Sweden Rock Festival report

This years Sweden Rock Festival had a very special feature on the bill; Nicky Moore performing a set of classic Samson material on stage as a tribute to Paul Samson. The initiative was taken by Johannes Lindström of the SRF staff who asked Nicky if he wanted to do a Samson set. Nicky agreed and wanted Janne Stark (with whom he had worked previously) to play with him. They used Janne’s band Locomotive Breath which are, apart from Janne on lead guitar; Mattias Osbäck: rhythm guitar and background vocals, Ulf Kronsell bass, Ted Wernersson drums and additional keyboardplayer Michael Loorentz.

The set clocked in at one hour and most of the songs performed were from the “Before the storm” and “Don’t get mad…” albums as of course Nicky sang on them. They also played a song from Nicky & the blues corporation’s latest album ”Old, new, borrowed and blue”, and “Fatman” by Mammoth.

The setlist spawned a couple of questions: If the event was a tribute to Paul why only play Tomorrow or Yesterday (and not even the whole song) from Survivors? And why only Riding with the angels, a song Paul didn’t even write, as the only contribution from the Bruce albums? Not a big deal maybe, but there are loads of great songs that Paul wrote on these albums too, as well as on the albums by the later incarnations of Samson.

On the whole it was a very enjoyable experience and I sincerely hope that it was not a one-off gig. But I can’t help but feeling that it's a bloody shame that Paul did not get this recognition when he was still alive.

Mattias Reinholdsson


From l to r:
Mattias Osbäck (guitar), Ted Wernersson (drums) Nicky, Janne Stark (lead guitar, b-vox), Ulf Kronsell (bass), Michael Loorentz (keyboards)
Setlist:
1. Danger Zone
2. Stealing Away
3. Losing My Grip
4. Red Skies
5. Test Of Time
6. Don't Get Mad Get Even
7. Are You Ready
8. The Chant
9. Tomorrow Or Yesterday
10. Mr Rock N Roll
11. Fatman
Encores:
12. Boneman
13. Riding With The Angels