It’s about time for a short update. Today we are in Lorca, Spain, where our travel party is a part of the MetalLorca Festival. We already had the opportunity to see some parts of the city, enjoying a walk under the Spanish November sun.

What happened since the last entry? We had a great Show in Paris. Afterwards we went back to Germany for a show in Stuttgart. This was special for us because we played at the LKA Longhorn during our very first professional tour. It was a strange feeling to return to this place after more than nine years. Jens from “Voices of Destiny” stopped by to see the show, he brought us some crackers as a reference to the time we shared in a tourbus this spring. During this tour crackers had been a major part of our daily nutrition.

After the show something remarkable happened: nobody seems to remember who started it, but all of a sudden the entire travelparty was singing Steel Panther and Manowar songs… until our bus broke down. Here’s the statement: If Manowar and the Power of Metal can destroy our bus, they’d better be f*ckin able to fix it! After several prayers and video messages to Joey DeMaio and the gods of metal, it was T.O. from Triosphere who got us back on the road. We arrived in Antwerp on time, and even though there have been some technical problems during our soundcheck, we had a fantastic show, nevertheless.

That night we took the ferry across the channel to get to London. As we entered the HMV Forum, we were impressed by the looks of the interieur – it is an old cinema theatre. But since there has been no food and no adapters for our Mid-European power plugs, we had to take a trip to the city. Finally we found the adapters we needed at “Abba Electronics”. In this case the power of Swedish pop gave us the power to play metal. Several plays of words have been made on that matter.

After the show we had to move on to Barcelona, between the shows our schedule contained a night off, which we spent at a small french restaurant in the Auvergne region. After a delicioius dinner we had several glasses of french wine, enjoying the company of our Canadian and Norwegian travelmates without the tight schedule of a showday. Arriving at the Razzmatazz in Barcelona evoked not the best of memories. We were supposed to play here in spring, but due to health problems we had to cancel that gig at the very last minute. This time everything went just fine and we had a great show and an impression of what we had missed the last time.

Once again it is now time to get ready for the next show, talk to you soon. And be aware:
If you sing Manowar songs in a way that displeases the gods of metal, you might have to face their revenge rightaway…
- Philip

Salut there,

a couple of hours are left until our third show of the tour. We are in Paris at the beautiful “Le Bataclan” music club. A lot has happened since we were picked up by the tourbus at our rehearsal room three nights ago, but we are happy to tell you that we are only talking about good stuff here. It feels great to hit the road again and we are happy to be accompanied by members of our most trustworthy crew, taking care of our equipment and merchandise. On Thursday night we drove to Eindhoven in the Netherlands, picking up our busmates of Triosphere and Blackguard at the Amsterdam Airport. When we arrived at the Effenaar Club in Eindhoven, things got a bit hectic, because on the first day, there is a lot to take care of. With four bands sharing one stage, there will always be some trouble during the first days. We had a great show nonetheless. The dutch crowd blew our minds especially with an outstanding performance during our singalong parts. After the show we met some of our dutch colleagues of “Stream of Passion”, who shared a bus with us during the Epica tour in spring. What happens on a tour-bus after the first show of a three weeks tour is done? With the help of our Norwegian and Canadian comrades we drank all the beers a support-band can ask for, celebrating a start that was not perfect but good enough to leave us all hungry for more. We drove to Switzerland to the legendary Z7. I can not imagine any musician who has ever played there saying anything bad about this club. Food: Hiloryglorylicious (to quote food and linguistic expert Gerit Lamm), Local Crew: Amazing. Crowd: Fantastic. It’s shows like these that make you forget that you are touring as a support-band and, believe me, the Swiss still had tons of energy to celebrate an amazing Kamelot show. Now we are sitting backstage at the Bataclan.When you return to a club where you have played before, it always feels like returning home or rather returning to a house where you spend your holidays. I have the best memories of our last show in Paris, we finished the first leg of the European Tour with Epica in this club, it was legendary.
Ok, almost time to get ready, let’s have a look at the fridge…
Blackguard’s Terry comes in… tells me that the crowd is alright. I think we’ll have a beer, then I’ll dress up… I’ll keep you posted…
Are you ready, Paris? I’ll see you out there.

Greetings, Philip