New Rockpalast Release
We are pleased to announce that a boxset containing both of Nine Below Zero's Rockpalast performances is now available to pre-order from our online store. click here to view boxset
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The band played this legendary festival twice and this set contains 3 CDs and 2 DVDs chronicling every song in it's entirety.
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Here are Dennis' memories from both gigs to wet your appetite:
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Times like these stay with you for the rest of your life!
The weekend of August 19th and 20th 1981 will be etched in my mind forever.
On the 19th of August 1981 we flew to Germany to play the fantastic Loreley Festival on the Rhine River.
On the bill with us that day were Thin Lizzy, so you can imagine how thrilled we were, to not only be playing the festival but to be on the same bill as the great Thin Lizzy. What hit me straight away was, they were men we were mere boys!
We had just released our latest album on A&M records Don’t point your finger at the guitar man, on the back of the critically acclaimed Live at the Marquee, so we were riding high and to be part of this prestigious festival put Nine Below Zero firmly on the international RnB Blues map.
We arrived at the sound check on the afternoon of the 19th to be greeted by the wonderful Phil Lynott and the rest of the band but it was Phil who stood out with his fantastic good looks and incapsulating charisma and he spoke to us as one of the boys, no ego. What a man! We watched their sound check, as we did with all the previous legendary bands we had had the privilege to play with.
Our sound check went well and we felt very comfortable on stage. To show time it was still light, so we didn’t have the use of the lights and the atmosphere they can bring. It was a fantastic crowd and we were as one with them from the first song. After what turned out to be a great gig we jumped off stage straight into a waiting a limo and have a police escort take us straight to the airport. The reason was we were playing Reading Rock Festival in England the next day the 20th of August. We missed Thin Lizzy that night but had them ringing in our ears as we sped away.
Also we would like to thank Manfred Becker for the fantastic photos that captured this historic day for NBZ.
Fast forward to June 26th 1996!
Nine Below Zero were asked to be part of a Rory Gallagher celebration, to be held at Loreley and to put together a band to help the celebration.
Our guests that night were Brian Robertson (Thin Lizzy connection again), Robbie Macintosh, Lou Martin from Rory’s band in the 70’s and Mark Feltham who had left NBZ in 1990 to join up with Rory, Paul Rose and Irish folk band De Dannan.
I remember at Heathrow Airport that morning meeting Rory’s brother Donald who was coming along to give the concert some credibility. On the plane and on the bus journey from the airport to Loreley he told us some wonderful stories of the brothers journey together from Ireland to touring the world together and Rory becoming an international guitar legend. We had rehearsed in London a week before the show but there was some hastily arranged rehearsal’s in the hotel before the show.
Nine Below Zero kicked the night off with some of their own set and then bringing guests on to play some of Rory’s favorite Blues classics songs as well as material from his own catalogue.
It’s so great that these two special nights in the history of Nine Below Zero were able to be captured on film.
Dennis Greaves
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