Added Tuesday, November 20, 2007 Welcome to the 10th installment of the Road Rage report. The Worldwide Wicked Tour, Chapter 2: The U.K. with Heaven and Hell and Lamb of God.
We begin this segment in Birmingham. This is quite an important city for Heavy Metal, as it is the birthplace of both Black Sabbath and Judas Priest. We were fortunate this night to have them both in the venue. Sabbath onstage as Heaven and Hell and Priest were represented by a visit from Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing who came to watch the show. We were most honored to have them hang out back stage in our dressing room.
This was the biggest venue on the tour. The crowd was massive and we gave them a great show. I received a bit of good news tonight. The Artist/Relations guy for DW-Europe came to the show and told me that they have accepted me for an endorsement. I am thrilled as DW was definitely my first choice for drums. Overture of the Wicked and Framing Armageddon are both recorded on Drum Workshop drums. Vinnie Appice is also a DW endorsee...great to be in company with him. I was surprised to see bootleggers outside after the show selling counterfeit tour shirts. I didn’t expect to see that kind of thing in the U.K.
The next night we played in Cardiff, Wales at The International Arena. There were spacious dressing rooms and nice accommodations at this venue. The crowd was very responsive and we gave them a stellar performance. I am sure that many new recruits were brought into to the Iced Earth fold and there were definitely many old fans in the audience as well, as represented by the amount of our shirts in the crowd. There was even a chant of Iced Earth as we entered the stage. It was a bit different to hear that at the beginning rather than the end of the show.
There was a special event this night...Iced Earth versus Lamb of God in a couple of games of Family Feud, yes Family Feud. Not the normal after show activity, but it was good fun...complete with a host and even filmed for their upcoming DVD. The results of the game were a bit unclear, but I believe unfortunately they got the best of us.
The following night we played in Nottingham, England at The Nottingham Ice Arena. Nottingham is famous for being the hometown of Robin Hood. Many of the shows on this part of the tour have been ice rinks. They are very spacious, but often very cold. Tonight was a very good show – the band performed extremely well and convinced many new people that they need Iced Earth in their lives and CD collections. I was most honored to have Chris Adler from Lamb of God checking out the show.
There was a bowling alley located next to the venue...there was talk of an Iced Earth versus Lamb of God bowling challenge after the show, but there wasn’t enough time before we had to hit the bus. So two more shows left on the tour...one more update to come so stay tuned my friends.
Welcome to the 10th installment of the Road Rage report. The Worldwide Wicked Tour, Chapter 2: The U.K. with Heaven and Hell and Lamb of God.
