Exclusive | Primal Fear Summer Festival Run – last show: Rock Castle Open Air, Czech Republic

By Dutch bassist Alex Jansen

Well, I can only say that this summer went by very fast. It is not over yet but the festival season for Primal Fear is over. It was a challenging one to be honest.

PRIMAL FEAR A 4-PIECE COMBO

Like always we left from different places. Michael flew from Hamburg to Vienna. Cedric form Zürich. Tom, Ralf, Vult and myself from Stuttgart. Arne and Alex Beyrodt from Frankfurt. Well almost… Arne flew from Frankfurt to Vienna. Alex Beyrodt got to us with the message that due to personal reasons he wasn’t able to make it to the flight. Totally understandable, health and family come first. We tried to find out if a private flight would have made sense. Only to get him back sooner to his home then a regular flight. Unfortunately, the weather forecast ruined that plan. So in the end we had to pull this gig through as a four-piece combo.

PRIMAL FEAR BACKDROP

But back to the start of the journey. When I arrived at Tom’s place he was still preparing for the travel, the message from Alex B got him looking over the songs and the parts that Alex plays. In the end it took him some time to program sounds and go over some solo parts to be ready for the night. When I arrived we wondered where the backdrop was and we remembered that we left it at Bodo after the Wacken show. I am grateful that Bodo’s shop is not too far from Tom’s place. So I hopped in my car and picked it up. This time there was no screen so we had to bring the backdrop.

I got back in time and found the cab already waiting. Short ride to the airport and the usual check in, bulky luggage drops off, security and the waiting game began. We don’t need to talk about the overpriced drinks and food at airports. Sometimes I really think it is ridiculous but what can I change… Well this time I forgot my wallet so I was happy that Vult paid my stuff and I could PayPal him afterwards. We had a 30-minute delay before hitting the small plane. It is only a 1-hour flight to Vienna.

LIKE A REUNION

Cedric and Arne already arrived and had an earlier shuttle to the festival. We arrived and Michael arrived around the same time with us, we found the lady that drives the shuttle fast. Loaded in the gear and off we went. Two-hour drive to the festival. When we arrive at the festival it is like a reunion. We see Randy Black who drummed for Primal Fear and Annihilator and who now drums for Destruction. We have a nice chat. I catch up with Cedric and Arne. I have known Arne as the front of house for U.D.O and we met at the time that I was about to join U.D.O, which I didn’t do in the end but that is another story.

SCREAMS AND NOISE

I hit catering to have a quick bite. Traveling makes hungry. It all looks good and tasty. The area is cool, the name of the festival already explains the location, a castle. We do a signing session, I meet some Italian friends and some people who saw me perform with Doro at Metal fest Pilsen two years ago. We take some pics and then we hit our dressing room. Basi our tour manager is here with Kreator. While I visit the bathroom I hear screams and noise. Basi who is walking out of the bath room with me says I should check out what is going on.

I follow the sound and when I turn the corner I see Kreator warming up. E-drums and in-ears and Kempers. So you only hear strings, the beating of Ventor on the pads and Mille who is singing. Nice to see. I reconnect with Fred Leclerc; I have known him for 24 years. I got to know him when I was visiting France regularly and he was still playing keyboards for Heavenly before joining Dragonforce as their bass player. He is the Kreator bass player since many years now. It was great to see him again and catch up.

STAGE LEFT

I watch a bit of Kreator’s set before I get back to the dressing room to get changed for our show. We have a late show tonight. We start at midnight. I walk to the stage where they are still tearing down all the gear from Kreator, they brought the full show. It goes pretty fast though and then it is time for Vult and Cedric to set up our stage. This time it is different of course as I will switch sides. I will go to stage left where Alex B is normally. We have a small delay from Kreator tearing down and our setting up but we start the intro maybe 5 minutes too late. There is a curfew so we cannot start too late.

The intro runs and we are off. I struggle a bit with the monitor during the first song as the bass is too loud and the monitor guy doesn’t seem to understand what I mean, instead of turning the bass down he turns it up. This takes a bit of time. I mean I love bass but even for me there is a limit. To be honest, we deliver a strong set and my deepest respect to Tom for nailing the set. I guess it is where the boys get separated from the men. He nails the whole set and Michael and I support that by laying a metal foundation.

Ralf is singing so strong tonight. During the set Ralf explains why Alex B is not there before we hit the last songs of the set. The audience gave us a warm welcome and enjoyed the show. The outro is ,,Forever” and we wave together with the audience. The festival is packed and it is a beautiful sight at 1 AM.

A LATE CHECK OUT

After the show we hang with some of the Kreator crew and Basi. Before Cedric, Vult and Arne are back with the gear. Then it is shuttle time for the 40-minute drive to the hotel in Brno. We have a drink outside as the weather is pretty awesome. Then I get up to the 15^th floor of the hotel to enter my room. We have a late check out and after watching a movie I fall asleep at 5 in the morning. Got up at 10 AM to hit breakfast and after that I went back to sleep a little more. We get picked up at 1 PM for the 2-hour drive to the airport. I meet with Rolf Munkes from Crematory in the lobby.

Shuttle is there and when we arrive in Vienna it is busy as hell of course. It is still holiday season; we get escorted by an employee of the airport to have our check in. Security goes pretty quick and we hang at the restaurant for a bite and a drink. Arne’s flight is cancelled and he is on the waiting list for the next one. Michael writes us he is already home, he had an earlier flight then we had. Our flight is delayed 30 minutes.

SEVERE WEATHER

Arne hits the gate for his waiting list. We still hang around at the restaurant. We chat with Cedric who has a later flight than we. When we hit our plane and get all comfy, they shut the door. Then the pilot announces we will have to wait 70 minutes for our slot. Due to severe weather we have to wait. Cedric writes his flight is delayed too, Arne writes he just landed in Frankfurt.

Then it is our time to fly, we land in Stuttgart 7:30 PM, grab our gear, get a cab and after a 1,5 hour drive I am home too.

PRIMAL FEAR – IN CONCLUSION

To sum up the festival season. We had great times, we had stress times, merely due to the travel schedule, but it was all worth it. We saw so many happy faces, we saw so many pounding fists, we saw so many friends and enjoyed mostly great weather. I guess only Switzerland was the exception there as it was raining cats and dogs until shortly before our show. We made many new friends and we got to love what we do.

What is up next? Normal shows with my other bands, while Primal Fear is working on a new album.  I have some recordings to do for other projects. Time is flying so before you know there will be a new blog. It might take some time though but I’ll be back.

All photos provided by Alex Jansen