EUROPEAN TOUR

April / May 2001

Soundchaser

Hi Rage fans, Mike Terrana here...:

Peavy is well again and we are rolling down the road, heading for our first show in Barcelona Spain. We left Germany at 6:00am, Mike showed up on time and his hair looked fantastasic as always! Mike is known as one of the sexiest drummers in the world and is loved by all! The road crew was not only happy to see Mike and his new hair style, but were also happy and surprised to find that all of our equipment fit into the trailers. Rage has a bigger stage production for the Welcome to the Other Side Tour.

We spent the day and night driving through Germany and France. We ate some excellent fast food , and played video games and drank some fine German beer!

Mike sharpend his driving skills along with the rest of the boys on the Sony Playstation. Victor is a professional race car driver and tried to give Mike some guidence, but Mike didn`t listen he just kept driving and smashing into other cars and people, just like he did when he lived in Los Angeles, some things never change!

A lot of people think Mike`s drum solo is too long , but that`s not true, actually Mike`s Schniedelwutz is too LONG! Mike is practicing hard trying to use his extra long Schneidelwutz to play a 3rd bass drum… which make the drum solo at least another 30 minutes LONGER! (DANGER....,)

Victor Smolski here. I am happy that the whole equipment used for the large scale production of the RAGE tour was fitting perfectly as we got very good companies like YAMAHA-GUITAR + KEYBOARDS, CORDIAL CABELS, PYRAMID STRINGS, SIGGI GUITARS and BEHRINGER who supported us.

At this tour there even Prototypes of Guitar Amps, Speakers and lots of different Effects of the company BEHRINGER were used and tested. In co-operation with BEHRINGER Victor has developed these equipment and it is great fun for him to test it out during concerts on large stages.

On this tour Victor is additionaly involved with lots of technical things like Midi and Keyboards so he unfortunately has no time to enjoy the concerts and the great audience like the Spanish one we met last days.

Also the crew is giving their maximum effort, trying to realize all the wishes of the band perfectly.

Victor is actually disapointed, that one concert could not be broadcasted live by internet by GERMAN ROCK and a Video company as there were no rights to do that fixed at the old contract with the record company.

It is also very sad that VICIOUS RUMORS could not join the tour. They are friends of Victor who already toured together with them when he played at MIND ODYSSEY and it was his idea to do a tour together again.

In Cologne PERSONAL WAR is supposed to be another support band and probable Victor will play some Solo parts on their next CD.

DUKE ,whose guitarist is a studend and friend of Victor is supposed to be another support band in Bochum.

27.04.01 - 1. DAY OF TOUR - BARCELONA - ESP

Mike Terrana here: Friday Morning we are 160KM from Barcelona. We had a short break from the driving and ate a nice Spainish breakfast. It`s warm and sunny looking forward to our first show of the tour. The audience in Spain is always warm and friendly just like the weather. Mike is in the front lounge listening to Frank Sinatra, typing the tour report. He is also not wearing any pants….He is a a hairy naked TROLL!

Well Rage fans we are in Barcelona..... and that`s right you guest it, my hair still looks great! We arrived around 1:00pm and it was warm and sunny, so I decided to take a walk to the beach. It was very nice and there were many other people there also enjoying the fun & sun. I noticed many of the people began to stare at me. Then I realized that they recognized me as the one and only famous Troll! During my beach travels I also bought a nice new tooth brush….THAT WAS FUN! Then I started to make my way back to the club, when I saw a very cool group of long haired mutants….Oh shit it`s those guys from GB ARTS….the support band on the tour…. I greeted them and spoke to them with my terrible German and English mixture…..then we all made our way back to the club. The guys from GB ARTS are cool….I often work with the bass player Tomas Senff…. I called him the Mustard Meister…he Rules!

Back at the club, we eat dinner and get ready for the show. The fans in Barcelona are incredible… very friendly and cool! After the show we signed autographes, and I spoke to a group of fans for about an hour. They thought I was funny… and I could have gone for hours, but we had to leave for the next city.

28.04.01 - 2. DAY OF TOUR - BERGARA - ESP

Oh yeah… we are in Bergara, Spain baby……. Beautiful… hot and sunny…. I sat in the sun and watched our driver Dave wash the bus. Dave is about 2Meter tall and was the Knight in armor during the intro of the HammerFall tour. Spent the day playing some rudiments on my practice pad. Then it was show time. Another great crowd and another fun show…. Except I went temporarily insane during my drum solo and killed 4 or 5 people…. Not really sure…. It is all happened so Fast! Just kidding rock Fans… it is not nice to kill! After the show I washed my ass and crawled into my bunk for a well deserved rest!

29.04.01 - 3. DAY OF TOUR - MADRID - ESP

Next day Madrid…. Very nice city… Again more great fans hanging around the club for autographes and stuff. I did and interveiw for a Spainish rock Magazine & then I joined Peavy & Victor for a short TV interview! Im too sexy for TV……… so sexy for TV …… so SEXY!…. Then I once again washed my ass…. It felt good…. I use indutiral Strengh ACTIVE DUSCH DAS….This is good shit…. Can`t get this stuff in the good old USA. Now I am clean and sexier than ever…. I am ready for the show…. I warm up… and we played…. Lot´s of fun… the band sounded cool and the audience had a great amount of energy!

01.05.01 - 5. DAY OF TOUR - PRATTELN - CH

Hi friends, Peavy here: In Switzerland it's getting hot. The nice weather is travelling with us. Unfortunately the crew of Z7 is not there when we arrived which forced some of us into heavy trouble (shitting in the bus is prohibited!) So you see a crowd of long haird guys hiding behind different plants, coming back with a smile on their faces (but take care for your shoes - Holgi!) We spend a relaxed day, the Z7 is the place to enjoy as we did on every tour. Attila treated us well with his tasty food and also Norbert and Dane make it possible that we didn't miss anything. We built up our whole show with a huge screen, it's looking fantastic (we filmed everything). Today we also use our Pyroshow for the first time, especially the explosion at Mike's drumsolo is great. Accordingly the fans were enthusiastic and we played our best set there. We meet a lot of fans of our fanclub, the RAGE Fortress, specially supported by Martin Fust and Dane Kurth (thank's for everything!) A beautiful day.

02.05.01 - 6. DAY OF TOUR - RIMINI - I

That sounds like holiday - and exactly, a nice lake directly behind the Velvet Club invides us to relax in the sun. It's hot and we get our first tan. Unfortunately the Metal Fans don't like this location so there are not so much fans as expected (we should have played in another club). But that's not a reason for the fans to celebrate a real Metal party together with us. Fantastic fans!! Also funny as the fans sing "Volare" together with Mike during his Solo. (Here is Captain Terrana speaking, cruising on an altitude of 30.000 feet and I am not wearing any pants - are you gonna fly with me?) We would have like to see more of this beautiful area but we have to travell on.

03.05.01 - 7. DAY OF TOUR - BIELLA - I

What's going on now. At home there are 27°C in the sun and here in Italy there is World Under Scenario. In the morning heavy storm, rain and thunder break down the whole power supply in the town. Up to the afternoon it looks like we cold not play that concert but at the end the technicians managed to solve that problem. Meanwhile the weather is nice again and we walk around at this beautiful landscape. A long philosophic discussion with GB ARTS guitarist Andre lead us to an idyllic but wild river that had pulled whole trees down during the heavy storm.

The show at night is fantastic, unfortunately the air and oxygen supply on stage is worse, also we blow up Pyros again which really caused some problems for us. As Victor did not came back to the encore we are afraid. But he is a real hard guy and after some breathes out of an oxygen bottle our backliner Thomas bring him back on stage. The fans react with fantastic applause and beautiful choires - thank's guys! After that we have to hurry up as we have to go for Praha. Actually it's not possible to do it but we even try it. "Best thanks" to the guy who did this "Shit-booking". In-between we have fired him but our new company "Continental Concerts" which has taken over everything was not able to destroy all that "Chaos-booking". We hope the best that it will work. Thank's to our drivers Dave and Jörg!

04.05.01 - 8. DAY OF TOUR - PRAG - CZ

Hi friends, Peavy here: If I get this guy into my fingers who booked this shit rooting..... Everything much to late - shit planning! At around 7.30 pm, half an hour before sheduled start of show we finaly arrived infront of the Palace Akropolis. Lots of fans were waiting there, being happy to see us. At least we are here. It is a shame: not only we had to cancel GB ARTS (the guys stay in Vienna!) not building up our stage so that we had to lack our show. Not only we have to shorten our set to the half and even than couldn`t give an encore as there is strikt curfew at 10 pm (the club is based directly in a living area) - no - it is a shame that there is not even a minute time to move around in this beautiful and interesting city as Praha is. (I seriously pissed of that for privat reasons) Anyhow, our supercrew (thanks guys!) was able to get our equipment on stage in only 1 hour and so we played our best show at the sold out club. We liked it - the fans were fantastic! Thanks to Praha - you almost got crazy! After the show we eat some tasty food, had some beer and gave some interviews - than back to the bus, destination Vienna....

05.05.01 - 9. DAY OF TOUR - WIEN - A

Last night I catched a cold again, my throat is in pain, actually not so bad. As everything will be built up we have a rest in an hotel. In the afternoon I meet my old friend Joachim Luetke, Morbid - Cover - Artist by mercy (unfortunately that wasn`t allowed by our record companies before, too expensive for them, but quality has it`s prise!) Maybe you know his works, he had created our creature, first shown on Perfect Man (88). Also the last Annihilator Cover and the new Dimmu Borgir arts were designed by him. We spent a relaxed day with sunny weather (finally!) and in the night a beautiful show, though my throat hurts, anyhow, we are in that tourfeeling now and are looking forward for the last week in Germany. What could go wrong now...?

06.05.01 - 10. DAY OF TOUR - DAY OFF -CZ

Peavy here: Everything! We are 80 km before Praha on the way to Berlin, it is 6.45 am, everybody is sleeping. It is really foggy outside as suddenly our driver smashed into a small tchech truck. Now we have our second busaccident in-between a year. After the first smash I think I am dreaming, then it smashed again and I notice that I am awake. Another car has smashed into our trailer with the whole equipment. Just near the plank we came to stand beside a very deep dropoff. We are lucky as nobody of us is injured, even our driver Jörg has only some small cuts. Lightning tech. Holgi immediately runs out into the fog and eventually was shmashed by another car, which smashed into the one which hit us - oh man, what a shit..... More and more cars hit into each other until there is a traffic jam of several kilometrers. And everywhere cucumbers, all the road is full of cucumbers. The small truck is totally cracked, lying on the roof over the plank, his trailer is lying at the other side, smashed into lots of single parts. Some of the other people involved in that accident were injured but help was there very quick and they brought the injured people into hospital. Our bus is damaged and can`t drive anymore. The trailer is completely ripped from the bus and stands somewhere on the highway, looking real strange! First of all we are happy that we are not injured but our mood is gone! All the shit from Russia is comming back and is right infront our eyes.

07.05.01 - 11. DAY OF TOUR - DAY OFF - D

Surely the show in Berlin has to be canceled. - Now we have to wait another 12 hours to get a new bus (without beds) which brings us to Leipzig where we reached after an endless trip through fog and rain next morning at around 8.00 am, just to reload all our stuff into a new nightliner which brings us to Braunschweig. We are completely gone - also our equipment looks heavyly damaged (see pictures). Almost all the cases were broken just like matchboxes and we even don`t know if we can carry on touring.....

Immediately after arriving in Braunschweig we carry everything into the FBZ to check out our damage. It looks horrible and in fact lots of things are damaged, my bassamp., parts of Victors guitarrack and some parts of our rented, very expensive lightning equipment. But we were lucky as we are able to fix some of the stuff for the moment, so we get a hotel to finally get some sleep and to regenerate after this shock. Unfortunately our crew has to carry on with the work to get all the stuff fixed but at the evening they got it repaired and we all together went for some nice food and drinks - finally rest! Here a special thank to the guys (Charly, Thomas, Holgi, Wolle, Skid, Joe, Völle and driver) for your extra work and troubble.

08.05.01 - 12. DAY OF TOUR - BRAUNSCHWEIG - D

Hi friends, Peavy here: Actually the weather is much to hot to be on tour, for every reasonable person is lying at the pool at these temperatures. Nevertheless we built up our show on stage and however, in the evening there are a noticeable amount of Metal heads and we present a great show. It is so hot that I'm looking like coming out of a lake, that much I was sweating. Today we were also supported by Seventh Avenue which shortly step in for Delirious (they are in the studio to record their new CD) - thanks a lot.

	09.05.01 - 13. DAY OF TOUR - FRANKFURT - D The weather looks the same like the day before so we prefer sitting at the beer garden beside the Batschkapp to have some of the fresh beer. Only our crew was doing their work. Today we also have another support band. Tomorrow's eve are doing a good job as we did in the night so we carry on our journey, destination Cologne.

10.05.01 - 14. DAY OF TOUR - KÖLN - D

As we stay at home tonight due to the day off and being near by our home towns, our wife's visit us in the afternoon so we again spend the time in the beer garden instead of looking for the stage. A new support band tonight, Personal War, a very interesting band. Later there are some more friends visiting us, so we spend another relaxed day before we play a first class show. We didn't had so much fun on stage for a long time and everybody who's acquainted with the band knows, that we always enjoy playing infromt of the audience. We were really great (for our taste). As Mike told the audience that he's "real horny" his girlfriend Claudia couldn't avoid smiling. We have a small party and are looking forward for the Showdown in Bochum....

13.05.01 - 17. DAY OF TOUR - BOCHUM - D

Our "home match" is on Mother's Day, what a pity that nobody of us is a mother....??? Anyhow, relaxed we built up our show on stage of the "Zeche" which is almost to small. There is also a third band called Duke, as Victor likes to feature his students. It's becoming real narrow for the guys and as we are also short in time (there is strict curfew at 10.40 pm) they are even thinking about renouncing their gig. As there was a great run of the fans they decide to play their concert. The audience liked their music as well as the show of GB ARTS. The fire-brigade had shorten our Pyroshow a little bit but also the rest of it was able to banish the oxygen so we are completely gone after our show, but also happy as it was a super concert, the "Zeche" has celebrated us in an fantastic way and we also celebrate a party afterwards.

Hi friends, Peavy here:

We are at the end of the tour now so we like to say thanks to all fans for coming, see you soon.

Special thanks of course to all concerned people, the bands (specially GB ARTS) and our loved crew!!

Charles "Chuckles" Czajkowski - for Sound and on the ears
Holger "Pizza" Marre - for Light and on the eyes (+ Eierlokör!)
Thomas Fichtl - for all concerning strings and keys what's rowing (10-armige Leuchte!)
Skid - for all concerning skins and sticks what's rowing (most Sexy Belgium!)
Joe Derschka - our webmaster, doing this and that (most organised man on the road)
Wolle Gaier - our road manager that did a great job without any information before
Thomas "Völle" Vollbrecht - the doctor who sold our shirts between 2 operations
Our Drivers - especially Dave the Highlander for keeping our beds clean (the most tidy bus ever seen)

Thanks for being there, have a good life!

Special thanks to Continental Concerts for their help and support!!!!

Cheers and be "Welcome on the other side" / RAGE - Tour 2001

Victor Smolski here:

It's nice to be home again but also a pity, that the tour came to it's end so quick. If I look into the mirror I recognise that the tour has left some marks (some more grey hairs). I am sick of having these accidents. The companies which rent Nightliners should think about the quality of their drivers. Also I tell you, check out your insurance's before going on the road, otherwise you may face some bad surprises.

Anyhow, the concerts were really great, the audience fantastic and I have new energy to write new songs.

I want to give a special thank to my guitar technician Thomas Fichtl for his unbelievable work he did during the tour. This guy is not only a member of the crew, he's also a great musician who can read up all my wishes directly from my eyes. If we need a guest musician any time, Thomas will be the first!

Actually the whole crew was great, giving always 100%. Normally you can expect this output only from your best friends. This circumstances makes it easy to concentrate for the shows every night. I hate it, if there is an arsehole on tour who is permanently annoying.

On the 18 th of May we already play at the Biker festival in Milano and our new booking agency "Continental Concerts" is organising more concerts and festivals for us.

In June I'm going to produce the vocals of DC Cooper for the new Silent Force CD and I will also start recording parts for my new Solo CD.

Thanks to all fans for their support, we see us at the next concert.......