BAND: Delain

VENUE: London Relentless Garage 

DATE: Sunday, March 21The Dutch symphonic metalheads are taking a real risk in London, It’ll be the first gig they do anywhere with new bassist Otto ‘The Baron’ Schimmelpenninck van der Oije, who has arguably the most exotic name in rock!

“He is actually from the aristocracy,” reveals keyboard player Martijn Wsterholt. “Which is why he has such a long name. Our drummer Sander Zoer knows him, and so do some of our road crew. We asked whether he’d like to audition for us, and it went very smoothly. He’s certainly as good as Rob (van der Loo, the outgoing bassist), if not even better!”

But to throw him in the deep end, at a London show, Moreover, the first time the band have headlined a gig in the UK. Isn’t that a little dangerous?

“Well, we’ve never been a band to take the easy route. But the way Otto is shaping up, he’ll be fine. We will probably do one number less than we usually do, but as our set is 18 or 19 songs long that’s not a problem. We are also adding in Lost, which a lot of people have asked for. We weren’t do it fore the UK tour, but Otto’s just so quick at picking things up.”

The set will feature songs from both of the band’s albums to date, 2006’s Lucidity and last year’s April Rain.

“It will be split about 60/40 in favour of the current record. We have thought about adding in a cover of The Cranberries’ Cordell, but this is very acoustic, and we want to concentrate on rocking out.”

Delain – who also feature vocalist Charlotte Wessels and guitarist Ewout Pieters – are delighted that tickets sales on the tour are very healthy.

“We were warned that usually bands from Europe on a first headlining tour around Britain can struggle. But that’s not been the case for us.”

Supporting are the highly rated London-based Achilla, whom Westerholt is impressed with.

“I’d not heard of them before, but when they were suggested, I went on their myspace page (www.myspace.com/achillamusic) and checked them out. I like what they do a lot. Having them on the bill makes for a good package, which I’m sure everyone’ll enjoy. To us, it’s important to have a strong support band, and we’ll give them every encouragement.”

After London, the tour heads to: 

March 22: Nottingham Rock City

March 23: Glasgow Cathouse

March 24: Dudley JB’s

March 25: Leeds Rio’s 

Find out more about Delain at www.myspace.com/delainmusic