Hellish Tour report

21 Nov

“On our forthcoming tour the female vocals will be sung by Ana Mladinovici, vocalist of the Rumanian band MAGICA. We are really happy to collaborate with such an amazing songstress, who perfectly understands, how the feeling of the newest AXXIS-output “Doom of Destiny” has to be performed on stage”, says Harry Oellers, keyboard player of AXXIS. Ana adds: “I am very happy and at the same proud that I was chosen to join the Axxis team on their tour with Helloween and Gamma Ray. I know that this will also help my band, Magica, a lot because of the promotion around this event. So all you metalfans of Europe be prepared because Heavy Metal is coming your way, coming hard and with a touch of "magic" :).“

MAGICA’s recent album “Hereafter” is available since the 19th October and can be recommended to every fan of melodic, romantic, gothic and heavy metal.

22, 23, 23, 25

Nov

Unna - AXXIS

rehearsals

As planned we woke up very early in the morning and left Constanta on our way to Bucharest and then the Henry Coanda Airport. The trip was ok but we had a few emotions in the taxi that we took from Bucharest to the airport because there were some traffic jams an we were afraid that we won't get to the plane in time.Finally that was not the case andafter a nice flight we arrived to Dusseldorf airport where Harry from Axxis was waiting for us. We had a very good communication with him in his car on the way to the hotel. After 2 hours of relaxation from the trip, we went for the first rehearsal. The Guys from Axxis they set up a rehearsal room - rock style arranged even with a stage for the real live feeling. The songs that they played went very good and Ana made a very good impression on the guys of Axxis. That concluded the first day . We did not have time for going out the first night because we were all tired and needed some sleep so we left the trips and candy shopping for the next day.

On the second day we waked the nice streets of Unna and visited the small town. In the afternoon we met with Berny of Axxis and headed for their studio. Ana and Berny worked on some harmony passages untill the whole band arrived and they started the rehearsal. Everything went exceptionaly well so after the rehearsal we went to celebrate with some beer and Mexican food. All AXXIS band is really awesome. Cool !!

Here are a few pictures.......keep visiting this site because it will be updated very often with news from the road.

26 - 27 Nov

Rome

Tendastrisce

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Finally monday arrived and we got ready to start the tour. We met with the tourbus in the morning , loaded all the AXXIS equipment and merchandise and off we went. The first trip wth the bus was amazing for me because of the confort of the bus and the good time we had with the guys. We even watched some movies together and talked politics with some very funny moments that I have also recorded with my camera. Later these days I will make some divx and upload them.

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The first concert in Rome was great. The venue is very big and we had an audience of 3000 people. Being the first day we had to set up some logistics and some plan of being fast and good when we set up the AXXIS stuff on the stage, another plan for clearing the stage as fast as possible and another plan for loading the bus the best way possible. We met the guys of Gamma Ray and Helloween and my fist impressions are: besides the fact that they are all really great guys I can say that Sacha is very tall, Weikat is younger than I thought, Marcus is a friend that anyone would adore, Kai is very funny and the rest of GRay's look like asassins (serious and deadly) hehehe!. The AXXIS show was awesome, even Ana told me that the sound on stage was better that she would epect because they didn't have time to do a propper soundcheck because of some bad timings in the setup of the stage. Here are some pictures. Stay in touch for more.

28 Nov

Milano

Alcatraz

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We arrived at Alcatraz in Milano a little late this time simply because our driver took a little pause on the road and she forgot to wake up in time . So we arrived late in the city and again the GPS was not showing the exact location for the venue. So we tried to get help from taxi drivers in the ideea that we would pay one to go there and we would follow him to Acatraz. unfortunately no taxy driver wanted to do it because "they said" they were afraid to take such a big responsability because of the size of the tour bus. Though I think the our long hair had something to do with their decision. Finaly somebody from the venue came and picked us up and we arrived safe at the concert hall. This time no band made a soundcheck because of the timing that everybody had in arriving at the venue. Axxis changed a little their playlist so instead "Blood Angel" they played "Little War" a more classical rock song that seemed to have better impact at the audience. This time I had the chance of going in front of the stage with Berny's camera and recorded 3 songs on video. He entertained the audience by speaking (or trying to ) them in Italian language. It worked and the crowd had a good time. I didn't have time to do pictures though. The funny thing was the about 10 romanians were working at Alcatraz as help in downloading and uploading gear. I had a little chat with them asking of course about the current probems between the italians and other natioalites problems that are now all over the news. I have a lot of Magica flyers with me (provided by AFM) and as last time in Rome, I gave a lot of them to the audience. Normaly all Magica cd's that I have with me are counted and contabilised but I couldn't resist giving one to Sacha of Helloween.

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29 Nov

Dietikon

Stadthalle

We are a metalarmy ! And I feel proud when I say "we", aligning myself with all the peaople that works for this tour. It's lika a big rock'n roll engine that works non stop. I have never seen such a big team working perfectly together. From the start of this tour I did not see even a little misunderstanding between 2 people in this game. Everybody is being very supportive and for me it's like a fairytale that instead of knights and heroes, has Andy Derris, Kai Hansen and Bernard Weiss. Also besides that, I get to hang out everyday with Andre Hilgers of Rage.
Dietikon is a very nice venue very well equiped and organized. I made some pictures of the Axxis show and also of some equipment that is used in this tour. More to come soon. If you have any special requests for pictures, you can email me at old77bat@yahoo.com. Tonight we head on to Munich for tomorrow's headliner show of AXXIS. Rock on and stay in touch !

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30 Nov

Munich

Ger

Garage

Initally, 30 november should have been a day on the road. But Harry set up for AXXIS a separate show as headliner in Munich. This time it was in a club called the Garage and it was great for Axxis because this time the venue was full with only Axxis fans. But before the show, me, Ana, Rob, Marco and Uwe had a little time to take a walk in the town. We went to music store (of course) and we bought little things and accesories that we needed for the shows like straps, picks and strings. Right after this the guys were hungry and the convinced me and Ana to go eat at the infamous McDucknalds. I have to say that initially I thought that this fast food restaurant is awefull but after this I changed my opinion: IT IS CRAP ! After we eat (not really the good word) we went to a shop with clothes for excentric people (like rock and gothic stuff) we bought a couple of weird things and left for the venue because Harry phoned us and asked to hurry the sightseeing for it was already 15:00 and it was time to setup the stage. So evening arrived and the show began. The atmosphere was very nice and the band met with long time friends along with the biggest Axxis fan club in Germany. I liked meeting the girls in Axxis's fanclub that helped us in setting up the merchandise stands and everything else (food, drinks..). Axxis played 20 songs and in every one of them, the crowd sang along. Berny is quite a showman, al the time talking to the public and making jokes at some moment even inviting randomly a girl from the public to come on the stage (it turned out to be from Prague) and play tambourine during the acoustic version of the song "Touch the rainbow". Cool! !

Ana in Munich	Marco playing Dean	Beware ! Uwe is watching !	Berny and Ana in "Take my hand"
I see you looking at me !	Rob raises the Infinity !	Straight from the dark!	The Time Minister

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01 Dec

Lichtenfels

Stadthalle

Lichtenfels was the place with the nicest dressing rooms. It is preety strange that in Germany we did not get a wireless connection, but everything else was great. Dani the stage manager is a very cool guy and during the guitar line check before the shows, I saw that he can play guitar very good. It was funny when I asked him if he has a band of his own, becase he answered: - Eh, nobody cares !. And in a way, he is right. When you are in the backstage of Helloween, nothing else matters. This time AXXIS played 45 minutes and the crowd responded very well to their show.

Stage right before the show	Lichtenfels hall	Henjo - Gamma Ray - in the catering - arranging a special dessert just for Ana	Tango ?
For anyone who wonders about how Bernard Weiss's underwear looks like.	Axxis live	Kai - Gamma Ray	Axxis on stage

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02 Dec

Bremen

Aladin

Aladin is exactly how the name suggests it ; a venue like it would have been built in the 1001 arabian nights. Very nice. The stage was somehow small though and Andre Hilgers had not enough place for setting u his drumkit on stage so he was forced to play on the Gamma Ray drumkit . Axxis's concert was very good and it had a boost because Marco's family was present in the audience. During the show when Berny presented Ana, he observed a group of people in front of the stage that were a litte more enthusiastic than the others. So then he somehow got the ideea of asking if there were any romanians in the venue. Indeed the group that I told you about responded that yes, they were romanians. So Berny thought for a second about some romanian words that he had learned for me and spoke to them very clearly:" Sa te fut ! " Hahahaha ! It was hilarious and at the same time strange. Jeez ! In the future I have to teach him some nice words...

After Axxis finished their show and we cleared the stage of their equipment, we stayed and watched Helloween perform. Wow..we are really impressed by Andy Derris. I was a long time fan of Helloween, but now Ana is a fan of Andy Deris. On the stage he is a God.
Of course we finshed the evening (or morning) in the tourbus with Jackie Daniels and red wine.

Helloveen - Alladin	Weiki	double trouble	Derris - kicking ass
whaaat?	pumpkin bass		Sacha and Dean

03 Dec

Flensburg

Tonight Axxis has a headliner show in Flensburg . So I will add pictures later after the show. We had a very nice dressing room. Berny talked a lot during this show, makeing a lot of jokes and asking a kid from the audience to play tambourine during one of the acoustic song. After the show we had a surprise from Eveline (our bus driver) who prepared for us a very tasty tzatzichi sallad with tourkish bread. It was so cool, but in the next morning when we arrived to Gotheburg - Sweden, everybody left the bus in a hurry because of the garlic smell that was present in the whole bus.

04 Dec

Goteborg

SWE

Liseberghallen

We arrived at Goteborg during the night so I was sleeping durin the ferry ride (damn, I wanted to take pictures). The venue is situated in a kind of an amusement park. We had a little trouble with the police that wouldn'let us park the tourbus in front of the venue so we can loadout the equipment but fianly we managed to convince them that after we would take our stuff out we woud park somewhere else. Cool. Again we didn't have time to go out in the city because the tight schedule. But tomorrow is a day off in Oslo so I hope there will be time to have some fun. It's a good thing that we have Markus of Helloween that makes the time backstage more fun :) . Here are some pictures.

Goteborg hall before the show	Ana & Rob	Whaaaat ?	Ana on stage
marco headbang	Berny magic	Bogdan & Andre	Axxis
Axxis	Axxis tour manager	picture in the shower

06 Dec

Oslo

NOR

Rockefeller

Yesterday we had an off day in Oslo. Very nice city but fucking expensive. For an example: If you want to exchane 50Euro , they would give you back the exchange of about 30 euro in norvegian money because the rest of 20 euros is exchange tax. Fuck ! But we had a nice time visiting the city in the harbour area and slept in a cool hotel where we took the oportunity of washing some socks and underwear. hehe ! cool !


visiting the Oslo Harbour	gotta protect the voice		Oslo fishermen
	yours truly	view from Rockefeller

10 Dec

Tampere

FIN

Pakkahuone

Right after the show in Stockholm everyone was invited to an aftershow party in a local pub so the departure was delayed untll morning. We boarded on a Viking line ferry called Isabela. Wow that was big ( 10 decks inside and another 2 out). So we traveled between Stockholm and Turcu (Finland) by ferry and I made a lot of pictures because it was a 12 hour sail and I could not sleep. Ana and Harry had a little probem with motion sickness but nothing that a little pill could not resolve . We arrived in Turcu and had to travel another 170 km to Tampere where the first Finnish show will happen. The scandinavian atmosphere during the winter is indeed preety dull part because there are ony a few hours of light per day and part because of the wet and cold atmosphere. But hey ! One more reason for Jackie Daniels !

Bogdan & Andy	Ana with thomann groupie t-shirt	ferry boarding 2	ferry boarding 1
dark, cold & wet scandinavian sailing	ferry night	seawolf :)	ferry view 1
ferry view 2	ferry view 3	ferry bar & restaurant	ferry deck 5 (cabins)

tampere 1		funny faces Ana & Andre	tampere2
	Rob & Marco - is this love ?

Harry and Andre	Rob & Andre	foursome	Rob & Andre part2
Andre Rob Harry	Berny signing	Rob rocking	chin showup
Andre signing	Santa Markus Großkopf	Rob signing	Beerview of Berny

Tampere concert hall

21 Dec

Langen

Stadhalle

Right after the show in Helsinky we boarded on another ferry for 24 hours of sailing to Rostock Germany. From there we drove with the nightliner to Axxis's rehearsal room where we unloaded all equipment because it was time for a small break. Uwe rented a car to take Harry home and us to the Dusseldorf airport. We flew back to Bucuresti and from there a friend drove us home to Constanta. We finally arrived home ready to wash our clothes, socks & stuff. This break was good because it gave us time to pay our monthly taxes without asing anybody else to do it for us . Cool ..we arrived home on 17 dec and time passed very fast so it's 21 and we have to leave again for 3 shows in Germany. Our plane (I'm talking about Ana & me) was leaving at 9:00 from Bucharest , so we woke up very early because it takes about 3 or 4 hours of driving from Constanta to Bucharest and we had to be present at the airport 2 hours in advance of the plane takeoff. SO you do the math.:) . We got to Frankfurt (wow..they have a huge airport) where Uwe was expecting us and he took us to the hotel where I slep for 1 hour (Ana couldn't..she was too tired to sleep just 1 hour :)) ) . Finally we arrived at the venue where we met eveybody again and we exchangd hugs :).On this three shows we do not have the nightliner but Axxis came with automobiles plus a minivan for the equipment .The Axxis show was very good tonight , the crowd was amazing and Ana although she was very tired, sang unbeliavable cool...Great !! After the show we even met the guys of EdGuy who were present at the concert. Right after the Gamma Ray show , Axxis went to the merch boot for a signingsession and after this we went straight for the hotel for sleeping...finally...
On 22 December we set on driving for Kaufbeuren - All Karthalle . We encountered some traffic jams on the highway but we managed to avoid some thanks to the advanced GPS on Berny's car. While driving we glanced continuously at the fantastic scenery. It seemed like all Germany was frozen. (there's a pic to see for yourselves). When we got to the venue I realized that Axxis have been there before severa times because all over the wals there were concert posters with dates since 10 years ago. About 2000 people were present that night. It was a cool show. After the gig was finished, Ana introduced Axxis to "Palinka" (a very strong but amazing drink she brought from home). I personaly think that this drink is better than Axxis's favourite drink (Jack Daniels) . But the Guys from Axxis thought it it too strong for their taste. It doesn t mater because I'll train them in the second part (I'll bring a BIG bottle of Palinka this time) hehehe !

On the 23 Decembre we arrived at Quasi Moto in Pirmasens where Axxis had a headliner show. The band Messenger was the opener for the night and they played a good heavy metal set. Axxis met a longtime friend (Michael) and he helped in bringing some backline equipment, setting up the stage and takeing care of the light show . Thank you !

mesmerized crowd	Hot for teacher !	Icy landscape	Frozen view !	serious playing
Ana thinks that Sennheiser rocks !	Rob happy with the Infinity sound :).	Marco smiling to his Dean	Rob trying to bite the microphone.	Messenger opening for Axxis in Pirmassens

That's it for the first part of the Hellish Rock Tour !
See you in 2008 !
Happy New Year !!!

05 Jan

Paris

Elysee Montmatre

The short break we had for the new year is over and we are now in Paris ready to start the second part of the tour. We lived a real adventure on our way ere because when we left from home it happened that there was a very big snow storm and all the transportation between Constanta and Bucharest was closed . The trains were not working , the highways were closed hundreds of cards were trapped under snow on national roads and the airport was closed cancelling about 20 flights. So we were really wondering if we were going to make it to Paris for this second part of the tour. Finaly we found a guy with a bigger car that was crazy enough to take us to the airport inspite a the bad weather. We got lucky with a snow plow that we caught and we drowe behind it on the worst part of the road. Finaly we got to the airport and we arrived in Paris but here...surprise ..We did not find our luggage..and after inquireing ..it was clear that TAROM (the flying comany that we came with) lost the baggage of 15 people. Ana was desperate because all her stage clothes were in the lost baggage ....not to talk about all underwear and socks for allmost 3 weeks of tour. Everything had a happy end eventually because the guys at Charles de Gaulle airport found the lost baggage and they delivered it to Elysee Montmatre on the second day of our stay in Paris.
The concerts were great but my impression was that the second show on 6 january was a lot better and the audience responded very well to al bands. Magica is also well known in Paris because of the good job that Underclass-music did with our promotion here. I received many cool reactions and congrats from many Magica fans that were present at the concert. I think the second show of Axxis got a little better because Ana was happy because she knew they have found her luggage, so she sang with full force :).

All photos by Manuel Pasteur.

Backstage Elysee with our friend Phill

Andi Derris and Ana Mladinovici

Ana & Manuel

Axxis, Ana & Manuel ...backstage Elysee

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07 Jan

Tillburg

013

Tillburg is a very nice town and becuse me and Ana had a little time we went on a little shopping walk. Ana bought some cool clothes but I didn't find any Playstation 2 games with cars eventhough I looked in 2 different stores.
The show was great although we had a little problem with the snaredrum that got broken at the last song and we just couldn't find the spare snare very fast because it got moved by somebody from its normal place. Andre got a little upset but, we explained the situation to him and everythng was ok in the end.

Marco right before the show	Andre right before the snare broke	013 hall in Tillburg	Hairy Bernie	Ana looking up from behind the stage
Reconstruction	Fuck you you fuckin' fuck fuck !!!!!!	mirror mirror on the wall tel me who's the preetiest of them all !		tillburg..ana on the right side

08 Jan

London

The Forum

The trip to London was interesting because we used the Eurotunnel and we boarded a train with the whole tourbus and everything. So the motion was interesting because whie the bus was inside the train , it's suspension were enhanceind the movement very very much, so I even had to get off the bus for my stomac to feel a little better. In London we walked a little and after that we met the AFM promoter from London and (Ana and me) had to to a interview for the Fireworks magazine regarding Magica, and then he took us in the center of London for an interview at a radio station in a gothic rock show hosted by Natasha "bat" :). The britsh audience was warmer to Axxis than we expected so the band was really happy with the reaction of the public. As allways I had to go in all the restricted area places :)) and because the venue had 3 levels of balcony I went as high as posible and took a picture of Gamma Ray. Of course some security guy came after me and told me to get out of there, but my work was allready dome and I was happy. Tomorrow we have an off day in Antwerp...cool !!!

11 Jan

Tuttlingen

Alte Festhalle

Bogdan & Marco	Marco	Hillgers	Marco retuning on stage
Harry	Rob'n Roll	Ana	Gamma Drums
G Ray	Kai, Bogdan & Henjo	Ana & Marco

12 Jan

Karlsruhe

Europahalle

Knockout fest with
Within Temptation

And finally the day I was waiting for a few days now...we arrived to karlsrhue where Axxis is going to take part in the Knockout Festival with EPICA, PARADISE LOST, WITHIN TEMPTATION and of course GAMMA RAY and HELLOWEEN. It was a real pleasure to meet Marc from Epica again and I am glad that I was able to talk to Sharon del Adel for a few moments. I was pleasantly surprised when she told me that she knows Magica already. The WT show was awesome, and eventhough I don't really like the new way that the new songs are going to, I enjoyed their show. At first I was a little worried that they would not be able to arrive because they had some trouble during the day when they were stuck somewhere in the snow and their bus had some problems, but in the end everithing turned ok and eventhough they were very late, at least they were able to play. I am impressed by Simone Simmons from Epica who sang very good . It is a shame that I don't really like their songs, but I can tell that she's good. I am a little disspointed by Paradise Lost who did not play quite ok. I do not know why, but I did not feel the power that they have on the recordings...It was nice to meet our promotion lady, Iris from Focution...Cool Girl !..

Empty Europahalle	Epica	Mark from Epica
Simone live	Simone live 2	Europahalle full
Axxis live	Marco riffing...Andre in the background	Rob & Marco ....KotN

Mr. Mackintosh from P.Lost	P.Lost again	Nikolai
Ana with Iris from Focution	Ana with Sharon del Adel	Sharon
Within Temptation	W.T. setlist	W.Temptation