Chris Dale's Holiday Report from Brazil November 2005

Booking the holiday

It all started way back on the Sack Trick "Penguins on the Moon"-tour in Sweden. Our Swedish promoter introduced me by email to a singer he knew from a Brazilian band called Thoten, he thought we might work together well. I heard the Thoten tracks and was blown away by the power of his voice, I emailed him straight away. His name was Renato Tribuzy.

Me and Renato had a few good email chats- he's a nice guy with some good contacts- he helped me get Sack Trick a record deal and some press in Brazil and he asked if I wanted to go to Brazil and record the bass on his new album. A free holiday in Brazil? Who would turn that down? Well to be honest, I would have turned it down if I didn't think he was really talented and had some good songs. I refuse to make records I don't like. I spent a week out there recording, going to the beach and meeting up with friends. Since then Renato's visited me in London twice (when we met up together with Bruce for a few beers) and we've become good friends. I got him to sing some metal on the new upcoming Sack Trick recordings.

Renato Tribuzy and Chris Dale in the studio

Renato was inviting lots of other people to play on the album too. On the basis of "if you don't ask you don't get", he'd asked Bruce, Roy Z, Michael Kiske, Roland Grapow, the guys from Primal Fear and Angra. Every one of us was curious about this strange project that was building up and happy to be part of it. The album came out earlier this year, called Execution. I think it's a great album, not just because of the guests but Renato has a really powerful voice and some great songs...Absolution and Execution are probably my favourites.

Renato then put together a cool Brazilian touring band and played some shows...I thought that would probably be the last I'd see of them...then he emailed me again with a crazy idea...what if we did a gig with all the guests playing at the same time? I was really curious for a few reasons. Firstly, it's always fun to play heavy metal gigs especially with Bruce. Secondly I was looking forward to jamming with all these people like Renato, Roy Z and Roland Grapow who I'd met a few times and seen them playing but never actually played together with them onstage. Thirdly and most obviously it was another holiday in Brazil! All the guests except Michael Kiske (he must be mad) said yes, they'd love to come. Then the news just got better and better....why not play a weekend of gigs if we're over there anyway?....why not invite Andreas from Sepultura he lives nearby? .....why not play a couple of Bruce or Maiden tunes while we're there?....why not film a DVD? I packed my bags...

Renato and Bruce

DAY 1 - Travel

I don't mind flying but I'm not as keen on it as say, Bruce is. Then again I don't know anyone who's a keen on flying as Bruce is. But a 10 hour flight, sat next to a rugby player who's twice as broad as his seat was never going to be the best part of the holiday. Worst of all I'd brought a book to read... and then found out at Heathrow I'd brought one I'd already read by accident. Aaaaargh! I was going a bit mad at that point.

DAY 2 - Relax

When we landed in São Paulo at 6am after a sleepless night and it was pissing down with rain (I thought Brazil was sunny so I'd only got a t-shirt on)....I was in a pretty bad mood....

Then the sun came out and I met up with Bruce and his mate Alfredo at customs. All was fine again! We had a good old chat on the way to the hotel, catching up on gossip and funny stories and wondering what lay ahead for us at these strange gigs... The first thing that lay ahead was the Five Star Hilton Hotel! Amazing! I had a massive room with a bathroom I got lost in on more than one occasion, a view over São Paulo and the best bed in the world (I tried to steal it on the way home but couldn't get it in my bag). We checked in and chilled out. I went swimming in the luxury pool, did a bit of shopping in the mall complex below the rooms and went for lunch with Renato. He was really excited about the gigs, everything was going so well.

São Paulo

We all had a big meeting at 6pm in the hotel bar to plan the shows, discuss the final set list and decide who would play what parts with whom. Of course, me, Renato and Bruce were there, so were Roy Z, Roland Grapow (who I'd not seen since the Skunkworks/Helloween tour in 1996), Andreas Kisser (who I'd met once before- he came to see a band me and Alex Elena used to play in- but I was so embarrassed by the gig I didn't remind him where we'd met), Mat and Ralf from Primal Fear. Renato's band were there- Ivan the crazy bassist (actually they're all pretty crazy), Frank and Gustavo the guitarists, Flavio the drummer, the keyboard player and the production staff, technicians, managers, film and recording crew. It was the first time we'd all met together and from the start we were all laughing, joking, telling stories and having a few drinks. Then we had a few more drinks and then a few more....

Chris, Roy Z, Ralph Scheepers, Kiko Lauriero, Roland Grapow

DAY 3 - The first show in São Paulo

After a hearty breakfast and a nice swim in the hotel pool I met everyone downstairs to go off to soundcheck. This was to be the moment of truth...we played a couple of tunes and there were big smiles all round. It sounded massive! With all these guests we sometimes had five guitarists onstage together all riffing away and trading solos. Andreas Kisser was next to me being stupidly loud. I was going to ask him to turn down a bit but then I realised he's the guy out of Sepultura- that's his trademark he plays stupidly loud!

After something to eat it was time for the gig before we knew it. Jeff Scott Soto was the opening act. He did a bunch of his new tunes, some Talisman stuff and then did a few tunes from his time with Yngwie- they were awesome! He did I'll see the Light Tonight and it was spot on! Jeff also did some demos with Vinnie Vincent years ago, but I noticed he didn't put them in his set!

The gig in São Paulo

Then the Tribuzy show. This was the biggest challenge for me.....trying not to get drunk while sitting in a room full of new friends and a fridge full of beer for an hour.... Of course there was a party atmosphere and everyone had a couple of drinks but I think we were all too aware of what we had coming up to get plastered.

Tribuzy opened up with Aggressive from his album and from the start the Brazilian crowds went mad. For those of you who've never been to a gig in South America, I must say they really are the craziest audiences in the world. They really give everything and don't stop all the way through a show. The whole front row seemed to know all the words to all the bands songs (Jeff's, Renato's and the whole night). Renato's voice sounded great, he's got this huge Halford type scream and loads of energy onstage. His band are super-tight after loads of rehearsals and previous gigs in Brazil.

Audience in Belo Horizonte

Mat and Ralf from Primal Fear got onstage to join Renato for their parts of the Execution album onstage and did a Primal Fear track too. Ralf also sang Michael Kiske's parts on the Execution songs. Ralf's got an amazing voice too- there's all these brilliant musicians here and I'm stuck in the middle of them all! Kiko Lauriero from Angra was warming up backstage for his parts in Tribuzy's set- my jaw nearly dropped off! He's probably the most shockingly amazing guitarist I've ever had the privilege of playing with (and I've played with a lot of shockingly amazing guitarists). He's got this two handed tapping thing he does that's incredible (yes, I'm still impressed by two handed tapping, childish isn't it?) and his picking speed is faster than I thought humans could manage. Roland was shredding Blackmore style on a flying V in one corner and me and Roy sat down and went through a couple of bits in the Maiden songs. Roy's got a lovely natural rhythmic style and his shredding powers are pretty awesome too.

Then came my first bit onstage. Me, Bruce and Roy doing a slightly rearranged version of Tears of the Dragon (it's a bit more like the demo versions on the B-sides) with Flavio, Gustavo and Frank from Tribuzy's band too. The audience went over the top, I thought they were going to cry along with the dragon at one point. Then it was time for Renato and Bruce to do Beast in the Light together from the Execution album. Ivan was back on bass for this one so I nipped of for a pee and grabbed another beer...and hoped I could remember the Maiden songs right...

Gustavo in Belo Horizonte

I'd chatted with Renato and Bruce ages ago in London about whether to do Maiden songs or not. At first we thought because it was Tribuzy's gig, not to do any. Maybe just do Tears of the Dragon for the fans who've come to see Bruce. Then we thought maybe do one Maiden song, we discussed a couple, we didn't want to do anything that Maiden had played on the Early Days tour recently, so the fans could get something a bit different. We couldn't decide on one song so we picked two The Evil That Men Do and Be Quick or Be Dead. Then we thought let's do a big sing along one too. So we picked Bring Your Daughter as that's both a Bruce solo and a Maiden track and everyone can get involved.

Both the Maiden tracks went down great- pounding along. I'm a Maiden fan along with everyone else in the room and it was top fun to do these ones I'd never done with Bruce before. Again the audience screamed along, Roland and Andreas joined me Roy and Bruce for these ones...a big wall of metal! Kiko came on too for Bring Your Daughter then all the singers came out for the "monk" bit in the middle. It all spun past too quickly! The show was over. The audience went shouting and stamping and we thought we really should have some kind of encore for tomorrow night....

Predictably enough the rest of the night consisted of more drinking and laughing with the other musicians and some friends and fans...

DAY 4 - The second São Paulo gig

Much the same as the day before, breakfast, swimming, meeting friends, quick sound check... the only difference was that the DVD was being filmed today. So the pressure was on. Well actually it wasn't on me that much because the Maiden songs won't appear on the DVD. They were just as I said earlier, a bonus for the fans at the gig on the night. The DVD is Tribuzy's set with the guests appearing (and probably Tears of the Dragon thrown in for fun with a load of backstage footage that was filmed too).

A crowded stage in São Paulo

The gig went as crazy as the night before. Roy got up and played You Really Got me with Jeff Scott Soto's band giving a lovely Van Halen impersonation (there's my two handed tapping obsession raising it's head again). Tribuzy rocked, his band rocked we all rocked. Then at the end, Roy said to Bruce- we've got to do one more what do you want to do? Bruce said Tush by ZZ Top, then ran offstage. Roy just started the riff for Tush...I stood listening for a minute or two before recognising it, then joined in with a load of the other guitarists. Something sounded a bit different though...I looked around and there was Bruce playing the drums! He's always been a frustrated drummer and here was his chance. He's not bad actually- I think he'd been practising... we jammed it around for about 10 minutes with different singers (including Jeff Scott Soto and the Primal Fear guys) doing a verse here and there, a few guitar solos...and a few more guitars solos. Everyone was just laughing and having fun. Then back to the hotel for a more drinks and laughs. This was becoming a travelling heavy metal party.

DAY 5 - Belo Horizonte

Next day breakfast with some fans (one of whom was the guy who manages to climb onstage during Number of the Beast on the Rock in Rio DVD), then some swimming and a short flight to Belo Horizonte. Driving into town from the airport at Belo Horizonte gave some great views of Brazil's farmland country side. I've been to Brazil a few times now but always the cities, so not seen much of the country's beauty. Along the way Roy kept me laughing with stories of his Mexican tequila adventures.

Country side

We checked into the hotel, relaxed and then went to the gig. Same again, more metal fun and laughs. The audience went crazy from the start then even more crazy as we went into the Bruce and Maiden songs. Everyone including half the audience was onstage for Bring Your Daughter, I had to hide up on the drum riser!

Then as with the night before Bruce got behind the kit...what's he going to do this time?...Highway to Hell it was first...Ralf Scheeprs singing and I couldn't resist a bit of backing vocals...aren't AC/DC songs great? Then Bruce did the drum fill intro for Black Night and off we set around that....we were all laughing by this stage... then Bruce started the high hat and kick drum beat for Smoke on the Water...so because it sounds a bit similar we all started playing Run to the Hills...we all laughed so hard we didn't get past the intro...before going into Smoke on the Water properly...I gave Ivan (Tribuzy's bassist) my bass for this one- well actually I swaped it for a fresh DFB (delicious frosty beer) he'd just got....then somehow I ended up playing Roy's guitar. It was a great party atmosphere.

Roy Z in Belo Horizonte

More fun and drinking backstage with everyone after the gig, then again at the hotel. Then me, Roy, Gustavo, Andre the TM, Achim the soundman and some friends went out to a strange rock club for the rest of the night, watched Maiden at Rock in Rio on the big screens, drank stupidly and I was sick in the toilets. A brilliant night!

DAY 6 - Flight back

Hangover, saying goodbyes and another 10 hour flight to arrive in London's morning rush hour in the rain...

HOLIDAY VERDICT

Travel arrangements - 2/10 (uncomfortable flight)
Accommodation - 10/10
Value for Money - 10/10 (Free hotels, travel, food and drink)
Suitable for children or pet owners - No
Would I recommend the holiday to other travellers?
Absolutely, if anyone ever asks you to go to on a holiday to Brazil to play heavy metal to thousands of screaming fans with a really talented local singer and his band (and some of your heroes and friends are coming too)- say yes.

Chris Dale, for The Bruce Dickinson Wellbeing Network.

Photos by Chris Dale and Nando.