Tagged: press conference
Found press conference with Whitesnake from 1994 :-)
Went through a PILE of old cassettes this evening. You know, one of those things you tell yourself you’re gonna do “someday“. But there is no such day as “someday”. There is Mon-day, Tues-day, Wednes-day, Thurs-day, Fri-day, Satur-day and Sun-day. But no “Some-day”. In other words, if you won’t do stuff right away, it’ll never be done. And this is one of those things.
Every interview and press conference I’ve ever been to, I’ve recorded. So you can imagine the ridiculous amount of material that I’ve got laying around here.
I was searching for the interview I did with Dimebag as it was a tribute show for him a few days ago (Dimebash) and I figured it would be good timing to find it. Nobody’s ever heard it. It would be the premiere – 20 years overdue… I did the interview back in 1991 when they were touring with Judas Priest on the Painkiller tour. And I have no idea where it is. Still haven’t found it.
Anyway, as I was looking for THAT, I found something ELSE. The WHITESNAKE press conference from Midtfyn Festival in Denmark 1994.
I went there with a photographer, also a Whitesnake-fan. The press conference was to be held in a tent, as usual at these festivals, and the place was PACKED.
I had been one of the first people to get there so I had the front row seat. It filled up and you couldn’t fit in one more person by the time the band arrived. This was the great comeback of Whitesnake, as David had just been involved in the Coverdale Page project. Until then, nobody even knew if Whitesnake was dead and buried forever. And with the “Greatest Hits” coming out, the interest for the band was huge.
Before the band arrived, there was a lot of noise in the tent, people talking, laughing…
When David walked in, it was as if someone just pushed a button and for a few seconds, the place turned completely silent. I’ve never experienced anything like that before. When he passed me, I could even smell his cologne. It smelled good – definitely something that stuck in my mind.
My photographer was so nervous that the first photos she took turned out totally blurry. And me… I dropped my jaw and forgot to turn on the tape recorder. Jesus, and we were supposed to be professionals. Yeah, right. Luckily I remembered to turn it on in the last minute, just as the conference began. :-)
It’s not a “real” video – back in 1994 there wasn’t even internet as we know it. Very few people had a PC with a modem at home and it wasn’t a normal part of life for most people. There were no digital cameras either. So, I just put a few photos from the conference with the actual cassette-audio file together in this very humble video.
I hope you like it. :)
1992 Donington Monsters of Rock and Skid Row press conference
Found an old press conference with SKID ROW from when they played the Donington Monsters of Rock-festival back in 1992.
It’s probably been on my show at Radio MCB since there’s music in there too (don’t remember anymore, feels ages ago).
A very short clip from this press conference is in the “Roadkill“-video, for you old Skids-fans and collectors. :-)) The reporter who sat right next to me was from Spain or something and had a funny accent, so when she asked Sebastian “Have you calmed down?” she said it in such a strange way that he thought she said “Have you got a condom?”. Not that I’m surprised he interpreted it his own Baz-way! :-)
This was such a crazy day. The bands were staying all over the place and there were press conferences here and there around the Donington Park area – not to mention individual interviews, so it was hell getting from one place to another.
I was scheduled to do an interview with Blackie Lawless in… I don’t remember exactly, might have been Milton Keynes. Skid Row were about to kick off this press conference at the same time – in Nottingham. At the time – I was more interested in hanging with the skids than with Blackie, so I rushed off to Nottingham and asked my friend Ozzie to do the interview with Blackie for me. It was damn brave of her to do that, she had never done that before, and on top of all, she was a big W.A.S.P-fan and was dead nervous. Her interview turned out great. :-)
In the meantime, I was in Nottingham, attending this circus. Cause it was usually a circus when Skid Row were involved. :-)
However….it got late, people didn’t want to go even long after the press conference had finished.
It was just like that with Skid Row – there was always something happening, always some kind of party going on. And if there wasn’t, they could turn any boring joint into a Party-Central.
My hotel was in London and well…. I didn’t know back then that trains don’t run late in the evenings in England, so I was stuck. I ended up paying a CAB to take me from Nottingham to London – and then when I got back to Sweden just slid the bill to my editor…. He never said anything, just paid it, no questions asked. Pure luck!
Donington rocked, great memories from there, I remember how everybody was there in the backstage area. K K Downing (Judas Priest) was walking around, the Magnum-guys, the dudes from Venom, the bands, other familiar faces… If I only knew where I have those backstage-photos right now. I’ll post them as soon as I rememember where they are. :-)
But for now – enjoy the press conference from August 1992. Here is what the press/backstage/artist itinerary looked like…..Funny with the actual names of the artists in there, to clarify things for the backstage crew.
JUDAS PRIEST press conference @ Sweden Rock day 2
Absolutely no time for “computerizing” now when the tempo is getting higher with more bands playing – I only had time to drive home and catch 3-4 hours of sleep. And now, shower and off again.
So, no report today about yesterday’s Sweden Rock, because there would be way too much to say. I’ll have to write about it when the festival is over, cause today is Whitesnake (among others) and tomorrow the “finale”! Monday is my birthday so my friends are taking me out, but I’ll find time somewhere…! :))
I managed to upload the Judas Priest press-conference at least. Here you go – enjoy. A comment or two about that….later on. :)
IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR 