PP Scan origin?
- Thread starter MetalAges
- Start date
...and I am pretty sure that the story will come at some point. Right now, we are extremely busy, trying to make everything fall into place, so please bear with us, untill Claus and I have the time/energy to write the story.
Lars
Intromental
Lars
Intromental
Kenneth R.
Cináed
Tess
Member
Claus / Intromental
20 years of uniting the powers of metal
The beginning:
The idea to create a ProgPower Scandinavia came a couple of years ago, after having visited both the original ProgPower festival in Holland and the ProgPower USA several times. We believed (and still believe) that this concept is exactly what would define a festival where we’d like our bands on the management to play on, meaning that these are the genres that we are working with daily on Intromental. As a matter of fact, the three ProgPower festivals (the 2 mentioned before as well as the one in UK) have been very kind to Intromental and our bands over the years, and we appreciate that a lot!
We have talked for several years about creating some kind of festival here in Denmark, without having to begin by booking all the usual bands which always ends up on the same festivals each summer here in Europe, and as we of course didn’t want it to become an “Intromental-bands-only festival”, we seriously began the brainstorm on the concept of this new festival back in November 2005.
A well-cooked dinner with a fine Chianti + a couple of Carlsberg beers (hmmm … it might have been a lot of beers come to think of it) and we were having a very interesting evening at the Intromental office with tons of ideas.
The ideas were put a bit on hold, as we were very busy with a lot of things at that point, but it changed a bit after we visited the ProgPowerUK in March 2006. We saw with our own eyes that yet another ProgPower had succesfully seen the light of day, and we simply decided that it must be about time someone did something about the Scandinavian countries and the introduction of this fantastic concept to the northerners. Another dinner was prepared, this time at Lars’ place, and this time with Amarone (and the usual stack of Carlsberg), and we began defining a lot of the stuff we wanted as rules and regulations for this festival.
So, we needed the permission to go on with the ProgPower Scandinavia name, and therefore an official request to Rene at ProgPower Europe was sent about the possibility of using the name, since it’s his trademark, and we wouldn’t want to infringe on that.
At the same time, we were having talks with several venues here in Copenhagen, and it turned out that we decided about The Rock, as it seemed like the right place for this kind of thing. What made us choose this venue was, in the end, that they actually had held their 1st real heavy metal festival in the beginning of February 2007, and according to the promoter of the venue, everything went fine. Besides, The Rock is located exactly in the center of Copenhagen – the Danish capitol – with lots of hotels close-by … not an unimportant fact
So that left us no doubt that the venue would be able to provide the perfect location for such a festival.
Time to choose bands:
After having the “go” for the PP name from Rene and Glenn, we began putting the bands into the schedule. We decided from the beginning that we’d keep the spirit of booking bands that we actually like ourselves, with the possibility of adding a few out of our own taste, as long as they would fall under the Prog or Power category.
The first 4 names we announced were: Mercenary, Threshold, Circus Maximus and Andromeda.
Friday’s headliner, Mercenary, was an easy choice as they by far is the biggest current Danish band within this style of music, and have a great audience pull among the locals here. Besides, we all really like the music and the guys in the band.
As co-headliner for Friday we chose Threshold from the UK, a band that especially Claus is a huge fan of. Since their latest album “Dead Reckoning” is a real prog-metal killer, it was not a difficult choice in any way to get them booked. And now, with their original singer Damien Wilson back in the fold, it’ll just be even more exciting to have them perform at PP Scandinavia.
Circus Maximus is one of the two Intromental bands we have on the programme, and it goes without saying that we totally knows what qualities this band has. Besides being brilliant on album, and a great live band (which both fans from ProgPower USA and ProgPower Europe can agree to), they are also damn nice people, and fun to hang out with. We probably just need to hide the beers, hehe.
Andromeda was chosen, not just because they are one of Sweden’s best progressive metal bands on albums, but also because they did a tour with one of our own bands (Manticora) a year ago, and when that tour was over, all the guys in Manticora came to tell us how incredible Andromeda is live. Better recommendation we didn’t need …
The next 2 bands we announced were: Darkane and Machine Men.
Darkane is the “odd-band” on the bill, and to be honest we were a bit hesitant about whether or not they’d fit the line-up. However, we’ve seen the band live before (at The Rock actually – 2 years ago) and they have an energy on stage that’s practically unmatchable within the metal scene. With their high-octane Gothenburg-style melodic death metal with progressive twists here and there, they’ll be a welcomed addition to the PP Scandinavia roster, and especially Lars is looking very much forward to this concert ;-)
Machine Men is one of the newer bands on the power metal scene, but their mixture of Iron Maiden’esque old school heavy and more modern power makes them a force to be reckoned with, and a band that in a few years should be one of the big names on the scene. We’re really happy to be the first of the PP festivals to bring Machine Men to the stage.
With Eldritch and Spheric Universe Experience we could then announce the next 2 bands.
Eldritch was chosen simply because this is one of those bands that meant a lot to us back in the mid-nineties when the whole progressive metal scene was in bloom. With their brilliant 3 first discs, Eldritch carved themselves a name as the best Italien prog-metal act, and over the years they’ve evolved into an interesting mixture of prog and thrash metal. It’ll be so much fun to finally see one of the “legends” within this style roaming a Danish stage.
Spheric Universe Experience is the other Intromental band chosen for ProgPower Scandinavia (which reminds us to mention that it’s damn tough to chose only 2 of your own bands for such a festival, arghhhh), and we’re really happy to get these French guys up here. Their latest disc, “Anima” is a really wonderful prog-metal album, and should easily appeal to fans of Dream Theater and Symphony X.
The last two bands were announced in May 2007 – they were Firewind and Orphaned Land.
Firewind was chosen because of several reasons; one being that they have experienced really great success all over with their latest album “Allegiance”, second being that we really felt we needed a melodic power metal band to weigh out on the progressive stuff we already had booked for the festival, and thirdly because the band has one of the very best guitarists in the world fronting the band, Gus G. Which festival wouldn’t want a true guitar hero on their stage? Right! Oh, and although rumours has it that vocalist Apollo won’t be available for the show, we have it from the bands booking agent that he WILL be here!
Our headliner from Saturday, Orphaned Land, was the last band announced, but actually one of the very first we wanted to pursue, as they undoubtedly are among the most interesting bands on the entire music scene out there. Their original blend of all-things-music (not just metal) makes them “progressive” in the true sense of that word. When they last played in Denmark, they completely devastated the place with their incredible show, and we see no reason why the same thing shouldn’t happen this time.
To conclude:
There will of course be people complaining about the line-up of bands we’ve chosen, but then again, it’s not their money on the line, and it’s not them who have to go through contacting booking agents all over the world to put such a festival together. So if people want to complain, they are welcome to do so – we are very happy with the line-up, and that’s actually what matters. Now let’s see if people will show up, ha ha.
We are very keen on not trying to make a copy of any of the other 3 festivals, as we believe all these festivals should grow and have their own life, with only the name and the very close community tying us all together.
So, with all that said, bookmark www.progpowerscandinavia.com and keep coming back for more, and we promise to deliver high-quality bands to you all for the next many years.
Claus, Lars, Mads, Martin, Benjamin & Rene
Intromental Management / ProgPower Scandinavia
The idea to create a ProgPower Scandinavia came a couple of years ago, after having visited both the original ProgPower festival in Holland and the ProgPower USA several times. We believed (and still believe) that this concept is exactly what would define a festival where we’d like our bands on the management to play on, meaning that these are the genres that we are working with daily on Intromental. As a matter of fact, the three ProgPower festivals (the 2 mentioned before as well as the one in UK) have been very kind to Intromental and our bands over the years, and we appreciate that a lot!
We have talked for several years about creating some kind of festival here in Denmark, without having to begin by booking all the usual bands which always ends up on the same festivals each summer here in Europe, and as we of course didn’t want it to become an “Intromental-bands-only festival”, we seriously began the brainstorm on the concept of this new festival back in November 2005.
A well-cooked dinner with a fine Chianti + a couple of Carlsberg beers (hmmm … it might have been a lot of beers come to think of it) and we were having a very interesting evening at the Intromental office with tons of ideas.
The ideas were put a bit on hold, as we were very busy with a lot of things at that point, but it changed a bit after we visited the ProgPowerUK in March 2006. We saw with our own eyes that yet another ProgPower had succesfully seen the light of day, and we simply decided that it must be about time someone did something about the Scandinavian countries and the introduction of this fantastic concept to the northerners. Another dinner was prepared, this time at Lars’ place, and this time with Amarone (and the usual stack of Carlsberg), and we began defining a lot of the stuff we wanted as rules and regulations for this festival.
So, we needed the permission to go on with the ProgPower Scandinavia name, and therefore an official request to Rene at ProgPower Europe was sent about the possibility of using the name, since it’s his trademark, and we wouldn’t want to infringe on that.
At the same time, we were having talks with several venues here in Copenhagen, and it turned out that we decided about The Rock, as it seemed like the right place for this kind of thing. What made us choose this venue was, in the end, that they actually had held their 1st real heavy metal festival in the beginning of February 2007, and according to the promoter of the venue, everything went fine. Besides, The Rock is located exactly in the center of Copenhagen – the Danish capitol – with lots of hotels close-by … not an unimportant fact
So that left us no doubt that the venue would be able to provide the perfect location for such a festival. Time to choose bands:
After having the “go” for the PP name from Rene and Glenn, we began putting the bands into the schedule. We decided from the beginning that we’d keep the spirit of booking bands that we actually like ourselves, with the possibility of adding a few out of our own taste, as long as they would fall under the Prog or Power category.
The first 4 names we announced were: Mercenary, Threshold, Circus Maximus and Andromeda.
Friday’s headliner, Mercenary, was an easy choice as they by far is the biggest current Danish band within this style of music, and have a great audience pull among the locals here. Besides, we all really like the music and the guys in the band.
As co-headliner for Friday we chose Threshold from the UK, a band that especially Claus is a huge fan of. Since their latest album “Dead Reckoning” is a real prog-metal killer, it was not a difficult choice in any way to get them booked. And now, with their original singer Damien Wilson back in the fold, it’ll just be even more exciting to have them perform at PP Scandinavia.
Circus Maximus is one of the two Intromental bands we have on the programme, and it goes without saying that we totally knows what qualities this band has. Besides being brilliant on album, and a great live band (which both fans from ProgPower USA and ProgPower Europe can agree to), they are also damn nice people, and fun to hang out with. We probably just need to hide the beers, hehe.
Andromeda was chosen, not just because they are one of Sweden’s best progressive metal bands on albums, but also because they did a tour with one of our own bands (Manticora) a year ago, and when that tour was over, all the guys in Manticora came to tell us how incredible Andromeda is live. Better recommendation we didn’t need …
The next 2 bands we announced were: Darkane and Machine Men.
Darkane is the “odd-band” on the bill, and to be honest we were a bit hesitant about whether or not they’d fit the line-up. However, we’ve seen the band live before (at The Rock actually – 2 years ago) and they have an energy on stage that’s practically unmatchable within the metal scene. With their high-octane Gothenburg-style melodic death metal with progressive twists here and there, they’ll be a welcomed addition to the PP Scandinavia roster, and especially Lars is looking very much forward to this concert ;-)
Machine Men is one of the newer bands on the power metal scene, but their mixture of Iron Maiden’esque old school heavy and more modern power makes them a force to be reckoned with, and a band that in a few years should be one of the big names on the scene. We’re really happy to be the first of the PP festivals to bring Machine Men to the stage.
With Eldritch and Spheric Universe Experience we could then announce the next 2 bands.
Eldritch was chosen simply because this is one of those bands that meant a lot to us back in the mid-nineties when the whole progressive metal scene was in bloom. With their brilliant 3 first discs, Eldritch carved themselves a name as the best Italien prog-metal act, and over the years they’ve evolved into an interesting mixture of prog and thrash metal. It’ll be so much fun to finally see one of the “legends” within this style roaming a Danish stage.
Spheric Universe Experience is the other Intromental band chosen for ProgPower Scandinavia (which reminds us to mention that it’s damn tough to chose only 2 of your own bands for such a festival, arghhhh), and we’re really happy to get these French guys up here. Their latest disc, “Anima” is a really wonderful prog-metal album, and should easily appeal to fans of Dream Theater and Symphony X.
The last two bands were announced in May 2007 – they were Firewind and Orphaned Land.
Firewind was chosen because of several reasons; one being that they have experienced really great success all over with their latest album “Allegiance”, second being that we really felt we needed a melodic power metal band to weigh out on the progressive stuff we already had booked for the festival, and thirdly because the band has one of the very best guitarists in the world fronting the band, Gus G. Which festival wouldn’t want a true guitar hero on their stage? Right! Oh, and although rumours has it that vocalist Apollo won’t be available for the show, we have it from the bands booking agent that he WILL be here!
Our headliner from Saturday, Orphaned Land, was the last band announced, but actually one of the very first we wanted to pursue, as they undoubtedly are among the most interesting bands on the entire music scene out there. Their original blend of all-things-music (not just metal) makes them “progressive” in the true sense of that word. When they last played in Denmark, they completely devastated the place with their incredible show, and we see no reason why the same thing shouldn’t happen this time.
To conclude:
There will of course be people complaining about the line-up of bands we’ve chosen, but then again, it’s not their money on the line, and it’s not them who have to go through contacting booking agents all over the world to put such a festival together. So if people want to complain, they are welcome to do so – we are very happy with the line-up, and that’s actually what matters. Now let’s see if people will show up, ha ha.
We are very keen on not trying to make a copy of any of the other 3 festivals, as we believe all these festivals should grow and have their own life, with only the name and the very close community tying us all together.
So, with all that said, bookmark www.progpowerscandinavia.com and keep coming back for more, and we promise to deliver high-quality bands to you all for the next many years.
Claus, Lars, Mads, Martin, Benjamin & Rene
Intromental Management / ProgPower Scandinavia
Mosquito
oh noes!!
Aran
Member
Thanks for story Claus.
Sure hope this will turn out just as good as both PPUK's i've been to. Great bands, great atmosphere and a lot of people attending, all with the same purpose, have some beers and listen to great music.
Sure hope this will turn out just as good as both PPUK's i've been to. Great bands, great atmosphere and a lot of people attending, all with the same purpose, have some beers and listen to great music.
Claus / Intromental
20 years of uniting the powers of metal
Claus / Intromental
20 years of uniting the powers of metal
Did you really read it all? Hahaha ...
Did you mention beers? Hehe, I guess I mentioned it once or twice in our "story" as well. We "METAL PEOPLE" are so predictable, right? ;-)
c.
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