Review of Sweden Rock Festival, June 11-12th 1999, by Egon Lundberg

This review was originally posted to WeRock! mailing list.

From: Egon Lundberg (egge@hem.passagen.se)
Subject: [werock] I MET RONNIE!!!!
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 14:46:07 +0200

Hi, everyone!! Here comes my little story about Sweden Rock Festival!

First we travelled down by car listening to A LOT of Dio and then, after almost 19 hours, we finally got to the festival area and started rising our tent. On Friday me and my friends met the great Marten (who is a really nice guy!!) and we all watched a lot of great bands and it was a great beginning of the weekend.

THEN SATURDAY CAME!!!! First me and Marten went to meet Tapio (who is a great guy, too!!!) and he helped to get the backstage pass that I had asked for by Charlie and I got it!!!!!! Then Tapio went away to see a band called Budgie (was that the bandīs name?!) and me and Marten went to the tent just to take it easy..

Then we all went down to the festival area and started the countdown to DIO by watching Gamma Ray and U.D.O.. We left the U.D.O. show and went to the DIO stage to get a good place. Me and Marten was almost in the "front row" (is this the right spelling..?) - we were in the "second row" and before the show we could see Craig, Larry, Simon and Scott doing short sound checks!! We did not se Ronnie though!

Then the show started and Ronnie entered the stage!!!!!!!!!!!! I was in heaven (and I still am!!!!!!) and it was so wonderful and great to see Ronnie!!!!! I could not belive that I finally was there in front of Ronnie and I looked at Marten and smiled many times!!!!!!!! I was so happy!!!! I am so happy!!! Ronnie is THE greatest singer I have ever heard and he was so great!! Marten and I were headbanging side by side and that was so incredible great!!!!!!!

Then I sadly enough had to leave the "second row" because the lady in front of me had problems with the pressure from the crowd behind and after the "stage people" had "lifted her away" everyone pushed to get her place, which they also succeded with, so suddenly I was in the "third or forth row" and the pressure from the crowd began to be too much for me, too. I have a bad back and I must say that it was very scary. I left the crowd and went to the other side of the stage, the right side, and there it was much calmer!! Actually, at first I was the only one that was headbanging and giving evil eyes there and the greatest thing of all was that when I did a "double evil eye" with both hands Ronnie saw me, smiled and did a "double evil eye" back at me!!!! THAT WAS SO GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

I sang along to every song and headbanged as much as I could and after the gig I almost had no voice left!!! :)

The songs they played were (as I can remember and not in the right order):

• King of RockīnīRoll
• Rock īnīRoll Children
• Neon Knights
• Rainbow In The Dark
• Last In Line
• Holy Diver
• I speed at Night
• Stargazer
• Man On The Silver Mountain
• Heaven and Hell
• Mob Rules
• Evilution
• Straight Through The Heart
• Donīt Talk To Strangers

  It was a good show!!! My first and I LOVED it!!!!!!!!!! :)

  THEN I went backstage and I was VERY nervous and excited!!! First I saw Craig sitting down on a chair and Tapio was standing there, too. First I walked up to Tapio and talked to him a little. Then I "took a deep breath" (is that the correct phrase?) and walked up to Craig and thanked him for the show and that I was happy that he was back in the band! He is a GREAT guy!!!!! VERY nice and he seems to have a warm heart! He was easy to talk to and he never made me feel "stupid" or so..!!! :)

  Then I went back to talk to Tapio a little and he said that Deep Purple was there too and pointed at Roger Glover, Ian Paice and Ian Gillan who were standing "in the other corner of the backstage area"! It was truly amazing! There I was with Tapio, Craig and Scott (I saw him, too!!) and Deep Purple was there too!!!!!

  Then Craig walked away to talk to some people and when he came back I asked him if he could sign my friends "I Could Have Been A Dreamer"-maxi-single and my "Mystery"- maxi-single and he did!!! I have a strange name :) so he wanted me to spell it for him, but I do not know where my mind was then because I could not find the right letter for "G" in english... I said "H" (!!!!!!) instead and he also thought that I said "M" in the end so my name became: EHOM!!!!!!!!!! Then the guy beside me wrote my name on his hand to show Craig how it was supposed to be spelled and we laughed and it was VERY fun!!!!! :):):)

  Then the guy took a picture of me and Craig!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) He also took pictures of me and Ian Paice, me and Ian Gillan and me and Steve Morse!!! :)

  Then Larry and Simon came out from the bus and I thanked them for the great show, too, but they seemed tired (Larry even said that he was very tired) and they sat down on some chairs together with a few nice looking ladies who also were there! :)

  Then I saw Tapio talking to Wendy so I walked up to them and introduced myself to her! She was very nice!!! I did not talk to her because Tapio was, so I just stood there listening! :)

  THEN RONNIE CAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I shook his hand and thanked him very much for the GREAT GIG!!! He thanked me and then he had to talk to a lot of other people there and said that he would be back to sign my records that I had with me! It was SOOOOOO GREAT to finally meet HIM in person and he is VERY NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so nervous first but he made me feel very welcome!!!!! I AM SO HAPPY TO HAVE MET RONNIE!!!!!!!!!!!!

  Sadly enough I did not get my records signed by him because he was too busy with the other people and when he started signing the other fans records a man came and said that they had to be going soon, so I (who was the last in line) was the only one who did not get his autograph... BUT I am HAPPY anyway!!!!!!! :):):)

  Before I left the backstage area I asked Ronnie quickly if I could take a picture of him and me and he said yes. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The guy I mentioned earlier took the picture of me and Ronnie and I REALLY hope that I turns out well!!!!!! :):):)

  Then they had to go and I left the backstage area and went out to the festival to see Deep Purple, but I must say that I could not think of anything else that I just had met Ronnie and the band!!!!!! I was so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  I am also very happy to finally have met Marten and Tapio, too! You two are really nice guys and I hope that we will meet again someday!!!! YOU ROCK!!! :)

  Now I have to go, but I will talk to you all again soon!!!!

  Have a GREAT day!!!!!!!!!! :)

  One HAPPY Egon, Sweden!!!!