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BANG YOUR
HEAD FESTIVAL, Germany Review and photos by Mark Taylor
Day 2 16 July Predictions made the night before proved to be correct. I woke up with an atom bomb exploding in my head and I was making sure there was not to be any fallout. Although waking up early enough,Ii was in no fit state to have decibels of metal plunging through my brain at such an early time. It was a glorious sunny morning and there was no way of sleeping it off in my sweatbox of a tent. Luckilly one of the things we put onto our shopping list was orange juice which refreshed me a little bit. I felt a little better after doing the full monty in the open air luke warm communal shower. Sharing the showers with a group of burly moustached mullet-ed rockers soon makes you alert. Finally getting our act together we made our way into the venue via the shuttle bus at one in the afternoon. Today is when the festival starts proper with the opening of the main open air stage. Unfortunately I missed The New Black, Enforcer and Grand Magus. (Enforcer did tell me a couple of weeks later that BYH was their best ever performance.). Whilst walking around the merchandise stalls waiting for my brain to plug in, Forbidden were giving the faithful some old school thrash but I did enjoy hearing their dedication to Ronnie James Dio with a definitive version of 'Children Of The Sea'. In need of some food, I found a van that was selling some delicious fried fresh fish served in a soft bun. My health was on the up. Today was scorchio with the temperature in the mid-thirties and it didn't take long to feel the heat burning your forehead. I thought a beer would cool me down but it only made my stomach rumble at this early time. Waiting for Sabaton to appear on stage it was nice to hear that the only music being played over the PA this weekend was songs featuring the vocals of Ronnie James Dio from the works of Rainbow, Black Sabbath and his solo career.
Sabaton came on with an arsenal of war themed songs. Taking no prisoners Sabaton were one of the best bands of the weekend. Fellow GRTR! scribe Jim Rowland was watching the band for the first time and was mighty impressed. Singer Joakim Broden was in jovial mood,''When Michael Jackson died, I thought oh shame, but who cares?, But when Dio died it was the first time in my life that I felt sad about someone I didn't know. We were asked to do a Dio cover, but I cannot sing anywhere as good as him and I cannot do a Dio song any justice.'' Later on, and with tongue firmly in cheek Joakim was saying ''I thought we might do a Village People cover of Y.M.C.A but change the lyrics to H.O.M.O.'', when Swedes come to Germany, PC correctness doesn't come into the equation. The Germans happily surrendered to Sabaton.
A glass full of ice cold crushed ice mixed with a squished quartered lime topped up with the white rum of Cachaca. One sip of the lime hitting my senses, and I was soon back into humanitarian life. My metal drinking Companion John Oakley soon joined in and it was happy days. Obrigado. Bringing some thunder from the East were Japanese rockers Loudness. I was surprised by the high amount of Loudness T-shirts people were wearing today. New drummer Masayaki Suzuki looked aggressively like Fu Manchu and there was some neat crisp guitar work from Akira Takasaki. Playing tracks from their first five albums with 'Crazy Nights' and 'Let It Go' being highlights. Time for a Caipirinha.
Despite the success of the film, Anvil still haven't employed any roadies and are out on stage a good ten minutes before their set tuning their art. Gladly nothing will change in the Anvil camp. The hard and heaviness of 'School Love' gets my cranuim crashing. Lips new golden vibrator comes out for the godzillion 'Mothra'. Lips thanks everyone for giving him a second chance. The band will keep on pounding for a long time yet. Time for a couple more Caipirinha's. Promoting his new album 'Festival' was heavyweight Jon Oliva Pain. Oliva sat at the front of the stage on his grand piano with a set full of his former band Savatage greatest moments. I was enjoying a sit down too in the cocktail bar and it was a delight listening to the majestic power of 'Gutter Ballet' and 'Hall Of The Mountain King', but it was his dedicated version of Dio's Rainbow In The Dark which was just sublime. Miss Pesch next...hmmm...time to get a quick Caipirinha before we get ourselves near the front.
Doro didn't really add any surprises to the set to what we've seen in recent times except for 'Egypt (The Chains Are On), which was a pharaoh wise choice of a Dio cover. It was odd for us Brits listening to Doro Pesch speaking in her native tongue but still looks absolutely lovely and long may she rule the ruins. Phwoah ...time to cool down with a little Caipiriweeny. Now the main reason Jimmy and myself came all the way to Germany was to see the classic line-up of Krokus who made three classic albums between 1980-82. Finally back together and a new album to boot the Maltese falcon Marc Storace is rejoined by the Swiss rollers Chris von Rohr, Fernando von Arb, Freddy Steady and Mark Kohler.
We've both been massive fans of this band since first seeing them on kids TV programme Tiswas back in 82.We both agreed a long time ago that if the classic line up ever reformed then we will have to make a metal rendezvous somewhere in Europe. Today that dream came true. The band were on fire and we loved every minute of the main set with tracks from those early 80's albums and a few from new return to form album 'Hoodoo'. I could've watched them all night and felt they should've been headliners. My only disappointment was a needless cover of Steppenwolf's 'Born To Be Wild' which was too drawn out especially when they didn't play 'Bad Boys Rag Dolls'. However everything else we wanted to hear was played. The band were explosive and the UK are missing out on this band who once gave AC/DC a good run for their money. ''Oh ... go on then just one more Caips before the sun goes down.''
After such enjoyment Hammerfall couldn't get my juices flowing. Singer Joacim Cane was clearly getting annoyed with his mic cutting out throughout the first few songs throwing a tantrum as well as his mic-stand. Normal service was soon resumed with 'Hallowed Be Thy Name' and 'Last Man Standing' being crowd pleasers. However I just couldn't warm to the falseness of Cane who was trying a bit too hard to win new friends ''Hey, you guys have a great national football team, Germany were unlucky in the World Cup and they should have won it'', ah bog off, Frank Lampard's header was a mile over and with comments like that i quickly forgot about the second half of that game and the second half of Hammerfall's set. Mr Rowland and myself decided to retire back to camp to beat the late night cues for the shuttle bus and to start on the whiskey we had. An hour later Mr Oakley turned up saying Hammerfall were bloody great, especially the cover of 'Man On A Silver Mountain' with original Hammerfall singer Mikael Stanne trading lines with Cane.
The night
was by no means over, as the dodgy whiskey we brought was going down a
treat. After a very hot and sweaty day we were thankful for a bit
of late night rain which soon cooled down my sunburnt skin. As the
shower got heavier we all cramped into Oakley's tent to share stories of
the day way into the early hours. Review and photos by Mark Taylor
Lips from
Anvil with GRTR!'s Mark Taylor and Jim Rowland
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