I have met Ronnie Atkins of the Pretty Maids. I was in Hamburg Germany seeing Avantasia, of which Atkins is part of, and after the show I hung around behind the Grosse Freiheit 36, and got to hang out with Mr. Big’s Eric Martin and later briefly Ronnie Atkins. This happened back in 2013 during Avantasia’s “The Mystery of Time” tour, I talked about it on here: https://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.com/2013/05/welcome-to-avantasia-european-adventure.html
Martin was a very friendly fellow, Atkins not as much, but I respect that, he had just finished rocking out. He gave me a simple instruction, buy The Pretty Maid’s new album “Motherland,” and since he was awesome in concert and was cool in person, I felt like I owed it to him to buy it. It was a great album; I am glad I listened to Atkins and then listened to more of his music. I wrote about it in 2014: https://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.com/2014/09/pretty-maids-motherland.html
Since then, I have been getting more familiar with The Pretty Maids backlog, there is a lot of good stuff from the Danes.
So, times goes by, when you and I bathed in eternal summer’s glow, then we reached everyone’s least favorite year 2020. By now possessing many years of listening to The Pretty Maids, when I saw Ronnie’s face on my recommend playlist, I natural assumed there was a new Pretty Maids album and since their last one was so good, I click immediately. However, Atkins has done something different, he has released his first solo studio album “One Shot.”
I was impressed with the consistent quality from track to tack on The Pretty Maids “Motherland,” Ronnie Atkins’s “One Shot” delivered similarly. This is worthy of note because time has few favorites, and my limited perspective is leading me to believe that Atkins has perhaps become a superior song writer in time. People run out of ideas, some stretch their imagination past the point of new creativity, some people defy this, but they are few. I present Ronnie Atkins, getting better with age.
Mind you, I have not fully explored The Pretty Maid’s entire back catalogue yet, so I may be in for a wonderful surprise as I dig deeper.
My casual research, which is all I can provide for this amateur blog, a solo album was never a planned destination for Atkins, but something to due with his health resulted in him revisiting the concept. Whatever the motivations, I am very happy with the result. Honestly, I still feel like I owe it to Atkins to tell everyone how great this new album, mostly because it is great, but also, I met the guy, he was cool.
Now that I have listened to the entire album of “One Shot” numerous times it is time for me to point out the single track I appreciate uppermost. I choose “Subjugated.”
I am a sucker for a simple but powerful chorus and Atkins has put together a good one on this song:
“I don't want to be, I don't want to be subjugated. All I want to be, All I want to be, I want to be me. I don't want to be, Wan to be intimidated, Just got to break free.”
You know how we all kind of mumble the words along until we learn the lyrics, well the awesome power of Atkins’s voice sallied me away to mumble and bop my head along. Then I noticed some of the words, and I begin to relate.
No one wants to be subjugated, and the term can carry an intensity that may or may not be appropriate for this song. Because other than that single word the rest of the song falls in line with the idea of standing up to others.
There are only two versus, here is the first:
“I've been backstabbed, I've been double-crossed, Mistreated and misused, Been a witness to your greed and grandiosity, Now my trust in you is as worn-out as the soles of my shoes. Had enough of blatant lies and in transparency, And you know,”
If you have not been backstabbed, double-crossed, mistreated, and misused in your life, all I can say is, you have been damned lucky.
The second verse:
“I've been hurt and disappointed, I felt bitter and betrayed. I've been let down from your ego and dishonesty, All your self justification, Do you ever feel ashamed? You intimidate to cover your fragility. And you know,”
Again, I assume everyone who must live in the real world, is familiar with being hurt, disappointed, bitter, and betrayed.
But here is the mystery for me, is Atkins related a personal tale or maybe something political. On the personal level this song could be about an individual, lover, friend or something in that vein, or maybe business? Everyone’s new favorite country musician Sturgill Simpson wrote an awful lot about the corporate ugliness and treachery in his magnum opus “Sound and Fury.” It is possible Atkins after so many active years of singing and song writing, could have run into something similar.
As for politics, I do not know. My contempt for everything political grows with each passing day, so Atkins could be trashing on any political identity, and I would probably agree with him that they are awful.
The connection for me and this song, other than Ronnie Atkins, the song “Subjugated” and the entire album “One Shot” being awesome, is the personal level naturally. The human condition unites most of us and the simple request that “all I want to be is me,” is strangely disrespected all the time. I cannot be the only one who runs into that.
Great stuff Ronnie, keep on rocking in the free world.
In January of this year, on a whim I purchased tickets to Avantaisa in Berlin and Hamburg in April. I did not give it a lot of thought, it was something I wanted to do so I did it, and I so rarely do what I want. After a few weeks the tickets arrived by mail and as I sat there holding the tickets in my hand and it become very real what I was doing, but only then did it begin to feel that way. I had the tickets to see the greatest musical group in the world today; all I had to do now was get my ass to Germany.
I’ve never traveled before, not really, I went to Hawaii once two years ago, which was great, but Europe is a completely different matter. Europe was a hell of a lot further, more expensive, and English would not be the common language. In Hawaii I was going to see my kid brother in the Navy who would be there on duty, in Europe I was going alone. I had humoured the idea of asking a friend to come with me, but all my dearest friends are far too preoccupied with their own tribulations to go on a random adventure, especially one of another’s devices. After very little deliberation it was settled, I was going to Berlin for three days, Hamburg for one and Amsterdam for three.
Even though I gave myself two days in Berlin and Amsterdam to sightsee and party, the truth of the matter was that I was going to Europe for one singular reason, and that was to see Tobias Sammet and Avantasia. I am of the opinion that Tobias Sammet is the greatest song writer and Avantasia the best musical production in the world today, but perhaps I have already made the point clear with my now four Music In Reviews on the topic of Avantasia:
After spending two days in Berlin just wandering, Monday the 22nd arrived and I was pumped. I debated whether I should wear the Canadian flag as a sash or not, I thought it might seem arrogant to wave around my flag as if that made me important; on the other hand I wanted the world to know how far I had traveled to see Avantasia. I wanted Tobias and Avantasia to know he had fans in Canada and at least one of them was willing to dedicate his first vacation to seeing them. In the end I did wear the Canadian flag and it was a good call.
Representing Canada, America and Scotland
at Temporom in Berlin,
Upon arriving at Tempodrom while waiting in line a very loud man in a wheel chair called me over. Referring to me as “Canada” he introduced himself as “Scotland.” Also there was a woman with a blonde Mohawk “America” and two fine polish gentlemen. During the show Tobias took notice of all the international visitors Berlin had that night. Tobias told the crowd he was going to speak in English for the rest of the night since there were people from Poland, Sweden, Norway, Australia and Britain. I guess he didn’t see my flag but I did yell out “Canada!” when he was listing out flags in the crowd. Still it was pretty cool of Tobias to accommodate all us non-Germans like that; he did not have to do that on my account.
When it began, it was dreamlike. I had seen countless live performances of Avantasia on DVD and online but it was something far away and unreal, then the band emerged, and then he appeared, Tobias Sammet was there, in person. Earth’s greatest song writer was on stage, ten feet from me. It was best moment of my life.
Tobias Sammet, earth's greatest song writer stands before me. Wow.
Not knowing the new album it took a moment before a song I knew well was played, Bob Cately appeared and performed one of my favorite songs “The Story Ain’t Over.”
Avantasia - The Story Ain't Over
Bob Cately was particularly worthy to note since the former front man of Magnum is now sixty-five years old, and he never missed a word and he sang amazingly. During the Sammet/Cately duet “In Quest For” Sammet forgot the words and Cately sang his first part for him. Tobi forgot the words to a song he always sings, that he wrote, and was bailed out by sixty-five year old Bob Cately who does not normally sing that part and did not write the song; how embarrassing; also how very charming and entertaining. Tobi is only human after all and he has written several hundred songs by now, he allowed to make a mistake now and then, and what a professional Cately is.
Tobias forgets the fucking words.
Avantasia - In Quest For
They ended with “The Seven Angels” and “Sign of the Cross” it was incredible and easily the best show I had ever seen and easily the best night of my life, only it was going to get better.
Avantasia - The Seven Angels
After the show I was hanging out with Ariel, my new American friend with the blond Mohawk, when we were approached by a handsome man with wavy blonde hair who said to me.
“Dude your Canadian? Canadian guys are the best dudes. I’m from Sweden and I play hockey, a lot of my best friends are Canadian.”
I believe my response was “Thank you.”
“We’re going to Halford’s it is a Judas Priest themed bar. Do you want to get drunk with us?”
“Of course I do!”
Of course I wanted to get drunk with two awesome Swedish dudes, a Dutch guy, and an American girl at a bar named after Rob Halford of Judas Priest. I had to catch a train to Hamburg at 8:00am the next day, but fuck it, this is why I came to Deutschland, to rock out with Tobias Sammet and Avantasia and party with other Avantasia fans of which we are seriously lacking here in Canada.
We went our separate ways to get ready and met back up at Tempodrom. I returned and met up with my new Dutch friend Fabian who was waiting outside the concert hall with a small crowd hoping to get autographs from Tobi and Michael Kiske. Fabian and I were no more than six/seven feet from Tobias and Michael when they appeared. They both covered their mouths and entered the cab quickly, evidently they were both sick, though you would never have known that from the performances they had just given. Evidently neither signed anything and they were gone as quickly as they appeared. Still it was cool just to see them.
My only shot of Halford's before
the batteries died in my camera.
We had a few beers at the Swedes hotel room and were talking so loudly on the balcony someone called the cops on us. Later while waiting on the street for a cab that same person threw an egg at us. It was a Monday and we were loud, and it was funny, funny because none of us got hit by the egg. Halford’s was a blast, and after a few steins of beer and several shots of Jagermeister I was good and drunk, so much so I slept in. I awoke at 6:45 leaving me only a little more than an hour to get my ass to the hauptbahnhof and catch my train to Hamburg. I rose to my feet and found all my stuff neatly packed away and a suit of clothes laid out for me to wear, evidently while I was black out drunk I had anticipated sleeping in and did all the necessary prep work to get going in the morning. Good work drunk Colin, you’ve never let me down.
After Tempodrom and the fantastic time I had after the show with Fabian, Ariel, Victor and... god I can’t remember the other awesome Swedish dude’s name, anyway after Halford’s and everything you might think Hamburg could not possible eclipse the sheer happiness I experienced in Berlin. That’s what I thought anyway.
The concert hall Avantasia was playing in Hamburg was Grosse Fahrenheit 36 located in Reeperbahn. Two things I didn’t know, Reeperbahn is the sex district of Hamburg and Hamburg is the sex capital of Germany. There were so many strip clubs, sex shops and brothels!
Avantasia's Team Sweden and
Team Canada
While waiting in line for the concert and after drawing forth my Canadian flag I made two brand new friends from Sweden, Emil and Linus. I guess one lesson to take away from this story is that Swedish people are fucking cool. Also a very tall gentleman approached me and introduced himself, he was from Ottawa. Shang Pei Rui (probably not his real name) had very similar plans to my own, he was at Tempodrom the day before and evidently he had heard someone else yell out “Canada” when Tobias was listing out foreign countries present that night. All of a sudden Avantasia’s Team Canada was not just me anymore. Avantasia fans of Canada you are not alone, there is at least two of us!
Avantasia fans of Canada,
you are not alone.
Hamburg was the better show, the crowd was hot blooded and the band just performed that much stronger. And what a crowd! We had a fine collection of foreigners, Team Canada and Team Sweden were joined by a mother daughter combo from Australia, a father daughter combo from Norway, a kindly older British couple, and also a twenty year old German girl was hanging out with my Dutch friend Fabian. Combine all of that with an awesome crowd of fine German metal fans and Grosse Fahrenheit 36 became alive. The best concert I have ever been too and I’ve been to many now.
One notable moment during the show Eric Martin (Mr. Big) the only American in Avantasia took notice of my Canadian flag and gave me a thumbs up, which was very cool. To be honest I didn’t really know who Eric Martin was before Tempodrom. He was the new guy in Avantasia, along with Ronnie Atkins (Pretty Maids), and I was unsure how I felt about him singing “Promise Land” at first but he rocked out and sang great so he is a bad ass in my opinion.
We were all suppose to hang out after the show, Team Sweden, Team Canada, Fabian and whoever the hell else felt like it, but somehow I lose Team Sweden and while Fabian is busy talking to girls (which is important of course) the other half of Team Canada bids me farewell, which was fair he had to catch a flight the next morning. So then there was three Fabian, the young German girl (I’ve forgotten her name) and myself. Fabian informs me that the two girls serving alcohol at the venue agreed to hang out with us later at a bar named Cobra, I am very sceptical, because in my life no girl has ever kept their word about meeting up with anyone; no literally, not one; but hey I got nowhere to go, so why not. But first thing is first our young German friend wants to meet Tobias, as she has plans to marry him, so the three of us wait in the back alley behind Grosse Fahrenheit 36.
After a while someone exits the back door, Eric Martin is smoking a cigarette, he notices us and decides to come over and hang out for a half hour. Eric turns out to be one of the nicest human beings I have ever met. He had the nicest things to say about everyone in Avantasia and his generally enthusiasm was delightful. At one point Bob Cately appears with his medical assistant (Mr. Cately has a medical assistant not because he is sick but because he is 65) and they get into a van to leave, Eric turns to us and says;
“Let’s be obnoxious South American fans!”
So Eric Martin, Fabian and I start pounding on the windows of the van while it is driving away shouting at Mr. Cately who looks exactly half amused with us.
In a short period of time we are joined by other Avantasia all of which are German except for the father daughter combo from Norway I mentioned early.
After saying some more great things about Avantasia, life and everything Eric declares “do you guys want to meet Ronnie? Let’s get Ronnie out here!” and like a big kid Eric runs off and returns with Ronnie Atkins. And that’s how I met Ronnie Atkins.
Ronnie was very dignified. He was a tall proud respectful Danish gentleman, who was short with his answers and quick to the point of things. He had a flare of wit about him and everything about him screamed ‘rock star’ which is appropriate because he is. Ronnie however did not share Eric Martin boundless enthusiasm and spent a solid five to ten minutes with us lingering Avantasia fans before wishing us a good night. Cool guy.
We hang out with our fellow Avantasia fans for a while having some great conversations, but by the time 1:00am rolls around Fabian and I are ready to head to Cobra. Our young German friend, the girl of the revolution, as she was dubbed by Eric Martin, is insistent on waiting until Tobias shows up, after all she is a very ambition and intends to marry him. But Fabian and I know Tobias is not feeling well and if he does appear out the back door here he will probably jump into a cab and not say anything to anyone. It is time to go so we say goodbye to the girl of the revolution and head to Cobra.
We find the bar without too much trouble and get a couple of beers. A very drunk German fellow begins talking to us and he has some curious questions about Canada, since I am still wearing the flag over my shoulder it garners some attention. After explaining the differences between Canada and the United States and other quirky things about Canada this fine German cameraman says to me.
“It must be nice being from a country you can be proud of.”
I ask for an explanation and he tells me how it is hard being German since they have so much guilt from their history, referring to world war two of course. I tell him that’s bullshit, it has been over seventy years and Germany is awesome! If for no other reason Avantasia!
But seriously German is really cool. It is a nation of hard working professionals, innovation, creativity, music, art, beer and a great football. There are a lot of things to like about Germany.
I also informed him how awful the whole world is, not just Germany during the middle of the twentieth century. I tell him about segregation, the Japanese labour camps, the turning away of all Jewish refugees and all the general brutal racisism coming out of Canada and the States at that time. Germany was never more evil than any other nation, they just crossed a terrible line before any of the rest of us did. But then again Japan and the rape of Nanking rivals any evil every done by anyone. Stalin in Russia killed more people than Hitler’s holocaust. American slavery was a holocaust in its own right. I have strong Irish roots and what the English did to them was terrible, granted I also have strong English roots. If we keep pushing guilt around very quickly everyone has blood on their hands. This German cameraman gave me a hug after everything I said and then he said to me
“This is a good flag, let’s wave your flag.”
So we waved my flag and my new friend told strangers how great of a guy I was, which is, you know, very flattering. Meanwhile some tattooed cutie on the other side of the bar starts to cheer at the sight of the Maple Leaf. The bartender informs me that girl is from Canada and I might want to go over there and introduce myself, so I do. She was from Calgary; small world.
Then the craziest thing happens, the two girls from Grosse Fahrenheit 36, they show up! Such a thing has never happened before in the entire history of North America.
My new found German friend disappears, but he was pretty drunk so it might have been time for him to venture home, I was sad to see him go but this did free me up to talk to two good looking German girls. Jay and Lily were their names and they were wonderful human beings. While I sat and talked to Lily (the blonde one) an interesting subject matter comes up, Canada, which isn’t surprising I still got the flag tied to me, and she says,
“It must be nice being from a country where you can wave your flag and not be called a Nazi.”
This shit again? I wanted to tell Lily that she was wrong. That if she walked down the streets of Calgary no one would call her a Nazi, but I know some asshole would. Maybe only one in a hundred people would consider that a worthwhile joke and maybe only one in two would have the crass indignity to verbally attack a stranger like that, but someone would.
I give a similar speech to Lily that I gave to my cameraman friend and she thinks I’m a great guy. Back home most women would rather step on my face than look at me, but in Germany, by virtue of simply not being a prejudice asshole I am considered a wonderful man. Lily and Jay had to work the next day so they could not stay long and sometime after 3:00am they left.
I sat with Fabian at the bar drinking our beers and I wanted nothing more than to stay one more day in Hamburg. I wanted to hang out with Lily and Jay once more and get to know them better. I would have liked to once more hang out with Fabian who proved to be a hell of a friend, not only was he infinitely useful at gathering people together, but he was just a great guy.
Fabian and I finished our beers and decided to call it a night, it felt like we were calling it quits early, but it was 3:30 in the morning. We walked the streets of Reeperbahn where the prostitutes are militant, found some taxis and went our separate ways.
And that was the best day of my entire life.
Not surprisingly Amsterdam also proved to be a lot of fun but nothing could compete with my last night in Berlin or my single day in Hamburg. The powers of metal did much more than send me on a quest across the Atlantic Ocean; it brought a collection of friends who had never met before together. The random choice to purchase rock concert tickets online in another country has proven to be the single best thing I have every done.
Tobias Sammet has returned to the Avantasia project with the new album “The Mystery of Time – A Rock Epic.” This is the sixth instalment in the Avantasia journey. My first impression of the album is that it is not as glorious as the Scarecrow Trilogy, but what could be really? “The Scarecrow,” “The Wicked Symphony” and “Angel of Babylon” are three of the best albums to come out in the past decade. My only real complaint has to be the absence of Jorn Lande, who was just so powerful and important on so many of the best Avantasia songs up till now. While it is hard to imagine Avantasia without Jorn, variety is a good thing, and Avantasia more so than most musical endeavours is a living thing, over just three projects we have seen Avantasia changing and growing with new voices and talents being added the whole time. The huge assembled cast Tobias Sammet has gathered allows for a lot of flexibility. Further to this point my favorite thing about the newest Avantasia album is the inclusion of two new singers, Mr. Big’s Eric Martin and Pretty Maids’ Ronnie Atkins.
“The Mystery of Time” has yet to be released in the United States or Canada and no date has been set for its eventual release, so I was forced to pick up a copy while in Europe, oh yes I went to Europe specifically to see Avantasia. I think my two favorite songs on the album are “Invoke the Machine” which features Ronnie Atkins and “What’s Left of Me” which features Eric Martin. If I had to pick one of these two tracks to represent the whole album I would have to go with “Invoke the Machine” since it has a little more relation to the album’s overall narrative than “What’s Left of Me.”
Every Avantasia epic has had a story to it. “The Metal Opera” was a grandiose fantasy epic and I’m still trying to figure out all the details, “The Scarecrow” was a mysterious stranger’s voyage through the planes of reality, and now “The Mystery of Time” is a man’s inner conflict between knowledge and faith, or as Tobias puts it;
“So take the time to follow me into a small old English town during the Victorian era and join a young agnostic scientist by the name Aaron Blackwell as he is forced to explore the coherencies of time, God and science; torn between belief in his professional conviction, his spiritual intuition, love and a lodge of scientific occultists.”
A song title/chorus like “Invoke the Machine” suddenly carries a heavier meaning once we are familiar with the overreaching arc of the album’s story. This song, as far as I understand it, is a breaking moment for our protagonist Aaron Blackwell, the mysteries of time are unravelling before him and he is beginning to embrace this brave new world. To invoke the machine for answers is to side with science, which is also interesting because there is something of an emotional plea in this song, something we might typically associate with spiritual intuition. The visions of fantasy are replaced with new dreams inspired by new understanding, to this end, we invoke the machine. I also think it is kind of charming that he refers to a machine to understand time as a god machine.
Of course new found knowledge is something emotional. We often don’t think of it in such a light but there is something very nearly spiritual about science and technology, largely due to the fact there is something very emotional about learning and growing, and changing. The men we once were are not the men we are today and being civilized is the simpleton’s perspective to explain the difference, civilization is forged entirely on trans-generational knowledge, a giant leap in science and technology always changes everything. It’s clever what Tobias is saying in “Invoke the Machine” he is suggesting far more than he is initially leading on.
Anyway Ronnie Atkins rocks the house in this song and it is just a great heavy metal song. “Invoke the Machine” and the rest of the “Mystery of Time” album will always mean a little more to me than just deep introspective thoughts about science and emotion, it will always remind me of my trip to Europe where I beheld the glory of Avantasia in Berlin and Hamburg, where I made dozens of friends from all over the world. I had forgotten what it meant to be happy, truly happy. I have been settling for a second rate excuse for existence until those two wonderful nights in Berlin and Hamburg. Thank you Tobias Sammet for helping me find what I had lost. With my resolve I will remember forever.
Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.
- Colin Kelly
P.S.
I actually met Eric Martin in the back alley after the Hamburg show and it was crazy nice, and for that reason I feel I should mention his contribution to "The Mystery of Time." Here is the splendid ballad "What's Left of Me."
