MONSTERS OF THE MILLENIUM, SOLNAHALLEN, STOCKHOLM 18TH OF NOVEMBER 1999

The day "started" when I met Tapio at Solnahallen about 2 hours before opening. He helped me to get inside the arena. It was almost empty, just some people working with the stage. I spoke with Tapio and met a russian Manowar-fan who had watched the whole tour so far. Today was his last show. While we were sitting there talking, Lions Share hit the stage to soundcheck. They played the Judas Priest song A Touch Of Evil, and it did sound really good. I hadn't heard them before (not that I can remember anyway, but I bought their 2 albums the day after the show).

We went around to see if Ken Boyd was showing up, but didn't find him. Among the people we saw walking around before the concert were Lemmy from Motorhead and Joey DeMaio from Manowar.

I went to get my backstage-pass - no problem! Wow, maybe I could meet Dio this time! And while fixing the pass, I met Ken, his wife Ann-Marie and their friends Larry and wife Lorie. Since Tapio had fixed me in without using my ticket, I chose to go outside and sell it to someone. I got my money and went back inside the arena. Tapio and the others had taken the place in the front-row center. I had to stand in the second row ...

Lions Share started to play at 18.30. They played for about 30 minutes (5 or 6 songs). One of them was the Judas Priest-song mentioned above. They were quite heavy and sounded OK. Nothing special but good anyway.

Dio

Dio went on stage at 19.00. They started with their usual intro and continued with the heavy Evilution. They continued with the classics from Holy Diver. The audience really liked it. It was quite tough to stand in the front, and keep your place there. Quite a lot of people had to be pulled away to get some calmer place to see the rest of the show, one of them was Larry's wife Lorie (hope you had a great experience anyway!). Dio seemed to have a lot of fun together at the stage. Craig moved and smiled a lot more than on the Sweden Rock Festival concert in June. Chuck seemed to fit Dio pretty well. Simon was very good and Scott also. Great song-selection, but I really look forward to Magica tour, and a lot of different songs if possible. This was my fifth Dio-concert and the setlist have been pretty similar all the time. But if you love Dio ... Ronnie sounded very good. He recongnized Tapio in the front-row pretty soon, and smiled and waved to him a lot during the concert (lucky guy!).

The band:
Ronnie James Dio - vocals
Craig Goldy - guitars
Simon Wright - drums
Scott Warren - keyboards
Chuck Garrick - bass

Setlist

Intro (Raise the dead - protect your soul ...)
Evilution
Straight Through The Heart
Don't Talk To Strangers
Holy Diver
Drum solo
Heaven And Hell
Rock 'n' Roll Children
Stargazer with guitar solo
I Speed At Night
King Of Rock And Roll
The Last In Line

Encore:

Rainbow In The Dark
Man On The Silver Mountain/Long Live Rock 'n' Roll/Man On The Silver Mountain

After the show, we all went backstage to meet Dio. We had to wait in a corridor. Spoke a few words to Chuck and got his autograph. Tapio was allowed to go inside Dio's room. After a while he came out and told Ken and Ann-Marie that they could come in too. Larry, Lorie and me waited for a while until Tapio opened the door and told us to come in! And finally I stood there - eye to eye with my hero, my idol Ronnie James Dio! I shook his hand and introduced me. He was very kind and calm. When I turned around I saw Craig sitting there too! I shook his hand too, and said something about a good concert. We all talked for a while (mostly the others, not me). Ronnie saw my Inferno and aksed if I wanted to get it signed. Sure! He also signed my backstage-pass and a map-description to Solnahallen. He told me a bit about Magica, how good it was going to be, and that he listened to it all the time in tour bus. It is supposed to be out in March if I remember correctly. Someone took some pictures of me and Ronnie (was it Lorie?!). I asked Craig how he liked the Swedish beer (he drank a beer called Norrlands Guld), and he told me it was good, and asked if I wanted one. I said yes. When he came back, he signed my backstage-pass and and the map (didn't want to sign the Inferno booklet ...). I took some pictures. Then I went to the room next door, there Scott was eating. I took a photo and got his autograph too. Then back to Ronnie and Craig. They went away for a while, they spoke to John Norum amont others. When they came back, they told us the history of Magica. Craig said that the story was so well-written, that it could have been a book. Craig also told us about his coming internet-project called Destinybridge (won't tell you what it is about ...). Well, they had to leave (Ronnie was going to see/hear a bit of Manowar). Wow, what an experience.

We went to see the end of the Manowar show, and got about 2 songs. After that Tapio and I went to see if he could leave in his car, but it was stuck between the arena and Motorhead's tourbus! We had to go inside and wait for a while. Scott came and talked to us for a while (Ken and the others were still there too). He told us that he really liked Sweden and Finland (?!).

Well, all good things must come to an end. Tapio drove me back to my girilfriends place (I wasn't very good at describing the way ... Sorry Tapio!). It had been a fantastic evening. But something to remember for the rest of my life. Only bad thing is that I missed Motorhead and most of Manowar, but hey - I met Dio!

/Mårten