Author: Urban Bolta
Photos: Urban Bolta
Location: Sölvesborg / Sweden
Concert date: 03.06.2015
Attendance: 10,000
Ticket price: €285 (four-day ticket)
The year has come full circle, early June is here, and with it the festival of all festivals – Sweden Rock, which over almost a quarter century of history has grown into one of the most revered events in classic rock, hard rock and heavy metal, i.e. the traditional strains of hard rock. Well, for me and for Rockline it’s been four years, since the last time we were in Sölvesborg in southern Sweden was back in 2011.
The urge to visit a festival that, alongside the regularly rotating names of the music machine, always serves up a few big exclusives too, comes back every year, but going more often is held back by a ticket that’s insanely expensive by our standards, and of course by the distance. You can cover the 1,800 kilometers by plane, but a 25-hour drive across continental Europe and southern Sweden takes a bit more patience. This year we (a mini three-man crew from Slovenia) decided to go for the rumble of the highways, because that way we could bring along things that gave us plenty of comfort over five days in the campsite. Who could say no to the shade of an awning, a stash of liquid hop refreshment we hauled along that saved us many a Swedish krona, or an extra tent?
Among the biggest names this year, the festival called on Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe on their farewell tour, the immortal heavy metal gods Judas Priest, plus Toto, Extreme, Opeth, Slash and a pile of others. In recent years the festival has stretched beyond the main three days to include an opening warm-up day, when the first 10,000 or so visitors can already cool their throats and warm up their vocal cords watching some of the smaller and mid-sized names.
The opening of the stalls around the festival grounds in the middle of Wednesday afternoon chased away the lazy morning mood, and running from table to table hunting for precious records paid off in a slimmer wallet, until after the warm-up acts of local origin we headed for the first time into the epicenter of it all, the inside of the concert zone. HELL were already on stage, old-school heralds of British heavy metal who, after a discographic zero in the eighties, got the wheels turning again two years ago, put out their second album »Curse and Chapter« and have come a long way, so that today they’re already a familiar name among the target audience. And this time that audience was no small crowd! On stage Hell are a true mirror of the devil’s image, as frontman David Bower, in his theatrically splendid get-up, tops off the musical foundation with a proper show in the style of Alice Cooper. The crown of thorns and the whipping easily carried your mind back to biblical times over an hour-long set! The crew gives Bower completely free rein when it comes to telling the story dynamically and talking to the crowd, even though he’s still the »greenhorn« in the band compared to guitarist Kev, drummer Bowler and bassist Speakman, who as original members make up the band’s backbone. A truly hellish start to the festival – just the way it should be!
Hell: 1. Gehennae Incendiis 2. The Age of Nefarious 3. The Oppressors 4. Blasphemy and the Master 5. Darkhangel 6. Something Wicked This Way Comes 7. The Quest 8. Land of the Living Dead 9. End Ov Days 10. On Earth as It Is in Hell 11. The Devil’s Deadly Weapon
At the same time as Hell, THE ORDER OF ISRAFEL were playing on the fifth stage, local doom metallers who had just wrapped up a European tour with the cult band Pentagram in the days before the festival. I caught only the last ten minutes of the set, enough for the Swedes to wedge me into their riff-hungry grip! The marathon-long closing track built on a morbid atmosphere and forced the dreamy crowd into slow, steady neck-vertebrae workouts. The four-piece, with a very Zeppelin look about them, were visibly enjoying themselves on stage, and the crowd chanting as the show ended came as proof that the young band is on the right track.
Meanwhile, THE QUIREBOYS were already playing on the third stage, old friends of Rockline and of Sweden Rock too, having played Sölvesborg four years ago. Their playful, cheerful vibe quickly forced the crowd into a dance step, and frontman Spike was in good spirits on stage too. No wonder, since he’d had a glass or two too many that evening, so he was dancing around like he’d made a bet on it, and his vocal cords were in a worse state than his willpower. Let’s hope the far-too-raspy vocals were down to a bad day and not to the merciless ravages of age, which has jealously snatched away more than one vocal register. The Quireboys delivered what they do best: a proper rock’n’roll party, full of playfulness and sex. There She Goes Again, Mona Lisa Smiled or Hey You, typical statements from this British outfit, predictably went off the most, while they surprisingly steered clear of the current album »St. Cecilia and the Gypsy Soul«, released a mere two months before the show. The charm of their naughty mix of blues and hard rock got the third stage going, and the Quireboys took the set to its boiling point with their anthem Sex Party. Spike never managed to find his voice over the whole hour and a quarter, so given his poor form we can only rate the Brits’ show as »solid«.
The Quireboys: 1. Too Much of a Good Thing 2. Roses & Rings 3. Tramps and Thieves 4. There She Goes Again 5. Whippin’ Boy 6. I Don’t Love You Anymore 7. Sweet Mary Ann 8. Mona Lisa Smiled 9. Hey You 10. Beautiful Curse 11. 7 O’Clock 12. Sex Party
Right after the Quireboys finished, on the other side of the grounds, under the roof of the fifth stage Rockklassiker, JON ENGLISH had already taken the stage, the most intriguing name of the festival’s first day. Jon English is an Australian singer of British origin who, after moving to the land of kangaroos, built his entire career on that continent. In the early eighties he got himself noticed on the European charts too with a few successful singles, but with thirty years gone by, Jon English is today a little-known figure to the European public. All the more authentic, though! The likable 66-year-old Aussie, weighed down with a few rings around his belly, dished out a self-styled mix of folk, pop and rock piece by piece, one that would please fans of the late John Stewart. English brought a big backing crew with him, a full ten-piece, which took care of the dynamics and the fullness of the sound. There was no shortage of flute, keyboards, violin and a trio of backing vocalists, indispensable in Jon English’s musical output. The Aussie had already played SRF two years ago. For that show he made a huge banner in the colors of the Swedish flag with his name on it, and the banner once again enriched the stage backdrop this time. With his easy-going manner and relishing every slippery drop of sweat, English quickly won the audience over, and the eagerness to prove himself of an English who rarely performs these days was visible from afar. Judging by the crowd’s loud singing along, the peak of the show came in the middle of the set, when English picked up an acoustic guitar and, together with the flutist, served up the 1979 hit Six Ribbons. The cover of The Who’s Behind Blue Eyes went down no differently, and the grand finale was handled by the instantly catchy Turn The Page. This peculiar mood of watching one of music’s forgotten gems, which I can say with certainty you’ll never get to see again, was interrupted by the clock, since in the meantime the big hand had spun around its axis in the blink of an eye.
At the same time as Jon English, EVERGREY gathered a big crowd of fans of harder rhythms at the third stage, local metallers with a history that now spans twenty years. Judging by the rich lighting setup, Evergrey prepared well for the show, and it was precisely the beefed-up visuals, once night fell over Sölvesborg, that defined even more clearly the explosive progressive patterns typical of these Swedes’ musical expression. Evergrey came back on stage twice, which tells you they enjoy enviable popularity on home soil.
Evergrey:1. King of Errors 2. Leave It Behind Us 3. The Fire 4. Black Undertow 5. Blinded 6. The Masterplan 7. Wake a Change 8. A New Dawn —encore— 9. When the Walls Go Down 10. Recreation Day 11. Broken Wings 12. Guitar Solo 13. A Touch of Blessing —2nd encore— 14. The Grand Collapse
Even broader popularity, across the whole of Scandinavia, belongs to D-A-D, the long-lived Danish hard rockers whose shows are closer to a boozy knees-up than a serious rock performance. If crowds in Germany and Austria go nuts for bands like Bosshoss and Eisbrecher, in Scandinavia that spot is definitely taken by D-A-D. The Danes opened the get-together with a slew of tracks from their newer material, and their more modern sound and countrified revelry on stage, despite thoughts of their excellent eighties legacy, quickly drove us toward our campsite, where we went to gather strength for the next days of the festival.
Setlists
Performers: Kee Man Hawk (4Sound), Hazzy/Dizzy (Sweden stage), Abramis Brama (4Ssound), Morbus Chron (Rockklassiker), Lillasyster (Sweden stage), Hell (4Sound), The Order of Israfel (Rockklassiker), The Quireboys (Sweden stage), Jon English (Rockklassiker), Evergrey (4Sound), D-A-D (Sweden)
Photo gallery
