Messages : 8779 Date d'inscription : 14/04/2009 Age : 64 Localisation : puybrun
Sujet: HAIL! - European Tour Dim 10 Mai - 12:47
HAIL! - European Tour Diary Available
Metal supergroup HAIL! - featuring guitarist Andreas Kisser (SEPULTURA), vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens (YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, ex-JUDAS PRIEST, ICED EARTH), bassist David Ellefson (F5) and Jimmy DeGrasso (F5 and ALICE COOPER) - have commenced their European tour. Ellefson checks in with the following update:
We gathered in Athens, Greece last week for our first run of shows in Europe as Hail!. Below are a few highlights from the trip:
All Hail! The Gods Of Greece
Jimmy De Grasso, Ripper Owens and I flew from the USA (Ripper home for only a few days after his Yngwie Malmsteen tour of Japan with Deep Purple) and Andreas met us on Sunday after his Sepultura show at the Metal Hammer festival in Wales.
Me, Jimmy, Abba (Hail! manager) and our friend Ilias Papadakus (TV War theme composer and all around Athens Metal good-guy) took in some sights at the famed Acropolis early in the day on Sunday, followed by some much needed jet lag rest and recovery. We then headed to sound check to prepare for the show.
Media from MTV, Rock Hard, Metal Hammer and more were present for backstage interviews which led straight into a slam-fest set of Metal for the evening. A relaxed and fun set of songs established a feel-good tone for the night, which was followed by the after show VIP meet n greet.
Greece has always been a special place for metal and it was great to be back in their presence and hospitality once again, this time with HAIL!. We’ll be posting some photos on the site for you to enjoy, likely some video clips to follow at some point.
Off to Istanbul, Turkey….
Hail! Turkey
Upon our arrival into Istanbul we were met by the promoter Erdem, who was easy to spot with his ABBA shirt that ironically said 'Hail to Sweden'. Having never met him before, his jest provided great comic relief to start the day off in Istanbul (see the cheeky photo of him and our manager Abba in the photo gallery).
We stopped in the Old City area of Istanbul to take some photos by the gargantuan Mosques before heading off to grab a bite of local cuisine. It’s amazing how good a Kabob tastes when you are actually eating it in the countries of origin!
After sound check Ripper and I interviewed with MTV Turkey with photo shoots and media ops that continued throughout the evening. Istanbul was rowdy and most appreciative, which also made for another sold out show. This made the eight shows of Hail!’s illustrious career all sold out performances. Not a bad record to hold for a bunch of guys just looking for an excuse to go play!
After the show we headed to a nearby club where fans drank hard and a local band played even harder. After more Kabobs, we all turned in for a few hours sleep before heading off to the airport again in the morning which took us over to mainland Europe for the final string of shows on the tour.
Innsbruck, Austria
Innsbruck is a quaint ski resort area nestled at the bottom of some awe-inspiring and snow capped mountains. Very Bavarian and deeply European feeling, with its architecture and shops, we arrived in the evening and settled in for the night. Andreas, Jimmy, Abba and I went next door for some cheap but amazing pizza. Good food, locally brewed beer and more tall tales from each of us made for a good way to wind down for the night.
The show on Thursday was in a hard concrete hall which had several music venues sub-divided in its confines. This is very typical in Germany and apparently Austria, too. Andreas’ friend Markus (also the leader of the Sepularmy for Austria) came by and took some killer photos of the show, which are now posted in the gallery. Ripper and I did a funny-ass video interview for a Vienna based TV show…probably on the Web any day now. The fun of being in HAIL! is that we can do just that…have fun. I think that’s why we got into rock bands in the first place, right?!
Vienna, Austria
This was the final journey on the Autobahn, as we caught our last glimpses of post card-like views of the German and Austrian country side; complete with castles, mountains, picturesque farms and soccer fields galore.
This show was a city wide festival and was absolutely packed. Because we were the headliner to an event of thousands of people, we had an absolute blast and played close to two hours! We did a double encore and even broke out some songs we’d never played together before, like “Breaking The Law” (we figured Ripper knew that one…). That is the beauty of HAIL!, just wing it and have fun.
When we walked offstage we all high-fived repeatedly and Andreas kept commenting on how special HAIL! is…something to be appreciative of as it is not often that you find true musical camaraderie in bands like we have found here.
Dim 10 Mai - 12:47
