JUDAS PRIEST @ Donington 2008

Listening To: New Judas Priest

Excellent live recording by THE METAL GODS! Go seek this bad boy and get yerself a copy!

CALL FOR THE PRIEST.....

PRIEST FEAST, Manchester Apollo, 17/2/09
Testament, Megadeth and Judas Priest.
by H...

This gig was originally supposed to be held at the much larger Manchester Evening News Arena but the word on the street is that they couldn't sell all the tickets so hence the move to the much smaller (and better!) Apollo Theater!!!!



After a quick drink with some good old mates of ours in the pub round the back of the apollo (can't remember the name of it) we headed into the Apollo and could hear Testaments opening intro tape just starting so we watched them from up by the sound/light desk on the slope near the rear of the crowd and had an excellent view, see Testaments full setlist as posted by SJW on the last post.
Testament had a better sound this time around, but never had the intensity of the liverpool show last week, they had a 45 minute set which could have done with more old songs but they've got a new album to plug to the masses I guess, a very good new album might I add and still a good setlist!





We got right the front for Megadeth, it had to be done. I've never seen Megadeth play a bad show and with Testament sounding really good, I really couldn't wait for Megadeth!!!!
Megadeth were tight as fuck, that's the only way I can describe it, they played for an hour but left me wanting a proper headlining set!

Megadeth's set was...
01. Sleepwalker
02. Wake Up Dead
03. Take No Prisoners
04. A Tout Le Monde
05. Washington Is Next
06. She Wolf
07. In My Darkest Hour
08. Hangar 18
09. Symphony of Destruction
10. Peace Sells
11. Mechanix
12. Holy Wars

I'm not a big fan of "She Wolf" or "A Tout Le Monde" but they worked well with the rest of the songs.
I can't pick a favourite song of this particular set but "Take No Prisoners" and "Mechanix" made me bang my head the hardest!!! Mechanix's intro of Dave Mustaine saying, "If there's one thing i want you to leave here tonight with, it's that this is NOT the Four Horsemen...this is MECHANIX!!" Fucking Awesome, I hope Mustaine keeps this line up for a while longer!!!!



Megadeth were always gonna be a hard act to follow, or so I thought...


I witnessed Judas Priest's Graspop performance in belgium last year, it was quite disappointing, there was no energy, no power, band members looked knackered and looked like they couldn't be arsed playing, the crowd were shit and fast classics seemed slower than usual.
Priest have ALWAYS been in my top 3 metal bands since I was a kid, after Graspop I felt like I couldn't be bothered with them anymore, I kept saying to myself "If they can't be arsed then why should I?" A few weeks later when I gave them another chance with an airing of their classic 1984 album "Defenders Of the Faith" it did exactly what it said on the case and that was Defend The Fucking Faith!!!! I couldn't stay mad at them any longer. It's an amazing album and some of the tunes from it have been dusted off for their current tour!!!!



Judas Priest fucking ruled at Priest Feast, the energy, the speed, the effort and showmanship was back, it looked like they were having a ball up there which made the crowd feel more involved!!!
The setlist was the same as the Graspop but played with lots more enthusiasm and they had more leather changes! Halford had a different leather jacket for every song!!!!

Priest's Setlist was....

Dawn Of Creation/Prophecy
Metal Gods
Eat Me Alive
Between The Hammer And The Anvil
Devil's Child
Breaking The Law
Hell Patrol
Death
Dissident Aggressor
Angel
The Hellion/Electric Eye
Rock Hard, Ride Free
Sinner
Painkiller (the best live version I've ever heard of it!!!)
Hell Bent For Leather
The Green Manalishi (with the two pronged crown!!!!)
You've Got Another Thing Coming

That setlist contains some obscure tracks which seems to me it's been picked for proper Priest fans, I just wished they'd added "Freewheel Burning" and "Victim Of Changes"!!!!



They intend to play their new album "Nostradamus" in its entirety at selected shows on the next leg of their next tour, apparently complete with costume changes and actors on stage like a proper theatrical play and I'm not sure what to make of that rumour but I think Priest might make an amazing job out of it!!!!

Priest Feast: Manchester, England

TESTAMENT
Stage Time: 18:15
Setlist:
For The Glory
Over The Wall
The New Order
More Than Meets The Eye
The Persecuted Don't Forget
DNR
Three Days
Practice What You Preach
The Formation Of Damnation

Metal legends in the UK...

3 of metals best, Judas Priest, Megadeth and Testament will join forces for what is being billed as the "Priest Feast Tour" play the following dates over here in february...

Feb. 13 - Sheffield, UK - Sheffield Arena
Feb. 14 - Birmingham, UK - NEC
Feb. 16 - Glasgow, UK - SECC Hall 4
Feb. 17 - Manchester, UK - Manchester Arena
Feb. 18 - Nottingham, UK - Nottingham Arena
Feb. 20 - Cardiff, UK - Cardiff Arena
Feb. 21 - London, UK - Wembley Arena

FUCKING TESTAMENT!!!!!!!!!

Some of you older metalheads may remember this tour happening back in 1990 when Priest had Painkiller out, Megadeth had Rust in Peace and I think Testament had Souls Of Black out, but us in england had to settle for Annihilator on the 91 tour which was cool but fucking finally we are gonna get that tour that everybody else got!!!

Just As I Predicted...

Judas Priest, Nostradamus, Double CD...

Released monday june 16th, so only naturally I had to leg it into town to get it on the release day, I only ever do that with 2 other bands, Maiden and Motorhead.
"Nostradamus" for me is Priests best album since Defenders Of The Faith, the songs don't all sound the same, there's shit loads of variety, there's all sorts of Priest in there, what I mean by that is when you hear each song there are things that remind you of past eras of Priest, I can hear the 70's, Defenders and Ram It Down/Painkiller but most of all they have also carved a new sound with the new material thanks to Glenn Tipton and KK Downings production which is miles more better than Roy Z's production of their half arsed 2004 reunion cheese fest "Angel Of Retribution", thank fuck Priest have finally got their shit together.
Here's the deal, 13 tracks on CD1 and 10 more on CD2 but 9 of them 23 tracks are actually short intro's which are still still need listening to because they set the moods perfectly for the full songs that follow.
I know, not much of a review, I can't even pick a stand out tune because most of the songs can be classed as a stand out tune, so I'll just leave with this, most of the songs are mid paced but I think priest's best songs are the mid-slow paced ones, I'll pick a slow track called "Death" because the guitar sound reminded me of the Ram It Down album.
I don't know how I'm gonna handle it when they play the entire album on tour next year, I've got a feeling there will be a good few costume changes and some extra actors or something to keep the crowd interested. We'll have to wait and see.

Even More Donington Videos

Here's a short video of JUDAS PRIEST's set at Donington last Friday (13th June 2008). I chose this particular clip for you to see for yourself just how many people were crowded behind us while Priest were up there on the main stage. (ANSWER: Lots!)



I've got a few vids during MOTÖRHEAD's set, but it's gonna be pointless putting them online because they're a blur. I couldn't keep the camera still because the huge crowd all around me was going fucking mental apeshit to Killed By Death and Ace Of Spades.

Oh okay then... here's an interesting clip from during a break in The Head's set:



COMPETITION: I'm handing out 100 Claw bonus points to the 1st person who is metal enough to name both songs being played in these 2 video clips!

Thee Claw @ Donington Park

Yesterday, SJW and I made the trip across England to Donington Park to see the first day of this year's festival. There's a lot of umm-ing and aah-ing about the fact that the festival isn't what it was in the 80s and early 90's, but we won't go into that now. Suffice to say that the reasons we were going were Motorhead, Judas Priest and headliners Kiss.
We set off from Liverpool early, about half eight in the morning, by 8.45 we were on the motorway listening to Manowar and the first lager of the day had been cracked open.
We got to the venue pretty easily, they had changed the layout this year because there is a motorcycle race meeting coming up, so the main "arena" had been moved from it's usual home by the hill and plonked into a different field, and we had to come into the site the back way. Which was probably for the best, last year when we drove down we ended up at the back of the park anyway and had to drive right around the place to get in, and it's huge!
So, we parked up and joined the pretty fast moving queues and we were in in time for the first band, one of those interchangeable american nu-metal type bands that kids in big pants with undercut hair from Ashby-de-la-Zouch love so much. They covered Prowler by Iron Maiden which raised the first thumbs-down of the day from me. Really, there were no bands that we were interested in seeing until Motorhead were due on stage around 5pm.

So we spent this time wandering about, eating vegan food and marvelling at how shit the entire thing was, then we bumped into some people from back home and sat down on the grass to drink a few beers (£3.50 a pint? That's $7ish, currency fans) and there was an announcement made that Kid Rock wouldn't be playing (cheers from us) and that Priest would be playing a longer set (more cheers). Disturbed would also be playing a longer set, but fuck them, after they finished it was time to get down the front for Motorhead.For those of you who didn't know, they covered "Rosalie" by Thin Lizzy, and Würzel came out onstage to play "Ace of Spades" with them. This was my first time seeing Motorhead (I know, how strange is that) and they were great, setlist was boss, but I'm looking forward more to seeing them in a smaller venue later this year.
(if you want to see the setlist, highlight the space between the two stars)
*Dr Rock/Stay Clean/Be My Baby/Killers/Metropolis/Over The Top/One Night Stand/In The Name Of Tragedy/Just Cos You’ve Got The Power/Killed By Death/Ace Of Spades/Overkill*
Watching Judas Priest for the first time was like a religious experience. The setlist was a proper surprise, the stageshow was totally overblown (Rob Halford rising up through the stage in a silver hooded cloak, coming through the doors in the centre of the stage on a throne with a cane in his hand, or riding onstage on a Harley Davidson for Hell Bent For Leather), it was a full on metal experience.
Rob even came out during a break in the proceedings and had the crowd singing to him like Freddie Mercury, with a union jack around his shoulders. Watching Glenn Tipton, Ian Hill and KK Downing (my new hero) headbanging in unison to "Metal Gods" might sound like the cheesiest metal cliche ever, but I loved every minute of it.
They finished the set with "You've Got Another Thing Coming" and it was time for more beer, more vegan burgers and falafel, and then getting down near the front for Kiss.
Our cameras had both died by now, so there's no photos coming up for Kiss, but I'm sure you can imagine it.
I'd never seen Kiss before, and to tell you the truth i wasn't really that bothered. Until, that is, the announcer said "Donington! You wanted the best, you got the best! The hottest band in the world - KISS!" and the curtain over the stage fell down, and they came onstage playing Deuce. Sorry, did I just say came onstage? I meant Paul, Gene and Tommy came down from the ceiling on a huge platform suspended on wires. No, really.
They went straight from Deuce into Strutter, Tommy did a guitar solo and fired rockets from the end of his guitar, Gene breathed fire, they played a one-two of Parasite and She...like I say, I'm not a Kiss fan and I wasn't really bothered about them, but once they started playing I was well into it! They held my attention and that of every single person in the crowd.
We got off just before they played Rock And Roll All Nite, but apparently Paul Stanley said "I wouldn't mind coming out there to see you" before flying across the crowd on a zip wire, and landing on a mini stage in the middle of the crowd and playing Love Gun.

I slept all the way home.
That Kiss Setlist in full:
*Deuce/Strutter/Got To Choose/Hotter Than Hell/Firehouse/Nothing To Lose/C'Mon And Love Me/Parasite/She/Watchin' You/Rock Bottom/100,000 years/Cold Gin/Let Me Go Rock N Roll/Black Diamond/Rock N Roll All Nite/Shout It Out Loud/Lick It Up/I Love It Loud/I Was Made For Loving You/Love Gun/Detroit Rock City*

PS, the PA at this festival was truly, truly awful.
It sounded great down at the front, but halfway up the hill it was quieter than the ringtone on my telephone.

Wheels of Steel

A very small video off my mobile phone just before it died, of Judas Priest performing Painkiller at Donington. 'Nuff said!!

Judas Priest @ Donington

Here is a short video of Priest on stage at this year's Donington festival. They were so good. They played a slightly longer setlist than was intended because Kid Rock didn't play a set. An announcer's voice came over the P.A. when Kid Rock was due on stage and said "Some bad news: Kid Rock has been taken to hospital so he won't be playing. Good news: Disturbed & Judas Priest will be playing longer sets as a result". The crowd cheered, mainly for Disturbed. But fuck Disturbed, I cheered for Priest!

This video looks shakey but that's because I was at the front of a crowd of 15,000 people while holding a camera up above my head to catch a quick clip of Halford and the boys in action.

I've written out the Judas Priest setlist from the 2008 Donington, it is in the comments for this post. So don't look if you don't want to know what they played!

Donington this year wasn't up to much (in my opinion). The only bands that were worth checking out on the main stage were Motorhead, Judas Priest and KISS... and all 3 of those bands were excellent stuff. I'm not a fan of nu-metal posing and that's what the rest of the main bill comprised of. Fuck that shit.

Rock & Roll All Nite:



Here's a photo of us with John Merrick. It was taken by a 10-foot-tall transvestite on stilts. I don't know who the guy is in the background but his snide kite expression perfectly sums up our day of watching nu-metal no-marks trying to rock stars in a big field somewhere in middle England.

I still refuse to call it D*wnload....

Tomorrow - Motorhead, Judas Priest, and Kiss...(and a load of posers in "crackerjack clothes" as Manowar would say!) at the Home of Metal.

Graspop Complete...

The line up for belgiums Graspop Metal Meeting 2008 is now officially complete...



Impressive!!!