Dave and Geoff hanging out with members of Death Angel and
Forbidden, Germany 1990.
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After the trials and tribulations of the first leg of the 1990 US Tour, we
were really looking forward to heading over to Europe. Our brief 1 week visit
back in 1988 let us know that the band had a strong and supportive following
over there, and by all reports it had only grown larger with the release of
our newest CD.
This would be our first real professional, organized tour.
Death Angel was the headliner and Forbidden was the opening act. On a few
dates we would switch spots with Forbidden if they had sold more CD's in that
particular country, but as I recall we were the 2nd band for most of the
tour.
This tour turned out to be really great, much better then I thought it
would. |
The original 3 tremors! Dave Starr, Matt Camacho, and Dennis Peppa.
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When Geoff called me months earlier to tell me about VR getting the Death
Angel tour, I was not to happy about it. I knew about both of the bands and I
thought we were sort of an odd fit to be in the middle of 2 thrash metal
bands.
I guess I was envisioning some bad times ahead with their fans
thinking we were not heavy enough! Geoff told me not to worry and that he
thought it would work out fine. It turned out that he was right.
I recall
seeing Forbidden when we played with them at the Foundations Forum in late
1989, and I thought they were totally brutal. I never thought I would end up
touring with those guys! It turned out that they were really cool and
friendly, same for Death Angel.
I guess it is just my nature to stress out
over things real and imagined! I remember when the tour started, I was a bit
nervous as to how it would all play out with the chemistry between the 3
bands.
Of course it all went fine just like Geoff said it would, and I even
would sit on the side of the stage when the other bands would play saying
things to myself like " You know, these guys are really good..".
Forbidden
bassist Matt Camacho and I hit it off pretty good and we formed a strong bond
that lasted throughout that tour. |
Death Angel bassist Dennis Peppa and Dave Starr backstage at the
Dynamo Fesival. Holland 1990.
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Death Angel actually started the tour before we got to Europe and they did
several solo shows in Finland and Russia before we hooked up with them in
Denmark.
Our first show of the tour was in Copenhagen on May 20th 1990 at the
"Pumpehuset" club. The place was packed, as were most of the shows we did on
that tour. That was such a nice change of pace after the way things had been
going for us back in the states.
From there we were off on another chapter in
VR history, going to lots of new places we had never been before and playing
for some really great fans. We did shows all over Europe: Germany, Denmark,
Austria, Italy, Spain, France, Sweden, and England.
Sadly, we did not have
enough money in our budget to afford a tour bus so we were back in another
cramped van again. All of the shows went really well and I recall bits and pieces of most of
them. (I think we did about 30 or 40 shows total).
One of the more memorable
shows was in London at the historic Hammersmith Odeon on June 9th! All of the
great bands in the history of rock/metal had played there before and it was
really breathtaking to set foot on that stage!
Another great show was the
Dynamo Open Air Festival in Eindhoven Holland on June 4th. This was a really
big outdoor show with about 10 bands on the bill. It was raining in the
morning, but luckily it cleared up before we hit the stage.
I hate doing
outdoor shows because the sound is so whacked out most of the time and this
was no different. I remember leaving the stage that day after our set
thinking that we sucked because the sound onstage was really bad. It was not
until several years later that I got a bootleg copy of the show, and to my
shock and surprise... we sounded incredible! It sounded like a mess on stage
that day, but obviously not in the crowd! |
VR and Forbidden backstage, Germany 1990.
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Barcelona Spain on June 1st was another great show, and we had some fun
around town as well. Swimming in the really warm Mediterranean sea with all
of the local women going topless was sure fun!
Larry, Mark, and I went out
after the show and had a late night dinner of whole squid broiled in butter,
an artery clogging meal for sure! After the dinner we went back to our hotel
rooms and I could not get to sleep so I decided to call Chris Otero an old
friend of mine back home in Alameda. We talked for about an hour or so, and I
guess with all the booze in me I was not thinking to clear.
When we checked
out in the morning it was discovered that I had rung up a $300.00 phone
bill!! Our manager wanted to kill me, he was so pissed off!
In late June, the tour ended in England and we were heading back to the US
for more solo tour dates.
We were never able to get a package tour like the
one we had just finished in Europe, and that really hurt our record sales. It
really sucked, we were doing so well overseas playing to huge crowds in big
venues, and then we come back to our own country only to play to small crowds
most of the time in crappy little clubs.
Larry Howe said it best: "We
delivered platinum albums to Atlantic, and they failed to promote them
properly.." |
Dave Starr 10-08-01
Up next: More of the VR 1990 USA TOUR!
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