Firefest
1 2005 by
Bradford England
Next up are House of
Shakira, who I was really looking forward to hearing play on the bigger
stage after the magnificent set they performed at the pre-show party the
night before. I'd also been greatly impressed by them at their
appearance at a previous Gods festival some years ago. The band were
joined on stage by their former vocalist Mikael Eriksson who sang
backing vocals today, as new front man Andreas Eklund led the way to a
very impressive performance by the band. Playing tracks from their back
catalogue and their latest release 'First Class' on the bands new label
Lion Music, who have also re-released the band debut album 'Lint' with
Andreas on vocals. It's well worth getting a copy to compare the two
vocalist styles. House of Shakira are a band that can go a long way with
the right motivation behind them.
Report by Little
Linda for The Mayfair Mall Zine
Firefest
1 2005 by
Bradford England
The majority of those in attendance were there for the weekend, mingling
with bands at the pre-show on the Friday night with entertainment
provided by Brit melodic rockers Dante Fox and Pride alongside Swede's
House Of Shakira. The latter caused something of an incident when
members of the local Muslim community gathered outside to protest at the
group's 'offensive' use of a call to prayer as an intro tape. HOS and
Pride were among the opening bands at the main event the next day, with
both vying to be further up the bill at future events.
Report by Dave Reynolds for Classic Rock magazine
Firefest
1 2005 by
Bradford England
I couldn't make the pre show get together on Friday Night, but the Town
And Country Club 2 had been sold out for a while, and by all accounts,
Dante Fox, Pride, and House Of Shakira put on a great show – the
latter especially, running through pretty much all of their classic 'Lint'
album for a very appreciative crowd. Certainly, judging by the hangovers
some of those in attendance were nursing come Saturday, a good time was
had by one and all! Next up it was the turn of Sweden's House Of Shakira,
a band who had so impressed a few years earlier with their fantastic
Gods opening set in Wigan. Bright, bouncy and as full of energy as ever,
they seemed much heavier than I remember them from before, but their
well planned set of punchy, guitar driven rockers really began to get
the place warmed up. I was disappointed at having to miss their 'Lint'
set the night before as it's still (to these ears at least) their best
release to date, but the mix of songs from all four albums went down
very well with an increasingly enthusiastic crowd. Don't leave it so
long next time guys!
Report by Dave Cocket for Fireworx Magazine
Firefest 1 2005 Bradford England
Next up were House Of Shakira and, as with Pride, they
proved to be on top of their form. I’ve been a fan of the day since hearing Method Of Madness on a Frontiers
sampler many moons ago. The band also featured a very special guest, in the shape of one Mikael Eriksson,
the bands original singer and current co-writer of many of the bands songs. Due to solo deal he signed
before the first album was recorded he was not allowed to record with the group and hence he was
replaced, but still continued to write with the band and the Friday and Saturday shows at Firefest were his first
performances with the band in many years. Eriksson sounded amazing and interpreted the songs very well
using hand movements etc. HOS opened their set with 'The Song Remainns' culled from their second album and
then 'Uncontrolled' that featured a massive solo midsong. The band were absolutely stunning up to this
point and continued the high standard as served up tracks spanning their career such as 'In Your
Head', 'Hey Lord', 'The Best Times, 'Wings (which featured fabulous harmony vocals though
out) and then performed a stunning acapella version of 'Seven Bridges Road'. 'Morning Over Morocco' continued the set in fine style
and then 'You Are' helped to promote the bands new album 'First Class' issues through Lion Music in 2004.
Rounding out the show with the aforementioned 'Method Of Madness' was definitely a smart move and I was still humming this track the following day and then
the band wound things up in a fine style with Pellucid', the instrumental opening form there
imaginably titled third
album 3.
A most amazing set and a thousand times better than the last time I saw them at the Gods 97 show. A class
act that raised the bar even further for the rest ofthe days performances
Report by Hardrockhouse.com
Firefest 1 2005 Bradford England
Time for some food so off me and Shaggy went to get some cheese burgers from the Town and Country Food counter and check out a band called House of Shakira that had just come on. I believe they are Swedish, please correct me if I am wrong. Almost right away I was interested in what I was hearing. I hovered around the edge of the stage taking photos and listening to the band play. I realized I just could not get one of their tunes out of my head, so Shearluck Giskard Homes went off to investigate. The tune I believe turned out to be called Morning over
Morocco.
A great song that prompted me to make my own CD purchase of the day. I laid out a wopping £10
OMG, giskard is spending money. I had intended to buy any CD's by bands that caught my interest later in the week. But House of Shakira sounded so good I had to buy their first CD called Lint at the fest. You will be seeing a review here on Respawn for it soon. They sound much heavier live but on the CD they remind me of Styx a lot. Which is not a bad thing because I happen to like Styx :)
Report by Respawn.co.uk
Firefest 1 2005 Bradford England
The Pre-Fest-Show was announced on Friday and followed
with appearances of Dante Fox, Pride and House of Shakira.
Here we go….
House Of Shakira: The highlight of the evening. The Swedish band could convince themselves totally and was
as the Headliner on the right place. With their songs mainly from the „Lint“-album broke the crowd in full
enthusiasm out and they really put the hut on. The good performance and the original singer Mikael
Eriksson in addition speak for themselves and says a lot. The sound here was much
better.
Already at 12 o´clock in front of locked doors and a huge line of waited people the anticipation was us
written all over the face on Saturday.
House Of Shakira: In the beginning they had difficulties with the Sound. If it was the fault of
the mixer or due to the band who knows this so
exactly. They make their best of it and yes their brilliant achievement lays clearly on Friday even if
the songs had moved quite well.
Report by Sleaze-metal.com
Firefest 1 2005 Bradford England
HOUSE OF SHAKIRA last played over here at the 2001 Wigan bash which I was unfortunately prevented from attending due to unforeseen
circumstances. Bringing most of their recognised line-up with them they also have their original singer on backing vocals too but his performance just gets drowned in the mix.
Always a well received act at UK fests, H.O.S. could obviously do with twice as much time as the are given
onstage, they are quite something of a live machine, ‘In Your Head’, ‘Wings’, ‘You Are’ and established crowd fave ‘Method Of Madness’ demonstrating Anders Eklund’s awesome vocal
firepower. I understood they were originally to play the whole of their debut album ‘Lint’ right through but personally I prefer a mixed bag of stuff, their third album is a bit
good, too.
A stunning if way too short set but great to see these guys at last.
Report by Metalville.com
Firefest 1 2005 Bradford England
Friday Night
Headlining the pre-show night was the fabulous Swedes - House Of Shakira.
Together with original vocalist Mikael Eriksson, who performed with the band alongside current singer Anders Eklund, the guys got off to a flyer by nearly ensighting a
riot.
Yep, rule #1. NEVER play the album intro from Lint in a Pakistani dominated city! For those not in
attendance; a slightly unhinged Pakistani was walking past the venue when the band launched their set – which featured tracks from the classic Lint album. The intro features a reading from the sacred Koran which gives way to a thumping drum
intro.
This gentleman took offence to this and promptly went off to gather all his mates to storm the venue and lynch those
responsible.
Thankfully the police were not far behind and 4 patrol cars arrived with officers managing to convince the throng that no devil worshipping was taking place inside and dispersed
them.
Maybe this was the same crowd which 2 days earlier had hacked into my site?
That incident aside, HOS were on fire and were given a fitting reception. The band sounded wonderful and one of the biggest reactions from the whole weekend was saved for an encore of two Journey tracks Anyway You Want It and Stone In Love. The crowd went seriously nuts and it was a brilliant end to the set.
Saturday
House of Shakira:
It seemed just a little odd to be watching a band of HOS's caliber playing at 1pm in the
afternoon! They are rightfully a headliner in their own respect, but their position in today's line-up is reflective of the strength of all the bands
featured.
The guys were just as professional as the night before – this time running through a true greatest hits set, with tunes from all albums, including a few current tracks like the amazing You Are and Uncontrolled from First Class.
Delving back into the past, the band supplied crowd pleasers like Method Of
Madness, In Your Head and Morning Over Morocco - which really got this gig going in a big
way. The presence of two singers along with the band's regular vocal firepower saw some amazing harmonies on display, but sadly I think the guys suffered from the worst sound of the
day.
Not sure why, but the band's mix was distorted and not as clear as it should have
been.
House Of Shakira are one of the most original bands in this scene, while still retaining so many elements of classic
AOR. Live on stage they live up to their legend.
Report by Andrew at Melodicrock.com
Firefest 1 2005 Bradford England
Even more experienced then Pride were House Of Shakira, who have been trying hard to make it since their introduction to the scene in '91. Their debut however didn't see the light until '97 but it immediately earned them a spot on the melodic rock map. Just as Pride they had played the Gods before and today they proved once more they rightfully deserved a place on this bill. Their set was well balanced with songs from almost every album. Great harmony vocals and a lot of non-rock influences are the basic sound ingredients of this Swedish quintet who played an honourable set.
Report from Rockreport.be
THE GODS 2001 At the Maximes, Wigan, England, November
3th 2001
House Of Shakira took over and went their way through all their albums. It was
clear that either the band has a lot of experience playing live or that they
just had all the right moves. And the right looks at that as well, especially
bassist Per Schelander who has had a huge metamorphosis. He now looks a bit like
a nu-breeder, which is good I think, as I believe that next to the music Rock is
about showmanship and over the top looks belong to that as well. Of course the
music will always be most important and the band really delivered the goods.
Their repertoire really does it for me and in a live situation the songs even
get an extra dimension, so I didn't hesitate and got me their live disc
immediately after the show (which is a good purchase by the way, it really
reflects the atmosphere of their gig at The Gods).
Report by Carlos Destroyer,
Majestic Magazine
Nemelrock
festival in Madrid Spain April 2001
After a brief shape-up of the running order which saw the unplugged Dare dropped
to third on the bill at the last minute, it was time for the sublime Swedes to
plug their excellent 'III' album. The strange thing was that even though the
energetic and entertaining Adriangale had unexpectedly taken the place by storm,
it seemed that House of Shakira were something of an unknown quantity to the
good people of Madrid. Despite having a few year's experience and a 3 albums
under their belt, the initial response was somewhat muted in comparison to the
other acts so far today. This however was about to change! With a minimum of
fuss they strolled onto the stage and kicked into the first of a five-part
combination punch from 'III' with the distinctive 'Alien'. The sound was
immediately crystal clear with the heavy layered backing vocals ringing out, and
Tony Anderssons busy drumming seemingly bouncing of the walls. The unique guitar
interplay between Mats Hallstensson and Anders Lundström is effortlessly cool
without the need for unnecessary histrionics, and the high and clear vocals of
Andreas Eklund are seriously on-the-ball. I've always thought he had a bit of
Steve Perry in his voice, but I just realised that its actually closer to Steve
Augeri, and yes, he is that good! The band don't do much in the way of posing,
except for superconfident bassist Per Schelander who struts around like Nikki
Sixx while doing some flawless harmony vocals. In fact, it's their unassuming
stage manner that seems to be their only problem. Unlike Jamie Rowe and Co. They
don't seem to communicate very well with the audience. I realise that it must
feel strange to a bunch of Swedes singing in English to a predominantly Spanish
crowd, but Andreas in particular seems a bit shy, a fact that didn't go
unnoticed judging to the one I spoke to afterwards. Many would later change
their minds when they witnessing Andreas and a certain Mr. Dargan trying to
out-shout each other to W.A.S.P and Helloween in the Excalibur club at 5 am, but
we'll save that particular blackmail story for another time. 'Alien' soon runs
into 'Wings' and then into the wonderful 'In your Head', all delivered pretty
much identically to the album versions. The band later complained that the sound
from the monitors was reading 120 decibels, but from stage-front you would never
know that anything was wrong. The band were now in overdrive as more people were
under the spell of their catchy songs and powerful, punchy delivery. They
continued with the 'III' material through the imaginative 'Black and Blue Skies'
and the rousing 'Nearly Orgasmic' before hitting the crowd with a hot quartet
from 'Lint'. 'Who's Lying Now' and the awesome 'Morning Over Morocco' put the
crowd firmly on their side, while the most well known duo of 'Elephant Gun' and
'Method of Madness' finished them of. The audience were obviously more familiar
with the older material and the crowd even managed to sing along in the
"hey, hey, hey, hey" section. The set ends with 'Pellucid'(outro) from
'III' but by this time they have impressed everyone that much they wouldn't be
allowed to go home yet. If you were at the Gods in '97' you'll know they
finished their set with 'Separate Way's', but being the unpredictable types that
they are, they did 'Stone in Love', and it was note perfect too! Much singing
and waving arms followed, proving that music is indeed a universal language.
Report by Phil Ashcroft/0FIREWORKS
Nemelrock
festival in Madrid Spain April 2001
Another big surprise of the festival. If their records are exceptional, the band
certainly know how to play them alive, with a great simplicity but glowing with
quality and style. Andreas Eklund proved to ba superb singer, in the style
of Steve Perry/Steve Augeri, and his colleagues wrap him up with splendid
choruses.
They can´t be compared to Adrian Gale, those were pure dynamite and very
different, but House of Shakira has a burst of delicious melodies which the
audience accepted withou batting and eyelid. Their set is composed mainly of
tracks from their third and excelente album III. They started with Alien,
followed with Wings and that amazing song In your head, with that startling
chorus, and Black and blue Skies and Nearly Orgasmic. But they also played songs
from their first record, Lint, with Morning over Morocco, Elephant Gun, Method
of Madness and Who´s lying now. What a great voice has Andreas got! and what a
treat was the encore of the classic of Journey, Stone in love. The only
negative point was that they couldn´t connect with a section of the crowd. Part
of the people there didn´t know who they were or they had not listened to their
albums, and the band didn´t try to approach them either, being very cold,
especially Andreas, and limiting themselves to play, with the exception of Per
Schlander, whose look and attitude on stage is closer to a member of a present
glam band (Backyard Babies, Buck Cherry) than one of hard rock or melodic Aor.
Personally I believe they were the surprise of the festival. I sensed Adrian
Gale would be an explosive band, but House of Shakira proved to be better than
other bands of renown and that was a real surprise.
Report by CARLOS DESTROYER
Nemelrock
festival in Madrid Spain April 2001
HOUSE OF SHAKIRA: I was the one who suggested the band to José Herrera, the
promoter. And after the superb show these Swedish rockers put on, I must say I
am very proud of it. They are top level musicians. They sound crystal clear
live, they've got the right attitude and on top of that Andreas Eklund is an
amazing vocalist. The band played a well-chosen set that was basically based on
their superb last album, "III" and they left some tracks from their
amazing debut "Lint" for the end, which the crowd seemed to be more
familiar with than their latest stuff. The only downside of their show was that
they didn't make any connection with part of the audience, probably due to the
fact that they're (sadly) very little known over here. I hope to see them again
soon here in Spain, and I wish that by then they've gotten the place they
deserve in the melodic rock scene, as to me they are one of the most innovative,
talented bands to appear in the last five years.
Report by Jorge
"Vigilante" Antonaya, AOR-Eorope
Nemelrock
festival in Madrid Spain April 2001
I really wanted to see HOS live. They are among the most innovative and original melodic rock bands and I have enjoyed each one of their records. The band had spent the whole day chatting with the fans proving that they were very down-to-earth and friendly. And to be honest after the quite laid back Dare gigg I needed a good kick. The band hit the stage and developed a no-fillers show covering their three albums and featuring hits like "Who's crying now", "In my Head", "Elephant Gun" or "Method of Madness". Per Schlander had told me before the show that they woudl play JOURNEY's "Stone in Love" and obviously they played it as the encore. I would underline how good is the band's vocalist Andreas Eklund high-pitched and melodic vocals that fit perfectly the bands music. On the other hand the guys seemed a little bit cold something that much probably affected part of the audience who weren't fans of the band. Anyway, HOS did one of the best shows of the night.
Report by AOR-Land
THE GODS 1997 At the Maximes, Wigan, England, November 9th
1997
Welcome to something as unique as an all day festival with nothing but melodic rock in
1997. This can only be The Gods, the AOR festival which Mr. Mark Ashton, head of Now &
Then Records in England, arranged for the first time in 1993. This is the fourth time he
is doing The Gods. Each time it has been staged it has grown, and this year the number of
bands is bigger than ever. Also the artists are from a lot of different places in the
world, such as Sweden, USA, Canada, The Netherlands and offcourse The United Kingdom. The
place were it all happens is the Maxime, a big night club in Wigan, a suburb to
Manchester. 800 people has turned up for a record breaking twelve hours of melodic mayhem
this Sunday. First up is Sweden's House Of Shakira. They have created a strong reputation
for themselves in the AOR community with their newly released debut album
"Lint". They start off with the intro of thunderous drums and screaming guitars
to "Morning Over Morocco" followed by the a bit more laid-back song
"Lint", just like on the album. The clock is 12.30 P.M. That's lunchtime. No
wonder people is a bit hard to get going at an early hour like this. But the Swedes are
working hard and eventually gets the audience rocking. House Of Shakira's Journey style
AOR with certain Arabian and African influences works well in a live format. Then off
course this band has quite a lot of stage experience, having played every little dump in
their native Sweden for the last seven or eight years. As one having once seen them with
original long time vocalist Mikael Eriksson, I must say his replacement Andreas Eklund is
even a bit better, however being a bit shy. But I'm sure Eklund will feel more relaxed as
he gets more live gigs under his belt. House of Shakira do eight of the eleven songs off
the "Lint" CD, before bassplayer Per Schelander asks if The Gods people want
more. They do and the band give us a cover of Journey's "Separate Ways". The
audience goes nuts. Not bad at all for a U.K.debut gig. House Of Shakira set list:
1. Morning Over Morocco 2. Lint 3. Who's Lying Now 4. Love Was Good 5. Remember 6. Canned
Laughter 7. Elephant Gun 8. Method Of Madness 9. Separate Ways
Report by Jörgen Holmstedt for Burrn!
magazine (Japan)
THE GODS 1997 At the Maximes, Wigan, England, November 9th
1997
(Rated number one of The Gods festival)
The unenviable task of getting the Gods underway fell to House Of Shakira. The Swedish
quintet, fresh from a successful European jaunt with Royal Hunt, hit the cramped stage at
12.45 pm and proceeded to canter through a near perfect 40 minute set. Concentrating on
their excellent "Lint" debut this was truly accomplished performance with
surprisingly good sound quality and spot on harmonies from bassist Per Schelander and lead
guitarist Mats Hallstensson. The likes of "Who's Lying Now", "Love Was
Good", "Elephant Gun" and "Method Of Madness" are all carried off
with aplomb before the band close with a crowd-pleasing Journey cover and depart to a very
positive response from the healthy turnout. House Of Shakira set a standard for the day
which was never bettered.
Report by Nick Shilton for The Rock
Magazine (UK)
Hafenbahn in Offenbach Germany October 24th 1997
The new found melodic rock sensation from Sweden House Of Shakira made their very first
gigs, live on stage, here in Germany while they were supporting Royal Hunt as a special
guest. The guys around vocalist Andreas Eklund played only material from their debut album
"Lint" and it was a real pity, that there were only around 200-250 people
watching the concert. Songs like "Nr 8", "Method Of Madness",
"Remember", "Elephant Gun" and most of all the fantastic "Who's
Lying Now" came much harder and tougher than the album versions, which was pretty
good. The sound engineer seems to have a bad day, or maybe he had problems with his ears,
because most of the details were pushed down in the loudness. But everybody was able to
hear the really big potential of this band and when they did their "zugabe"
"Separate Ways", the very nice Swedes had the whole audience in their hands.
Everybody should watch out for this band in the future.
Report by Andreas Höhn for Hard Line
Magazine (Germany)
Hafenbahn in Offenbach Germany October 24th 1997
After supporting Saxon the Danish/American band Royal Hunt came back with a headliner
tour, where the Scandinavian band House Of Shakira were supporting act. Vocalist Andreas
Eklund was so happy being on that tour, that he never got tired toput out his bottle of
Jägermeister to wet up his voice. But beside of this "great" show effect, House
Of Shakira had nearly no stage acting (because of the extremely small stage). But the
groove of this band was good to catch the audience, and the crowd was very soon a crowd of
bodies who shaked, danced and acted to the rhythm of their music, also the heat in the
hall had no chance to cool down during the show of that Swedes. The temperature in the
hall was more than hot when House Of Shakira finished their set with grasshopper number
"Method Of Madness". As the audience wanted they to play one more song, clapped
their hands and screamed for Zugabe the five guys played spontaneous a extremely authentic
version of Journeys AOR classical song "Separate Ways". We closed our eyes and
we thought that Steve Perry was on stage to give us some genius vocals-House Of Shakira
gave us a melodic orgasm which was perfect.
Report by Stefan Glas editor of Rock
Hard Magazine (Germany) |