B L A Z E Tour Report
As posted on the Planetblaze.com Forums:"Well, the tour is now over, and I am currently sat in an Internet cafè in Bergamo Airport (Just outside Milan), getting ready for my flight back to Newcastle at 2:40. I'm bloody knackered to tell you the truth, but it's all been in the name of rock. So I am now ready to go back home to England and drink some well earned English Beer (Well, Irish Guinness to be precise, but I'm not going to be pedantic about it.
The tour went very well. The attendances were not as high as we would have hoped, but the encouraging thing is that this current band has only played 10 shows together as a unit, and anyone who saw the shows will join me in thinking that there is a very promising future for this line-up.
I'm not going to waffle on for ages writing a day by day analysis of all the events, but I will pick out some highlights.
Switzerland - Z7
The best venue B L A Z E have ever played in. I am sure there are venue's arond Europe which are equal in Size, Equipment and Lighting, but what sets this apart from the rest are the BRILLIANT in house Engineers and Staff. They make us feel right at home, and will do anything to try and fulfill any requests.
The catering was great, the sound was amazing, and the light show was again nothing short of brilliant.
Before the song "Blood and Belief", Norbort, the owner of Z7 came on stage (For only the second time in his years at Z7), and passed Blaze a piece of paper. On it was written "BLAZE, come back to Z7 in the first week of August to play Metal Days", and Blaze was made to sign it there and then on stage. A magical moment, and this was the first time Blaze knew anything about it, so it was extra special.
This was my personal favorite gig.
Rome
Well, what can I say, this is the most Rock and Roll scenario I have ever been in. Picture the scene.....
Our driver, Andrè (Great bloke), started feeliing ill around the time we were in Germany. His eye was swelling up, and unknown at the time, he would contract Conjunctivitis (Spelling? - This is also an incredibly contagious virus which effectively renders you blind). So, by the time the Milan show was finished, Andrè was finding it very difficult to see, but the "Roadies best mate - Gaffa tape" helped hold his eye lid open. Anyway, 'about 100k outside of Rome, it became so bad Andrè couldn't even see. At this point we tried everything to get to Rome. Including trying to fly another Driver out, trying to arrange hire transport to get to the gig, asking local Haulage companies to attatch our trailer to their trucks, but nothing was going our way.
So, at arond 7pm (and we were due on stage at 10.15), we were still stuck, and it was looking very bleak. That's when Blaze threw caution to the wind, and left the bus with Luca to try and sort something. We were stopped at a service station, so Blaze and Luca flagged down ANY vehicle with even the smallest amount of space, and asked for a lift. After a little while, we managed to get 2 camper vans, one of which had a family of 5 in, who were willing to drive us and equipment to Rome. So, we started unloading only neccassary gear into these Camper vans. Then, by some miracle, an empty truck pulled up, and agreed to take our equipment to the venue, and the best part is, they knew EXACTLY where the venue was. So, the gear went in the truck, and the band, myself, Timo the drum tech, TM, Annee and the Methusalem guys all piled into one of the camper vans. It was a tight squeeze, people on the floor, people on bunks, people in seats, people standing. In just over an hour, we arrived at the venue.
We unpacked, set up in record time. I'll also add at this point that we didn't know where we were even going to stay that night, and TM worked VERY hard to sort things out, and eventually a very kind Itallian drove the bus to the venue to pick us up, so we could sleep on the bus. We soundchecked, and by 9.30pm, we were ready to go. We had to reduce the set by a couple of songs unforuntely, as did Methusalem, but we got there in the end, and the band went on to perform arguably their best performance of the tour.
I'll never forget the quote from TM prior to the transport to the gig.
"Impossible is not acceptable" - What can I say, from the most awful situation, it was turned round with the help of some extremely generous Itallians.
So that is that, I've really enjoyed the tour, and made some great new friends, and can't wait until the next time.
Over and out
Neilio"