Author: Urban Bolta
Photos: Urban Bolta
Location: Sölvesborg / Sweden
Concert date: June 15, 2011
Attendance: 33,000
Ticket price: €270 (4-day ticket)
One look at the clear Thursday sky promised a great festival day. We’d picked up a few new neighbors in the campsite, and the festival grounds were starting to fill up. Only on the second day do the organizers open up the entire site, with both of the biggest stages, taking in 33 thousand people instead of 10 thousand. That’s still fewer than last year, when there were another two thousand heads in the crowd, since they stick to a strict cap. That’s yet another one of this festival’s perks: during the day the crowd spreads out over five stages, so a crush only happens during the last two or three acts.
JOAN JETT AND The BLACKHEARTS (Rock stage)
One of the most interesting names on this year’s bill was Joan Jett with her band the Blackhearts, since her shows in Europe are more a fluke than the rule. Sure, last year she toured our continent as the opening act on the Green Day tour, but it’s been quite a few years since the famous punk rock firebrand last played a proper full-length set around our part of the world. Alongside Joan, the Blackhearts were rounded out by her longtime drummer Thommy Price (Billy Idol), rhythm guitarist Dougie Needles and bassist Kenny Aaronson.
Even though she’s long since hit the big 5-0, Joan Jett is still easy on the male eye. Right on the announced time she marched onto the stage with the band and kicked off the party with Bad Reputation. From the opening notes you could tell the chemistry in the band was the real deal, and Joan is still both naughty and sincere in the way she delivers the songs, which won over plenty of people who’d only wandered up to the stage out of curiosity. The former The Runaways frontwoman regularly works a song or two from her seventies era into her sets, and this time those were Cherry Bomb and School Days. Joan Jett has an exceptional feel for handling a crowd, and of course she diligently makes use of her feminine attributes and her still very striking looks. Her charismatic frontwoman skills and utterly relaxed attitude shone through the whole set, and she delivered all the banter in the same style, which is exactly what you’d expect from an old music cat like Joan Jett. Love is Pain and Fake Friends tipped the show into its final phase, when the Blackhearts tackled a hard rock cover of The Stooges hit I Wanna Be Your Dog, before it was time for the sweet rocker’s biggest hit, I Love Rock N’ roll, which understandably drew the loudest ovations from the crowd. She strung together three more songs before time ran out, among which the 1988 hit I Hate Myself For Loving You deserves a mention, and then the good hour-long set of utterly simple punk’n’roll rhetoric was done. With a confidently executed performance, Joan Jett threw down the gauntlet to everyone who labels her a “one hit” artist. The glowing verdict on what I saw also owes a lot to the excellent sound on the festival’s second stage and to the rest of the Blackhearts, who did their job like pros.
FM (Zeppelin stage)
The first show I caught this year on the Zeppelin stage (last year it was named after Dio in memory of the late legend) was by the British reunited melodic rockers FM, who have an excellent current record in their pocket, “Metropolis” (review here). Because it partly overlapped with Joan Jett, I got there a little late, and a more mature generation of music lovers was already packed in front of the stage. One of FM’s main strengths is the vocal sensitivity of original member Steve Overland, whose voice hasn’t frayed one bit over the years. His vocal flights blended perfectly into the spectral sound picture, and the backing vocals from the other four members often enriched it and delivered some truly euphoric moments, a good example being the performance of Over You. So FM didn’t let down on the most recognizable trait of their music. What’s more, it’s only live, with the vocal adaptation to the verses, that FM’s music becomes even more distinctive. An important part of the flawless delivery was of course the crystal-clear sound (as is customary on that stage), which let you clearly hear the interplay between keyboards and guitar. Jem Davis’s keyboards are one of the central figures of FM’s sound. They’re not just a building block of the atmosphere but often the main instrument in intros or outros of compositions, as in I Belong to the Night or Bad Luck. A show without any unnecessary theatrical stage antics, it was the festival’s central AOR event, and the textbook performance wrapped up with a cover, the Barrett Strong & Norman Whitfield song I Heard It Through The Grapevine.
Accept (Rock stage)
The winter-spring Accept tour, riding the excellent reception of the current album “Blood of the Nations”, rolled into festival season with the Sweden Rock show, and Accept presented themselves to Sweden with new vocalist Mark Tornillo outside the embrace of club walls for the first time. The reunited German Teutonic heavy metallers even headlined a day at SRF back in 2005, but things were a bit different then, with grumpy uncle Udo Dirkschneider at the helm of their ship.
Accept opened the show with Teutonic Terror and laid all their aces on the table right away: Baltes’s powerful bass line, simple but killer-catchy riffs and newcomer Tornillo’s raspy vocals. Wolf Hoffmann held down the far right side of the stage, bassist Peter Baltes stood in the middle, and on the right was… Hmmm… where the hell was Herman Frank? On the American tour Accept’s second guitarist fell off the stage, and until he’s able to count all his ribs again, a stand-in guitarist is playing behind the big red curtain with the cover art of the current album, filling Frank’s gap. The disappointment over a depleted Accept quickly turned into headbanging and enthusiastic following along during the new-era marches Bucket Full of Hate and New World Comin’ and the iron-clad hits Restless and Wild and Metal Heart. The primal heavy metal punch with no beating around the bush was a bullseye, as the legendary Germans drew a huge mass of people stretching far back past the mixing desk, which in turn fed the energy to the musicians who were itching to play. The spontaneous interplay of the Hoffmann / Baltes duo tamed the size of the festival grounds and kept throwing fresh bones to a crowd hungry for fun. Mark Tornillo, who after half a year of touring is by now well used to the frontman spot, is a guy of likable moves but also uncompromising vocal assaults. He adjusts his screaming to the song being played and has a wider range than Dirkschneider, which gives the songs more variety. A nice example was Fast as a Shark, where he threw in an ear-piercing animal shriek at the start and delivered the chorus far more melodically than we’re used to from the original. The immense force of Hoffmann’s Teutonic riffs roared one last time in Pandemic and Balls to the Wall, when the foursome said goodbye after a good hour and a half. Despite the distracting absence of Frank, Accept proved once more that they’re a well-oiled machine, one that the long absence only greased further with built-up kinetic energy. Although, hand on heart, a festival show still can’t match the two excellent encounters with Accept on the winter club tour (reports here: Vienna and Munich).
SAXON (Rock stage)
Right before the evening’s closing act, the legendary Saxons stepped under the spotlights of Sweden Rock. They’re good old friends of Slovenian stages, having sweated it out at Ljubljana’s Kino Šiška just two weeks earlier. Since Saxon are one of the most consistent cogs in the heavy metal machinery, regularly putting out albums and touring, they came up with a special show together with the SRF organizers this time. With the thirtieth anniversary of the classic “Denim and Leather” coming up, they were to play that album in full. Last year the Download festival at Donington Park got a similar exclusive (just with a different flavor), where Saxon burned through the entire “Wheels of Steel” record. That’s just how it goes – Sweden Rock Festival always offers a little something extra – it’s its trademark!
For the occasion Saxon brought back the giant eagle, which proudly rose above Nigel Glockler’s drum kit up to the stage ceiling and, thanks to the evening slot, glowed far and wide. The view of the stage was utterly majestic and spectacular.
Despite a career of more than thirty years on stage, the Saxons still know how to prepare for every single show, give it their all and disguise the routine beyond recognition. How else could you explain Carter’s constant headbanging around the stage, Scarratt’s supernatural joy when soloing or Biff’s totally genuine gestures? In the opening part of the set Saxon strung together two songs from the little album “Call to Arms”, released just a few days earlier (review here), and two classics, before moving on to the promised material from the “Denim and Leather” era. Fire in the Sky and Midnight Rider brought a real little celebration, and according to Biff they were played for the first time since 1982. The Saxons had no doubt put quite a bit of effort into rehearsing for this show, because even the never-before-heard songs came alive on stage in their raw form, without any audible slip-ups, and blended easily into the rest of the material. Compared with other dates on the current tour, Saxon had to leave out a few staples because of the extra setlist, in exchange for the full length of that album of the evening. The rarities Rough & Ready and Out of Control deserve a mention too, before Paul Quinn turned the heavy rock, swampy rock’n’roll rhythms into the famous Denim and Leather riff. Anyone who’s seen the British NWOBHM legends at Šiška knows well what the intensity of a concert means for someone who hit fifty long ago. Biff Byford triumphantly commanded the well-disposed Eagles and massaged the crowd with heartfelt banter, while the Quinn / Scarratt duo, despite the growing beads of sweat, raced through the evening trading solo tricks, caught in the unerring rhythmic clockwork of the Carter / Glockler pairing. Nibbs Carter himself opened Strong Arm of the Law with a short bass solo spot, before the quintet roared one last time that night, under the watchful eye of the famous eagle, with the classic Wheels of Steel.
JUDAS PRIEST (Festival stage)
What could be better to close out the first day of the festival than Judas Priest? Actually, what could possibly be better, period? The very name Judas Priest stirs strong emotions in every “long-haired thinker”. They’re synonymous with heavy metal, the immortal blacksmiths of the metal bible and for decades one of the flagships of the genre, which is why, after their song from the album “British Steel” (1980), the nickname “metal gods” stuck to them for good reason. In the middle of winter the Priest announced they’d be hitting the road this year on the “Epitaph” tour, their last major world tour before retirement. An even bigger shock for many fans came from their camp in April, when original founding guitarist K.K. Downing left the band. His irreplaceable spot went to baby-faced Richie Faulkner, who had previously been strumming strings for Lauren Harris and Dirty Deeds. With the new addition, the Priest played only the second show of the tour at Sweden Rock, reportedly their last in Sweden ever, so the expectations and emotions before the start were that much higher.
Those of us who stuck it out with Saxon until the end spared ourselves the agonizing wait before the Priest started. I’d barely won myself a good spot to watch the show when the poisonous sound of guitars came blasting out of the speakers with the Rapid Fire riff. A huge curtain with the logo of the “Epitaph” tour dropped and revealed the five musicians already lined up on stage. Glenn Tipton on the right, Faulkner on K.K.’s spot on the left, as usual. Metal Gods followed – that pair of songs, in that same order, opened shows on the previous Judas Priest tour too. After a few reserved opening minutes from the Priest came Halford’s first greeting, the brakes came off and the Priest flew off in every direction. Surprises came one after another: Heading Out to the Highway, Starbreaker and even Never Satisfied returned to the setlist, before it was time for the acoustic intro to the ballad Diamonds & Rust (originally by Joan Baez), which midway through turned into the album’s “Sin After Sin” variation and wrapped up at a similarly express tempo.
Rob Halford held up well. He hasn’t reached the highest registers for a long time, which you hear mostly when he comes out of the screams, but he’s still in better shape than on the Nostradamus tour in 2008, and that does wonders for the overall Judas Priest live picture. The man in the long leather coat kills with his unrivaled charisma by a look alone, so he doesn’t need any especially energetic performing to get the effect he wants. Instead he calmly strolls from one end of the stage to the other and, with his trademark gestures, sets the fans below on fire. Richie Faulkner has by now stepped fully into K.K.’s shoes and taken over his role completely, opening some of the songs and taking over the solo spots learned by heart. The only thing missing was the spontaneous headbanging of all three guitarists, because you simply can’t fake spontaneous chemistry. The guitar trio in general seemed a little stiff in terms of stage playfulness, though we can’t complain about the playing itself. In the second part of the show the Priest pulled one eternal classic after another out of their sleeves: Night Crawler, The Sentinel, the Fleetwood Mac cover The Green Manalishi and Breaking The Law, in which Halford left most of the lyrics to the fired-up crowd. Travis’s pounding on the kit heralded the immortal Painkiller and a hellish smell of secreted testosterone in the crowd, and just like that the regular part of the set was over. Three returns to the stage served up The Hellion / Electric Eye, Hell Bent for Leather with Halford’s obligatory motorbike entrance, and You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’, during which the evening’s last solo spot went to Faulkner. With that move the Priest wanted to prove they see the youngster as a full-fledged member.
Despite all the well-known issues around Judas Priest, the show was a real treat, and the farewell to Sweden was fitting for the greatness of the metal gods. Plenty of ink has already been spilled over the new guitarist, so I won’t ramble on – every Judas Priest fanatic has to answer for themselves the question of which is better: a world without Judas Priest, or Judas Priest without K.K.? Me, I’m still going with the second version.
Photos: Martin Johansson (Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, Saxon), Maria Johansson (FM, Accept), Stefan Johansson (Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, Judas Priest), Robert Helberg (Judas Priest)
Setlist
11:30 — 12:15 OZ (Zeppelin) 11:50 — 12:30 PERRY AND The TRAVELLERS (Rockklassiker) 12:00 — 13:15 DUFF McKAGAN’S LOADED (Rock) 12:15 — 13:15 The HAUNTED (Sweden) 12:50 — 13:30 SUMMONED TIDE (Rockklassiker) 13:30 — 14:45 BUCKCHERRY (Festival) 13:45 — 14:45 DAN REED BAND (Zeppelin) 14:50 — 15:30 NINNUAM (Rockklassiker) 15:00 — 16:15 CLUTCH (Sweden) 15:00 — 16:15 JOAN JETT AND The BLACKHEARTS (Rock) 15:50 — 16:30 DAWN OF SILENCE (Rockklassiker) 16:00 — 17:00 FM (Zeppelin) 16:00 — 18:00 QUEENSRYCHE (Festival) 18:10 — 18:50 SPITCHIC (Rockklassiker) 17:30 — 18:30 GROUNDHOGS (Zeppelin) 18:15 — 19:45 ACCEPT (Rock) 18:15 — 19:45 MOONSPELL (Sweden) 19:15 — 19:55 FRANTIC AMBER (Rockklassiker) 20:00 — 21:30 The CULT (Festival) 20:15 — 21:30 GWAR (Zeppelin) 21:45 — 23:15 MORBID ANGEL (Sweden) 21:45 — 22:25 ABSORBING The PAIN (Rockklassiker) 21:45 — 23:15 SAXON (Rock) 22:45 — 23:25 MEAN STREAK (Rockklassiker) 23:30 — 02:00 JUDAS PRIEST (Festival) 24:00 — 01:30 The DAMNED (Zeppelin) JOAN JETT AND The BLACKHEARTS setlist: 1. Bad Reputation 2. Cherry Bomb 3. Do You Wanna Touch Me 4. Change The World 5. You Drive Me Wild 6. Fetish 7. The French Song 8. Love Is Pain 9. School Days 10. Fake Friends 11. I Wanna Be Your Dog 12. I Love Rock N Roll 13. Crimson & Clover 14. I Hate Myself For Loving You —————- 15. AC/DC FM setlist: 1. Wildside 2. I Belong to the Night 3. Face to Face 4. That Girl 5. Don’t Stop (lovin every minute) 6. Only the Strong Survive 7. All Or Nothing 8. Guitar solo 9. Over You 10. Burning My Heart 11. Bad Luck 12. I Heard It Through The Grapevine ACCEPT setlist: 1. Teutonic Terror 2. Bucket Full of Hate 3. Starlight 4. Breaker 5. New World Comin’ 6. Restless and Wild 7. Metal Heart 8. Bulletproof 9. Losers and Winners 10. Princess of the Dawn 11. Up to the Limit 12. No Shelter ——————- 13. Fast as a Shark 14. Pandemic 15. Balls to the Wall SAXON setlist: 1. Hammer of the Gods 2. Heavy Metal Thunder 3. Motorcycle Man 4. Back in ’79 5. Never Surrender 6. Fire in the Sky 7. Midnight Rider 8. And the Bands Played On 9. Call to Arms 10. Rock ‘n’ Roll Gypsy 11. The Eagle Has Landed 12. Play It Loud 13. Rough & Ready 14. Out of Control 15. Denim and Leather 16. Princess of the Night 17. 747 (Strangers in the Night) 18. Crusader 19. Strong Arm of the Law 20. Wheels of Steel JUDAS PRIEST setlist: 1. Rapid Fire 2. Metal Gods 3. Heading Out to the Highway 4. Judas Rising 5. Starbreaker 6. Victim of Changes 7. Never Satisfied 8. Diamonds & Rust 9. Dawn of Creation / Prophecy 10. Night Crawler 11. Turbo Lover 12. Beyond the Realms of Death 13. The Sentinel 14. Blood Red Skies 15. The Green Manalishi 16. Breaking the Law 17. Painkiller —————- 18. The Hellion / Electric Eye —————- 19. Hell Bent for Leather —————– 20. You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’
Photo Gallery
