All rain now?

It sure was a busy weekend before my first week of vacation. Iron Maiden on Friday July 1st, Headbangers Open Air Warm Up party at Jörgen's place and then Big 4 at Ullevi which I was fortunate enough to get tickets to from a friend. And one thing I still have a little hard to believe was that Livenation gave me a photopass for the event. It all got too tricky in the end so I decided to just watch Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer and only "shoot" Metallica... i couldn't bring the camera inside the venue (more than for the photopit for the first three songs) and ask that the Livenation staff should let me back in between each band felt a little too much. I was really impressed with Metallica. I lost interest in them long ago but some of it came back, those classics are really fantastic. But Anthrax were the best on that event, Joey Belladonna just gets better and better. I never thought he would sing the Bush songs but Only worked perfetly for him! Still, the Big 4 couln't beat IRON MAIDEN!!! I asked for a photopass for Iron Maiden as well, I thought I can't get more than no...

More on that on Metal Kaoz

Big 4

Iron Maiden

'Tallica (as the photopass said)

I'm not sure how long it has been since I started talking about a new vest... The old one I think has been with me since -98 or -99 something. They're not the easiest to wash and hanging with me all summers through sun, rain, dust, mud and perhaps some beer too... It takes its toll... Also the backpatch (signed by Mikkey Dee) started to rip. One of the priest patches on the front was completely blank and also the Hall Of The Mountain King was starting to give in, for not speak about the pockets.

I started design in when I still was living in Gävle, made a few mistakes, added patches on the wrong places and gave up. For Maiden and Metallica I realized the old one was at Peter's flat in Malmö...

Said and done! It's still not finished, have a little more to do but I figured I can do that later. Of course, almost finishing up I found a bunch of patches I had picked out from the start so we'll see what happens in the fall with it (and if the homemade Savatage patch on the back holds). It's a little hard to believe the old was just as black as the new one when that one was new. So nowadays I have Black Sabbath instead of Motörhead on the back.

After the hectic weekend it was time to head north. I spent a few days at my parents place just relaxing and help out with a little of each, mowing the lawn and free the wild strawberries from tares and thistles. Those pinchy bastarts itch like hell!!! But it was nice to just be out in the sun wroking a little physically. i also managed to take a trip to Gävle and meet up for dinner with some of my old workmates, that was nice too...

Getaway Rock Festival was another reason I went up there at this time... Again a very nice Festival (Accept & Kreator were the best), great arrangement, cool lineup and lots of friends from now and way past. Really nice. More on that (too) at another time.

Speaking about the Headbangers Open Air warm up! I realized it's no fun, as it was on KIT this year, to just have listened to the bands once or twice prior to the Festival. Even if I knew a lot of the bands it still is much more fun digging into it for real. So after the HOA BBQ party at Jörgens place there has been a lot more music than usual. But that sure is a lot of fun and the more I listen the more I'm looking forward to the festival! Even if know a lot of the bands already there's always new stuff to discover. I looked past Striker for example, a few listenings later and I'm really looking forward to see them. Evil One, Leviathan are two others... I still think the battle for best bad will be between Fates Warning and Slough Feg but we'll see!

But first another week in a very empty office. That's very nice! I still have a lot to do but there's noone around to disturb me. I might actually get something done then!!!

Cheers

E

NP: Vulvagun - Cold Moon Over Babylon