Sad news: The music world mourns the loss of Ray Manzarek (74), founding Member and keyboarder of The Doors, White Zombie drummer Phil Buerstatte (44) and Uriah Heep bassist Trevor Bolder (63). R.I.P.!
German Hardrockers BERSERKER will donate 18.000€ to the Berlin cancer charity for children on May 25. November 2011 BERSERKER front man Schröder was diagnosed with cancer, now he is cancer-free. In 2012 the band collected money for this charity at their concerts and will also continue to do so in the future. Slayer´s Jeff Hanneman is dead: he passed away at about 11AM on May 2nd near his Southern California home because of liver failure due to an infection after a spider bite. R.I.P. Jeff!
The Siberian Jay music video "I´m Holding" featuring Mikko Sirén from Apocalyptica on drums - we reported about the videoshoot in our "1h with" Special - can be watched here: http://youtu.be/C-hSNurZVcs
All that supposedly causes bad luck has been rather a lucky charm for FOX already in the beginning of this year, because their new album „2012“ entered the Swiss charts as nro 2. Now also a Friday 13th seems to be positive for those guys: Many fans gathered in the Galery Pratteln, not only Z7´s little sister club but also independent concert organiser.
The second gig after their official tour start presents also the official drummer Reto Hirschi, who could not participate at the record release gig in Solothurn. The show should have started at 20:30 h, but at this time the sound check had just finished, that meant another hour to wait until Mark, Tony, Franky and Reto finally entered the stage. Such a long waiting period can be extremely boring in such a location when there is no opening act or another kind of entertainment. But no more boredom with those guys, as they start the gig with their hit „Problem Child“. Mark is in top condition and obviously enjoys to be on stage. In comparison with their release party, he seems much more relaxed now that he knows for sure that he is appreciated as solo artist by audience and press alike. The fans require a bit more animation this time to sing along, but when Mark is leading, it´s quite easy to follow, so everybody joins in. It seems that the audience is willing to do whatever Mark asks for this night, somehow it´s much more pleasant than the release party gig when the club was way too full. A more ”familial atmosphere” prevails this time, it even seems you are watching a band rehearsal where it doesn´t matter when the drummer makes a mistake. It seems the crowd and the band have a lot of fun, and this is basically what a concert is all about. The band plays all the songs of the album and special encores, first their radio hit „Home Again“ as acoustic version, for which the guys sit down on the drum podium, and Mark even receives cheers from his bass player Tony Castell afterwards. And then of course the cover song „Beds are Burning“, which always kicks ass. Musically FOX are worth to be checked out, and hopefully they soon have 2-3 new songs that can compete with „Problem Child“. Outfit-wise it seems that Franky, Mark and Reto follow Tony´s example and chose something that they don´t wear every day.
After the gig they can be found at the merch table to give autographs and pose for photos, and thanks to the friendly merchandiser Sabrina (also Mark´s darling), a lot of t-shirts are sold, too. A great evening, which turned out to be so much better than the record release party.
