2008.10.08/26 - GWYDION European Tour Report :: RAGNAROK'S AASKEREIA FESTIVAL w/ Týr, Hollenthon, Alestorm and Svartsot

[Gwydion]

Aqui fica a reportagem da nossa digressão europeia com Týr, Hollenthon, Alestorm e Svatsot. Pedimos desculpa por estar apenas em inglês.

08.10.08 Wed DK Copenhagen @ The Rock

09.10.08 Thu DE Hamburg @ Markthalle

10.10.08 Fri NL Leeuwarden @ Romein

11.10.08 Sat DE Oberhausen @ Helvete

12.10.08 Sun BE Vosselaar @ Biebob

We started early in the morning arriving at Lisbon airport at 7.AM. Fortunately our worst fears passed quickly soon as we knew that we had the exact weight (120kg) and we didn..t have to pay any extra luggage. Well we spent the rest of the time drinking a bottle of Portuguese brandy "1920" while we waited for our flight! Nice start.
We arrived at Copenhagen at 2PM and met the Alestorm and Hollenthon guys and so as the crew members. Quickly we understood as we got into the tour bus that it would be an easy adaptation to the other bands because we started to say nonsense things with Alestorm and we got along very well. Just a remark, everyone in Copenhagen walks in bicycle with a smile in their faces, a little different from what we used to see in Lisbon hehe! ohh and the girls here are so beautiful that...whatever!
Well for the first gig of the tour it was very good, we were very well received by the crowd and they were very enthusiastic!
Next day we arrived at Hamburg, we walked a little in the town, and we saw Chris from Alestorm getting of the bus very quick and throwing up...well the first night finished well and the 2nd day started even better! After the gig we split and some of us went to a Viking bar (manly stuff) drinking mead from a skull and playing with hammers and the other half ended in a weird party in a library…don..t ask me why!
Ok day 3…Holland - Leeuwarden, very nice town, very beautiful indeed, we were almost ran over by the bicycles during our long tourist walk...these guys walk so fast with their bikes...grrr. Excellent show, many people, Ruben even sang "Viking..s Horned Parody" with a Viking helmet, crazy crowd! At the end of the night we got completely wasted in a coffee shop, cliché or maybe not, since we don't have that in Portugal.

Next day in Oberhausen, we finally met our label guys from Trollzorn, many beers we drank that night, thanks to Kai and Stefan! Great party and some band/label matters we finally discuss face to face! This venue was like an underground bar, very nice indeed.

Belgium, a Portuguese friend that lives there came to see us with her boyfriend. She brought a case of Westmalle Tripel that has 9.5% alcohol for a beer. Well another night to get wasted. The main thing I remember from that day was seeing a drunken boy puking in a garbage can while everybody was taking photos! Ohh I forgot, the gig was also awesome, Belgium people are crazy either!!
This night in the Svartstormion bus (Svartsot, Alestorm, Gwydion) we have created a monster for the rest of the tour, we ended the night singing Kamelåså on the bus! Kamelåså is a word that means nothing and it represents that Danish people don..t understand their language even with their own kin!! It got official; this was definitely the Kamelåså Aaskereia tour! We have a video that explains much better what we are talking about!








14.10.08 Tue CH Pratteln @ Z7

15.10.08 Wed IT Milan @ Musicdrome

16.10.08 Thu DE München @ Backstage

17.10.08 Fri AT Wien @ Szene

We arrived at Switzerland and we had our day off. We made a walk through the city with the Alestorm guys and guess what, we found a Portuguese restaurant! Of course we invited all the tour guys to have dinner there, we had a bitoque! It's a steak with egg and french fries, but well it was good to eat Portuguese food, drink some nice expresso and Portuguese beer and brandy!
The Z7 venue in Switzerland it..s huge…we never played in an excellent place like this, lot..s of portraits of the big bands that have already played there! We felt honored to be included in these roles of bands!
On our way to Milan we saw the beautiful landscapes of the Alps, we took pictures and more pictures of course. We arrived at the venue and Kaveirinha had a love at first sight, he got a groupie dog! The show was awesome!!! When we were ready to enter the stage, the crowd were shouting our name and we knew that we had to do our best to don..t let them down! It was a nice evening!
München, great venue! For our surprise it seems that we headline today hehe, someone made a mistake and we appear as headliners on the poster ahaha!Excellent conditions, nice food we had. There was another gig in the same area, Backstage venue has more than one stage, and at the same time a band called Lovex was playing, kind of Tokyo Hotel I suppose..we ended taking photos with them and with their fans, it was stupid and fun! After that we went to a 80..s after party ahah getting more wasted.
Alright, Vienna…it started bad for Daniel who broke his glasses doing some shit on the evening before, so we did our walk to find someone to fix them! After the show we met Xena!!Yes Xena and Captain Jack Sparrow arrrhhhhhhggg! We took some photos with them and had some laughs! Xena even bought our cd!! So Xena is a Gwydion fan, I am fulfilled now hehe!









18.10.08 Sat DE Passau @ X-Point Halle - METAL INVASION FESTIVAL

19.10.08 Sun Cz Zlin @ Masters of Rock Cafe

20.10.08 Mon HU Budapest @ Diesel

21.10.08 Tue AT Graz @ Postgarage

22.10.08 Wed DE Ludwigsburg @ Rockfabrik

Ok Passau Festival! Definitely the worst show of our tour..When we played there was no one there…ohh I..m lying there was our friends from Svartsot and Alestorm on the first row hehe, it was a private gig then. The rest of the day we got wasted and we met a Portuguese girl that worked in the bar and we swapped a Gwydion cd for 10 lt of mead for the trip…fair trade!
Czech Republic, the best gig of the tour! People here are fucking crazy and we were very well received…we did a stage storm in Svartsot to sing Svokens Kaelling, it was awesome! Just a remark why the hell someone from a radio asked us in a interview if we were going to quit smoking?? Anyway after the show we felt like rockstars, everyone wanted an autograph and to take a picture with us! Too bad we had to leave early this day after Alestorm show… maybe next time we can spend more time there!

Hungary, we stopped in a very beautiful park, there..s lots of squirrels here, but why someone put a poster with a printed Braille but without any inscription...anyway there was a forbidden sign showing that no machineguns were allowed in this venue, feel much more comfortable now ahah! If you bring grenades it..s ok I suppose…anyway the venue was excellent! We had a huge backstage, with lots of couches, and even a bed was there…and people serving us food and drinks. Excellent show this one too, every band offered a great evening to the Hungarians!

Graz, we arrived at the venue and someone told us that we were playing in a very small stage that only the drum could fit there…fortunately things sorted out and we moved to a bigger stage. Ok today we have an opening band, we play at second, sometimes it's hard to play first, to do the hard work, but someone has to do it! We spent the day doing a walk through the city and spent some time in a music store to buy some drum stuff!
Well it was an important gig for Svartsot, Alestorm, Hollenthon and Týr, since their label Napalm Records was attending to this show. For us it was another one and again we did an excellent job...I think at this point we had already learned so much things and the gigs are getting better day by day!
Ludwigsburg – Rockfabrik, this venue has the best paintings and decoration ever! The walls are painted with some kind of Luis Royo and Boris Vallejo drawings and with all the lights in it give a very realistic image. About the show we had some problems with the stage monitors and we had to play only listening to a crappy sound that was supposed to sound as a kick drum. The night ended when Sebastian, Nadir (tour manager) brother brought a beer machine! Imagine 4 people drinking each one at the same time 25cl of beer in half a second…that..s the beer machine!



23.10.08 Thu DE Frankfurt @ Batschkapp

24.10.08 Fri DE Losheim @ Eisenbahnhalle

25.10.08 Sat DE Lichtenfels @ Stadthalle - HELLFLAME FESTIVAL

26.10.08 Sun NL Arnhem @ Luxorlive

We arrived at Frankfurt at 3 PM, and did a big walk through this big city to watch the sights. The venue was not that big so it was easily crowded when we play.
Next day in Losheim we realized that Eisenbahnhalle is a train museum. They recovered one of the warehouses to a big nice venue. Of course we spent most of the time taking pictures of the trains and did a quest to find a lake nearby, that was one of the sightseeing's of Losheim! We were very surprised that in a small village many people came to watch the festival!
Alright, we soon arrived at Lichtenfels for the great festival of this entire tour! Yeah we are on the same event as Immortal! 2 Portuguese friends come to see us directly from Portugal, and they brought aguardente and Porto wine… so this last bottle ran out at 9 AM ! It was a good kickoff for the festival indeed! We started to watch many people attending to this festival and soon we realized that this was the peak of the tour. Well I think we did a very good show this time, at least it seemed so! After we played we watched the other bands and drank the Aguardente (burning water was the official name for it)..got wasted again, same story!
Last day of the tour…Arnhem, back to the Netherlands. The sound check was unique! someone opened the doors while we were still doing the sound check and suddenly the fire alarm started and we had to evacuate the building. So this worked out as the opening band.. so when we came back to play for real, everyone was already warm up, and it was an excellent gig for the tour end. The highlight was on Týr performance, when everyone from the tour went on stage to give happy birthday to Dani from Alestorm.
After the shows everyone had to sign about 30 posters to each band and crew member, so that we can remember that great tour it was, we made lots of friends and hope to meet them on the road again as soon as possible!
Well after that we arrived at Dusseldorf airport at 4 AM and our flight to Lisbon was only at 7 PM…so we spent the day sleeping and hanging out in the airport…boring!
We arrived at Lisbon airport at 11:50 PM and our luggages and instruments were missing, someone lost them on the way…welcome back to Portugal and to real life!

The end.

[Sir Sardine]

Tinham era mexido uns cordelinhos, e tinham trazido Týr e Hollethon!

Mas vá que correu bem, embora não tenha lido tudo.

[Zé Metal & Company]

Boa ,esta é a tal formula que muitas bandas lusitanas precisam e esta experiencia concerteza que vos vez muitissimo bem desde o Brandy á comida passando pelos bastidores fantásticos palcos .Pra Banda que seja bem gratificante o que passaram e que concertesa virâo mais
UM GRANDE HAILL

[Phobia]

Falta aí uma parte de importância extrema!!!

"... e os nossos queridos amigos foram-nos buscar ao aeroporto e fomos logo até à Shell mandar abaixo umas litrosas de Sagres pra matar as saudades!!!" Ahahahah!!!

Gwydion crlh!!!!

[Johnny B Goode]