Article by Neil Farrell
What Might Have Been
90 minutes 4 songs and 100,000 people
Nightwish have a dedicated fan base in the UK that has been growing steadily since the release of their Oceanborn CD. In 8 years of existence they've mostly stayed away from the UK. However earlier on this year they undertook their first full British tour and were a storming success. They are a superb live act and their dedicated UK fans have waited ages to welcome them here. We love their epic mix of hard rock and inspirational classic passion and charm. Their trump card is a raven haired female singer Tarja, who can do the head banging barnstormers and add an intoxicating ethereal beauty to the quieter numbers. They are Finland's biggest rock band but remain largely unknown in the UK.
Sunday 12th July was the 3rd day of Donnington Festival 2005, Black Sabbath had headlined on Saturday and others on the bill included, Motorhead, Breed 77, Crucified Barbara, Megadeth, Apocalyptica, Velvet Revolver and so on. It had been a really heavy and mind numbing 3 days. Nightwish had the 3.45pm slot on the main stage. Their unobtrusive fans had been pushing forward steadily through the maniacal acolytes of Papa Roach and Killswitch Engage. No one was too sure how Tarja's trained and precise lyrics would go down at an English festival. The attractive Finnish bird was about to sing classical style to around 100,000 pissed up metal heads and then Slayer, Slipknot and System of a Down would finish off the festival. I somewhat naively felt for her having endured 3 days of ‘F u' ‘F this' ‘F that' ‘F the system' ‘Show us your F...ing tits' chaos on a terrifying scale plus the inescapable smell of prefab toilets. It was cold about to rain and the atmosphere persistently remained one of horror film intensity.
I wanted to see if Nightwish and their hard rocking ‘Des Irae' style (Think of the Old Spice advert) bombast and charm could bring merciful relief to death metal hell.
As Killswitch Engage left the stage more fans pushed forward there were a lot of us amongst the hard core head bangers. I'd seen Nightwish for the first time in Barcelona's Olympic capacity Palau D'Esports which they'd sold out completely. It was a spectacular show with jets of flame, fireballs and a rose petal finale. Then for a second time in London's Astoria, a tiny venue in comparison but they'd put in a stupendously passionate performance. Today however was a hard core metal festival and it was broad daylight! The majority of fans were here for Slayer, Slipknot and System Of A Down and didn't know who Nightwish were. Then the announcement came...Nightwish were delayed on the motorway and then they were delayed at the airport. We were petrified! The delay was going to be for over an hour.
Some of the talk about Nightwish is true, they do attract young girl Goths as fans, but do not let that put you off. Their appeal is completely across the spectrum with plenty of older rockers becoming dedicated followers. That being said I was suddenly surrounded by a gaggle of girly Goths armed with disposable cameras wanting pictures when...or if the band hit the stage. They told me Tarja was shy and a bit of a Diva, afraid to meet the fans anymore and never at signings. “She'll get booed,” they said and we'll get killed I thought. “Come on Tarja” They showed no animosity just fear that a favourite band could be destroyed today. The stage screens displayed the antics of a small boy encouraged to play air guitar by a roadie and it kept the Metal Heads from hurling abuse or plastic bottles full of water or gravel.
At 5.45pm there was no sign of Nightwish. Camera crews at the front of the stage got more inventive focusing on the crowd. Inevitably girls started to flash them diverting all the male attention including mine up to the big screens astride the stage. Around me the Goths decided I was an undesirable and moved away. So I was the weirdo! You should've seen what they looked like!
Suddenly it happened! The Finns charged onto the stage and erupted with ear splitting fury into the pumping cryptic metal intro that is ‘Dark Chest Of Wonders'. The opening song of their platinum selling CD ‘Once'. The hammering guitars thumping ground bass and sombre choral chanting were perfect for the occasion. This band might do it after all, with perfect acoustics the solid drumming of Jukka Nevalainen, Marco Hietala on bass , Tuomas Holopainen on keyboards and Empuu Vuorinen's guitar brought out a strident performance from Tarja. Donnington got a snapshot of what might have been. Next came ‘Planet Hell' another storming performance, if anyone had doubted the atmosphere of opera couldn't mix it up with hardcore metal they were just wrong! The set finished up with Nemo their mega hit single and then ‘I wish I had an Angel'. Looking back at the crowd I could see a maelstrom of outstretched arms sloping upwards towards Donnington's land mark Dunlop tyre on the right hand perimeter and flowing across the grass arena to the opposite side of the festival site to a white line of beer tents and stalls. It almost seemed as if the crowd stretched back as far as the blue plastic marquee of the Napster stage silhouetted against a bright glow from the distant fun fair, way beyond which lay the fans' camp sites and car parks.
The festival program promised us Nightwish's metal version of Andrew Lloyd Weber's ‘Phantom of the Opera' . I've heard them perform it live twice and it really is blinding, everyone would've loved it. Plenty of us want to welcome this bunch here... big time! Including their pain in the arse Diva! and we still do! We really do! but 4 songs at Donnington?
It's just not enough! We require much more!...
and nobody should ever take Donnington lightly. Nobody!
Nightwish perform songs that just have to be experienced live! Ghost Love Score, Deep Silent Complete, Swanheart, they are beautiful elegiac and simply superb! But Donnington heard none of these classics. ‘Once' is the latest and most successful CD and yes it is worth listening too. ‘Wishmaster' tends to be the fans' most cited favourite CD, ‘Oceanborn' and ‘Century Child' have unbeatable classics on them too. The other CDs ‘Angels Fall First' ‘Over The Hills And Far Away' they're all good. The song writer of the band is Tuomas Holopainen and his Finlandia fantasy lyrics get a lot of fans going, the rest of us just love listening to the songs. Nightwish are a class act give them a chance they are worth every penny.
Like Marco Hietala said at the end of the set, I hope the person who caused the airport bomb scare and the subsequent 90 minute delay dies a perverted sex death too and it does have to be pointed out that Nightwish have been on tour non stop since their ‘Once' CD came out. All over the world...
They have to be an extraordinarily hard working bunch. They really do, so come back to England people! Some of us love you. It's a small country you can drive the whole length of it in a day! The M25 can be a problem! Avoid the M62 never go on the A14! Be really careful on the A1M and is there anything we can do for you?
