Live 2015

Haags Pop Centrum is regular filled with all kind of music, at the many rehearshalrooms.
The best way to present all those many talanted bands what HPC has to offer is to organise a festival...
 So HPC present Winterfest 2015.
 
Many bands attent the festival and so are we
 

For another time we play at the Gothic Fantasy beurs at the Broodfabriek....

Enjoying being on stage and ofcourse to shop until we drop.....

Whisper
Angel
Sour Ground
Delilah’s Lie
Stone Cold
Touch in the Dark
Tower
Ghost
In Front of Me
16 May 2015, Really early in the morning…. Checking the last updates: all weekend tickets sold out!, Shuttlebusses driving around to pick up the  fans from all different kind of places, A killer line up, this will be  a big party..  We have booked a place to sleep so we could party all night… time to go to Eurorock.
 
We all gathered at HPC at 6.30 we have 30 minutes to load in and hit the road to be on time for one of the nicest events…   And…. Then we couldn’t get the door open, slightly panic, it’s not the easiest door to open but even with all our tricks  the door didn’t want to open…
 
We tried to get  some people awake, but of course we can’t blame them that on this unholy hour they are all asleep. No phone number available and the clock is ticking… so we had to call the police and get a locksmith.
 
After an hour we finally could load in…. the police was coming to check out the situation, so under police protection we finally could hit the road…
 
Put the metal to the pedal.
 
Straight to Belgium, and lucky not to end up in a traffic jam.. We called that we were on our way…
We were able to say hi to Lovelorn Dolls just some seconds before they had to play,
so we were just on time.
 
The stages were in a big tent, and divided in two stages, Heaven and Hell stage.
 
Really nice set up, the audience only have to turn around to see the next band..
There is a tight sceduale, so there is music all the time, after a good performance of Love Lorn dolls, we get in action 25 minutes change over.. and with a good crew we were ready on time and start the first tones of our gig. Having a good time while playing for the brave who got up early  and  to see a lot of familiar faces in the audience.
We played:
 
  • Stone Cold
  • Pale Light
  • Stay with me
  • Shadows
  • Ghost.

For the brave ones who got up early to support all the bands...

 

thanks to Marleo Video

When our last tune was fading away Heaven stage took over and we got everything fast from the stage to make place for Stoneman.
While taking all our gear in our van, We noticed that the rental backline company was also loading in as fast as they could.
 

Time to get something to drink, and get ready to enjoy the show of Stoneman…

After an energetic show it was nice to get some food, so we all got backstage and gathered in the tent were they  served a hot meal. It was crowed so while standing we had our dinner. And when it was time to have a drink, the catering started to clean up.  And then we started to realized that something was going on. We didn’t hear any music and we figured out  that we were one of the last bands who got a warm meal. The atmosphere turned around. 

It was raining, no music, so we took time to get some stuff on the market… With the knowledge that all weekend tickets were sold out there wasn’t much people on the field. The market  stuffed with nice goods, and hardly any people to buy it..
Something was going on and we would like to know what.  It seems there is some major problems with the money for the festival organisator who was hospitalized.

In the meantime  we bumped into Rob from Attitude who asked us if we could help him out.

In half an hour the Miss and Mr Alternative verkiezing would start and Eurorock didn’t gave them the jury members they promised.

So Manon and Karin went to the tent were this election would happen  and made the jury complete. While our crew is checking out the situation

 

Pretty girls and handsome guys were entering the stage showing the several styles Attidute Holland had to offer, while telling us more about their meaning of being alternative.  The jury asked some questions and two of the contesters stood out. For the girls it was Iris, who is enthusiastic and outgoing.  Personally for us it was more difficult to choose between the guys.  One of them made a real stage performance and was nice outgoing.  Although Kelvin the  eventual winner got us with his  with statement about his place in society.
 
We want to wish both winners Kelvin and Iris a lot of fun with their prizes.
 
While judging the contest our crew was helping out the organization who apparently didn’t had enough  dressingrooms  So we were willing to share our space to help them out, although that band in need though something different and kick us out… and left us with no room for our stuff .
 
It’s one big chaos. There is no money, and no one is allowed to say what is really going on….
Hearing the rumors that the bands we wanted to see wouldn’t  perform.  The volunteers told us that how the situations was at that moment, the festival would shut down within an hour…
 
So time to make some decisions, it was clear that we would not get our money, we were cold, wet , and  there was no drinks at all. We wanted to get home, so we had to cancel the place we booked, and a shame if we had know this from the start we could have got our money back. We went to a place to have a meal  together and warm up again, before we are heading to HPC were our rehearsal room is.
Back home we read a lot of stories, stolen money, although there is more to this story that the eye can see.
 
There were no indications that the festival was sold out,  It seems that all this was also an issue at the last edition of Eurorock.
This could have been such a nice event, on stage everything was well arranged and my compliments to them, also to our crew Johan, Robin, Stefan, Judith and Nicole. To Henk and Ingrid and ofcourse to Leo from Marleo video’s for the nice video
 
Some bands were paid in advance, but as far as we know nobody got the full amount. Newspapers telling that the bands played for free, while actually the bands paid the lot of money to get there so actually bands lost a lot of money to give the fans a good festival…
 
And all those newspapers bloggers etc, who wrote so much about Eurorock.
Most article wasn't a about the music only about the lost money..
 
So without getting drunk we all had a huge hangover.
 
More pictures and impressions from Eurorock:
 

Asrai - VerdamMnis Magazine

 

La deuxième journée de l'Eurorock Fest était divisée entre groupes électroniques d'un côté, et influences metal de l'autre. C'est dans cette branche que s'illustre les néerlandais de ASRAI qui s'avancent sur la Hell Stage. 

On sent tout de suite les années d'expérience du groupe qui délivre une performance sacrément dynamique et maîtrisée. On est content de voir des musiciens de fond de scène aussi performeurs que les leaders. La musique, bien qu'un peu clichée dans son style gothic rock, est jouée live à la perfection. Le public réagit très positivement à l'enthousiasme très communicatif du groupe.

Asrai - VerdamMnis Magazine

The second day of the Eurorock Fest was divided between electronic bands on the one hand, and metal influences on the other. It is in this branch that the Dutch of ASRAI are illustrated, who are advancing on the Hell Stage. We immediately feel the years of experience of the group which delivers a damn dynamic and controlled performance. We are happy to see musicians in the background performing as well as the leaders. The music, although a bit cliché in its gothic rock style, is played live to perfection. The public reacts very positively to the very communicative enthusiasm of the group.