.. . . . ..

Just TRY to get in!

APRIL WINE

APRIL WINE

The EINHERJER hordes

FOGHAT- I think that's my uncle holding the guitar! -ED

HEART

HIRAX - Takin' it to the streets - or at least the grass!

MONTROSE, but no Sammy

NIFELHEIM -evil Norwegian fish mongers!

SCORPIONS

SCORPIONS

Oh my god, it's SLADE!

Yes, SLADE!

HAWKWIND -flyin' high again!

PAT TREVORS, I went to school with 20 guys that look just like him. -ED

Every year one festival will shine out with a killer line-up and this year it was easily clinched by the Sweden Rock Festival. Just ask any of the 20,000 people who sold the festival out months in advance! For me especially, it was a chance to see the Canadian bands that very rarely come to Europe as well as some of the veteran acts. For others, no doubt it was the prospect of seeing Europe once again.

Where The Hell Is Solvesborg?! Sweden Rock takes place in this small village, some 1.5 hours by train from Malmo in southern Sweden. The festival site and village are both located by the beach, facing the Baltic sea, which during the summer makes for an idyllic setting providing a cool breeze that alleviates the 3 day toll of non stop rock n roll. The downside is that the weather can change rapidly bringing in frequent and sometimes torrential downpours, although the sandy ground thankfully soaks it up rather than turning into a mudpit, all too common in other European festivals.

Getting there was a breeze. Getting out was mayhem. I thought that I’d sneak out and catch the early train on Sunday morning. So did 2,000 other people. Needless to say the tiny station platform was overfilling to danger levels and but luckily Sweden railways had laid out coaches to compensate so I managed to hightail it outta there before the rest of the festival woke up! To be fair the town coped admirably (I guess this must be their single biggest earner during the year) and everyone from festival goers to hotel staff to taxi drivers was friendly and accommodating.

Thurs 10 June

Whaaaaa....? How long is that goddamn queue?! Some poor Aussie in my hotel took 5 hours to get into the site! Seems, given the sell out that numbers of fake tickets were circulating so the festival organisers were taking no chances and checking tickets thoroughly but a lotta people were pissed off. The site had four stages, with most of the merchandising stalls situated outside the festival arena (only food and beer inside). It was a bit of a bizarre arrangement cos the stages all seemed to be opposite one another so occasionally you could hear the other band. On the other hand it was great to be able to see 2 bands at once! I arrived in time to see veteran Norwegian band TNT who really seemed to cheer everyone up with songs like ‘Seven Seas’ and ‘Everyone’s A Star’. I think most of the original guys were there including Tony Harnell (who can still hit those high notes) and it was nice to see that Ronnie Le Tekro hasn’t lost his fine touch. I guessed the rhythm section were new guys until someone told me that the ‘biker’ on drums was indeed Diesel Dahl - minus his hairspray ‘n’ spandex look - but still going strong after 20 years in TNT, for which Tony Harnell and the crowd paid him tribute for. So, a great start and Entombed played a heavy set in their trademark ‘death ‘n’ roll’ style taking a range of songs from ‘Left Hand Path’ up to ‘Inferno’. Having seen Helloween many times, I opted to catch veteran rocker Montrose, which turned out to be the right decision as Helloween’s set was something of a downer given that the new vocalist couldn’t hit the high notes as the helium voiced Michael Kiske. Still, Ronnie more than made up for it and given he’s been going since 1973, his age didn’t show as he power cranked out the classic ‘Space Station Number 5’ much to roar of the crowd. The day closed with Judas Priest, how band with Halford at the helm. Having followed these affable Brummies since the early 80’s, its interesting to see how their show has evolved from the days when they had their backline behind them, to borrowing Pink Floyd’s giant star, to today with high watchtowers where Halford, looking like some leather clad general can survey his army of metal troops. Great, except his voice today was rough and gravelly and I got the impression he was struggling thru the set. Still, its hard to ignore classics like ‘Victim of Changes’ and ‘Beyond The Realms of Death’ and I pondered this whilst carefully not treading on scattering of bodies from people who had just simply passed out on the ground!

Fri 11 June

I was out early to catch Canadians Coney Hatch this morning. Despite being around since the 80s, this was their first ever European show. Carl Dixon and Andy Curran were still there looking good despite the years and also sounding good with songs like ‘This Ain’t Love’ and ‘Stand Up’ which were reminiscent of the Leppard AOR era during the 80s. There wasn’t much of a crowd, mainly oldies but I have to say that everyone, including the band seemed to enjoy the set. As sun seemed to break, so did Y&T with ‘Open Fire’ who brought their high octane rock to Sweden rock! Besides the classics like ‘Forever’ they also played some less featured songs like the instrumental ‘I’ll Cry For You’ and some lighter numbers like ‘25 Hours A Day’ which gave me a chance to appreciate a more rounded view of a band that previously I had only known to play in overdrive.

“From the streets of Toronto, to the fields of Sweden, here he is to kick your ass.....Pat Travers!!” - wow, you couldn’t have asked for a better intro and he certainly did with classics like ‘Born Under A Bad Sign’, ‘Rock n Roll Susie’ and of course the out and out party classic ‘Boom Boom’ - Pat Travers was in the house and makin’ magic! The reasonably sized crowd was hardcore and singing along to his cool blues rock and having witnessed his guitar playing and heard his voice I now understand why Pat Travers is nothing short of legendary.

How old is Dave Brock? Hawkwind’s set heralded the gathering of every weirdo, hippie and lone groover in the area. And for some reason I found myself at the front (probably because the heavy rain was dispersing the crowd) in a strange sorta atmosphere (or was it the weed haze that the guy was smoking next to me?) that once fuelled by the psychedelic rock of ‘Spirit of the Age’, ‘Earth Calling’ and ‘Hassan I Sahba’ created a strange micro environment despite the band being reduced to a 3 piece! Brockie then brought out Dave Wyndorf and Phil Caivano from Monster Magnet to do ‘The Right Stuff’ which clearly worked as they were one of only two bands during the whole festival who got 2 encores!!

Still weirded out, I stumbled back to chill out to the sound of Slade. Thinking that as there were only about 20 people at the stage I figured this would gimme a break. How wrong I was. Man, it was a fuckin riot! Some chick (well this lady was actually in her 40s and very drunk) had me in a stranglehold around the neck as I was trying to take fotos and the crowd were just mental. I’ve heard Slade (complete with original members Dave Hill and Don Powell) can get a crowd going and with songs like ‘Mama We’re All Crazy Now’ and ‘Get Down and Get With It’ Slade’s 1.5 hour certainly did bring the house down. Perhaps to many they seemed like some sorta joke band but man, they proved themselves - it was a total wipe out!

Now I had a dilemma. I wanted to get to the front to see UFO and then also do the same for the headliners, the Scorpions. Trouble was they were playing at stages at opposite ends of the field so I would have to improvise with my years of experience in the (festival) field! UFO kicked off just as the sun went down and played classics ‘Let It Roll’, ‘Only You Can Rock Me’, ‘Rock Bottom’, ‘Love to Love’, ‘Lights Out’...man, it was agony trying to decide when to leave! Best of all was they had to core of UFO which was Phil Moog, Pete Way and Paul Raymond who to me is the quintessential person who has always made UFO. Complete with Jason Bonham and Vinnie Moore this was easily the best line-up of the band since the definitive (at least to me) line-up with Tonka Chapman and Andy Parka. As the riffs to ‘Doctor Doctor’ cranked out, I finally summoned the will to tear myself away and quickly made my way to the Scorpions stage where a large crowd was already gathering. As ‘Shoot Shoot’ ended I found myself at the front stage right ready for....?

With the ecstasy (and agony) of UFO’s set still mulling me, I wondered just what I’d been so keen to see. From previous performances the Scorpions were long past it, gone from riff cranking Teutonic terrors to balding, baseball cap wearers reduced to playing teddy bear hugging lurv songs. Worst of all, a Swede next to me told me that the band had been booed previously here cos they had played ballads but then someone else said this time they around had promised their classic ‘heavies’. All this seemed to add to the trepidation as we waited and I wondered how I would cope with another rendition of ‘Bad Boys Running Wild’. And then they appeared. There was energy, lots of it and suddenly I thought Michael Schenker had (re)joined the Scorpions but no, it was Rudolph looking like Michael (or least how Mikey used to look). Confused? Well, picture a lean muscle machine with short cropped blond hair sprinting around the stage. Somebody get me the name of this man’s health clinic! Even better the baseball caps had been replaced by trendy berets and the crowd responded enthusiastically but then...oh no, it was ‘Bad Boys Running Wild’. I wailed in agony. But no, thankfully this was followed by ‘We’ll Burn The Sky’, ‘The Zoo’, ‘Lovedrive’ and ‘Coast To Coast’ - aha, REAL Scorpions at last! But no, then it was a return to the even more cringeworthy ‘Tease Me, Please Me’ followed by a bass solo and then a drum solo. Thankfully the band returned with ‘Blackout’ and finally their commercial hits like ‘Rock You Like A Hurricane’ before ending with the apt ‘When The Smoke Is Going Down’. More bowel inducing than an England vs Germany football match.

Sat 12 June

I needed a lie in given that the Scorpions had finished around 2am so I missed Danger Danger, Kingdom Come and Axel Rudi Pell. But one band I did not want to miss was April Wine for I have been waiting to see this band since I heard their ‘Nature of the Beast’ album all those years ago. Joined by Carl Dixon (from Coney Hatch) on guest guitar, Myles Goodwyn & co did not disappoint with classics like ‘Sign of the Gypsy Queen’ and ‘Just Between You & Me’. I was in heaven at last. Strangely and sadly though only a few of us were judging by the sparse if faithful crowd that was appreciated by the band. Guess everyone else was still asleep. But no. A large crowd had assembled to see Heart. As the Wilson sisters took to the stage they seemed to be equally confused saying that they were used to playing longer sets but to smaller audiences. Nancy Wilson looked as hot as ever (that’s the blonde one I’m sure, if its not that’s the one I mean cos I’m not into fat chicks - sorry Anne) actually kicking like she does in the videos. Heart brought a lotta passion to Sweden Rock and I’m sure I saw people tear jerking to songs like ‘These Dreams’ and ‘Alone’ as well as ‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’, clearly there were a lotta people who had been aching years to see them. The band seemed a little nervous at times but did joke with the audience but their set sadly ended to silence, no encore - guess everyone was in full cry mode by then. Pass the Kleenex.

On the way to see Children of Bodom, I stopped off to briefly catch another veteran 70s act, Foghat, from England who played a kinda blues boogie mix which I would’ve loved to watch (again given the rarity of their performances) except that the roar from the audience to Alexi Laiho’s band was simply too much. The sloping field was full of people although most had In Flames t-shirts but COB had massive Finnish flags onstage so I kinda hoped this wouldn’t degenerate into a Sweden vs Finland ice hockey match! I wondered why the promoters had chosen to put two very similar bands one after the other but it didn’t seem to worry the audience who clearly enjoyed the power and melody of COB singing along and airpunching to the songs as Laiho & co went for the throat, as if to challenge In Flames on their own soil!

As of yet, I hadn’t visited the smallest of the stages (Spendrups) but Hirax were due to lay waste to it. Sadly most of the crowd opted to go and see Nightwish but that was also kinda great cos it meant that only the most hardcore, diehard thrashers opted to stay and see Katon W De Pena & co as they unleashed hell unto Sweden. Considering they had been booked as a result of a Sweden Rock guy seeing their performance at Bang Your Head, they did not disappoint as they powered out ‘Hostile Territory’, ‘Bombs of Death’....man, at one stage the bassist left the stage and ran around the crowd still playing his bass! Katon was leaping into the crowd and Hirax were completely OTT! Even people who weren’t into the band were stopping dead in their tracks to check out the intensity of this band - I guess Sweden’s not used to seeing a crazy black guy leaping around the stage wearing studded wristbands screaming ‘thrash t’ill death baby’ ha ha!

Uh oh. Its Nifelheim. From the dreary western Norwegian fishing town of Haugesund came the Gustaffsson brothers. And I swear to God some people ran away whether from their sheer cheesy bad taste or the fact they are black metal. Nifelheim were hell onstage as they exploded to flamejets complete with spandex (black of course), spikes, eyeliner, bullet belts, candles, blood and even more fire. This was old school Norwegian black metal as Nifelheim screamed and pounded so hard I thought that poor little stage would collapse. And then God responded. Freezing rain. Lots of it. Fuckin lots of it. And it didn’t stop. But neither did Nifelheim and I got the impression that I was now witnessing a truly epic struggle between God and the Gustaffssons. No contest. The miserably soaked shivering black metal kid wearing a t-shirt saying “My God Can Beat Up Your God” summed it up - oh yeah!?

After the truly bizarre experience of Nifelheim, the rain started to diminish somewhat and the crowd returned for In Flames (although a fair number had opted to see Udo). It was quite strange for me to hear the band speak in Swedish and the band appeared to be quite moved to be headlining in front of their home crowd - at one point I think vocalist Anders Friden even said that he felt anxious that Europe were after them (not sure if he was joking). In addition to songs offa their recently released album, they played old faves like ‘Gyroscope’ and ‘Clayman’ and the crowd roared their approval bringing the heavier end of the festival to an end.

At this point (about 11pm), the festival crowd appeared to change. Lots of normal people began to arrive into the festival. I saw an old man in a chair buggy with his granddaughter beside him and families with baby buggies (their babies had headphones to protect them). Sure, a lotta of the festival goers were also there but for me it was time to bug out. Next morning, as I prepared to depart, I got the lowdown from a Swedish reporter in the hotel. Europe played with the original line-up (yup, even Johnny Norum was there) and songs from all their albums (yup, even the early ones) like ‘Wings of Tommorrow’ and ‘Cherokee’. Then they played an acoustic version of ‘Carrie’ followed by various solos and then some new songs which in this guy’s opinion were not as heavy as their other stuff. Tempest appeared in a Sweden flag t-shirt and spoke to the crowd in Swedish. Of course, ‘The Final Countdown’ ended the set.

All in all, this year must’ve been the most successful Sweden Rock to date which begs the question of how the promoters will top it next year. There could also be some improvements to the campsite: some people told me they got cold showers and hot handwater, many complained about the toilets, others about the 150 euro per person ticket cost. Still, with people arriving from Australia, Canada and the US clearly this 3 day festival with 60 bands proved to be irresistible as it did for me. Rock on Sweden!