>> WILD WILLY`S GANG <<

There was a few new things about Wild Willy’s Gang this night, firstly the arrival of Eric Hawk of Artch fame on lead vocals, did his 2’nd gig with this lineup replacing Jorn Lande. A fine job Eric did too…

But it’s not only in the lineup there had been changes, but in their set as well. And for those of us that have seen the guys in action a few times before, the changes were welcomed with open arms. Gone are the tunes from The Snakes days, that they used to play before like: "Can’t go back" (I miss that one), "Little miss happiness", "The Dancer (The Liar)" that Jorn himself was a deadringer to sing. And I anticipated that with these songs being outed from the set the Whitesnake/Mark III Deep Purple songs would have gone as well……….. right???! Wrong, in fact I couldn’t be more wrong as the guys fed us: "Still of the night" (as a new tune) "Sweet talker", "Crying in the rain" "Mistreated" and "Stormbringer".

Other newies in the set were Accept’s "London Leatherboys", Judas Priest’s "Metal Gods", Dio’s "Holy diver" and the most surprising of them all Ozzy’s "That I never had". When Ronnie Le Tekrø entered the stage we got "Seven seas", "U.S.A" from his TNT days and much of the same old but beloved Bad Habitz set with "Dancing in the moonlight", "Massacre", and in a medley "Don’t believe a word", "Chinatown", and "Suicide". Then it was on to "Emerald", which ended the show. With "Suicide", "Still of the night" and "That I never had" being the highlights of the event. Tore Moren really knows how to pull off those Sykes and Wylde riffs, and the ever so steady rhytmsection by Willy Bendiksen and Sid Ringsby was just that, ever so steady.

One point I would make perfectly clear is that I have never heard better twinlead guitars by either Wild Willy’s Gang or Bad Habitz than I did this night : Tore Moren and Ronnie Le Tekrø complemented eachother perfectly.

I know from earlier gigs that soundwise this is not a good place to play, and the room itself demands great skills from the sound engineer. So it was no surprise that I heard complaints about the sound after the gig, but from where I stood the sound was OK, although it differs much from position to position inside the premises .

All considered: sound, performance and public it was good gig by the Norwegian Hardrock Pioneers, and from what I hear we’ve got a lot to look forward to! Mark my words; these guys will create a buzz around Norway in the future!

That's it for now...

Roar Kleven