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Hawkwind, Ruisrock, Turku, 10.7.2004
This summer was very good to me what comes to space rock: I was able
to see Hawkwind live twice! Sweden Rock Festival was already a continuous
feast, but Hawkwind's first gig in Finland would be something special.
Finnwind, the Finnish Hawkwind association, had organized a meeting with
the band at the airport on Monday for their members. The spirit was high
when we waited our biggest idols to arrive. Dave Brock's grinning face was
the first sign of the band. The fellows seemed surprisingly relaxed and
happy right after the flight. I had already met Alan in 1997 at the Hamburg
Hawkfan Festival, when he was very keen to know when he could come over to
Finland! Richard in his woolly seemed a bit quieter than the rest. The fans
had a moment to chat with the band and their manager Kris Tate, which was
really memorable. In addition, the band members were given Finnwind t-shirts,
and they seemed to be very pleased. The whole thing was videoed, of course.
The next afternoon we took a train to Turku with DJ Stalker and DJ Humanoid.
We skipped the first bands with ease, and after a short tuning up session, the
buss drive and 2.3 kilometres walk we arrived to the festival site a little
before eight. We had planned to watch a bit of Turbonegro, but Stalker was
forced to hassle in the backstage area to get the final permission to shoot
the gig. Just before the gig Brock decided, that he would be able to shoot
the gig, but he must give the tape to the band right after the gig. The reason
for this was that fans in the USA and Greece had, despite their promises, put their
video recordings on sale. Fucking idiots! Well, maybe we'll still get a chance to
enjoy this video in some form, since Kris Tate promised they would send a encrypted
version, as soon as it's edited. Maybe some year.
Then to the actual gig. Just about in time started a short intro, followed by
"Assault & Battery". I think the sound was better than in Sweden one month before.
Like usual they switched to the gorgeous end part "Golden Void" that in turn
transformed unobserved into a track called "Where Are You Know?". This old song
has never been properly released as a studio version, and it hasn't really been
played live before, either. This new version works very well, rocks hard and the
double vocals give the simple structure a nice melodic feel. At one point they
even made the audience sing the chorus! Wow. Then, as in Sweden, the set continued
with a new instrumental "Out Here We Are". After the promising, heavenly keyboard
beginning the track goes into this almost world music mode with some pre-recorded
saxophone etc. Not Hawkwind at its best. The mood was enhanced by a couple of female
dancers from the Finnwind ranks at Hawkwind's request. A very nice extra! The calm
mood was effectively ended with hard rocking, Alan Davey's "Sword of the East", a studio
version of which can be found on the band's The Xenon Codex album. An absolutely amazing
number with a rather long, new instrumental middle part. The dancers were also present on this one.
After this Brock announced, that their very special friend (well, they had at least met
a month ago in Sweden...) Phil from Monster Magnet was to join them on stage. I was wondering
where Dave from Monster Magnet was, as he was also supposed to join the fun?! Well,
"The Right Stuff" was very strong and wild even without Wyndorf, and it lasted over
eight minutes. It was followed by "Brainstorm", another number also played by Monster Magnet.
Brock hasn't been playing that much Nik Turner's numbers lately, so this old crowd favourite
was extremely nice to hear. Two guitars worked very well. Then was time for "Angels of Death"
that worked without any complaints as well, of course. The cavalcade of excellent songs was
marvellously continued with one of my favourites: "Psychedelic Warlords" was actually quite
close to the Dark Sun version!
The Robert Calvert penned "Spirit of the Age" has now been resurrected and a new studio
version will be out as a single soon. This old live favourite got the audience screaming
along now, as well. You really can write a great song with only twp chords! Excellent.
The dancing girls were on stage again to create a robotic atmosphere. Another solid
audience favourite is "Assassins of Allah" (originally "Hassan I Sahba"), and this
also made the crowd wild. It's fun to hear hundreds of people sing "hashish, hashish,
hashish, hashish"... The girls were naturally dancing, and the oriental mood was emphasized
in a nice way in the middle part. This heavy number ended the actual set. After a short
while the band returned to the stage and played a rock number "Brainbox Pollution",
originally released as a single b-side. It's really nice to get to hear this track live,
as well! Especially the end part is very good.
Then it was time for the highlight of the gig that most of the audience had been waiting:
Lemmy appeared on stage! We were really lucky that Motörhead happened to play in the same
festival and even on the same day, and that the mister in question agreed to play with
his old band. Lemmy had been very pale and antisocial in the backstage, but after checking
out his massive sound from his cabinet, he seemed pretty relaxed. "Silver Machine" sounded
very bombastic equipped with two guitars (Phil was back in the game) and two Rickenbacker
basses! Lemmy also sang, of course. An excellent ending for an amazing gig, and the audience
seemed very satisfied. If there would have been some more screaming and clapping, the band
would have played "Master of the Universe", but we didn't get to experience that this time.
Also, Motörhead was already supposed to have started on the next stage. As Pekka from
The Hypnomen said after the gig: I guess this was the festival, then. I still watched
Motörhead, some of Stray Cats and Hanoi Rocks, but they really didn't give me that much
after the Hawks.
It was absolutely amazing to enjoy one's favourite band at a festival in your own country!
Even the rain kept away all night, so it didn't diminish the enjoyment. The band really
didn't need a keyboard player since there's a lot of keyboard stuff and psychedelic sound
effects coming from the machine that totally messed your head. It was very strange that
I at least didn't see a lot of guys who I know are Hawkwind fans. Well, they can only
blame themselves for missing the first and possibly last gig in Finland by the world's
greatest band. According to some rumours Brock will retire from touring, but I don't know
if this is true. It was nice that this time Hawkwind also had some merchandise: I bought
a t-shirt, tour programme and Spaced Out in London CD that is only sold on their web site
and at gigs. The reason for Dave Wyndorf's absence was revealed to me in a couple of days:
the guy had had a fever and the doctor had advised him to find a hole where to rest.
I don't know how the Monster Magnet gig went on Sunday, since we already headed for Helsinki
on Sunday afternoon feeling very happy and tired. One of the greatest weekends of our lives
was about to end.
Here's the set list again:
Assault & Battery / Golden Void / Where Are You Now? / Out Here We Are / Sword of the East /
The Right Stuff / Brainstorm / Angels of Death / Psychedelic Warlords / Spirit of the Age /
Assassins of Allah / Brainbox Pollution / Silver Machine
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Sweden Rock Festival, Sölvesborg, Ruotsi, 10. - 12.6.2004.
 Every time when Hawkwind comes to Sweden, I just have to go see them. Last time was
in 1993, when they played in Stockholm. Now it was time for a hard rock festival in
the Southern Sweden in the middle of the green Skåne. So it was a bit difficult to
get there from Finland, but who cares. When I and a couple of my band mates were
also easily able to spend a few days with a good friend in Copenhagen, Denmark,
we really didn't have to think too long whether to go or not.
The festival was started with Crazy Led of Mika Järvinen, a Zeppelin cover
band of the Five Fifteen leader. Without the press pass I would have missed the band,
since it would have took like two hours to cue inside through the main gates. This was
the only bad thing about this otherwise very well organized festival. Mika was acting
just as mad as usual, and did also his climbing-on-the-stage-structures-number standard,
of course. The band played all the foreseeable Led Zeppelin classics in a very fine manner.
Mika later boasted that it was so wonderful that everybody in the audience knew all the
lyrics, albeit they haven't even released any albums! After this we headed to check out
the Swedish Astral Doors who were a traditional heavy metal band with a singer who tried
very hard to sound like Dio. They even covered Black Sabbath's "Heaven and Hell" and
even some Rainbow. Not bad, but they really didn't have anything new to offer. Then
after a little snack and expensive beer back to the Sweden Stage, where Abramis Brama
was beginning their tight set. This 70's styled hard rock band singing in Swedish was
surprisingly good, and especially the more Black Sabbath influenced tracks worked
very well. I must do some research.
Judas Priest
D.A.D. was just as boring as I thought they would be (even though they looked quite funny,
since the bass player was dressed up as Captain America), so it was time to go and check
out what Entombed are like live nowadays, and they were really heavy. The boys played
their energetic and aggressive metal with the rage of an animal. A bit too tough for me,
but I did like it. Memory Garden was supposed to be doom metal, but it didn't exactly
meet my conception of this honourable music style. After this I went to see Helloween,
but they really weren't that good. Everything would have been totally different at the
time of Walls of Jericho... Finally it was time for the headliner of the first night
Judas Priest! Rob Halford is back, and I was looking forward to witness the band's
only Scandinavian gig during this tour. I think the last time I had seen the band
was in 1988, so it was about time to get the chance to rock seriously. The Priest
played a long set of mostly old classics like "Victim of Changes", "Breaking the Law"
and "Living after Midnight". "Painkiller" and "Touch of Evil" from 1990 presented the
latest stuff they played. They haven't released anything new with Rob after that. I've
never much cared for "Turbo Lover", but now it sounded quite good. Now that Rob is out
of the closet, it was fun to think during that and other songs as well, what he had
meant with the lyrics. Luckily, the heavy jerks of this festival didn't seem to mind
about the fact that he is openly gay, everybody was very excited. The band had a great
show; they were in good spirits and played some unbelievably excellent music! I have
to pick up my old albums from the naphthalene. The Priest played the following songs:
Hellion / Electric Eye / Metal Gods / Heading Out To The Highway / The Ripper / Touch Of Evil /
The Sentinel / Turbo Lover / Victim Of Changes / Diamonds & Rust / Breaking The Law /
Beyond The Realms / The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown) / Painkiller /
Hell Bent For Leather / Living After Midnight / United / You Got Another Thing Coming..
Friday really was the most important festival day for me, since two of my favourite
bands would play then: Hawkwind and Monster Magnet! Unfortunately the weather wasn't
that good and we got occasionally some very heavy rain. Having a bit of a hangover we
arrived to the festival site to see Grand Magus a little before three. That was doom
metal, no doubt. A good band, it mostly reminded me of Candlemass, but GM was somewhat
heavier. I had to skip the end of the gig not to miss too much of the Opeth gig. They
were very professional and sounded great. Apparently their fine combination of death
metal and technical heavy prog worked out very well live as well. It is unbelievable
how the singer can switch his vocal style from death metal grunts to beautiful and
melodic singing in an instant!
Hawkwind
Then it was time to go to the main stage to prepare for Hawkwind. The band played
earlier than I had originally thought and started already at half past four, but
this would help memorising something from the gig... There was something sacred and
noble in the air when the first notes of "Assault & Battery" blasted through the air.
At first Brock couldn't get a sound out of his guitar, but after he pressed one of his
pedals he was in the business. The band has been stripped to a trio again (Brock/Davey/Chadwick).
It would have been interesting to see a bigger "super" band with Arthur Brown, Tim Blake,
Huw Lloyd-Langton and others, but I wasn't complaining. Because this was a heavy metal
festival, the band played a somewhat heavier set. There were songs without much keyboard
backing tapes, the boys just rocked with the basic trio line-up. Alan did also play some
keyboards from time to time. His bass was so loud (like his idol Lemmy's), that even Brock's
guitar was a bit buried under it at times. Richard Chadwick had the energy to beat the drums
like a machine: the guy must be in a very good shape. Along with the old classics it was also
very interesting to hear a few new tracks, apparently to be released on the much too long
awaited new album this autumn. Before the gig the Monster Magnet guys had a meeting with
Hawkwind, end result being that Dave Wyndorf and Phil Caivano joined the band on stage to
play the old Bob Calvert tune "The Right Stuff"! This was absolutely one of the highlights,
and the audience went nuts. It feels great to know that this will also happen at Ruisrock
in Turku. An absolutely brilliant and unforgettable gig, that's all I can say. This is what
they played: Assault and Battery / Golden Void / Where Are You Now? / Out Here We Are / Sword of The East /
The Right Stuff / Psychedelic Warlords / Wings / Angela Android / Spirit of the Age /
Assassins of Allah / Brainbox Pollution / Ejection..
Monster Magnet
After Hawkwind I really didn't care that much to see any other bands. I did watch
Testament for a while, but I was more focused on food and drinks. Moose kebab rules!
Monster Magnet got me interested again at eight o'clock. I had missed both of their
Helsinki gigs (1995 and 2004), and was very anxious to see them for the first time.
The band was very tight and rocked like hell. Dave for sure did get a big kick out
of singing with his idol Dave Brock, and you could see that. The new guys were fully
adjusted to the band now. It felt like most of the crowd of 20.000 were there to see
the groovy stoner rock of Monster Magnet. They really played an excellent, energetic gig.
Here is their set list: Atomic Clock / Dopes to Infinity / Supercruel / On the Verge / Powertrip / Melt / Elephant Bell /
Dinosaur Vacuum>Brainstorm>Dinosaur Vacuum / Unbroken / Zodiac Lung / Radiation Day / Monolithic /
Negasonic Teenage Warhead / Spacelord / Spine of God..
After this I spend some time watching UFO, and then it was for the Saturday's main act Scorpions.
The band who pretty much ruined their reputation with too sweet ballads worked better than I had
suspected, and I could stand to watch the whole gig, partly from the beer tent, I must admit.
Then it was time to get back to the backyard of this strawberry farm to have an after party in
a happy haze. Scorpions' set list: New Generation / Love Em Or Leave Em / Bad Boys Running Wild / We'll Burn The Sky / The Zoo /
Deep & Dark / Coast To Coast / Lovedrive / Through My Eyes / Remember The Good Times /
Tease Me Please Me / Blackout / Blood Too Hot / Big City Nights / Still Loving You /
Rock You Like A Hurricane / Hit Between The Eyes / When The Smoke Is Going Down..
I was not feeling that well on Sunday, so it might have been a good idea to spend the day
in the tent in a coma. After some medication I felt alive again and we went to the festival
site. This was the least inspiring day music wise: there weren't any bands playing that
I was really interested in. The first one I noticed was Heart, and they were probably
the least heavy act of all at the festival. The singer's voice still worked very well,
and the rest of the band was surprisingly good, as well. I watched a bit of Foghat,
pretty ok, but not very interesting. Then it was time to check out our old rehearsal
place neighbours from Lepakko: Children of Bodom were playing at Sweden Stage. We used
to wonder with Dark Sun, how the hell these guys can bother to play the same stuff again
and again from day to day, but apparently the rehearsing has really paid off. They seemed
to have a lot of fans there. Unfortunately I couldn't stand the whole gig, and I just
had to go wondering around.
By accident I saw a few tracks by this American thrash metal monster Hirax from many
years ago, and they were better than I would have believed. I met the guys briefly
among the crowd on Friday, and they seemed really nice. The next band was one that
a lot of people were waiting for: Nightwish, a metal band that Finland is proud of.
I hadn't seen them live before, so I was interested. Tarja's excellent voice fits
very well into the noble, melodic and beautiful metal, and the band worked great live.
This new hit song "Nemo" actually is quite good! Merciless downpour ruined the enjoyment
a bit, especially since I was stupid enough to leave my umbrella at the camp. Just before
the heavy rain I went to the beer tent, and it was also possible to watch the band from there.
All the ingredients of a mass hysteria were there, when several thousand people tried to
squeeze in the beer tent by force during the heaviest rain. Luckily nothing serious happened.
After this I was so beat, that there was no option but to skip UDO and Europe and go to sleep.
All in all, this was a very successful festival. The place was very nice, a lot of variety
on the bands (no black metal?!), and there were many kinds of food (blinis were possibly
the best! I missed the wild pig...), and the Swedish heavy maniacs and spaceheads were very
friendly and open. Never in Finland have so many strangers came to talk to me. The only
mildly frightening situation was when a huge member of the Hell's Angels tried to make
a move on my male friend in a rather aggressive way, but luckily he was able to pull
out of it. If there will be some bands like Hawkwind and Monster Magnet there next year,
I might well be on the road again. Sweden rocks!
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Hidria Spacefolk / Kuusumun Profeetta, Tavastia, 3.4.2004
I just had to go to see this show, even if it was Thursday evening.
Hundreds of other fans of psychedelic rock had thought alike, since
Tavastia was full-packed. Concluding from some of the conversations
I overheard, some of the people had just heard Kuusumun Profeetta on
the radio and had been interested enough to come and check them out.
And that is just fine.
The balcony was closed at first, but they were forced to open it
pretty soon because of the big crowd. I don't think that Hidria
and Kuusumu is the best possible combination, but it still
worked surprisingly well.
Hidria opened the happening a bit after half past ten and played
a solid set of new and old instrumental space rock of theirs. The
guys were in great shape, and seemed to be a bit straighter than usual.
I wonder if the reason for this was that the gig was videoed with
two cameras? Also the audio was recorded to MD both from the soundboard
and with live mics. Visually they had two video projectors projecting
stuff behind them, which worked out fine. Otherwise the lightning was
bit lighter and less UV emphasized than usual, possibly due to the videoing.
The crowd received the band with joy, although there was not that much
dancing as usual. This was a Thursday night, after all.
These were the tracks that Hidria playd:
Pangaia (mp3) /
St. Eve (mp3) /
Kifi (mp3) /
Terra Hidria (mp3) /
Agent Entropos (mp3) /
I - Mantra (mp3) /
Gnomen (mp3)
It was a bit strange, that there was no DJ music between or after the gigs,
and the crowd was left alone to shiver in the silence. They could've easily
had some guy to roll some disks. The gods didn't supply Kuusumun Profeetta
with the best possible playing conditions: the father of the guitarist
Jyrki Laiho had just died, and he was thus unable to show up. Our condolences.
The band played with only seven members then, and I must admit that I did miss
the second guitar at some points. Especially in the heavier parts the twin guitar
line-up would have been nice. Luckily they have two wind instrument players also
in the live line-up to give the music more colour. The singer Mika Rättö doesn't
play any acoustic guitar anymore, but he sat pretty constantly behind his
Fender Rhodes. He did also play some harmonica. His strong voice worked well,
although I can understand why some people find it to be a bit too much. You either
love of loath his voice, and I clearly belong to the first bunch of people. The band
gave their best, and even with one guitarist missing, they did a wonderful job.
They played some peaceful ballads as well as tough and gloomy heavy attacks.
The mood changes were rather enormous, especially the jump from soft track
"Kynttilät syttyvät varhain" to the wild "Rankaisun ylhäinen ruhtinas" blast.
Tracks from the new CD filled most of the set, but there was also some other material,
also some unreleased stuff. It was very interesting to hear new material already,
since it's pretty much impossible to foresee what Kuusumun Profeetta will do next.
There was hardly any invest in the light department during the gig. They should have
their own lightning guy to increase the mood. Apart from these few shortages this
surely was one of the best ways to spend a Thursday evening in Helsinki during the
winter. This was Kuusumun Profeetta's set list that night:
Set list:
Hämärän enkeli / Noita / Kynttilät syttyvät varhain / Rankaisun ylhäinen ruhtinas / Jumalat liekeissä /
Ammeellinen kyyneleitä / Saa rakkaus vuoria odottaa / Morsius kuoleman
---------
Muistokirjoitus
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Spiha @ Tavastia, 11.4.2004
Tavastia was quite full during the aftermath of Easter. A lot of the people must have came to
see also the records release gig of Reprinted, but I personally haven't even heard them before.
Spiha, the best rock'n'roll band in town showed us again who rules. The group started with
a couple of new tracks, and the audience was fully involved by the time they got into "Egoreactor".
The band keeps on getting tighter and better, I can only admire them. They were also loud enough
this time: my trouser legs flapped very nicely. The band played all the songs from their CD except
"Monster" and Freedom Fuel". That means that they also fit a few more peaceful songs like "If I Fall"
in the set, but the main emphasis was again on the full power, merciless stuff. MC5 and The Stooges
were well presented, as usual. Spiha's guitars are now very heavy and raw, but the solos of Juntza
are really skilful. The singer Nenne, aka Henry Lee Rock, The Rock Cock Number One was in good condition
and his voice worked well. I just have to also mention the very energetic performance of the bass
player Bommer! Marvellous bass playing. What's really great about Spiha in addition to the heaviness,
groove and tightness are the keyboards. They give the tracks a lot of extra colour. Closer to the
end of the gig they played their future hit song "Icebreaker" that will be releasedas a single on
April the 16th. Go and get in, everyone! These guys surely know how to explode some heads with their stoner.
Al in all this was an excellent, energetic gig, and after that I didn't really enjoy the spiritless
rock of Reprinted. www.spiha.net
Set list:
King of the Reason / Planet Horse / Egoreactor / Altamont / I Ain't the One / If I Fall / Samurai of the Sound / Bloodrain / Icebreaker / Scratch / If I Ever Let You Go / Sheaster
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