Venue: The Underworld, Camden, London    Date: 27th November, 2001

Edguy Set list: Fallen Angels / Tears of a Mandrake / Falling Down / Vain Glory Opera / Babylon / Headless Game /  Avantasia / Out of Control

Gamma Ray Set list (incomplete): Dethrone Tyranny / No World Order / Short as Hell / Land of The Free / Man on A Mission / Fire below / Eagle / Somewhere /Out in Space / I Want Out / Future World / Ride the Sky / Valley of the Kings / Send Me a Sign...

I for one, was delighted when I read that Edguy's Autumn tour of Europe included a cross channel excursion to London to visit the Underworld, currently the centre of much activity on the London metal scene, this year.  I was however, somewhat surprised, when well respected German power metal heroes Gamma Ray were then announced as headliners with  Edguy as special guest - then even more surprised when I saw that their three European tour support acts were also listed as playing. Five acts playing between 7pm and a London 11pm curfew - surely not?

My late shift at the office meant that I arrived after Swedish band Nostradameus had completed their set and part way through that of Finnish outfit, Lullacry.  A female-fronted rock band, their more mainstream rock sound (with a slight nod towards nu-metal) was slightly at odds with the
otherwise pure Germanic 'happy' power metal played by the other acts on the bill.  Lead singer Tanya has won some attention with her striking looks but unfortunately her voice was not on top form on this occasion and their brief, 20 minute set was insufficient to win over the crowd.

Next up were French outfit Heavenly, who have been getting some good press of late, largely as a result of their second album, 'The Sign of The Winner', on the Noise label. They were visibly pleased by the warm response from the crowd and the recognition of their material - largely from the traveling German and French contingent in the audience.  This being their very first tour of this length, there have been some problems, notably with the voice of singer Ben ... and fans have been critical of his performance.  Throughout this set, however, he sang well and though they only had time to complete four numbers during their time slot, the title track of the new album was particularly impressive. The band can certainly feel happy that they gave a good account of themselves on their first visit to these shores.

By this stage the venue was heaving. Given its unusual shape and the difficulty in obtaining a good, unobstructed view, I decided to try and get as close to the stage as possible.  My plan was however thwarted by the determined Greek contingent in front of the stage who added considerably to the ambience of the evening. After a short break Edguy eventually hit the stage. It is over two years since I last saw them play and, having been disappointed with their latest disk 'Mandrake', I was apprehensive about their performance. A lacklustre 'Fallen Angels' was a poor choice of opening number, but the crowd reaction was good and became much louder after 'The Tears of a Mandrake' - probably the best track from the new album.  Lead singer Tobias Sammet was clearly pleased by the crowd response, "We've heard bad things about the UK, but so far it's good - I don't know why we haven't been here before!"

'Falling Down' from their 'Theater of Salvation' album immediately took the band up a gear and from here on in, they really rocked.  "Do you want a ballad?" Tobias teased, "How about a fast, heavy ballad?", he joked by way of introducing 'Vain Glory Opera' -  the title track of their third album. Besides being a fine vocalist and front man, Tobi is also a good comedian with an excellent command of English.  The jokes made about Germany's recent crushing defeat at the hands of the English soccer team and the clowning about of his band mates during the show, give the band an endearing quality. They are certainly a band that likes to have fun as well as play music.

Next up was 'Babylon', which induced a small section of the crowd to begin singing Boney M's 'By The Rivers of Babylon ...' to much amusement of both band and the rest of the audience. This is, of course, nothing like the Edguy song of the same name, and when they began to play, the crowd were soon jumping with joy and singing along with great gusto to another typically Edguy number.  In between Tobi's comments of "Come on Wembley Arena" and "Thank you very much Hammersmith", we were treated to 'The Headless Game' from 'Vain Glory Opera', the title track from Tobias's solo project album 'Avantasia' and a finale of 'Out of Control'.

Edguy are a band who always seem to enjoy themselves onstage and tonight they are clearly taken aback by the enthusiasm shown by the crowd. The short time slot means that many classics are omitted and though an eight song set seemed short, it was more than enough to have the band announce convincingly " We'll be back!"

Headliners, Gamma Ray, comprise founder / guitarist Kai Hansen (ex-Helloween), Dirk Schlchter (bass), Henjo Richter (guitar) and the excellent drummer Daniel Zimmermann who also plays in Freedom Call.  Formed over 10 years ago, they set the standard for German power metal in the 1990s, yet their success in the country has been very limited. With the take-over of the German Noise record label they have become part of  the UK-based Sanctuary Records Organisation, who have been able to get them increased exposure in the UK during 2001.

They were clearly pleased to be playing here once again after such a long time and despite suffering some damage to their equipment at Heathrow Airport that morning, they were still in prime-form, following on as they were, from tours of continental Europe and Japan in recent months. A couple of tracks from their latest disk 'No World Order' opened the set; 'Dethrone Tyranny' and the album's title track.  The large German and Greek contingents of the crowd were in their element and the pit area in front of the stage was heaving with sweaty metal fans.

A long list of stage favourites from the band's studio albums followed, of which I recognised 'Short as Hell', ' Land of The Free' and 'Man on a Mission'.  After a while the songs blended together, as always seems to happen when one is not familiar with all of the band's repertoire. The crowd however remained full of enthusiasm, right to the end of the set, which closed with the sensational 'Somewhere / Out in Space' which was packed with excellent guitar solos.

Then with the clock well past the usual curfew hour of 11pm, came the real crowd-pleasers in the form of encores. 'I Want Out' and 'Future World' represents Gamma Ray at their best: powerful rockers with the sort of catchy chorus that makes you want to sing along and bounce around to. Huge cheers greeted old Helloween number 'Ride The Sky' and the final icing on the cake was the medley of 'Valley of The Kings / Send Me A Sign'. No real fan of the band could have complained after such a long set, packed with favourites, but with the set finishing well after 1:30pm, one has to hope that the venue does not get into trouble with Camden Council for exceeding the curfew.

So, all in all, another excellent evening's entertainment at the Underworld, where the promoters are to be congratulated once again, for their willingness to bring over from Europe, a whole series of acts that no other UK promoter would touch. On this occasion we had the chance to see some promising newcomers as well as some more established names.  All the bands made themselves available and were signing things and chatting with friends throughout the evening.  The sound quality was excellent for all of the bands and the evening was so successful that hopefully Noise / Sanctuary will be able to have the bands play a larger London venue when they return.

Charlie