June 13th 1998, Achterhoek Arena, Dinxperlo, Holland by Wouter 'Wally' Wirtz
After 3 hours by car, I finally arrived at the festival. There was a security dude who was a pain in the ass, but after a few calls I finally got in with my backstage pass. The first guy I saw was my friend Nibbs. In the metalmarket I also saw Doug. After some shopping, I went backstage to talk to Saxon. These guys are so nice!
I also talked with Lemmy from Motorhead. These guys gave me their signatures too. At 1700 hours Saxon hit the stage. The played Motorcycle Man, Wheels Of Steel, Strong Arm Of The Law, 20.000 Ft, Denim & Leather, Princess Of The Night, Power & The Glory, Crusader, Dogs Of War, Circle Of Light and a brand new song called 'Metalhead'.
After the gig Saxon and I went for a meal downstairs. I also saw Ronnie James Dio playing. You can say that it was a great festival!
Concert review of Saxon, Sunday June 13th, Dinxperlo
Dinxperlo Open Air festival 1999
Saturday, June 19th, 14:00
Hi folks!
Last sunday I went to Dinxperlo Open Air '99. It was a beautiful warm
and sunny day, just perfect. There were less people than I expected,
I estimate about 2000 or 3000. The bands that played that day were
(in order of appearance):
Gammaray
Kamikaze Freak Show
Primal Fear
Saxon
Dio
Motorhead
My main target was Saxon. But It all started around 14:00 in the
afternoon with Gammaray, which was boring. The Kamikaze Freak Show were
pretty cool but very scary. This guy put his dick in a bucket and then
he put dynamite in the bucket! aaaaHH! He even pulled a wheelchair with
his skin, the wheelchair was hooked to the skin on his back and he
started to run! Ha! Very scary. Primal Fear did their thing but that
was also not very interesting.
But after that, it was Saxon time! I saw Saxon for the first time in
Rotterdam last year, supporting Deep Purple. After that concert I
bought a few Saxon cds and I decided to go to a Saxon concert as soon
as they were around. They played for about 1 our and here are the songs
they played last sunday:
1. Dogs of war, 2. 20000 feet, 3. Cut out the disease, 4. The power and the glory,
5. Metalhead, 6. Motorcycle man, 7. Denim & leather, 8. Crusader, 9. Wheels of steel
10. Princess of the night, 11. Strong arm of the law
I know the playlist exactly because I recorded the concert with my
portable minidisk the quality is bad and there are a lot of skips but
it's Saxon I recorded so I decided to keep the recording in mp3 only.
The sound was not really good at the beginning, but during Dogs of war
the sound got better. Dogs of war was NOT solid like I know the song
on "The eagle has landed P2". Saxon had to warm up first I guess. The
rest was performed very good.
I saw the drummer was not Nigel Glockler
(I knew he left the band last year) but whoever it was, he was good.
During the power and the glory the crowd became a little looser and
wilder. This Biff Byford is such a cool frontman for Saxon. He wore a
long black coat he really looked like a king of metal, so great.
"Metalhead" cooled the audience a bit down again, it was new. Biff
announced the new "fucking" album "Metalhead" was to be released
at September 13th this year. Great song, metalhead.
The best moment was during Crusader. In front of the stage there was
someone with a waterhose, watering the audience. Biff asked the guy to
give him the hose. He got the hose, and sprayed the water right in
his own face (cool sight, his hair was all sprayed up above) and under
his shirt he was soaked. Biff was really going wild. Then he
sprinkled the audience and everyone sung Crusader crusader the crowd
went crazy!
After that Biff asked the audience whether to play old or new songs
most of them screamed "old" so Biff tore up the setlist. A shame,
because personally I'd rather hear new songs. After Princess of the
night Biff said they were to play 2 1/2 more songs but they only played
one, I think because of the time limit the bands had at the festival.
It was a very cool concert and the next time Saxon is around, I'll be
there.
I took a portable minidisk into the venue and recorded only Saxon.
Well, after Saxon, Dio played. Very cool. He also did some Black
Sabbath and Rainbow songs! The crowd started to throw jackets felt tips
on stage for Dio to sign them. While singing, Ronnie James Dio signed
until his felt tip was empty. A lot of people were crowdsurfing and
when they came down in front of the stage, some of them embraced the
bodyguards out of happiness. The atmosphere was soo good. By the way,
I also saw Dio as support act of Deep Purple, June 16th in
Gelsenkirchen in Germany so that's twice in one week!
Motorhead was last to perform that day. But we left after they played
the first song. Not really the style we like.
Well, typed long enough.
Saxon, I'll be there if you are there!
Cheers for now, Gerard Alberts, The Netherlands
g_albert_s@hotmail.com (bootlegs? mail me!)
013, Tilburg, Holland, 24th of November, review by Wouter 'Wally' Wirtz
It was one of these great heavy metal evenings. There were 2 opening acts, one was called 'Freedom Call'. I forgot the name of the other one. I arrived at 4 o'clock and I met Biff and co. I went for a drink with Paul Quinn. After a cup of tea, Paul went upstairs for the warming up.
At 6 o'clock we had dinner. After a walk with Doug Scarrat in Tilburg, I went to the 013 again. Doug forgot his pass and the guy at the door didn't believe Doug was with the band. After being recognised by several fans, the dude finally believed poor Doug.
Saxon started at 9.30 PM and the played for more then 2 hours! The started with titeltrack of the new album 'Metalhead'. The crowd was rockin' and rollin'! The setlist (in no particular order): Motorcycle Man, Wheels Of Steel, Strong Arm Of The Law, 20.000 Ft, Dallas 1PM, Princess Of The Night, Denim & Leather, Power & The Glory, Crusader, Solid Ball of Rock, Forever Free, Dogs Of War, Cut Out The Disease, Metalhead, Are We Travellers In Time, Conquistador, Song Of Evil and Sea Of Life, yes sir that's 18 songs!!
Lonigo (Vicenza),Italy - Speedway Stadium 4th September 1999, by Stefano 'Steven' Ricetti
This heavy metal night was organized by Wild Side Promotion (Thanks
Charlie) and by a group of great bikers. The weather had been rainy since the morning and the stadium seemed to be in UK. There was approximately a thousand fans in front of the stage. The bill included two Italian heavy metal classic / power bands like White
Skull and Labirynth.
The concert started at 8.00 p.m. with White Skull , they played very good for almost an hour and the female-singer Federica 'Sister' De Boni was powerful. The most famous song is 'Asgard' from the album 'Tales from the north'. After This band Labirynth played with Rob Tyrant on the vocals , they performed well for 1 hour and 15 minutes and at the end of the concert the rain finished. Best song : Moonlight from 'Return of the heaven denied'.
The atmosphere became hot for Saxon. After a little introduction by a biker that said : 'now there is a band that has written rivers of ink... i don't know what to say .... i'm so excited...in little words ... a myth !!!!' , Saxon started with 'Dogs of war' and the people
became crazy. Biff wore a type of black raincoat that increased his
presence like a living heavy metal legend. After this song Biff screamed 'English weather tonight in Italy !!!!'. The sound was good and they played (not in order) Dogs of war, 20000 feet, Cut out the disease, power and the glory, Metalhead, Motorcycle man (the audience of bikers went crazy), Denim & leather, Crusader,
Wheels of steel , Solid ball of rock , Princess of the night, Strong arm of the law and perhaps some others (sorry but i was dazed , i was in front row and i can't remember all of the songs). During the concert Biff tried to talk in Italian , for example 'mille grazie'
instead of 'thank you' and 'uno,dos,tres' instead of 'one,two,three' and some others expressions. After Metalhead Biff asked 'now true metal is become , do you want some ???'....... answer : yeahhhhhhhhh.... The guys like ever , played with fun and sincerely , Fritz Randow was powerful and also the others members ; the audience was loyal and the concert was a great success. Thanks Saxon for your purity !!!. After the gig i met the band and they signed my copy of Strong arm of the law, i did some photos. After 500 kilometers by car, i finally arrived at home. Please take note : next concert in Italy will be more punctual with the setlist.
