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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!
[ back to top ]
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
[ back to top ]
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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