Posted by Dio Slave on 1/31/2012 to
Ronnie James Dio
Our last show with Ronnie was a festival show, Kobetasonik Bilboa, Spain, June 21st 2008. I remember the festival site being up in the mountains above the city of Bilboa, a strange place to hold a festival but it worked. I remember as we drove up I could hear Micheal Schenker playing his set, my mate Chris Slade was drumming as well, sounded great. Ronnie was in great spirits, we knew he was gonna be recording and touring with Heaven & Hell after this show so we all wanted to do a great show, I have to say I think we did. Remembering as well our tour manager for many years Roger Summers heard Ronnie suggesting we make the set lists on stage a little bigger, so he did , 4ft x 2ft set lists everywhere, even in the dressing rooms, the comedian George Lopez took some pics of them and hung out for a while with Ron and all of us, needless to say it was a great time and more importantly a special show.
The headline "Hard Gig" refers to the show we played as Dio Disciples, July 2nd 2011 at Sala Rock Star, Bilboa Spain. The first show we ever played as Dio Disciples was in Moscow which was very, very hard. You just go into work mode but then it hits you, it's so difficult to concentrate on the songs, but you don't mess up because these are Ronnie's songs.
We had been in work mode before we got to Bilboa. Doing shows in England, Germany, Finland, Russia, meeting fans and doing some great shows and then we suddenly realized where we were. This was the town where we played our last show with Ron. At the back of the gig are stairs outside that lead to the loading dock, Craig, Scott and I sat on those stairs and off in the distance was the mountain.
We put on a great show but i have to say it was a crappy day and fucking "HARD GIG".
- Simon Wright, Dio Drummer 1998-2010
To my friend Ronnie, R.I.P.
1 Comments
Auz Baker
Date
5/23/2012 12:08:00 PM
my eyes water as i write this... i cant imagine how hard it must be for you Simon. as close to Ronnie as u were. i still have the drum head u gave me from master of the moon show. i want you to be present when i dedicate my red custom bike to the "stand up and shout cancer research fund".. to remain on display here in Phoenix AZ.in the HOOLIGAN MC clubhouse. untill my departure from the planet. much love and respect, AUZ