Doro Pesch! 25 Years of the Warlock

Not that I like to brag, but Doro Pesch called me this afternoon. I’d missed her at Bloodstock because my phone decided it had better things to do other than work. Nevertheless, here we are on a gloomy November afternoon to have a chat.

“We’ve been going 27 years and it’s the first time you’ve seen us?” asks Doro, as we get straight down to business and talk about the tour. I probably shouldn’t mention the fact that I was born in 1986. “We’ve just come back from Japan, we had an amazing time and it’s such a great place to go and visit. We’ll be about again around Christmas time with Motorhead in Europe, but not England sadly”

The 25th Anniversary show took place in December 2008, in Dusseldorf. The new DVD, 25 Years in Rock hits shelves at the end of the month which includes a three hour concert with guest appearances from someone of the many high-fliers Doro has worked with over the years; “There are so  many of my friends on there who made this night very special for me! I asked Klaus Meine (of Scorpions) if he could do it and he said he’d look in his schedule but I didn’t hear back so I assumed he couldn’t do it. But I was so happy when he said he could! There are so many other great people too, Tarja Turunen, Bobbi Blitz, Warrel Dane. We met him when we toured with Megadeth and Sanctuary in the US back in the 1980s”.

Admitting to having sixteen records over four decades, there is a wealth of material to draw on for live shows, including the experimental albums in the 90s, foraying into experimental and rockier territory. “When we only have a sixty minute festival show, it’s really hard to sometimes pick the ones you want to do, so we go for the really big songs like All We Are and Burning The Witches. We love playing these songs so much, even when we came to England in 1986 on the True As Steel tour and played Castle Donington, we never get tired of playing these songs. And the newer stuff is a lot heavier so we can play that. It’s what most fans want to hear, and we do it for them!” Mentioning the eighties, I bring up the jump of model career to being a metal queen. “That never happened! People keep saying this and it’s on the DVD cover I think too, but I was never a model. No, I started singing when I was three years old and I loved it! I eventually got into a band called Snakebite in 1980 and then I eventually joined Warlock and we got a deal with a Belgian record label to release Burning The Witches. It was very strange, there was no metal press in Germany really. The UK had Kerrang, but the only real thing in Germany was stuff that people were photocopying and handwriting, and it wasn’t until a few years later when in 1986 we suddenly had a succesful album. I was a graphic artist, and told my boss I was quitting and he said I was mad! But that year we went on tour with my favourite band, Judas Priest. It’s all I’ve ever want to do, since I was three!”

“When I first began singing in metal, there was already many women singing in rock and metal bands at the time. My absolute favourite was Jody Turner from Rock Goddess, if you remember them?” Well, I was born in 1986. “Haha, but yes they were great and many others, Lita Ford and Joan Jett. And these days there are many others doing different things like Tarja and Sabina Classen, so it wasn’t really that very different. And obviously Girlschool as well, they came and played at the 25 years show”. Interestingly, Motorhead, who are taking Doro on tour, were the only band that’d take Girlschool on tour, on account of others refusing because of the all-girl lineup. “I’m really looking forward to the tour, really sorry we’re not coming to England! I love the English fans so much and we were here last year with Saxon and we had so much fun. But no, after that we’re going to South America for a tour”.  Any news on a follow-up album? “Well, we’ve started thinking about it. We have a couple of ideas that are floating around and we know what we want…some really heavy songs, then some dark gothic ballads, like what we’ve done before.”

But as for current events, it’s no secret that First Lady of heavy metal is thrilled about her upcoming release. “It’s out November 26th and it has so many great things on. We played for three hours and then there’s a documentary and interviews with some of my great friends saying so many wonderful things. Have you seen it yet? No? Well, you should because it’s really great. I love the artwork as well, it’s by an Englishman who lives in France called [someone tell me his name, I didn’t catch it!] and he did this great artwork for the music. When we did the orchestral album we had a very simple black and white photo that was really suited to the music, but this new cover is just what the music needs!”

So, there we have it folks. Doro Pesch, the undisputed queen of metal is still going strong after nearly thirty years. Look at it this way, you can tour the world and make awesome albums, but a door to door salesman will still come and interrupt your interviews.

Twaddlefish

Wacken Open Air 2009

The following may appear to be a somewhat protracted and ill thought out review, and in many ways it is, but after minutes of deliberation we decided that the best way for you to see if Wacken is for you is to see as many different opinions as possible on it, so here are four peoples seperate reviews of Wacken all mashed into one, and much like peas, whilst seperate reviews are nice on there own, they’re far superior when they’re mushy. I know, my imaginitive literary skills are extraordinary.

Der W

So this was some pretty old German band that me, Harry and Paul caught while harry was trying to get a wacken t shirt and buy me a towel at the official merch stand. Germans seem to know and love them, but if like me you aren’t fortunate enough to have Prussian blood in your veins, they are most likely completely alien to you. Now, I mensioned that they’re old, however they don’t actually sound that dated. Although the start was rather shaky, and there was some pretty obvious last minute level checking going on, once they got going they churned out some pretty damn good rock. Catchy vocals, nice interesting guitar work, energetic performance….these guys would have probably been huge if they were English or American. Plus the decent song writing makes it sound like it could have come from anytime in the past few decades. Solid Stuff. 7/10

Retrospect

I checked this band out because I was in the area, buying a kebab (if there is any reason to go to Wacken, it’s the donner kebabs there. Proper well mixed, good amount of meat and salad, and the thick bread that you can hold the whole thing with and it won’t soak through or break, its good bread and all!). I also feel the need to check out every Asian band I can when I’m at a festival…don’t ask why, I guess I’m a closet weaboo. Anyway, after I finished the kebab, I found the party stage with these feminine Asian guys playing music that was like a heavyer, more hardcore Bullet For My Valentine. They were pretty good to be honest, I’m just glad they were slightly out of the way on the party stage, or some of the more puritanical metalheads present may have bottled them for being so feminine and metalcore or emo or whatever. The singer was proper camp too. They did have some pretty extreme fringes going on. The crowd of people there though loved them, and after their set they even got quite a large chant of “Zu Gabel”, the german encore of the moment. Very tightly played, with some decent instrumental work. The bassist was sick too, and played an awesome 6-string, as well as being the least feminine of the bunch (not saying much I know). 8/10

Walls of Jericho

First hardcore styled band of the festival was always going to be good. From pretty much the get go, Walls was a melee of pits, hardcore dancing and walls of death, and I’m proud to say I was a part of all of these. Until you’ve seen Walls live, you can’t really appreciate what a beast singer Candace Kucsulain really is. With strong arms to put most male frontmen to shame, and a devastating scream, she was probably the best frontperson of the festival. And she started a wicked if not slightly questionable chant of “Fuck!, Fuck!, Fuck!” by the end of which I was pretty much in love with her. The sound was perhaps a little muddy, and quite a lot of subtleties were most likely lost, but at least it worked really well on the breakdowns. And some good breakdowns seemed to be what most people were looking forward to. They played lots of new material too, which all went down a treat. 9/10

Bullet For My Valentine

I was kind of apprehensive about this, as I knew a lot of people were resentful of them being here, them being an “Emo” band or whatever, but watching them you would never have guessed the stigma attached to them. They played a really tight set, with one of the best sounds of the whole festival, and got an incredible reaction, right back to the beer trucks. “Tears don’t fall” was probably the best song, being a guilty pleasure of me and almost everyone I know. It was a weird feeling being there with thousands of people watching a song we all secretly loved but are normally too ashamed to admit, being able to finally let rip. Kind of like a thousand people simultaneously coming out of the closet together. In many ways, seeing Bullet for my Valentine live was the closest I will ever get to participating in a gay pride parade. And having them playing at a festival that’s normally stringently traditionalist only emphasized the feeling. 9/10

Motorhead

For a first time seeing them, it was enjoyable whether or not I will bother next time…still they know how to rock and they know how to roll. A band still worthy of their status. [8/10]

In Flames

Flanked by a stunning light and pyro display the Swedes can always be relied on for a great performance. No great setlist surprises but solid as a rock and tight as a knot. [7/10]

Testament

Testament played a very tight, well eq’ed, energetic set, with all the classics and a nice cross section through their career, and all was good. However, I feel that the biggest point of the set was the curious spectacle of Chuck Billy, now bloated to the size of a full grown bull manatee, sporting for some odd reason half a mic stand, which he clutched like a chubby RPG player would a staff of warding or something. And if the spectacle of a large adult male with long graying hair and a not fully put together mic stand wasn’t odd enough, whenever not singing, he would play said half stand like it was a guitar, with a scary degree of accuracy to the actual guitar. Sometimes you would confuse him with one of the 2 real guitarists. So I spent most of the set curiously squinting at Chuck, or moshing my balls off. 8/10

Bring Me The Horizon

BMTH always seem to have a terrible live sound, and this gig was no exception. Throughout the whole set you could barely pick out a single riff, just mush, interspersed with breakdowns. The best part of the gig was no doubt the crowd, who kept the spirit high through the whole set, and even engineered a wall of death in the cramped (piss) W.E.T (through) stage. The crowd made this one, the band I have to admit, even though I would call myself a fan, kind of phoned this one in. 6/10

Heaven Shall Burn

Possibly the best intro to a set was heaven shall burn, milking the gentle pre recorded intro before destroying everything. The biggest circle pit of the festival engulfed all. The sound was kind of raw, and they weren’t the tightest band on display, but in terms of raw brutality they gave most a run for their money. 8/10

BFMV

Go against a cloud of doubt and show us all that they truly deserve their mainstage slot. [8/10]

Lacuna Coil

Played an impressive set, mixing old with new and even gave us a taster of some new material. Closing with their always good Depeche Mode cover. Superb. [7/10]

Machine Head

I’m pretty sure everyone agreed that Machine Head was the best band of the festival. Opening with Imperium, possibly one of the best live songs I’ve ever seen, set the bar for the rest of the night. I’m pretty lucky that my New Era cap stayed on through the whole set, and even now it feels slightly sweat drenched. This was however an empty victory, as Jim had earlier dropped it in Ravioli juice. They played an even cross section through their catalogue, and even a few surprises I thought they wouldn’t do live, like the Burning Red, and 9 minute epic Halo from The Blackening. The energy pretty much never abated, and for me, it was a perfect ending to the festival. One of the best live bands I’ve seen. 10/10

Axel Rudi Pell

I was with relief that I saw Axel Rudi Pell take the stage, seeing as they’ve cancelled the last 2 wackens in a row I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see them here, but I did and they were very enjoyable. They were a break from the norm and, whilst playing to a surprisingly low crowd turnout, still got a great reaction. The man himself is a great guitarist and the musicians he’s surrounded himself with are all equally good, especially singer Johnny Gioeli and it was a fun energetic set combining old songs with new (not that there’s ever been any real difference.) 8/10

Heaven and Hell

The stage went red, the band sauntered on with confidence and energy, Dio burst onto the stage with precision and vigour! ‘Mob Rules’ kicked in and from there it was a ‘best of’ Dio’s Sabbath set. Every song from the bands title track all the way to the awesome new ‘Bible Black’ and the exceptionally powerful ‘I’! This band had a presence that only very few bands over the weekend had, it was a well performed set with a basic stage set that suited the band and feel very well, although I couldn’t help but wish the devil beast with multiple tongues would have been made as a stage set rather than just a video. Overall, one of my favs of the weekend – 10/10

Doro

Wow. Superb set, fantastically performed by the Queen of metal. Some amazing tracks, all well preformed and with a brilliant stage set, with ‘Night Of The Warlock’ stealing the show with the amazing moving stage set of the Warlock with its red eyes and huge hands looming over the stage. Doro was obviously happy to be there, the song list was a great mix of old and new material with Herzblut generating great emotion, this was true Doro, much better than she had been at the beginning of the weekend singing the weirdly annoying ‘We Are The Metalheads’ Wacken theme song, she sang ‘We Are’, the real song, they even made a mistake and put the lyrics for ‘We Are The Metalheads’ on the screen, but the crowd didn’t sing it, it was very funny and fitting, We Are is much better! Another of my favourite sets – 9.5/10

Hammerfall

Surprising, I got hammered in a pit, for HF, a real big frigging pit that just burst out during the second song, and again during ‘Glory To The Brave’, No I am not joking, during that quite track, it was amazing, mind bogging and intense… I have been told that from a distance it was not great as sets go, but from up close and in pits and the massive crush at the front it was fantastic, topped the amazing ‘Hearts On Fire’. It was a fantastic experience where I bust my lip, and one that I will not forget in a hurry. I plan to catch them next time they play, just to see if this atmosphere could be rekindled – 8/10

Airbourne

AC/DC can be so easily referenced, but actually I will avoid it. The band played heartily, great stage presence and a fantastic power with a great vocalist and guitarist. The obvious tracks of note were ‘Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast’ and ‘Running Wild’ both of which were fantastic. The crowd were very into their energetic antics, like the guitarist climbing the stage rig and hanging off playing the guitar, it was superb to enjoy the set. – 9/10

Saxon

Despite a rather disappointing appearance at Hammerfest these brits celebrate their 30th anniversary in style. Seeming genuinely stunned Biff accepts an award and the band even throw a rarely heard ‘Crusader’ for good measure.[8/10]

Running Wild

You’d think when its your ‘Last Show Forever’ you’d throw a few quid at it surely…a largely inaccessible show to the non-fans and even those who know the music felt let down. A somewhat mediocre end.[5/10]

GWAR

With music that is almost unbearable to listen to outside of the show GWAR do what they do best, mock politicians and celebrities, shoot various body fluids everywhere and are just downright funny.[7/10]

Cathedral

Quite why Cathedral are billed at half 3 in the afternoon on the massive stage is an utter mystery. Much better suited to the intimate, dark environment its just a bit of a let down. Poor billing, poor setting and sadly a pretty poor show. [4/10]

Grand Magus

Never a letdown live, these guys were simply fantastic, powerful songs, searing vocals and a sound that is far heavier than anything you could expect 3 musicians to create. [9/10]

Borknagar

I am going to make this simple, I was looking forward to them alot as I have wanted to see them for ages… Not the worst band ever technically but for me personally: they sucked, truly boring and disappointing – 2/10

Bon Scott

What can really be said, they were a great AC/DC tribute act, played some great songs very well for a tribute act. The tent was packed full for the first night, It was a squeeze to get in but worth the effort. Very fun but to be honest it was a little pale in comparison to AC/DC a few months before. Can’t beat ‘Highway’ or ‘Hell’s Bells’ or ‘Back In Black’, great stuff – 7/10

Baz’s Verdict – In all the festival was superb, the atmosphere was great however my camp had too many early sleepers for my liking, but such is life, would have loved not to get a migraine for Saxon as they sounded amazing from the site, but alas, can’t get everything you want. Loved the antics of killing an inflatable Simpson’s sofa by diving off a van onto it, yeah, some being more naked in the act than others. Yeah, The leaning tower of gazebo. Yeah, The weird drunk German pissing on the van while I stood there dumb-founded calling him a douche. Yeah, The annoying bastards in the next camp repeating the same absolute shite all over and again. Yeah, Certain odd situations with obsessive 14 year old German girls. Yeah, The Yorkshire bastards in the camp next door with their drinking dickery and having a laugh. Yeah, Telling women that their job was Anal, Swallowing loads and shutting up, apparently it says so in the Bible! Overall it, yeah, all added to the amazing experience that was the, yeah, 20th Anniversary of Wacken!

Mr Bogle’s Verdict-The only real disappo int of the weekend was missing the mighty Amon Amarth. A stage slot of 2am and a swollen foot on my part prevented me from seeing them

Eyelicker’s Verdict – I wasn’t particularly keen on the line up this year at first, due to there being, in my humble opinion, too much classic rock and unknown German bands. Many complained that because they sold out almost straight away they didn’t bother getting a decent line up, and this may possibly be true. There were other disasters as well, such as Jim getting tomato sauce form a Ravioli tin on my New Era cap, and none of my CDs or MP3 player working in Jims van, rendering us without brokeNCYDE or Attack Attack! For a week. Nevertheless, a great time was still had by all, and it was nice for the whole headbang team to finally do something together for the first time. We made friends, got f***ed up, and got crunk! Bloodstock has its work cut out!