PARADISE LOST, Outshine, King Goat, Rescue rooms, Nottingham, 18-2-18

Β For this one, i took a much later train to Nottingham. This way i could take my mum out for lunch before going ;-)(Ok, technically, she took me out as i cant’t drive now, but i did pay for lunch πŸ˜‰ )
My train left Bostonia at 14.45 & was due to arrive Nottingham at 16.17. Train journey went well, with no hold ups. First thing i did once i arrived was to visit WH Smiths ! Why ? Because i couldn’t get the issue of Classic Rock Magazine “She Rocks”, locally, which has skin (Skunk Anansie) on the cover . Was pretty sure they’d have it in Nottingham. Managed to get it in the nick of time as store was closing at 16.30.Β 

Job done, carry on walking to my hotel. Once again i’m staying at Premier Inn as i booked a few stays there cos the price was so cheap. Once checked in, i just hung around at my hotel to relax. Doors tonight had been put forward by 30mins, so that worked for me. I’d tried phoning Rescue Rooms with regard to having a stool, but it always ended up going to the answerphone & the mailbox was full, so I couldn’t leave a msg.
Once i got to Rescue Rooms i had a chat with the lass on the doors & said that i can never get through on the phone etc. She then told me the reason for this, which i wasn’t expecting….it seems that both Rescue Rooms & Rock City have had a change of staff/security. Apparently, the ones that left Rescue Rooms didn’t tell the other people what the passwords were for the answerphone mailbox etc !! If that is true, then i’m sure the people were not very happy bunnies & did it deliberately πŸ˜‰ So the next time i go RR i wont bother phoning…The lass asked one of the security to find me a stool & when he came back, he walked me up to the balcony. Got the prime position again πŸ™‚
I wasn’t aware that there were two opening acts before earlier today. Both of them i’d never heard of. So i was already thinking “…hope they finish quickly as i’m only here for Paradise Lost!”.
The first band “King Goat” were pretty dire. The singer wore a huge coat/cloak & couldn’t even see his face it was that black. The band didn’t play anything that i liked.
Next it was “Outshine”. Now i actually quite liked them. Their from Sweden & i liked what they played. It was really a good show. So much so, i’ll probably buy the new CD.
I was really looking forward to seeing Paradise Lost again as i hadn’t seen them since around 2009 (At Columbiaclub, Berlin). From memory, Nick Holmes could be a bit of a grumpy old bloke & had a very dry wit about him, so i was wondering how he’d be tonight πŸ˜‰
They kicked off with ” From The Gallows ” which is from the yet to be released album “Medusa”. It’s a typical dark sounding Paradise Lost song. Next we get “Tragic Idol” which dates back to around 2012. I really nice chunky guitar sound on this one. Then 3 songs in, they play some thing i really know “One Second”. This to me, is classic Paradise Lost. Unfortunately though, there were sound problems during this one. It sounded like there was some kind of a loose connection somewhere as there were “crackles” happening a few times.

“Gods Of Ancient” is another one off “Medusa”. Heavy as fuck & what i can only describe as “growling” vocals.
They seem to play a lot of new songs tonight & older stuff that i don’t really know tbh !Β 
If i’m honest, as the night went along, i kinda got a bit bored with it all. I dunno, maybe as the last shows i’d seen were all high enery stuff (Marmozets) Paradise Lost probably wasn’t a very good choice to see after those Marmozets gigs !
When it came to the encore time, there was one song i was really hoping to hear, namely “Just Say Words”. But they didn’t play it πŸ™
After looking online to see the setlists at other venues, it seemed they generally finished with “No Hope In Sight”, “The Longest Winter”, then “Just Say Words”. I’m left wondering why they didn’t play it on this night as it’s a great song.

 

Guano Apes,Paradise Lost, H-Bloxx, Clawfinger, etc @ Ringfest, Cologne , Germany 17-8-02

00443Β 

This was a very cool day. Bands were playing on various stages around Cologne, on the streets ! Backstage, i had Nik Holmes (Paradise Lost) comment on my old Ozzy t-shirt (from 1982) & he was mildly surprised to see someone from the UK πŸ˜‰ I filmed Guanos set & also the end jam (which they didn’t take part in ;-( ) GAs set was recorded in 5:1 suround sound, but it’s never seen the light of day. Afterwards, i went back to their hotel & Henning played me a new song “Quietly” which was fantastic. Then it was onto the aftershow party on a boat…though i didn’t stay there long.

Garbage, Alanis Morissette, Amanda Marshall, Bryan Adams, Faithless, Furslide, Heather Nova, Kula Shaker, Lauryn Hill, Liquido,Manic Street Preachers, Paradise Lost,Reef, Robbie Williams,Skunk Anansie, Slut, Stereophonics,Suede,Ultrasound,Dan, @ Rock Am ring festival,Nurbugring,Germany 21-5-99

00374Garbage old skool page #0

 

3 days of rock in Germany. Some brilliant acts & some no so brilliant haha. We went on a bus trip with accommodation also provided a few miles away from festival. This was my first festival abroad since going to Germany in 1984. Things have changed some what πŸ˜‰ We queued for something silly like 12hours to get front row for Garbage. They played in a massive (15,000 capacity??) tent. It got so hot in there that there was moisture coming down the tent. Eeeewww! We had some trouble with a girl trying to push her way into front row….until she tried it with Mel & got a good kicking & words to the effect of “Fuck off you German Bitch” lol. Nowadays, the festival is so big that the “Alterna Tent” moved from a tent to a proper (big) open air stage. We were lucky to go to the festival before it got too big. I think Mel also did a bungee jump at this show. Oh yeah, we knew Rurik from the UK dates & i said to the others ,”I bet you i can find him”. Sure enough, i saw him walk by & we met up !

Rock am Ring 1999 page #0