A Feast of Priest at Brum's Arena!

Yesterday I had the most remarkable experience of attending the Birmingham leg of Judas Priest's current tour of the UK and Europe - Priest Feast 2009 - at the LG (formerly NEC) Arena.

Having not seen Priest live in the flesh for many years, yet still following their career with enjoyment and fascination, I had already determined to renew my concert-going acquaintance with the Black Country legends this time around.  Better yet,  I was very excited to have been offered a Photo Pass for the event by no less than Bloxwich lad Rob Halford himself following his recent visit to Walsall Local History Centre.  I considered this a great personal privilege  - these lads are the stuff of legend here in heavy metal land and their music has been echoing around the world since the days of Apollo.   They have always been my musical heroes, having enjoyed their songs for longer than most young metalheads have been alive!

So it was that on a cold February evening I stepped gleefully into the Arena and, having picked up my pass, found myself "thrown into the pit" like a true "sinner" (!) with various other photographers mostly from magazines and agencies -  a good bunch of lads, and such is the camaraderie amongst us "smudgers" :O)  Rock paparazzi?  You betcha!

There were of course three bands performing that night - with Priest top of the bill, naturally, and being supported ably by Testament and Megadeth, both bands of considerable repute which will be well-known by metalheads of the new generation especially.  And we would have the chance to photograph all three - an exciting prospect!

The rules for photographing these kinds of events are pretty strict, understandably.  Only photographers with official passes are allowed to use pro (SLR-type) cameras during the performance, to start with.  On this occasion, after a wait for the supervisor we were marched under escort into the hall just before each performance was to commence, and ushered into a special secure area between the audience and the stage with, therefore, effectively unrestricted access to the artistes, albeit from a lower viewpoint than the ideal.  But it would not do to interfere with the view of the punters, naturally, so it was up to us to make the best of our privileged, and undeniably exciting, position.

As photographers, most of us were also time-limited to taking pictures within the first two songs from Testament and Megadeth, and the first three songs by Judas Priest.  Once the music began, a feeding frenzy of fellow photographers took place.  Getting good results under such pressurised and high-energy conditions is a difficult task.  Trying to capture the essence of a performance in a short time with unpredictable and swiftly-changing lighting and constantly-moving subjects often in relatively low light is both a demanding technical and artistic challenge.  Everything from total darkness to a face-full of smoke and strobe lights means you inevitably have to take far more shots than usual to be confident of a good selection of usable final images.  Even then, there are no guarantees in this business!   Finally, our time run out, we would be hauled unceremoniously out by the highly professional event stewards, either to wait our time in the foyer till the next band, or for those of us with tickets to temporarily hand in our cameras and slope off to enjoy the delights of the cream of heavy metal bands.

Both Testament and Megadeth especially are a talented and energetic bunch of guys:  they reminded me very much of the great days of the "New Wave of British Heavy Metal", when the talent was raw and powerful, and the music could transport you into the realms of ecstasy or leave you lying bloody and battered with a smile a foot wide, not knowing where you were and not caring.  Or maybe that was just down to too much lager from the Walsall Town Hall bar :O)

But seriously, as you might expect, the first two bands went down a storm with early arrivers, and as the place began to gradually fill up the evening soon turned into a metalfest of epic proportions.  But no-one who has never seen Priest in the flesh would have believed the reception that awaited them when, at long last, the intro to 'Nostradamus' began to rend the air - nor the astounding, wonderfully over-the-top show that was to come for the next hour and a half!

After three songs, my third and final stint in "the pit" came to an end and I swiftly made a bee-line for the standing area, working my way down near the front.  What with Rob using his incredible voice like a cross between a sledgehammer and a scalpel, thundering bass laid down by Ian fit to shake a pacemaker loose, the extraordinary drum-gymnastics of Scott, and the mind-blowing, nirvana-transporting twin guitars of Ken and Glenn, it was not long before I was rocking my head off with the rest of the thousands who had made the pilgrimage to see the real "metal gods" that night.  By the end of the evening, after a mix of masterful music from "Nostradamus" and classics from their astonishing career (long may it continue!) I know I and many others had shed tears of pain, joy and not a little nostalgia, and both my ears and my heart lay bleeding on the arena floor.  All this plus a personal apperance by Death and Rob Halford on a Harley Davidson - what a night!

Believe me, if you have the chance to see these guys, don't miss it - despite advancing years (the band formed 40 years ago (I was ten that year!) and Rob has been with them for more than 35 of those) the lads still rock as heavily and as melodiously as ever.  They have a power and a presence that is undeniable.  To my mind - and that of thousands of metalheads, several generations of whom were present on that memorable Saturday night  -  there's still nothing to touch them as the quintessential showmen of the great tradition of British heavy metal that they began all those years ago.

Truly, a genuine industrial revolution began in heart of the Black Country when Judas Priest came together.  Thank the gods they are still with us today, giving pain and joy in equal measure, and hopefully they will rock on for many years yet to come.  But whatever the future holds, their  legend will be with us always...

METAL DOG

With special thanks to Rob Halford, Judas Priest and Sue Halford.
All pictures (c) Stuart Williams.