'Sweden Rock Fill you head with rock!!!'

Amon Amarth 'can you hear me Odin?'

Uriah Heep 'still soldiering on...and on'

The Outlaws 'kickin it out one last time on the Devils Road'

Candlemass's Rob Lowe tries the Hex trick'

Flogging Molly 'Dave King finally keels over from 'Celtic' exhaustion!'

'Over The Rainbow's own Joleen & Jurgen'

Thor 'and lo, I say to thee...'

Lita Ford 'Is this lady married?'

Demon 'starring in disbelief that Torch had more eyeliner'

'And the heaven's opened up - thanks Thor!'

Foreigner 'Juke box heroes rockin it out'

Ripper Owens 'whaat? did i say something...'

Riot 'bringing it all home with Thundersteel'

Journey 'not a cloud in the sky for these guys'

Hotleg's Justin 'the star - and his legcast'

H&H's Vinnie 'the only one smiling..'

SWEDEN ROCK 2009

Wow - I mean, absolutely wow! I thought Sweden Rock 2004 couldn’t be beaten but these guys have gone from strength to strength to this year probably becoming THE best rock festival in the world bar none!! If you are into classic rock and metal this is a must, a pilgrimage that you must undertake at least once in your rock lifetime - just ask Robbo from Australia who flies here every year! With 5 stages (or 6 if you include the one in the campsite) with around 100+ acts in 5 days, Sweden Rock is a rockathon that indeed lives up to it’s motto - “FILL YOUR HEAD WITH ROCK” - and we did!!!

-Shan Siva

Wed 3 June

Despite the fact that the sun was out it was still pretty cold (and would get even colder) as we were just coming off the Scandinavian spring. The local people in Solvesborg told me that this annual festival pretty much kicked off their summer tourist season - and with the bang it created I could only wonder if things got louder in what seemed like such a tranquil and beautiful area. And so it fell to TORCH, Sweden’s original first generation rockers to crack on with their brand of 80s rock that reminded me of Judas Priest or Accept at times with songs like ‘Watcher Of The Night’ and ‘Sinister Eyes’. Their look was more LA though with vocalist Dan Dark being a short dude like Udo too (with added eyeliner for good measure!) and the bassist could’ve passed for Nikki Sixx so amidst the cold coastal breeze I did wonder if they were out’ve place but given the crowds favourable response they seemed perfectly at home.

Across the field, SEVENDUST were kicking up a funk storm on the Sweden stage. While some people loved their cool funk groove, others walked away although it didn’t seem to bother nose boned vocalist Lajon Witherspoon who cooly asked “...do you know who we are yet...?” before bopping to ‘Clueless’! I guess they reminded me a lot of Stuck Mojo which is no surprise really given that they’re also from Atlanta as they ended their set with a cover medley including ‘Walk’ and ‘Master Of Puppets’.

Next up were a band I really wanted to catch given their excellent AOR debut - COVERED CALL. Whilst I still have no reservations about their impressive material their nerves were showing thru weak backing vocals probably given a lack of stage experience and the poor sound of the Gibson stage didn’t help either, although things did improve for ‘Let’s Make The World For Us’ as they rallied the crowd on the strength of their songs to carry them thru their set.

As the massive Norse backdrop of Thor battling a serpent brought a huge roar from the field, it was clear that AMON AMARTH had pulled the largest crowd of the day. I’ve now seen these guys quite a few times at different festivals and they are an undoubted crowd pleaser with their thundering brand of Norse metal as judged by songs like ‘Fate Of Noms’ and my personal favourite ‘Asator’: fire, smoke and blood red light - the Northmen were here and had brought the spirit of Odin with them.

There was spirit too on the Zeppelin stage (why it’s called that I have no idea cos it’s a small stage) - in the form of plucky Brit BLAZE BAYLEY. With his own brand of meat ‘n’ potatoes metal which is very Maiden sounding (right down to the twanging Steve ‘arris bass), he certainly knew how to give a knees up with songs like ‘Kill And Destroy’ and was certainly impassioned in his cry for freedom with ‘Live And Die Like A Samurai’: whilst not as slick as Amon Amarth, his down to earth real-pint-of-ale style touched the hearts of all who had joined him on his quest tonite. Power to you Blaze.

With so much energy already in the air - and it was only the first official day (although some had chosen to start on Tues with the NEMIS - New Music In Sweden - stage on the campsite with some 20 final bands in this search for new talent), ancient Brit rockers URIAH HEEP with veteran rocker Mick Box closed the day. Opening with the organ theme to the film ‘Rollerball’, I couldn’t believe these guys are still going after all these years, playing in the face of the ageists with rockers like ‘Heaven’s Grail’, ‘Tears Of The World’ and ‘Overload’. Gotta admit, the sound waned a few times especially if you were on the hill behind the mixing desk and I did get worried when they had a drum solo after the 3rd song! But this was a 70s band - complete with that classic organ sound - and I was reassured by some veterans who were clearly as old as the band, and who basked in their glory of these never say die guys.

Thurs 4 June

Oh god, where is that goddamn bus? One of the benefits of not staying on the campsite is that you get some sleep away from the furor of the festival. This is especially so if you’re staying in a beautiful seaside village like Hallevik. The downside of course, is that you need to get to the festival everyday and when there are mile long traffic jams, this can be a bitch. Well, today was gonna be a bitch hell mutha - especially so cos one of the bands I’d come especially to see were THE OUTLAWS. I go back a ways with these cowpokes - in terms of missing them. I even tried to see ‘em in New York in 2007 - had everything booked - and then Hughie upped and died on me. My friend who was flying down from Boston felt we were jinxed never to see them. When Sweden Rock told me they had them it damn near made the year for me - and now, a coupla hours before their on time, it looked like I was gonna miss them again. Luckily we managed to blag our way onto a taxi and when that got stuck we ended up running thru the campsite like headless chickens. I ran straight for that stage barrier man, and slamming into it was the best feeling I’ve had for a long time. And then they were there! That triple geetar attack was a hammerin’ and those boots were a stompin’ to ‘Hurry Sundown’, ‘You Are The Show’, ‘Ghost Riders....’ and the awesome anthem to end it all ‘Green Grass And High Tides’. I guess many of the crowd knew their new material but ‘Green Grass...’ leaves everyone with that same ol’ dumbfounded look everytime as the fury of those guitars just doesn’t let up until they’ve reached into your soul and given you the kiss of rock - The Outlaws man, fuck yeah!!!

It felt like a huge burden had been lifted offa my shoulders as I walked away from the Sweden stage to see another band I hadn’t seen for a long, long time - CANDLEMASS. Sweden’s original doom rockers had gathered a large crowd at the main Festival stage so I opted to see them from a distance and the large video screens helped. The sound however didn’t and it was soon left to old friend Rob Lowe (formerly of Solitude Aeternus) to do a stand up comedy routine to save the day. Although not as chubby as Messiah, he’s certainly a whole lot funnier and his laconic style kept us mildy entertained until ‘Dark Are The Veils Of Death’ ripped thru the monolithic wall of Marshalls. Lowe gave a superb vocal performance and although I felt the band should’ve had an evening set rather than playing in the sunshine, Sweden’s denizens of doom were laying waste with ‘The Bleeding Darkness’. Meanwhile, back on the Zeppelin stage - “..stand up, wake up, let your body down...” - oh man, the forces of light were fighting back in the form of TYKETTO!! Who would get my soul? Well, Tyketto had pulled a staggering number of chicks (and they grow big in Sweden - just check out Hysterica for the full body job!) and I’d never seen these guys in their time so I meekly succumbed to the cry ballard rock of ‘Wings’ and ‘Strength In Numbers’, quite apt given that when it started to rain the dedicated crowd (who’d waited 19 years for Tyketto to get to Sweden) stood firm and sang together ‘Forever Young’. I almost cried.

My emotional state left me in a conundrum as to who to see next: THE TUBES or Flogging Molly? Well, goddamit, I’ll see them both! Feeway Bill sure is some weirded out guy. He came on with a TV set for a helmet saying “...so this is what they call summer in Sweden - 45 degrees - and I don’t have enough black shit on...”. As the band played their new wave synth rock in ‘No Way Out’ and ‘She’s A Beauty’ I did wonder (probably) if they were a little too alternative for Sweden Rock but they did have a hard guitar edge and were certainly appreciated by their small but dedicated crowd. And they were certainly different so as Feeway mumbled “...I was a plumpy boy and you were a punk...” I knew it was time to head off to the Celtic carnage of FLOGGING MOLLY. How far can you take this? I couldn’t tell if it was a Riverdance send up or something genuine as Chris Evans lookalike Dave King (who graced us in his youth as Fastway’s frontman) accompagnied by his wife Bridgette on the Irish fiddle cranked up the diddly dee mixture of The Pogues, Dubliners and The Chieftans - all souped up on Guiness mind! Whatever it was, it was sending everyone punker nuts to the sounds of ‘The Lightning Storm’ and ‘Bells Of The Sacred Way’ as King asked “...Are You Catholic?..” before dedicated more of his insanity to ‘God’s sinners’ i.e. us!! Towards the end he said “..You need more than Swedish meatballs to play this shit - it’s thirsty work - but I’m not that fockin generous!!!...” before they encored to ‘The Worst Day Since Yesterday’.

Fortuitously for me, the Rock Stage where King et al had finished was right next to the central beer marquee so I opted for a few Kopperbergs (courtesy of the Swedish cider sponsor) before kicking back to the equally laid back southern blues groove of ZZ TOP. Wow, these dudes had brought their full set from those apple red drums, to the TV backdrop to those glittered amps. They even wore their gloves and those beards man, those beards - were they fuckin real? Guess they’d spent too much time in the desert but sadly that’s probably where their music’s best enjoyed as ‘Cheap Sunglasses’, ‘Low Down & Dirty’ and not even a cover of ‘Foxy Lady’ could save them from boring the hell out’ve me. I’ll take them in a stadium in the 90s, but out here when it was in the 50s you couldn’t really feel that heat. But the Gibbons bros are a strange pair indeed and as I walked off to the sound ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ I guess that’s an appeal in itself to their fans.

As I stood at the barrier on the Sweden stage I wondered how I would escape if OVER THE RAINBOW turned out to be a farce. The white stretch limo already had me concerned and I wondered if Tony Carey’s last minute drop out was more than just for health reasons. As the crowd closed in it became clear I was stuck for the duration as the lights went down - and everyone erupted! Joleen!! Joleen!!! As Jurgen ‘Son Of Ritchie’ Blackmore cranked out ‘Man On A Silver Mountain’ and Bobby Rondinelli pummelled to ‘Kill The King’, Joleen pouted, teased and kicked like a girl to ‘Starstruck’ and ‘I Surrender’ (to which we all did) and I too was caught up in this wet dream of a tribute by ex members of Rainbow to Rainbow as they unashamedly gave Dio a run for his green on the closer ‘Long Live Rock And Roll’. Were we that desperate or had we witnessed a second coming? They certainly weren’t Rainbow and Jurgen (although techically brilliant) is no ‘Evil’. However, they did prove that a wild night at a cheap motel with a 50 dollar hooker is still better than boning someone’s lifeless snotty wife! Speaking of which....

I was an SMF. A sick motherfucka fan of TWISTER (FUCKIN) SISTER. But hey, that was back in the 80s when TS were the nastiest, most obnoxious and obscene band outta New York (fuckin) City. Then they got all commercial and whilst it was great to see a metal band make it that big, let’s face it, it became embarrassing. And so, 25 years or so on, I did wonder if there was any point playing the entire ‘Stay Hungry’ album when they could’ve ressurected those gutter songs like ‘Destroyer’ and ‘Bad Boys Of Rock N Roll’ rather than ‘Burn In Hell’ and ‘The Price’. Ok, they played ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ and ‘I Wanna Rock’ and Dee - despite looking like a real drag queen - still has that onstage persona and the voice to command. But AJ’s lengthy and pointless drum solo seemed to be filling a void that not even JJ could fill with his impassioned shout out against labels - “royalties?...what royalties...I call having a fan base after 30 years a fuckin royalty!!”. Despite the onstage heat, the temperature had plummeted to -5 degrees and not even Lemmy’s presence for ‘I Know Its Only Rock N Roll’ could stop the crowd from dwindling away in droves, myself included. I was an SMF.

Fri 5 June

“...Lighting strikes! Lightning strikes again....!!” so speaketh the word of THOR, and lo, the masses did come for the midday mass(acre) as the mighty one (well not so mighty now cos he’s an old dude) brought ragnarock to the Sweden stage (along with every early morning nutter in the area). The feisty Canuk may not blow up hot water bottles anymore but he still bends that steel bar between his teeth to the sounds of ‘Thunder On The Tundra’, ‘Let The Blood Run Red’ and ‘Rock The City’, catchy singalong toons to his pantomine show culminating in a hilarious battle with Loki (where Thor takes one in the nuts) before he smotes the evil one with his hammer - “...no wait, maybe I’ll use my medium axe instead...”. Simply unmissable.

Unfortunately, the gates of ragnarok had indeed been aptly opened on the Zeppelin stage as KK Warslut lead his shock troops onstage and screamed “I am a war god!!”. DESTROYER 666 are miserable war mongering, hate ridden dogs that take off Krisiun or Possessed. I mean, they don’t even live in bloody Australia anymore so what’s there to moan about anyway? But nah, these drongos wanna give us the full on Hanson survivalist ‘only-the-strong-will-survive’ trip with ‘Freedom Rising’ and ‘Stand And Fight’ that would be more suitably dedicated to the Aboriginals whose land they stole - if only KK & co had more than cow shit fer brains but seeing as every song ends with ‘tack you fuckers’ - well fack you too mate.

Even more turmoil was brewing back on the Sweden stage as the Blacky’s nuclear rumbling bass droned hideously out’ve the PA - VOI VOD had arrived. Off tune and sometimes even out’ve tune (but always tight) these guys have to be the most eclectic mix of punk, jazz, metal and rock n roll - but always Voi Vod! I knew these guys from “War And Peace” to “Dimension Hatross” and it seems that their sound has been one constant evolution over the years so that no song sounds similar whether it’s ‘Big Tornado’ to ‘Brainscan’ to ‘Treasure Chase’, although they all get inside your head as you are still no closer to working out this band even at their very end.

Back across the field Johnny Hedlund’s boys - UNLEASHED - were bringing their black frost death metal to the already chilling fields of Sweden Rock! Again, another band I’ve seen quite a few times but I like these guys a lot (cos they sing about snow a lot) and they don’t just brutalise you, they do also with style and hints of melody in their classy songs like ‘Ice Cold Winterland’, ‘I Don’t Want To Be Born’ and my personal fave ‘Black Horizon’.

Rrrrrrrrr - LITA FORD is one hot mama! Looking like a sexy biker chick sporting some neat tattoos and a very cool Stoli bottle shaped axe, this lady is still rockin and holding her own on the mike whilst cranking out on the lead. Despite her assertive balls-to-the-wall attitude I didn’t realise she was this popular given the crowd was probably the size for Candlemass the previous day here on the main Festival stage. Whilst her sultry chick rock was so so, it’s definitely her heavier material like ‘Hellbound Train’ and the co written with Lemmy (so unsurprisingly it sounds like Motorhead) ‘Catch Me If You Can’ that got Sweden’s rocks off (mine included later that night ha ha).

80s prog rockers DEMON soon brought me back down to earth with their pensive but still fiery rock of ‘Bush Gardens in Red Square’, ‘Don’t Break The Circle’ and ‘Sign Of A Madman’. The song titles said it all but their crowd loved every minute and I did wonder at the amazing leadwork of their guitarists as they closed to their classic ‘Night Of The Demon’.

It’s not very often that I get to eat humble pie. But I’ll get it off my chest now by saying to the folks at SPV that I was wrong about KAMELOT. I’ve repeatly passed these guys by (cos they came across as somewhat pretentious) so this time I thought I would finally check them out on the Rock stage. And what a show it was. Besides possessing an amazing voice, opera singer Roy Khan was an intense dude as he prowled around the stage with fiery eyes. In complete contrast was his delectable female co vocalist bringing ice to his fire (or was it the other way round?) and with a voice to match! The rest of the band define what superb musicanship is (they even made their bass solo enjoyable!) and soon it becomes clear that far from being pretentious, Kamelot are consumate professionals. With a superb stage show to match of spectacular backdrops, flamejets and choreographed blind(folded) drummer girls, not even the by now equally intense rain could deter the band from an Oscar winning performance. They were probably the best band of the entire festival.

Back to the beer tent - as I awaited the romancing 70s rock of FOREIGNER. I saw these guys a while back at a friends & family show and it’s those cool songs like ‘Urgent’, ‘I Wanna Know What Love Is’, and ‘Cold As Ice’ that bring the warmth to lighten up the by now rain soaked atmosphere of the site. I really admired the way these veterans worked the massive Festival stage and especially Mick Jones’s presence and his excellent guitar work. Clearly these guys have learned to rock a stage or two in their time as they closed to my personal fave and classic rock anthem ‘Juke Box Hero’.

MOTORHEAD were so fuckin loud I hadta leave after ‘Stay Clean’ and ‘Iron Fist’ and opted to go see another guy who I’ve wanted to catch after all these years - JOHNNY WINTER. With no pyro and minimal backline (just a coupla amps - in contrast to the wall of amps of Motorhead), it was just 100% musicianship from this Texan albino, who sits and plays the blues of ‘Sugar Cone Of Love’, the Benny King cover of ‘Towdown’ and the Ray Charles cover of ‘Blackjack’. With ‘head still cranking it on the other side you couldn’t have had anything more diametrically opposed - but it worked and that’s the magic of Sweden Rock!

With a long final day ahead and having seen In Flames too many times (and not liking their new material), not even the clearly attractive prospect of seeing these guys at their only Swedish show this year could entice me to stay for their set. Instead, I took the early bus back which seemed to be the family bus with babies and had an interesting discussion with a couple of ‘parent rockers’ on who was best for Blackfoot: Ricky Medlocke (me) vs Bobby Barth (them)!

Sat 6 June

The final day. Clearly the festival had exacted it’s toll on some: Chris from Switzerland was nowhere to be seen as was Anton from Russia, who’d stayed up late drinking to alleviate his sorrows of not having found the famed Swedish babes he had dreamed of - now all he wanted was to get back to those ‘lovely Russian girls’. And the final assault was about to begin with TANK. I’d seen the original line up with Algy and the Brabbs bros back in the 80s and they were little rippers mate so I was pumped for this along with loads of others (resplendent in their Tank t-shirts) at the Sweden stage. Opening to their infamous ‘Omla, omla, omla yeh - wakee, wakee’ intro it was - what a fucking minute - who the fuck’s that prancing poofter saying “...let me see your hands..”.?! He got two fingers mate I’ll tell ya. How can anyone take nutcrackers like ‘TWDAMO’ and turn them into leather rock?! This was worse than Grim Reaper doing Leppard at Wacken - it’s easy to see why Algy has franchised this band off cos this wasn’t bloody Tank but a rusted old wreck. I was gutted and glad I wasn’t suckered into buying a t-shirt, cos I’d have been demanding a refund.

Thankfully Tim RIPPER OWENS on the Rock stage came to my rescue with ‘Death Race’ and ‘To Live Again’ and I promptly did to his fast n furious rock, ably backed by Simon Wright on heavy duty drums and Chris Cafferty’s wildcat guitar - now that’s what I’m talking about! In between songs off the excellent ‘Play My Game’ album he was wisecracking to the crowd - “..put your hand’s down man, I can smell your armpits...” and he missed his cue a few times jokingly making for a thoroughly enjoyable performance as he closed ‘Green Manaleshi’ with a “good night” - at one in the afternoon!

I got to the Rock stage barrier 2 hours ahead cos I wanted to see Riot so band. Last time I saw these guys was back in the 80s when they had Speranza on vocals and like The Outlaws, they were another elusive band that had slipped me by over the years. On the other side of the field, IMPELLITTERI was taking the stage and paid tribute to Ripper (guess he could hear him on the other side of the field) by saying “..that’s quite a mouthful..” as he launched into his own brand of fretboard freneticity, acknowledging his status as the 2nd fastest guitarist in the world. As his fingers danced around that fretboard, I wondered if he’d played every note on that sunburst Strat a dozen times over. And was it me or did he also look like his inspiration, Ritchie ‘Evil’ Blackmore (bet Jurgen was pleased). Needless to say the likes of ‘Speed Demon’ or ‘In The Gardens Of Eden’ were very Dio / Rainbow sounding although it was pleasing that they were played as a band effort rather than a platform for a singular virtuoso.

The hour had come - almost 30 years on doing a special show commemorating the classic ‘Thundersteel’ album - for that classic line up (plus Mike Flyntz on guitar) of RIOT. Clearly pulling a huge crowd on the Rock stage I kinda felt sorry for Blackfoot who were unenviably playing a parrallel slot. There were people there from all over the world and emotions were running high as Mark Reale cranked out ‘Thundersteel’, ‘Soldier’, ‘Bloodstreets’ and ‘Flight Of the Warrior’. Tony Moore’s voice was the key here and I’m pleased to say he hasn’t lost it and it only seemed to get stronger thru the set. In between Donny Van Stavern and Booby Jarzombek drove a relentess rhythm until the encore of ‘Shine On’ dedicated to Guy Speranza closing what was probably the most moving set of the festival judging by the crowd, who refused to leave the barrier even after the band had long left the stage.

Oh God, pass the Kleenex’s - Journey were on the Festival stage - and amassed not only their own crowd but also Riot’s so the field was filled. And why not when you’ve got killer songs like ‘Keep On Rocking’, ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ and my personal fave ‘Lights’. There are so many stars in this band from newboy Arnel Pineda who’s now found his confidence ably working the huge crowd to Neil Schon whose guitarwork on ‘Wheel In the Sky’ and throughout the set defines Journey’s sound. Not forgetting the multi talented Jonathan Cain, I’m also confident that the hidden gem in the band is drummer Deen Castronovo, whose voice is still the closest to Perry’s so why he ain’t fronting I’m not sure but in any case it all comes together for Journey with the sunshine and the clear PA so they close the afternoon perfectly. Bet that smug twat with a ‘Journey sucks’ badge was the only fool shoe gazing by himself!

Forbidden were part of the last of the Bay Area thrash wave but even so had made their mark on some as a hardcore crowd had gathered on the Sweden stage and were already chanting ‘Forbidden, Forbidden!!’ way before the band had even arrived. Frontman Russ Anderson is still a huge bloke and thankfully his voice is equally so as they launched into the techno thrash of ‘March Into Fire’, ‘Step By Step’ and ‘Forbidden Evil’ and it’s easy to see how their influence has transcended into the likes of Iced Earth and Nevermore. As the band closed to ‘Chalice Of Blood’, Anderson roared a triumphant ‘..Long live thrash!!..’ to an equally bombastic audience.

The group of pretty little things in their make up and trash look assembled at the Zeppelin stage were more of a curiosity - until one of them (a girl) suddenly broke ranks casting her stuff aside before pulling her pants down for a pee. Guess she couldn’t make it 10 feet to the toilets. Neither could Justin Lee Hawkins either, cos he arrived onstage in a leg cast with his new band HOT LEG! Clearly a sensitive flower who croons his falsettos over the damsels (and emaciated dudes) with the likes of ‘I Met Jesus’ and ‘Tombstone Shadow’, he is clearly a star (in between teasing the crowd over the ongoing Sweden vs Denmark footie match) and it’s almost believable when he says “..thank you, you are people with form..”.

Whilst I waited for the Gibson stage to empty out the packed to capacity crowd watching the aforementioned footie match, I opted to catch a bit of EUROPE’s set having missed them (intentionally) in 2004. I can see their appeal to the mainstream and clearly many ‘normal’ people had arrived as before just to see them. As it became clear from the irate faces walking past that Sweden had indeed lost the match I decided it was time to make a move to see HELSTAR, another thrash band I’d never seen over the years. These pint sized Latinos from Texas were sure something as they bounced and slammed around the stage with captivating frontman James Rivera (with a voice way larger than his diminuitive stature) at the helm. Undoubtedly they deserved a far larger crowd that the few rows assembled as I thought they’d appeal to Forbidden’s crew but maybe they’d opted to see Immortal instead. Still it was their loss to miss the mesmerising performances of ‘Bow Down To The King Of Hell’, ‘Guardian Of Wicked Disposition’ and ‘Pain Will Be Thy Name’. When James came down into crowd to thank them some Brazilian guy almost crushed him in a bear hug of love!

And so unto the end with Heaven And Hell. I’d seen these guys as Sabbath back in the 80s and recently as H&H where I questioned the atmosphere and put it down to the barn of Wembley. Sadly, it was indeed the band as despite the obvious quality of ‘Mob Rules’ and ‘Children Of The Sea’, the rest of H&H’s material like ‘Bible Black’ somewhat pales in comparison and it seemed to me that the band were simply going thru the motions, lacking the passion that I’d seen in the other bands over the last few days. As Dio sang ‘,,,you’re living in a time machine..’ I couldn’t help but believe they were and as the half time drum solo from Vinne Appice (who’s still surrounded by his kit) kicked in I knew it was time to kick off to what had been overall a thoroughly enjoyable 4 days of rock!!