Saturday 9th July

Alien - Bandit Stage (1/5)

Oh my God. What a disaster. I’m really not sure what to write here, but this really felt old. Alien had a huge hit with a cover version of ”Only One Woman”, an old 60’s hit song and their debut album sold very well. Then they were signed with Virgin to have a world wide release, their singer Jim Jidhed split, was replaced by Pete Sandberg, they re-recorded the album with him, nothing happened and the rest of the band split, leaving Pete and guitarist / Ritchie Blackmore lookalike Tony Borg to themselves. Alien kept on going with a few more different line ups but to no avail and after a while bandleader Borg found it best to let the whole thing go.

A couple of years ago, the original line up decided to reunite, make an album and have now been out on the road for a bit. But, even though I always liked this kind of melodic AOR, Alien were never my bag of crisps. As musicians the guys are faultless, but only did they look like a hundred years old, they sounded it as well. On stage, the band hardly moved and the whole thing was so utterly boring I could have fallen asleep standing up. To the band’s defense though, there could have been at most 20-30 people watching and it can’t be easy giving their all with no one to watch.

On the other hand, it didn’t stop Dynazty from kicking ass some hours later. But they’re more than half their age and hungry as hell. Maybe I just caught them on a bad day, but this wasn’t good at all.

Check them out :
http://alientheband.com

Review : Jon Wilmenius

For more GETAWAY ROCK FESTIVAL 2011 reviews - click here >>>