MONSTERS OF THE MILLENNIUM, JOHANNESHOV, STOCKHOLM 30TH OF MAY 2001

I went to the arena at 17.30. I was going to try get hold of my aftershow-ticket that I had been promised by Annie at the Dio fan-club. I first went to the ticket-seller to ask where to get it. They were not sure, but told me to go to the press-entrance. I went there to ask, but they did not have any tickets, and told me to go to another address (that unfortunately not even existed ...). I found another place to ask (security), but haven't received any tickets yet. After waiting for a while, they told me to go back to the press-entrance, and so I did. They told me that the tickets would arrive there later. After waiting for about an hour or so (with members from Narnia and Entombed) they received the tickets. I got 2 aftershow-tickets and a photo-pass (thank you very much Annie!), but I weren't allowed to get in on those tickets, so the guard told me to go to the security. When I got there, the kind girl just took a look at my tickets and let me in to the arena. The time was now 19.30.

The first band to play was Ratt, one of my old favourite bands. Stephen Pearcy is one of my favourite-singers! Unfortunately he is no longer a member of Ratt, so the singer was Jizzy Pearl, former of Love/Hate. I had heard that he should be an awesome singer, but I think he was pretty OK, and did the best he could. The other members must have been Warren DeMartini and John Corabi on guitars, Robbie Crane on bass (cool guy!) and Bobby Blotzer on drums. Good show, but not great. Played a lot of classics. The show lasted for about one hour. I just wonder how long John will stay in the band, since he is a good singer, and didn't get much space in the band. The songs were something like this:

Shame, Shame, Shame, Lack Of Communication, Back For More, Wanted Man, You're In Love, Round And Round, Way Cool Jr, Lovin' You Is A Dirty Job, Slip Of The Lip, Lay It Down, Insane (?).

After this, I went to the guards and asked if I were able to get in front of the security-fence and take some photos, and I was allowed to do it for the 3 first songs, but not allowed to use any flash. So there I stood - just me and one other photographer. Dio came on stage, and there I was - in the very front! Really cool place to be on a Dio-gig. I took about 20 photos during these first 3 songs and then was told to leave the front-area.

I took place in maybe the 10th row or so. And there I stood for the rest of the show. Dio was very good once again. First time ever seeing Jimmy, and he did a great job. Seems like the band is having fun together, especially Ronnie, Craig and Jimmy. That is a good thing for the future of Dio. Dio played for one hour. The audince seemed to like the old classics the most, but I think that the Magica material is great too.

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

Setlist: (could be in the wrong order)
Sunset Superman
Invisible
Drum solo
Stand Up And Shout
Don't Talk To Strangers
Holy Diver
Magica Intro
Lord Of The Last Day
Fever Dreams
Guitar solo
Heaven And Hell
Man On The Silver Mountain/Long Live Rock 'n' Roll/Man On The Silver Mountain
The Last In Line

After Dio had left the stage, I asked the guards if I were allowed to go backstage, but they said I had to wait until Alice Cooper had finished his show. I also asked if I were allowed to take pictures, but I wasn't. I went back to the audience and took place in the middle in about the 10th row again. Alice did a great show, and the audience seemed to like it a lot. Brutal Planet is a great album, and he played a lot of songs from it. The new songs are harder than the old, but the old ones was pretty heavy live.

Alice got his head chopped off, was "born again" and ended the show with beating up a girl dressed up to be Britney Spears. A really nice show and a good ending of the night. Seemed like Alice had brought the most fans to the arena, as he got the biggest support from the crowd. He played for about one hour and fourty minutes. The set consisted of these songs (and maybe some more, in no particular order):

Brutal Planet, Wicked Young Man, It's The Little Things, Take It Like A Woman, Pick Up The Bones, Poison, I'm Eighteen, Go To Hell, Dead Babies, Billion Dollar Babies, Only Women Bleed, He's Back, Teenage Frankenstein, Under My Wheels, School's Out, My Generation, Baby One More Time.

After the ending of the show, I went to the guards and asked if I were allowed to go backstage now, but they told me that Dio already had left and I were not allowed to go backstage then ... Too bad, but a great night anyway.

By the way, Dio's t-shirts were the first ones to be sold-out!

About my photos: unfortunately they weren't any good at all. My camera couldn't make it without the flash ...

Thanks goes to Annie at the Dio fan-club, the nice security-guard who let me in, Dio for being the best band in the world, and to Ratt and Alice Cooper for a great performance!

/Mårten