Τετάρτη 17 Ιουνίου 2009

HELSTAR TOUR Entry #5

My last entry: I would apologize for not writing sooner, but I did that last time and the excuse is the same anyways!! Haha! As you might imagine, the final few days of the tour were very hectic; we had 3 shows to play and a lot of driving to get to each of them on time, so needless to say, there was not much internet browsing or typing on a laptop in a crowded Mercedes Sprinter to get to it all in time!

So, where did I leave off??? Oh yeah, we were leaving Bologna to get to Freiburg and then on to Aschaffenburg to play at the Collasaal (sp?) club... So, we made it back to Freiburg and (by now) our new home at the local Etap hotel! We got in with enough time to grab a few brews from the machine downstairs and make a couple of Skype calls back home. The next day we left for Aschaffenburg. What can I say, this was a cool little town with lots of gift shops and places to walk very nearby the venue... What no one told us was IT SHUTS DOWN at 7:00PM, so after soundcheck and dinner I thought I would actually get a chance to take a walk and do some shopping... WRONG. Oh well, the airport gift shop it is - AGAIN...

So, the show was really cool! Our good friend Oliver, from Keep It True was onhand as well as some other friends of ours and the crowd, again, was just very kind to us! We played an extended set which included Angel of Death(e) and that made Oliver happy... We made some new friends in the band Evolution. Cool guys, you must check them out as well... So, we basically did the gig and left to stay with our Friend Chris from Courageous and his wife in their home. Again, the hospitality was rolled out for us and we all had a good place to sleep and got some much needed rest. In the morning, Chris's wife treated us all to a HUGE breakfast!!! Yum! All kinds of eggs, sausage, bacon, deli meats, fresh fruit, cereal, it went on and on my friends!!! So, we filled up our tanks and then left for Hellendoorn to play with Forbidden.

Meeting Forbidden was for me a very cool thing. We shared a room with them and yet another cool, up and coming Dutch band named Thrashed. These kids were great! They have a lot going on and hope to hear more from them! All three bands had great sets and spent the rest of the night partying in the room until it was time to go... Which for us was back to Ramon and Kirsten's place in Eindhoven! Ah, like going home again! It was definitely a good thing we did go there as opposed to heading towards Sweden as we had originally planned... The promoter, Roman, had all of our passports!!! Man, that was a close one! After luckily getting in touch with him, we spent the morning cleaning out and repacking the van for the last trip to Sweden...

Just as we finished, Roman pulls up and gives us our passports - RELIEF!!!

So, we end up leaving Eindhoven at 2:30 for what should have been about a 7 hour drive - uh, no... Our dumb asses took a longer route which took us through Flensburg and then Copenhagen. We did not get to the hostel in Copenhagen until 1:30 in the morning!!! Arrgghh!!! That was the longest, fucked up drive of the entire tour my friends!!! My head could not find the pillow any faster than it did that night! To top it all off, we had to check out by 10:00am!!!

Okay, enough bitching! We woke up at 9:50 in the morning and in what has to go down as the quickest Helstar has EVER gotten ready and left a hotel in the ENTIRE HISTORY of the band, we were out of there at 10:00 am sharp! Wow, so why can't we ever do that any other time???

So, off we go to pick up our agent, Lars and his buddy and we head off to Solvesberg for Sweden Rock. We arrived within 2.5 hours of leaving Copenhagen and proceeded to check in with the festival staff and then off to check into our hotel rooms. Man, that was a nice place! It wasn't the best hotel I've ever stayed in, but man, it was a nice way to end the run! I almost didn't wanna leave to play the gig!! haha!

But, we couldn't do that, we had a siging session at 5:00 pm, so we took a quick 1 hour nap, got ready, and again, hit the road to the festival.

Upon arriving at the festival grounds, we immediately headed for the signing session. It was cool; not as many fans as we thought might show, but in retrospect, there was SO much going on, it was understandable why not so many fans did come... Not to mention, our new Forbidden buds were just about to hit the stage! So, we wrapped up the siging about 5:30 and headed for our trailer to unload some gear, ate a quick dinner and the ran over to catch up with the Forbidden guys jsut before they were about to go onstage. Man, that was way cool to check them out from sidestage... So, I watched the first 3 songs and then headed to get warmed up for our show. I have to be honest, I was a bit worried that we might not have a good crowd to play to - we were the very last act to go on before Heaven and Hell, playing the smallest stage, after a long 4 day festival... To top it off, they put up a large screen and displayed the qualifying soccer match between Sweden and Denmark right up until 20 minutes prior to our gig and then SWEDEN LOST!!! So, as you might imagine, when the game was on, the tent was PACKED with like 2000+ people. When the match was over, the place CLEARED OUT!!! We were really wondering how this would turn out...

Little, by little, people started to come in, at first there were only a few people in front of the stage as we performed last minute line checks....Then a few more... Then a few 'Helstar, Helstar, Helstar' chants began... Next thing you know, the intro is rolling and we are about to hit the stage. When I walked out just moments before hitting the first few chords for The King of Hell, I was very pleased to see a packed house!

We busted into probably one of our most inspired and energetic performance to date and the crowd loved it! We had an absolute blast and before we knew it, it was down to the last song. Little did any of us know what James was up to offstage... I ran over to let him know we were cutting the set by one song in order to make the time and next thing I know, he runs up onstage with fellow Texan and lead singer for Candlemass, Rob Lowe. Actually, Rob didn't know either, but he had made the most of it and helped us get the crowd really fired up for Baptized in Blood. When it was all said and done, we were totally psyched and happy to have been invited to play this festival and we hope to get invited back to Sweden again in the near future. The Swedish fans waited many, many years to see Helstar live, so hopefully it won't take as long from here on!

So, really that about sums it up for me... Sure, there is more, but it is really just more driving, taking wrong turns, getting the GPS screwed up, etc, etc, so I don't want to end on that note.

What I would like to end on is this: This tour nearly failed. We nearly packed it all in that day in Hamburg, but we didn't give up. I have to give credit to James for his perserverence and determination to forge on and make this trip happen; I have to thank each of my band mates for stepping up to the plate and hitting it out of the park each and every day; I have to thank all of the promoters who took a chance on us and all of the very cool people who came out to support us at each and every show (Stefan, again with the whisky!!!). I also want to thank Schmier, Oliver, and 'Tom Cruise' for coming out to support us and the Forbidden guys for being way cool. I have to thank all of our support acts for being cool enough to loan us gear every night...

Lastly, I have to thank our very, very good friends, Ramon and Kirsten, Chris and Chris, and Gabe for offering up their homes to us. Randy Rand for teching for us in Essen and Kuno for selling our merch, not once, but twice! There are no words to describe the generosity these people displayed and for that, we are forever thankful...

I know I am missing some people here, but trust me, we appreciate each and every one of you out there - Until we meet again... Stay Metal my brothers and sisters!

Horns up!
Rob.

Πέμπτη 4 Ιουνίου 2009

HELSTAR TOUR Entry #4


Hello again... I've been meaning to send another update, but alas, we've been driving so damned much that there is not much time! So, we played the Z7 to a small, albeit, very enthusiastic crowd! If you've never been there, it holds well over 1000 people, so it was pretty empty overall. However, as I said, the crowd was very enthusiastic and loud. We enjoyed the evening and played a great set... So, the next day we drove to Slovenia... What an experience that was! Driving up in the mountains, going through SNOW in late May!!! Something we'll never see back home. We stayed at some small bed and breakfast type place owned by an older Slovenian couple - they were nice, even though we dropped in every night about 3:00 am!!! hehe... So, the show was off the hook and CRAZY!!! Definitely the highlight of the tour thus far. Drank too much vodka and hot Lasko beer! We left for Italy on Monday and played in Bologna. I wish we had more time there, but it was pretty much drop in, play, party, sleep, and leave! Pretty small crowd, it was a national holiday, which we thought might help, but who knows??? Anyway, the promoter and staff were VERY professional and treated us well, so it was still an enjoyable experience.

Okay, that's it for now... We leave in an hour for Aschaffenburg, Germany and then on to Hellendoorn to play the show with Forbidden. We'll send more as we can!

Cheers!

Rob



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HELSTAR EUROPEAN TOUR DIARY – Entry #4

Γεια σας ξανά…αυτή τη φορά η νέα καταχώρηση ήρθε λίγο καθυστερημένα, αφού βρισκόμασταν διαρκώς στο δρόμο! Χθες παίξαμε στο Z7 Club μπροστά σε ένα μικρό αλλά ενθουσιώδες κοινό. Το club παίρνει πάνω από 1000 άτομα και έτσι ήταν λογικό να φαίνεται άδειο. Περάσαμε όμως τέλεια και την επόμενη μέρα ξεκινήσαμε για τη Σλοβενία…Η διαδρομή ήταν εντυπωσιακή, μιας και περνούσαμε μέσα από χιονισμένα τοπία στα τέλη Μαΐου! Είναι κάτι που δεν συναντάς εύκολα στην Αμερική. Η συναυλία εκεί ήταν σίγουρα το highlight της περιοδείας ως αυτό το σημείο, τουλάχιστον. Ήπια πολύ μπύρα και vodka! Τη Δευτέρα παίξαμε στη Bologna…μακάρι να είχαμε περισσότερο χρόνο στη διάθεση μας για να δούμε και λίγο την Ιταλική πόλη. Ο διοργανωτής μας είπε ότι ήταν Εθνική Εορτή…

Αυτά προς το παρόν..φεύγουμε για Aschaffenburg (Γερμανία) και μας περιμένει το Hellendoorn όπου θα παίξουμε με τους Forbidden! Αυτά προς το παρόν…

Rob (μετάφραση: Σάκης Νίκας)

Σάββατο 30 Μαΐου 2009

HELSTAR TOUR ENTRY #3


HELSTAR TOUR ENTRY #3

Ah, the joys of touring... So, just when we thought everything was running rather smoothly, we woke up Tuesday morning in Hamburg to learn that our support band, Loch Vostok, had broken down in Sweden and would not be able to make the tour with us!!!! In a single phone call, all of our plans were up-ended and we spent the entire day scrambling to find a way to continue this tour! You might wonder why this was such a huge deal to us; well, we were going to use that band's backline for the remainder of the tour, plus we were sharing the bus with them as a way to help both bands out financially. Without them or their bus, we were stuck in Hamburg! I suppose the upside to this was the fact that at least were in Hamburg, where our flights back home originate, so if we had to change our flights, we could have rather easily...

However, this was not our intention; we've waited a long time to tour this CD and we weren't about to give up without a fight! So, let's see, we had to find a band for the gig that evening at Markthalle and then find a large enough sprinter to carry our luggage, gear, and merch - not an easy task if you know how much crap we have with us! Anyway, the promoter found us an appropriate support band and the show went on! We owe a huge THANK YOU to the band 'Gods of Hate' so please check them out here: http://www.godsofhate.de/

Next, we found a large enough Mercedes Sprinter to carry us around in, so the tour marches on my friends! Anyway, back to Hamburg, once all of the headaches had begun to reside, we had a great time at the gig! We met some old and again, new, friends. The crowd, though small, was VERY INTENSE and loud. It was a hot, sweaty, night of metal and all had a great time.

So, yesterday found us driving for 9 freaking hours as we got turned around on our way to Pratteln... We made the mistake of choosing to stay in Freiburg, which is some 60Km's from Pratteln, which would have been okay had we mapped it out! We had directions to the etap hotel in Pratteln, but decided it would be best to stay in Freiburg for the way out to the next show in Slovenia, but we made this decision in the van on the way... We had no internet access or directions, so well, you can imagine how that went! Anyway, we managed to get here around 11:30 at night, just in time for a quick bite to eat, and a couple of whisky colas...

Okay, so today we leave for Pratteln and the Z7 and then on to Kranj... We'll update again in a day or two!

Cheers!

Rob

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HELSTAR TOUR ENTRY #3

Οι χαρές της περιοδείας…εκεί που νομίζαμε ότι όλα πήγαιναν καλά, ξυπνήσαμε την Τρίτη στο Αμβούργο όπου διαπιστώσαμε ότι η μπάντα άνοιγε τις συναυλίες μας (Loch Vostok) διαλύθηκαν την προηγούμενη μέρα στη Σουηδία και έτσι θα έπρεπε να κάνουμε κάτι πολύ γρήγορα αφού για τις επόμενες συναυλίες είχαμε κανονίσει να παίζουμε με τον δικό τους εξοπλισμό. Έπρεπε να βρούμε ένα support group, εξοπλισμό, tour bus και τη δύναμη να συνεχίσουμε. Δεν θα τα παρατούσαμε με τίποτα…είχαμε περάσει άλλωστε πολλά για να πραγματοποιήσουμε αυτή τν Ευρωπαϊκή περιοδεία. Ευτυχώς για εμάς, βρέθηκαν οι Gods of Hate (τσεκάρετε τους στο www.godsofhate.de) και με τη βοήθεια τους συνεχίζουμε την περιοδεία.

Η συναυλία στο Αμβούργο ήταν πολύ έντονη, αν και δεν μαζεύτηκε τελικά πολύς κόσμος.
Η επόμενη στάση ήταν το Pratteln, όπου χρειάστηκαν 9 ώρες οδήγησης για να φτάσουμε εκεί (μιας και είχαμε αποφασίσει να μένουμε στο Freiburg για να είμαστε πιο κοντά στη Σλοβενία…ο επόμενος σταθμός μας)….

Rob (μετάφραση Σάκης Νίκας)

Entry #2

HELSTAR TOUR DIARY – Entry #2

Hey, I finally have some time to sit and type out an update since Saturday...It is currently 9:00 pm and we've landed back in Hamburg after the run down to Essen and Eindhoven. Both shows were KILLER!!! We understand with the economy these days, it's hard on everyone to dish out the cash for metal shows, especially for a band at our level, however, we still managed to have really decent turnouts for the first two shows! Regardless of how many people came, the enthusiasm was off the hook and it has been a great start to our run!

So, here is a recap of how it all went down: We drive into Eindhoven to meet with our great friends Ramon and Kirsten at their place! We arrived just in time; the grill was lit, the beer was cold (and plentiful), and the meat was ready! Within an hour we were feasting and enjoying good times with ours hosts as well as other friends of our who stopped by to party. Needless to say, we drank too much, ate too much, and definitely stayed up too late! Haha! Anyway, I figure we were all down by 4:00 or so in the morning... We awoke to learn that James was VERY sick and could not hold anything down... Too much alcohol??? Hmmm, well, I know James and I saw how much he drank and he's definitely thrown down much harder without getting sick, so who knows, could have been anything, but the dude was ILL! So, we finally got him some sleep and then left for Essen; the promoter and staff were very cool and treated us to a great Indian dinner - uh, all of us minus James! Well, making a long story short, James went back to the bus to sleep a bit, some chick was trying to give him homeopathic healing or something... Nothing worked - he was puking right up to showtime. So, yeah, you have to believe we were all concerned about this show and whether he could make it. The dude had NOTHING in his stomach and was dehydrated. Making things worse was the fact that the stage was HOT... Anyway, we proceeded to roll the intro and...........

HE FUCKING KICKED ASS!!! What can I say? Somehow, adrenaline took over and he sang the entire 1 1/2 hour set! Amazing....

Uh, so after that we partied with some old and new friends for a bit, drank again too much, minus Mr. Rivera, and then left back to Eindhoven.

When we returned to Ramon and Kirsten's place, James immediately went to bed - any of you who know James knows he hates to miss a good party! But, he did what he had to do and went straight to bed... I followed shortly thereafter, but fucking Russ and Larry had to eat, so here is Ramon busting out some more leftover meat from the day before, slapped it on an electric grill indoors and proceeded to fix them up with some bad ass chicken and pork... So, let's see, I was trying to sleep and these guys coming busting into the room upstairs and woke me up... No one freaking told me that daylight comes so damned early this time of year!!! It was 4:30 or something and it was light outside. The drunken assholes passed right the fuck out and I spent the next hour trying to get back to sleep...

So, we all wake up at 1:00pm or something and started to get going, showered, etc. Ramon made us fantastic bacon and eggs Dutch style!!! Hel yeah, that was the shit there!!! And, lo and behold, Mr. Rivera was bright-eyed and bushy tailed and ready to go! So, we made it up to the Dynamo about 4:00 and went about the business of soundcheck, dinner, etc... Doors opened about 7:00 and we were on at 9:00 or so... We had a blast; getting into a rhythm after all the travel to get her, etc. The crowd was fantastic and LOUD! Again, the promoter Roman and the entire staff at the Dynamo were so cool and very hospitable! Cheers to those guys!

Afterward, there was an after party at the Rambler where the owner proceeded to make us drink all kinds of alcoholic concoctions, beers, whisky, you name it. To top it off, we ended up in taxis back to Ramon's where he then busted out the bitter balls and frikadels... and dude, don't ask me what is in them... I don't really wanna know. Though, they were quite delectable! Monday morning (uh, afternoon) came much too soon and next thing you know, we were on our way back to Hamburg... After settling in and grabbing some awesome Gyro plates, we are back at the hotel and trying to get some rest for tomorrow's gig at Markthalle... Well, that is all for now; check back soon!

Cheers!

Rob

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HELSTAR TOUR DIARY – Entry #2

Επιτέλους, βρήκα μία ευκαιρία να κάτσω να γράψω όλα αυτά που συνέβησαν μετά το Essen και το Eindhoven. Και τα δύο live ήταν φανταστικά, αφού μαζεύτηκε αρκετός κόσμος (παρά τα γνωστά οικονομικά προβλήματα και την κρίση που υπάρχει σε όλο τον κόσμο). Ήταν η ιδανική αρχή για το ξεκίνημα της περιοδείας. Αφού φτάσαμε στο Eindhoven, πήγαμε στο σπίτι των καλών φίλων (οι οποίοι είναι και promoters), Ramon και Kirsten…Φτάσαμε στην ώρα μας, αφού η φωτιά ήταν αναμμένη, οι μπύρες παγωμένες και τα φαγητά έτοιμα για να ψηθούν. Εννοείται ότι φάγαμε και ήπιαμε πολύ αλλά μόλις ξυπνήσαμε διαπιστώσαμε ότι ο James ήταν πολύ άρρωστος…πολύ αλκοόλ…; Ποιος ξέρει; Ένα θα σου πω: Έχω δει τον James να πίνει πολύ περισσότερο και να μην έχει κανένα απολύτως πρόβλημα!

Όταν φτάσαμε στο Essen και πλησίαζε η ώρα για να ξεκινήσει η συναυλία ανησυχούσαμε για τον James, αφού ήταν τελείως αφυδατωμένος, χλωμός και δεν μπορούσε καν να σηκωθεί από το κρεβάτι. Μόλις βάλαμε την εισαγωγή και έκλεισαν τα φώτα, έγινε το απίστευτο! Ο James ανέβηκε στη σκηνή και ήταν απλά εντυπωσιακός! He Fuckin’ Kicked Ass!

Μετά το show, ήπιαμε μερικές μπύρες και ο James επέστρεψε στο κρεβάτι του για να ανακτήσει δυνάμεις…βέβαια, του την έσπασε που δεν μπορούσε να είναι στο party μαζί μας! Την επόμενη μέρα φεύγαμε για το Eindhoven και χρειαζόμασταν όλοι ύπνο…κλασικά, λοιπόν, ο Larry και ο Russell φρόντισαν να μεθύσουν και να μην αφήσουν κανένα να κοιμηθεί! Ευτυχώς, το επόμενο πρωινό ο κ. Rivera ήταν ξανά σε φόρμα και ορεξάτος. Η εμφάνιση στο Dynamo ήταν καταπληκτική και ο κόσμος δεν σταμάτησε να φωνάζει! Θα τα πούμε ξανά στην επόμενη καταχώρηση…

Rob (μετάφραση: Σάκης Νίκας)




HELSTAR EUROPEAN TOUR DIARY – Entry #1

Helstar is embarking on their first European Tour in many years and we asked the band if they would be interested in writing their won tour diary for us! The guys were more than happy to do so and what we have here is Helstar’s Tour Diary in the words of the band’s guitarist Rob Trevino. Shortly, there will also be available exclusive videos from the “Hell Over Europe” tour…only on RockpagesTV!

HELSTAR EUROPEAN TOUR DIARY – Entry #1

Let's see, where to start? We've had a couple of very cool days... We arrived in Hamburg on Wednesday and proceeded to sleep... Well, at least for 4 or 5 hours and then we headed out for a night out on the town. Drinking at various bars, we managed to find our way to the 'Night Life' Heavy Metal bar and threw down some brews with the local and visiting metalheads... Larry had a strange experience with some French dude... Uh, probably better left unsaid, but... Let's just say everything was cool until the dude licked his ear! haha! Larry's like, "Dude, it's time to go." So, yesterday we left Hamburg and the ear licking incident for Eindhoven... We partied at our good friends Ramon and Kirsten's house... BBQ and brews, uh and later the scotch... Oooh, today is a bit slow getting everyone going... About to leave for Essen to play at Turock tonight... Dynamo tomorrow, we'll update probably by Monday... Cheers!

Rob Trevino


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Με την ευκαιρία της πρώτης Ευρωπαϊκής περιοδείας των Helstar, ζητήσαμε από τη μπάντα να μας γράφει ανά τακτά χρονικά διαστήματα ώστε να έχουμε μία άμεση επαφή και αντίληψη για το τι συμβαίνει εκεί. Ο κιθαρίστας, Rob Trevino, θα μας στέλνει τα κείμενα του ενώ προσεχώς θα υπάρχουν και αποκλειστικά videaκια για το Rockpages TV.

HELSTAR EUROPEAN TOUR DIARY – Entry #1

Από πού να ξεκινήσουμε…; Είχαμε δύο πολύ καλές μέρες…Φτάσαμε στο Αμβούργο την Τετάρτη (20/5) και πήγαμε κατευθείαν για ύπνο. Μετά από 4-5 ώρες, βγήκαμε έξω για μία βόλτα στην πόλη…ήπιαμε μερικές μπύρες στο Heavy Metal Bar όπου και συναντήσαμε μερικούς φίλους metalheads. O Larry είχε μία παράξενη εμπειρία με έναν περίεργο Γάλλο τύπο…όλα φαίνονταν κανονικά μέχρι που ο τύπος έγλειψε το αυτί του Larry (γέλια)! Ο Larry σηκώθηκε να φύγει και μετά από λίγες ώρες είχαμε αφήσει πίσω μας το Αμβούργο και το περίεργο αυτό περιστατικό για να πάμε στο Eindhoven. Πήγαμε στο σπίτι δύο καλών μας φίλων για barbeque και σήμερα πρέπει να φύγουμε για το Essen και να παίξουμε στο Turock…αύριο θα είμαστε στο Dynamo. Για αυτά θα μιλήσουμε στην επόμενη καταχώρηση…

Rob Trevino (μετάφραση: Σάκης Νίκας)