Bloody hell that was a fun tour!!! Exhausting but fun!
So we started out on Friday 15th May in Wolverhampton. Now as most of you know, Kirsty set up the UK Firewind fansite, and I'm running the UK Firewind Street Team. I'd requested lots of lovely promotional material so we could promote the hell out of our boys. Result: Century Media failed epically and we had nothing to do for the first three days. So we generally hung around, had a laugh, watched some amazing gigs and tried to get people to sign up for the newsletter (with some success I might add). We also met the lovely Zoe who was in charge of lighting and pretty much seemed to adopt us for the entire tour, we love that girl!!
So Wolverhampton: Started off by me being terrified having to drive a stupidly large car after crashing my own two days before the tour, but my Dad's a lifesaver and sorted me out a temporary one to get me through the tour, huge thanks to him!
Eden's Curse were up first and damn it this band are awesome!!! http://www.myspace.com/edenscurse Check them out, they entertained the hell out of us on that tour, brilliant band! We had a slight fit of giggles when the singer announced 'This song is called Don't...' at which point he paused and without thinking both me and Kirsty sang 'stop believing'. Funnily enough that wasn't the song but it amused us nonetheless.
Then came Firewind who played:
Head Up High
Tyranny
Destination Forever
Angels forgive me
Mercenary Man
Losing my faith or Days of no trust
I am the anger
Maniac
Falling to pieces
It was really good hearing them play a wide mix from across all four albums, they put on an amazing performance, and Petros' dancing to Maniac was definitely a highlight
Bob had on his 'iBob Kats' t-shirt, Apollo's hair has grown and is still 'Sexy New Haircut!!!' Gus's trousers were far too tight and Mark's shorts were, er... distracting
Losing Faith (or Days of no trust depending on which gig you went to...) was a song off their forthcoming album and if this song is anything to go by the new album is going to be unbelievably epic!!! By the end of the tour me and Kirsty were singing along and loving it all the more!
I left Kirsty down the front to watch Stratovarius whilst I went and had a rather surreal moment chatting to Eden's Curse, finding out they have a song about Robert the Bruce, who is my ancestor, pointing this out to them and suddenly having the band wanting pictures with me. I love it when this stuff happens.
After the gig we all head back to the hotel, me and Kirsty won by proving it did take a hell of a lot less time for us to walk it than it did Firewind to drive it. So having discovered we're in the same hotel, Mark and Schrottie (drum tech) invite us down to the bar for some more drinking (for them and Kirsty, I just watched with amusement). We'd been in the bar less than ten minutes when a fight erupted in the reception with Mark and Schrottie went and dealt with (this is becoming a theme of Wolverhampton). The night then progressed as expected with lots of drunkenness and laughter and me trying (and failing) to translate when Mark and Schrottie descended into German. The boys even managed to get the bartender to re-open the bar after he'd shut it in order to give them some lethal smelling rum drinks!! Needless to say the boys felt a little rough the next morning... I head off to bed at about 2:30am, Kirsty turned up at 3am, opened the door, whispered goodbye to Schrottie (in an attempt to not wake me up) before slamming the door closed then giggling at the top of her voice. Needless to say I was awake, but amused by her drunken antics
So, on to Nottingham. This venue was rather smaller than Wolves and it was packed. The audience took a while to warm up but when they did they were great. All the bands upped the ante from the previous gig and this seemed to be the theme of the tour, each night topped the last! Except Manchester of course but we'll come to that later. As for Nottingham, the weather showed just had pernickety England can be by absolutely pouring it down with rain and then being beautifully sunny five minutes later. Yet the fans were still out with a force and the gig was still a success!
After Nottingham we drove home and then went to Glasgow the next day. I would like to point out some technical travel terminology here. First, we quested to Wolverhampton, then we quested to Nottingham, then we... nommed to Glasgow (it's a technical term), then we quested to London (and we made up a lovely song about it... Well not so much made up as took the Cabin Fever song from Muppet Treasure Island and changed the words to 'We were questing, questing, the wind was on our side... and then it died!), and finally we mobbed to Manchester. And here we raised an interesting point. You always hear about 'angry mobs' but you never hear about 'calm mobs' so we were wondering whether it was possible to mob calmly, and if so, can we get a calm mob going at a future Firewind gig... Only time will tell
So Glasgow. I'd like to point out to anyone who lives in Scotland that YOU RUINED MY HERITAGE!!! I'm from Yorkshire, we invented Yorkshire puddings, they're made from batter, at what point did you decide that Yorkshire puddings are made from pastry? That's not a Yorkshire pudding, that's an empty pie!!! Okay rant over, but I'm very upset about this, I was all looking forward to my Yorkshire Puddings and then I got an empty pie however the chocolate cake was very delicious!
Back to the important bits though, Firewind joined in the bad travel karma by blowing a tyre on the motorway. Greg, being the awesome guy that he is, managed to not crash the van and they made it around the rest of the tour safe and sound. Round of applause to Greg everyone please.
So the gig, like I said, each gig topped the last one and Glasgow was no exception. Eden's Curse gave the show a brilliant kick off by changing their set list to include the Robert The Bruce inspired songs: The Bruce and The Fallen King. Both brilliant songs and the fans seemed to like the Scottish theme. They also ended their set with 'We All Die Young' by Steel Dragon. Damn near made my night that did!
Then came Firewind. Unfortunately due to some cock-ups (not the bands fault) they had to cut their set, so no 'Falling to Pieces' which was disappointing, but a brilliant set anyway! Made all the more fun by Apollo singing our '118 118' lyrics and more of Petros' amazing dancing! All in all a very enjoyable night. We also got to meet Mark, one of our amazing street teamers!! Great to meet you Mark! And Kirsty had the brilliant moment of someone going up to her and saying 'You're Epic Kirsty right!!!' She said yes, to which he then pointed at Mark Cross and said 'Isn't he in Firewind?' Gotta love it when you're more famous than the band
So the next day down to London, delightful 4 ½ hour train. During this tour there had been quite a bit of sitting around doing nothing, and this is a bad thing when me and Kirsty are together. The result of some of this time was me and Kirsty re-writing Agadoo with an animal theme. Observe:
A-genu-nu-nu, push a lion at the zoo,
A-genu-nu-nu, put a zebra on the roof,
To the left, to the right, chase a monkey up a tree,
Throw an ant down a hill, grab an Aardvark paint it green.
And this was before we'd had any alcohol or energy drinks... This last part was rectified in London where we found Monster, and a high level of hyperness ensued. We also changed the lyrics of Eden's Curse' 'Just like Judas' to Just like Judith'...
Again, amazing gig! Eden's Curse were on top form despite some sound issues, as were Firewind, despite some more sound issues. Again Apollo sang 118 and the crowd seemed to like it.
You might have noticed that I haven't spoken about Stratovarius. I don't really know much of their stuff, and although I did watch a few songs of their set every night, I didn't stick around long enough to really say anything. All I'll say is that they're brilliant performers and certainly know how to put on a good show. They're tunes are catchy, I was even singing 'Hunting High and Low' by the end, but I'll leave it Kirsty to properly comment on them.
At London we met the infamous Doogie White from Rainbow, hilarious man, told us some 'interesting' stories and signed a lovely sheet for my dad hehe. We also met Stratovarius finally. The lovely Hannah and Andy were there, they'd won meet and greets and whilst we were chatting them they were chatting to Stratovarius and so we got chatting to them too, lovely guys!
AND WE FINALLY GOT TO DO SOME STREET TEAMING!! Century Media sent us some lovely stickers (if you want some let me know I may be able to send you some). So yes, on the last two dates we got to be incredibly hyper and run around handing out a load of Firewind stickers. Hurray!!! (There may be slight sarcasm here, the stickers were rather disappointing. We have been reassured that from now on the band are going to sort out what we ask for so in future, our teaming shall be epic!).
A very important lesson was learned in London. Never leave chocolate brownies in the bands dressing room!!! They weren't there when we went back Another interesting thing we learnt was that apparently most of England thinks Bob and Paul play fish. That's right, people kept asking them if they play bass... pronounced as in the fish, not the instrument. So just to put your minds at ease, yes, both Bob and Paul are expert fish players!
Oh and all soundchecks need more cowbell!
(This is turning out to be a lot bloody longer than I'd thought, but only one more gig to go)
Manchester! Oh you pit of fail! Seriously, this venue proved once again that Yorkshire kicks Lancashire's ass! This would never have happened in Leeds!!!
So, it's a stupid venue, it's vile and unclean and the roof is held up by scaffolding and it's all bad. Add to this that they had to rent a PA. And they couldn't do any soundchecking until 6pm. So all the bands spend all day waiting around, and at 6pm they discover that half the PA isn't working. 7:30 arrives, doors are supposed to be open. PA still not working. By the time the doors open at 8pm, it's still not all working, none of the bands have had any real soundcheck, none of the monitors are working, and what sound is working is diabolical!!! nevertheless all three bands went out there and gave it their all (except the Eden's Curse singer who had a slight strop, but it was understandable under the circumstances). So despite the disgusting sound it was still an enjoyable gig. Eden's curse had to cut a few songs. Firewind had to cut Tyranny, I am the Anger and Maniac which made us very unhappy children indeed. But the energy those boys gave out during their performance was extremely commendable. They gave it their all and made sure their fans had a brilliant time anyway and if the amount of booing that occurred when they said that was all they had time for is anything to go by, the band more than made up for the crap PA.
To finish the theme of bad karma, Kirsty's bus had also got a flat tyre, but she got there anyway, despite a delay. Sainsbury's failed by only having Relentless, no Monster in Manchester. Schrottie scared the hell out of me by moving my bag which had my house keys, my car keys, my sat nav, my radio cover etc in it, causing me to think it had been loaded out and was on it's way to Dublin. Thankfully we found it and although I appreciate Schrottie was only trying to help, bless him, seriously, I did almost have a heart attack! Hehe
During Stratovarius' set, me Kirsty and most of Firewind and Eden's Curse went to a take away where Gus did an amazing impression of the guy from Spinal Tap (my amps go up to 11... video to follow). We met BoB3rt and Lauren again, great to see you guys, I apologise once again for not remembering you, honestly my memory's rubbish.
Afterwards we were chatting with two of the Strato boys (Kirsty help me out with their names) who were getting progressively drunker. One of them (Jens I think) regaled us with lovely tales of Japanese porn involving baby eels. The other one ended up leaning on Zoe, then draped over her, then falling on her, eventually he fell to the floor in his drunken state, dragging Zoe with him. Bless. Zoe and Jens helped him up by grabbing an arm each. Kirsty decided to 'help' by going 'I'll get this end' and grabbing his ass. Well done Kirsty, seriously, well done girl.
So, in conclusion, one hell of an epic tour. By the end we were exhausted but so amazingly happy. I'm still gutted I couldn't go to Dublin, but honestly, I had such a great time! Thank you to all the Firewind boys, and Greg and Zoe and Eden's Curse and Stratovarius and all the crew that we got to know!!!!
Keep your eyes open for news about Firewind's upcoming album, it won't be out until early 2010 but we'll keep you updated as much as we can at every stage!
Also if you're interested in joining the street team and getting involved with promoting the band (seriously guys, stickers!!!) then go to http://www.myspace.com/firewindfans There's a blog there that tells you all you need to know.
Pictures to follow....
So we started out on Friday 15th May in Wolverhampton. Now as most of you know, Kirsty set up the UK Firewind fansite, and I'm running the UK Firewind Street Team. I'd requested lots of lovely promotional material so we could promote the hell out of our boys. Result: Century Media failed epically and we had nothing to do for the first three days. So we generally hung around, had a laugh, watched some amazing gigs and tried to get people to sign up for the newsletter (with some success I might add). We also met the lovely Zoe who was in charge of lighting and pretty much seemed to adopt us for the entire tour, we love that girl!!
So Wolverhampton: Started off by me being terrified having to drive a stupidly large car after crashing my own two days before the tour, but my Dad's a lifesaver and sorted me out a temporary one to get me through the tour, huge thanks to him!
Eden's Curse were up first and damn it this band are awesome!!! http://www.myspace.com/edenscurse Check them out, they entertained the hell out of us on that tour, brilliant band! We had a slight fit of giggles when the singer announced 'This song is called Don't...' at which point he paused and without thinking both me and Kirsty sang 'stop believing'. Funnily enough that wasn't the song but it amused us nonetheless.
Then came Firewind who played:
Head Up High
Tyranny
Destination Forever
Angels forgive me
Mercenary Man
Losing my faith or Days of no trust
I am the anger
Maniac
Falling to pieces
It was really good hearing them play a wide mix from across all four albums, they put on an amazing performance, and Petros' dancing to Maniac was definitely a highlight
Bob had on his 'iBob Kats' t-shirt, Apollo's hair has grown and is still 'Sexy New Haircut!!!' Gus's trousers were far too tight and Mark's shorts were, er... distracting Losing Faith (or Days of no trust depending on which gig you went to...) was a song off their forthcoming album and if this song is anything to go by the new album is going to be unbelievably epic!!! By the end of the tour me and Kirsty were singing along and loving it all the more!
I left Kirsty down the front to watch Stratovarius whilst I went and had a rather surreal moment chatting to Eden's Curse, finding out they have a song about Robert the Bruce, who is my ancestor, pointing this out to them and suddenly having the band wanting pictures with me. I love it when this stuff happens.
After the gig we all head back to the hotel, me and Kirsty won by proving it did take a hell of a lot less time for us to walk it than it did Firewind to drive it. So having discovered we're in the same hotel, Mark and Schrottie (drum tech) invite us down to the bar for some more drinking (for them and Kirsty, I just watched with amusement). We'd been in the bar less than ten minutes when a fight erupted in the reception with Mark and Schrottie went and dealt with (this is becoming a theme of Wolverhampton). The night then progressed as expected with lots of drunkenness and laughter and me trying (and failing) to translate when Mark and Schrottie descended into German. The boys even managed to get the bartender to re-open the bar after he'd shut it in order to give them some lethal smelling rum drinks!! Needless to say the boys felt a little rough the next morning... I head off to bed at about 2:30am, Kirsty turned up at 3am, opened the door, whispered goodbye to Schrottie (in an attempt to not wake me up) before slamming the door closed then giggling at the top of her voice. Needless to say I was awake, but amused by her drunken antics
So, on to Nottingham. This venue was rather smaller than Wolves and it was packed. The audience took a while to warm up but when they did they were great. All the bands upped the ante from the previous gig and this seemed to be the theme of the tour, each night topped the last! Except Manchester of course but we'll come to that later. As for Nottingham, the weather showed just had pernickety England can be by absolutely pouring it down with rain and then being beautifully sunny five minutes later. Yet the fans were still out with a force and the gig was still a success!
After Nottingham we drove home and then went to Glasgow the next day. I would like to point out some technical travel terminology here. First, we quested to Wolverhampton, then we quested to Nottingham, then we... nommed to Glasgow (it's a technical term), then we quested to London (and we made up a lovely song about it... Well not so much made up as took the Cabin Fever song from Muppet Treasure Island and changed the words to 'We were questing, questing, the wind was on our side... and then it died!), and finally we mobbed to Manchester. And here we raised an interesting point. You always hear about 'angry mobs' but you never hear about 'calm mobs' so we were wondering whether it was possible to mob calmly, and if so, can we get a calm mob going at a future Firewind gig... Only time will tell
So Glasgow. I'd like to point out to anyone who lives in Scotland that YOU RUINED MY HERITAGE!!! I'm from Yorkshire, we invented Yorkshire puddings, they're made from batter, at what point did you decide that Yorkshire puddings are made from pastry? That's not a Yorkshire pudding, that's an empty pie!!! Okay rant over, but I'm very upset about this, I was all looking forward to my Yorkshire Puddings and then I got an empty pie
however the chocolate cake was very delicious!Back to the important bits though, Firewind joined in the bad travel karma by blowing a tyre on the motorway. Greg, being the awesome guy that he is, managed to not crash the van and they made it around the rest of the tour safe and sound. Round of applause to Greg everyone please.
So the gig, like I said, each gig topped the last one and Glasgow was no exception. Eden's Curse gave the show a brilliant kick off by changing their set list to include the Robert The Bruce inspired songs: The Bruce and The Fallen King. Both brilliant songs and the fans seemed to like the Scottish theme. They also ended their set with 'We All Die Young' by Steel Dragon. Damn near made my night that did!
Then came Firewind. Unfortunately due to some cock-ups (not the bands fault) they had to cut their set, so no 'Falling to Pieces' which was disappointing, but a brilliant set anyway! Made all the more fun by Apollo singing our '118 118' lyrics and more of Petros' amazing dancing! All in all a very enjoyable night. We also got to meet Mark, one of our amazing street teamers!! Great to meet you Mark! And Kirsty had the brilliant moment of someone going up to her and saying 'You're Epic Kirsty right!!!' She said yes, to which he then pointed at Mark Cross and said 'Isn't he in Firewind?' Gotta love it when you're more famous than the band
So the next day down to London, delightful 4 ½ hour train. During this tour there had been quite a bit of sitting around doing nothing, and this is a bad thing when me and Kirsty are together. The result of some of this time was me and Kirsty re-writing Agadoo with an animal theme. Observe:
A-genu-nu-nu, push a lion at the zoo,
A-genu-nu-nu, put a zebra on the roof,
To the left, to the right, chase a monkey up a tree,
Throw an ant down a hill, grab an Aardvark paint it green.
And this was before we'd had any alcohol or energy drinks... This last part was rectified in London where we found Monster, and a high level of hyperness ensued. We also changed the lyrics of Eden's Curse' 'Just like Judas' to Just like Judith'...
Again, amazing gig! Eden's Curse were on top form despite some sound issues, as were Firewind, despite some more sound issues. Again Apollo sang 118 and the crowd seemed to like it.
You might have noticed that I haven't spoken about Stratovarius. I don't really know much of their stuff, and although I did watch a few songs of their set every night, I didn't stick around long enough to really say anything. All I'll say is that they're brilliant performers and certainly know how to put on a good show. They're tunes are catchy, I was even singing 'Hunting High and Low' by the end, but I'll leave it Kirsty to properly comment on them.
At London we met the infamous Doogie White from Rainbow, hilarious man, told us some 'interesting' stories and signed a lovely sheet for my dad hehe. We also met Stratovarius finally. The lovely Hannah and Andy were there, they'd won meet and greets and whilst we were chatting them they were chatting to Stratovarius and so we got chatting to them too, lovely guys!
AND WE FINALLY GOT TO DO SOME STREET TEAMING!! Century Media sent us some lovely stickers (if you want some let me know I may be able to send you some). So yes, on the last two dates we got to be incredibly hyper and run around handing out a load of Firewind stickers. Hurray!!! (There may be slight sarcasm here, the stickers were rather disappointing. We have been reassured that from now on the band are going to sort out what we ask for so in future, our teaming shall be epic!).
A very important lesson was learned in London. Never leave chocolate brownies in the bands dressing room!!! They weren't there when we went back
Another interesting thing we learnt was that apparently most of England thinks Bob and Paul play fish. That's right, people kept asking them if they play bass... pronounced as in the fish, not the instrument. So just to put your minds at ease, yes, both Bob and Paul are expert fish players!Oh and all soundchecks need more cowbell!
(This is turning out to be a lot bloody longer than I'd thought, but only one more gig to go)
Manchester! Oh you pit of fail! Seriously, this venue proved once again that Yorkshire kicks Lancashire's ass! This would never have happened in Leeds!!!
So, it's a stupid venue, it's vile and unclean and the roof is held up by scaffolding and it's all bad. Add to this that they had to rent a PA. And they couldn't do any soundchecking until 6pm. So all the bands spend all day waiting around, and at 6pm they discover that half the PA isn't working. 7:30 arrives, doors are supposed to be open. PA still not working. By the time the doors open at 8pm, it's still not all working, none of the bands have had any real soundcheck, none of the monitors are working, and what sound is working is diabolical!!! nevertheless all three bands went out there and gave it their all (except the Eden's Curse singer who had a slight strop, but it was understandable under the circumstances). So despite the disgusting sound it was still an enjoyable gig. Eden's curse had to cut a few songs. Firewind had to cut Tyranny, I am the Anger and Maniac which made us very unhappy children indeed. But the energy those boys gave out during their performance was extremely commendable. They gave it their all and made sure their fans had a brilliant time anyway and if the amount of booing that occurred when they said that was all they had time for is anything to go by, the band more than made up for the crap PA.
To finish the theme of bad karma, Kirsty's bus had also got a flat tyre, but she got there anyway, despite a delay. Sainsbury's failed by only having Relentless, no Monster in Manchester. Schrottie scared the hell out of me by moving my bag which had my house keys, my car keys, my sat nav, my radio cover etc in it, causing me to think it had been loaded out and was on it's way to Dublin. Thankfully we found it and although I appreciate Schrottie was only trying to help, bless him, seriously, I did almost have a heart attack! Hehe
During Stratovarius' set, me Kirsty and most of Firewind and Eden's Curse went to a take away where Gus did an amazing impression of the guy from Spinal Tap (my amps go up to 11... video to follow). We met BoB3rt and Lauren again, great to see you guys, I apologise once again for not remembering you, honestly my memory's rubbish.
Afterwards we were chatting with two of the Strato boys (Kirsty help me out with their names) who were getting progressively drunker. One of them (Jens I think) regaled us with lovely tales of Japanese porn involving baby eels. The other one ended up leaning on Zoe, then draped over her, then falling on her, eventually he fell to the floor in his drunken state, dragging Zoe with him. Bless. Zoe and Jens helped him up by grabbing an arm each. Kirsty decided to 'help' by going 'I'll get this end' and grabbing his ass. Well done Kirsty, seriously, well done girl.
So, in conclusion, one hell of an epic tour. By the end we were exhausted but so amazingly happy. I'm still gutted I couldn't go to Dublin, but honestly, I had such a great time! Thank you to all the Firewind boys, and Greg and Zoe and Eden's Curse and Stratovarius and all the crew that we got to know!!!!
Keep your eyes open for news about Firewind's upcoming album, it won't be out until early 2010 but we'll keep you updated as much as we can at every stage!
Also if you're interested in joining the street team and getting involved with promoting the band (seriously guys, stickers!!!) then go to http://www.myspace.com/firewindfans There's a blog there that tells you all you need to know.
Pictures to follow....
) during Mercenary Man. One thing I found amusing was the way that Gus seemed to have one half of the stage to himself while everyone else (except the drummer obviously) was crammed on the other side. This often seems to happen when a band is formed and led by a virtuoso guitarist. I saw much the same thing when I saw Michael Schenker a couple of years ago. Of course Gus doesn't come across as a megalomaniac nutcase who hires and fires people on a whim (we'd have heard a few horror stories by now if he was). And Apollo did venture over to Gus's side once or twice, as I recall. 
