE BEST LIVE BANDS!
Where in the world are you going to be THIS weekend?
One of my colleagues at work was asking people, quite randomly, what their plans were for the weekend. He got replies along the lines of “I’m just going to take it easy...”, “I’m going out with a few friends...” – then he turned to me and went: “So, Daniela, where in the world are you going THIS weekend?” with a big grin.
Guess it’s been like that back and forth since I ran out of vacation days. I’ve had to do everything on weekends!
Athens, Greece the first weekend in January (for Firewind), New York City two weekends later (for Steve Stevens and Sebastian Bach on Iridium, Broadway), Tampa, Florida for just one day to see Van Halen… And probably some European dates inbetween that I already forgot about.
I didn’t do this a few years ago. I guess that the general opinion is that you “can’t” do crazy shit like going overseas for a weekend, unless you’re a millionaire with nothing better to spend your money on.
But then I realized that you CAN.
Maybe it’s crazy, but really, the only “crazy” part is the short time-frame. Nothing else. And if you think about it, it’s not that crazy at all, because usually HOTELS cost a lot more than the actual trip, so going for a weekend is SAVING money, not the opposite. Two hotel-nights equal a flight ticket, most of the time. For that, you get to visit more countries instead of just one. :)
And going several times a year means that you don’t have to squeeze in everything you want to do in a few days and then think that you’ll never come back. You do what you need to do – well knowing that you WILL be back, and probably pretty soon too. :-)
There are different ways of making it possible – apart from living on crispbread and noodles.
I just applied for an American Express card with flyer miles. If you get approved, you get 20,000 miles as a welcome-bonus, which is enough for a roundtrip somewhere within Europe. With my 10,000 current miles on the bonus card, that makes 30,000 miles which is enough for an upgrade to business class. Never flown business class but always wanted to – and so for my next overseas-trip I’ll use the miles for that! :-)
The best thing about a credit card that offers miles for everything you buy, is that it’s effortless! I need food anyway, I will buy concert tickets abroad and trains, flights, buses, whatever, every 100 SEK gives 20 flyer miles (100 SEK equals 1 loaf of bread, butter, milk, a piece of cheese and a pack of chewing gum – now you do the math how fast you get to collect miles to get free flights!).
But for now… A “regular” vacation in Split, Croatia. Three weeks of getting pissed off at crappy internet-connections, no car, no cable TV (just regular, standard TV which is like 4 channels I think….) expensive phone, so I can’t call friends anywhere else in the world like I’m used to. And most of all – no rock’n’roll. GAAH! It’s going to drive me NUTS!
The highlight last year was hanging with this dude – the only person I got to talk music with during my stay in Split last year. I hope there’ll be an opportunity to hang out this year as well. Was nice of him to travel all the way down to Split eventhough he lives in the north part of the country, I think maybe about 4 hours travel or something like that.
[A Justin TImberlake-song never sounded this cool, lol!]
I’m just not cut out for “regular vacations”. If it doesn’t include music in one way or another, I’ll most likely not going to enjoy it. Maybe a week, tops.
Was checking tour dates for Ozzy, Steel Panther, Billy Idol, Firewind, Lita Ford, and wrote them all down in my calendar. And all the festivals of course. That’s the only way to keep track of the bands I want to see. Otherwise I have no clue what day it is, yet alone who plays where!
But I’m getting pretty good at this, I get away with the travelling fairly cheap, simply because I’ve learned how. I wrote a few tips last year, but I might write a little book about it someday. :-)
Here are the travel-tips blogs from 2011:
http://lita77777.posterous.com/the-rocknroll-travellers-best-tips-part-1
http://lita77777.posterous.com/the-rocknroll-travellers-best-tips-part-2
http://lita77777.posterous.com/the-rocknroll-travellers-best-tips-part-3
An internet friend e-mailed me the other day asking if I was going to see Ozzy in Dortmund, Germany in June, cause she wants to go and figured we could split hotel costs and go to the show. It’s never difficult to persuade me to something like that. :-)
I wanted to go to that gig anyway because it’s at Westfalenhalle, a venue that I remember from my very early days, beeing a teenage rocker in 19something….. [mumble….].
Ozzy, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard…. Those are only a few of the bands that were playing there back then, and it was aired LIVE on TV at the time. It was a big deal when something was aired live back in those days, so I remember it as a big event.
[Def Leppard back in the day when they were really cool:]
As it’s only two days from the Ozzy-gig in my home-town Malmo, I need to know when my friend Bianca who’s visiting me for THAT, is going back home, so I’ll have to wait before I book any trains or flights. I’ll probably take that whole week off and go to Germany and then to Sweden Rock Festival two days after THAT.
Yeah, the madness is about to begin. Soon. Very soon. :-D
I love my life. :)
Metal is dead
You know how you sometimes find that special place on the beach, the perfect spot that you don’t want anyone else to find…? Or if you find a great place – anywhere, that makes you feel good, your own discovery that is yours, and yours only – that you will protect and keep a secret or maybe share with just your closest friends…?
That’s what metal has been to me my whole life. I can’t say that I chose it – it chose me. It was like an epiphany, a religious experience – and because metal wasn’t widely accepted, I felt like I was a part of a small, secret club or something.
It wasn’t on the radio, it wasn’t in the papers, it was just this… underground, rebellious movement in the eyes of a teenager, especially a female teenager, as there were very few female role models in metal in the very early eighties.
Metal was anti-establishment. It was a big fuck-you middle finger in the face of everything that was “adult” or “responsible”…. Parents hated it, religious groups hated it, polititians hated it, media ignored it (except for when Ozzy bit the head of a bat or Alice Cooper decapitated himself onstage or W.A.S.P got banned by PMRC for their lovely song “I Fuck Like A Beast“).
THAT is what metal has been to me, always. A freedom and an escape from everything that you’re supposed to be.
In a way I guess I don’t want to grow up. Metal has been that escape from everything that had to do with normality. But now, I’m beginning to wonder what the hell is happening. Metal is dying.
Two days ago I stayed up all night, watching the streaming online version of ABC’s “Dancing with the stars”. Kiss and Steel Panther had been announced as guests. I had to see what the deal was. I would have been better off if I had never seen that.
My god, what a sad sight. Kiss has never really been “rock’n’roll” in the “rebellious”sense, they would sell their own mother if they could make a buck or two, and that’s nothing new. Still it was disturbing somehow to see them on this family show, this absolutely squeaky clean family entertainment.… It made me sick watching people dancing freaking BALLET to Twisted Sister…! Oh my god, it was so…gay! And I don’t mean that in a homophobic sort of way, but you know what I mean. It was just so fucking WRONG!
Not only that, but all those hard rock anthems had been “cleaned up” and were sung by some…session singers, people who are as far from metal as you can possibly get.
I guess it’s stupid, but it actually made me sad to witness it. To me, this is the armageddon of metal. I see it everywhere. Judas Priest on American Idol – the show that kills music. Call it whatever you want but it doesn’t produce any new music. You have people singing covers and trying to sound like the real deal, like their idols who got famous the old-fashioned way, by working their asses off.
It’s really just a money-making show that’s looking for a product to sell. That means the “product” must be G-rated. No damn TRUE rock’n’roll here! It’s family entertainment for gods sakes.
I’ve realized that by talking to the Croatian guy, the rocker dude who I first saw on “Idol”. His label still hasn’t released any of his music, because he’s a rocker – and rock doesn’t appeal to the little girlies who are the ones buying records. Maybe – if you make it TRENDY. Like if you give Bret Michaels a dating-show for instance…
So, Priest appeared on AI, sold their souls to the devil if you ask me, Kiss on Dancing with the stars, Alice Cooper won’t be performing at any REAL rock-festivals in Sweden this summer, but he WILL be playing at Liseberg…! Liseberg is a family amusement-park! The man who got himself banned everywhere he went back in the day, who was arrested and feared by your parents and your teacher – is now a family entertainer, like a rock-Liberace or something.
And AC/DC sold their music to WalMart, the very same retail corporation that wouldn’t sell albums that the PMRC had labelled with “Parental Advisory”-stickers!
WTF?!?!
Yeah, I’m an idealist, I think it’s sad to watch the death of metal as we know it. It’s not rebellious anymore, it’s not anti-establishment and it’s not my “private island” anymore – or anyone else’s.
Hard rock is business now. You will hear the dorks on Glee singing some washed-up version of an old Pat Benatar-song or something and you will find the kind of r’n’r outfits that you had to look everywhere to find (specialized stores) – at H & M or any other major store. It’s sellable now. Metal sells – and everybody’s buying.
No more underground movement, no more middle fingers… no more rebellion. Metal is now Dancing With The Stars, American Idol, family amusement parks and WalMart. Guess maybe it’s time for me to grow up too…
Steel Panther, Van Halen, Priest and whatever else comes along
Finally got in touch with the Steel Panther-camp. Their US promo-guy and then their label in Copenhagen, Denmark. Better late than never. :-)
Both have been very courteous, so even if it should turn out that the interview for whatever reason doesn’t happen, it’s nice with easygoing people. I appreciate that.
I admit I was a bit doutful about Steel Panther a few months ago when we went to Manchester to see them with Motley Crue and Def Leppard. But it only took them a few minutes to win me over 100%.
And now – I love sitting on the train between Malmo and Copenhagen watching their interviews on Youtube, it’s just cracking me up! I love their exaggerated vulgar parody…thing. Once you get it, it will keep you giggling for hours! :)I so hope I can get an interview with these crazy mothertruckers, just for the sake of for once not having to ask the same type of questions, but just be totally on their level, asking about howspandex works in cold Danish weather and shit like that. ;)
I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
Other than that – after a very slow period of almost no travel or gigs, it’s coming together bit by bit.
Steel Panther playing in Denmark on Thursday, got my ticket to Tampa, Florida in mid-April to see VAN HALEN, can’t WAIT for that! A week after that – Judas Priest playing in Sweden.
Then two weeks of vacation on Croatia in May, hopefully meeting up with the singer I had the pleasure of talking music with an afternoon last year, and then when I get home – OZZY & FRIENDS in Stockholm and Malmo.
Much like last year, that’s where it all begins, because then it’s time for Sweden Rock Festivaland Graspop and even a Firewind-gig or two in August…. Maybe Billy Idol in the fall, that’s what Steve Stevens mentioned in NYC, so I’m hoping that happens.
Just tons of stuff happening in the near future, I doubt it’s going to be as hectic as last year, but you never know. It all depends wh goes on tour and who doesn’t. :-)
It’s been way too quiet lately, I’m bored out of my mind. Something needs to happen. Oh yeah,Nasty Idols new CD should be out soon. But trying to get singer Andy to remember to get back to me has always been a challenge. Sometimes you really need patience when you’re dealing with musicians! :) Luckily I know him pretty well, enough to know he’s not dissing me, he just forgets stuff as quickly as any bassplayer..! ;)
But for now…. just the thought of a party-evening with Steel Panther live in Copenhagen next week is enough to put a smile on my face!
IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR 