Wednesday 7 November 2012

Slovenian ISD Memorial 2012


   Hello everyone, it’s time to tell you the story about the fourth ISD Memorial concert our crew attended this fall – the one in mighty Slovenia. On the flayer published at the end of the summer five great bands was announced, so everything seems to be quite promising for the future event. I have never been before in this country, so I was really looking forward the day of my departure. Unfortunately there was no direct flight from Sofia to Ljubljana, so I was forced to go by bus. The journey took approximately 14 hours, so in the very late hours of Thursday I landed in the outskirts of Ljubljana, where two comrades were waiting for me. We had a few beers and a good talk with them, so around 3 a.m. I thought it’s time to go to sleep, but they had other plans for the poor, innocent Bulgarian guest (hahahaha) The party moved in the comrade’s house and lasted until the morning involving wine, Schnaps  and other alcoholic beverages. The conclusion I reached is quite simple - Don’t try to drink with Slovenians, it’s a game you’ll never win J
  Next day passed very quickly, when after a few hours of sleeping and a lunch, on the late afternoon we headed to nearby town of Domazale. We’ve visited the local “Club 88” where comrades from near and afar started to gather. Guys from Bully boys were already there, so I was really happy and honored to shake hands with my good old pen pall Big Ed, which I’ve never met in real life before. Just a while after Ken from Brutal Attack and few lads from the old British guard joined us. We had a few hours of great party with our favourite White Power tunes, laughs, talks and drinks. I became a DJ for the part of the night, playing mostly Eastern European RAC tracks in favour of the huge Polish crowd in the pub which singalong the classics of their native bands such as Konkwista 88 and Honor. I believe all of us had a great time this eve, which for me ended around midnight, trying to stay sober in order to keep strength for the day of the gig.
On Saturday I packed my stuff and moved to a nice looking hotel, which I shared with our constant gig reporter (which came from France) and two of the bands which was supposed to play – Bully Boys and Blackout. After a delicious meal and few beers we headed to a city near by Italian border where the gig venue was. It was a nice looking night club plus a huge tent next to it, when all the merchandise tables were placed. Doors were opened at 6.00 p.m. and people started to gather in the next hour and a half. Unfortunately on the very same day there was another big gig (European Hammerfest in Switzerland) so the total amount of attenders was not that many as expected.
The first band of the night was Blackout from Wales. They’ve opened the gig with I think their best song so far “Mental Welsh Bastard” followed by some songs of their second cd, which was released this summer. They played a brilliant set playing some more songs from their first cd “Spirit of the warrior” plus the obligatory Skrewdriver covers. What I found interesting is that they’ve played covers of ballad tunes such as “The snow fell” and “Ode to a dying people” (by RA.HO.WA.) but in full electric version which sounded quite interesting. The crowd really enjoyed their performance dancing and hailing all over the place.


Blackout was followed by the most famous band from the East – Kolovrat. They started with a few songs in Russian like “Two Brothers”, “Music of the streets” and “Anti Antifa” followed by a huge amount of covers such as “Narodovy Socjalizm” by Honor, “Legion Blanche” by Legion 88, “Tales of Glory” by Brutal Attack, for which Ken joined them on stage and many others. During their performance the first problems with the sound system/technician started to happened which sadly continued almost until the end of the gig L.  What I can state as a minus is that their set lasted a way too long plus they didn’t played more songs on their native tongue, but preferred to count on covers, I believe to satisfy the large international crowd which attended the concert.

 After a short break third on the stage appeared Italians from Gesta Bellica. They were supported by a 50 plus people crew of VFS which made an incredible atmosphere singing together as one and dancing on every song. Between the songs they continued with singing like on a football game “Ole, Ole Venetto Skineheads” which once gain showed what strong following Italian bands have even far from home. Band played mostly their own songs from old albums plus covers of “Rivolta” (joined by Gigi from Legitima Offesa) and “Free my Land” (when again Ken took the mic).


Next on the schedule was long awaited legendary American band – Bully boys. Unfortunately the previous motioned problems with sound system reached its climax during their performance. This made their singer Scott really pissed, and I believe this was the main reason for the not so good performance of the band. So just for the record they played mix of both old and new songs such as “Jigrun” , “The hero was born”, “Hard times, hard measures” and of course “Superstar” as a last song of the set. To be honest most of the attenders was disappointed of their performance, as I believe the band members themselves.


The last band of the night was German veterans from Sturmtrupp. These three piece RAC bands really rocked the stage for the delight of the presenting German comrades. They played singalong tunes such as “Sturmtrupp 88” as an opener, “Der Letzten patrioten” plus some songs of their last cd entited "Unter Fiendlicher Attacke"
So around 3.30 a.m. the gig came to its’s end. We had a last beer and say “Good bye” to our friends, both old and new and returned back to hotel in Domzale to have some sleep after this long and exacting day.
On the next morning I had a breakfast with guys from Bully Boys, sharing opinions and laughing on some funny moments from the previous nigh. Then at early afternoon sadly it was time to go back to my Fatherland. I had one of the best weekends of my life meeting old comrades and making new friends from near and afar. I would like to thank all the boys and girls from 28 Slovenia for the perfect organization of the whole event especially to Rok for arranging my stay there and Matija for the great hospitality. For all you guys who are reading this report I can honestly highly recommend to visit a gig in Slovenia!!! This is land of the beautiful ladies, strong beer and at last, but not the least the home of one of the best (if not THE BEST) Blood and Honour Divisions in Europe!!! Slovenia, I’ll be back!!!


 Exclusive report by Editor