The Big Four: 10 Ideas To Beat That Tour
So, the Big Four of thrash are playing shows together next year. Which got us thinking. What else might rival the combination of Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax, in terms of excitement? Come inside for 10 suggestions, some more feasible than others…
Rainbow – Despite the fierce recent debate about the relative merits of Ronnie James Dio, Graham Bonnet, Joe Lynn Turner and (yes) Doogie White, most UK fans would flock to see a reunion involving Dio and Blackmore above all else. Who else would be in the line-up? Would anyone care?!
Deep Purple Mk III – Still on a Blackmore kick, this is the Purple incarnation that most captures the imagination. Ticket sales are guaranteed if Blackmore gets back with David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes, Jon Lord and Ian Paice. Positively droolsome.
Bon Jovi – They might have lost the rock fan base. But there is one way to get it back: announce a tour doing tracks from the first four albums only. Winner!
Sabbath, Maiden, Priest, Motörhead – Even Scott Ian agreed this combination (as long as it’s the original Sabs) would top anything the Big Four could achieve. If only politics could be brushed aside.
Soundgarden – It’s been rumoured, and the prospect of Chris Cornell going back to the grunge mothership is mouth-watering. They’d be bigger than ever. Bet on it.
Guns N’ Roses – It has to be Axl, Slash, Duff and Izzy (Adler or Sorum on drums? Are you bothered?), and this might just be the biggest reunion of them all. Multiple stadium bookings, with people turning up partially to see a great band, and partly to witness a potential car crash.
Genesis, Yes, ELP, King Crimson – Prog heaven. Get Gabriel-era Genesis, Jon Anderson-fronted Yes (with Rick Wakeman) and the original King Crimson on to the same bill as ELP – and you really have the makings of a spectacle. As well as the opportunity for very long songs. And capes. And Persian rugs.
NWOBHM – No, not the way it’s been done so far, with lots of third and fourth division bands gathered together on mostly European bills, trying to relive glory days they never had. We mean Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Saxon and the original Diamond Head. Compered by Neal Kay. Happening on the site of the first Soundhouse, namely the Bandwagon in Kingsbury, North West London. Mind you, we’d have to knock down the Tesco’s they’ve now built there!
Pretties For You – Imagine a bill with a reunited Runaways, Girlschool, Rock Goddess….plus Doro, Suzi Quatro… oh, and Lisa Dominique (natch!). We’d even get one-time Hawkwind muse Stacia out of retirement for some strangely erotic dancing. Lovely.
English thrashers – Finally, a festival of English thrash bands from the 1980s and 1990s: Xentrix, Acid Reign, Reanimator and Toranaga. Guaranteed to fill a phone box… well, almost.
Have we missed out any obvious ones? Let us know.
Sex Pistols, Damned, Buzzcocks, X Ray Spex
What about a Prog / Prog metal based festival….
Rush / Dream Theater / Porcupine Tree / Vanden Plas / Threshold / Symphony X / Kamelot / Pain of Salvation…… many more options.
Gives me goose pimples just thinking about!!!!!!
I know his style isn’t the same, but Ian Paice as part of a Rainbow reunion is as close as we’ll ever get to a Deep Purple reunion involving Ritchie.
I always thought it would be cool if Ronnie and Ritchie took a page from Page/Plant and did an “Un-ledded” type of tour. A lot of early Rainbow songs lend themselves to the same type of style that Page and Plant reworked Zep songs.
Ritchie could then stay acoustic, but we’d get the two together in some fashion.
Also love to see a true Whitesnake reunion with Moody/Marsden/Lord/Paice/Coverdale.
And not much could top Journey with Steve Perry.
AC/DC
Motorhead
DIO
Airbourne
1) Iron Maiden feat. both Paul Di’anno and Bruce Dickinson
Di’anno/Murray/Smith/Stratton/Harris/McBrain playing songs from “Iron Maiden” and “Killers”
Dickinson/Murray/Smith/Gers/Harris/Mcbrain playing songs from “Number of the Beast”, “Piece of Mind” and “Powerslave”
2) Dio feat. Ronnie, Viv, Craig Goldy, Claude Schnell, Jimmy Bain and Vinnie Appice playing songs from the first four albums
3) a Black Sabbath/Heaven and Hell tour
4) Bon Jovi/Def Leppard/Europe
all three bands exclusively playing songs from the eighties
5) Van Halen featuring both David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar (and Michael Anthony of course)
6) Whitesnake feat. Cov, John Sykes, Steve Vai, Rudy Sarzo and Tommy Aldridge
7) the “David Lee Roth” band feat. Roth, Steve Vai, Billy Sheehan and Greg Bisonnette
9) Saxon with Biff, Paul, Graham Oliver, Steve Dawson and Nigel Glockler
10) Alcatrazz with both Malmsteen and Vai
11) “Seventies” Quo (Rossi/Parfitt/Lancaster/Bown/Coglan)
BLACKFOOT!!!! With Rickey Medlocke
or failing that…
The original Whitesnake line up.
Candlemass
Paradise Lost
My Dying Bride
Anathema
Marillion with Fish
Pink Floyd anyone? Even without Richard, it’d be HUGE!!!
The Original Alice Cooper Group (of course without Glen RIP) but with Dick Wagner instead. Says it all really…!
Don’t exclude Blaze Bailey from a possible Maiden singer reunion. Ok, Virtual XI and The X-Factor were a bit rough around the edges but there’s some good stuff in there that if re-worked with the 3 guitar line-up would be immense. Having seen Blaze recently with Wolfsbane, I can confirm that the man still has an awesome voice. It was only on the Dickenson songs that he suffered slightly.
Elsewhere, I may be alone on this one But I’d happily see the 12-piece Guns n Roses from the Get in the Ring tour. Because as much as we’d love the original 5-piece lineup, that means no November Rain, no Civil War, no Live n Let Die et al.
A Maiden/Priest co-headlining tour would be awesome.
I also love the idea of a classic David Lee Roth Band lineup (Vai, Sheehan, Bisonette).
Whitesnake with Steve Vai or John Sykes.
And I know everyone will roll their eyes at this but…….
…..Simmons, Stanley, Frehely, Criss….?
AC/DC with Bon Scott, ahahahaha yeaaaaaah
Playlist:
Entire Powerage
break
Entire Highway to hell
Lynyrd Skynyrd; 38 Special; Blackberry Smoke; and of course you can’t forget that other Florida band; The Allman Brothers!!!!!!!!
How about recreating Donington Monsters Of Rock 84?.. 25 years down the line (ish) for Download
AC/DC
Van Halen
Ozzy Osbourne
Gary Moore
Accept
Y&T
Moley Crue ..
Might have to shuffle the running order a bit but it could work beautifully IMHO
Ultimate Show of Shows
Best Four Bands In The World
Led Zeppelin (With Jason Bonaham)
Van Halen (with Roth and Michael Anthony)
Rush
Aerosmith
I have dreamed of that show for as long as I can remember
I would make on addition to my post above
adding ACDC to the lineup of
Led Zeppelin with Jason Bonaham
Van Halen with Roth and Michael Anthony
Rush
Aerosmith
and ACDC
The show would start out with Aerosmith opening
followed by Rush
Then ACDC
followed by Van Halen
and finally Led Zeppelin
The crowd would be wiped out!!
I’ll for a Glam Rock line up…
David Bowie
Alice Cooper
Slade
Roxy Music
New York Dolls
There isnt a Deep Purple without Lord, Blackmore, Paice, Glover and yes Gillan. They have already reunited twice. I know they hate each others guts but they did in the early eighties and the early nineties. I mean after Led-Zeppelin reunited is anything impossible?
How About Jimmy Page Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton? Page said he’s touring this summer. Clapton and Beck are touring. They’re all pals.
A Deep Purple family festival …. Deep Purple (different stages of their career) headline with Rainbow, Gillan, Whitesnake, Glenn Hughes, Joe Lynn Turner, Graham Bonnet etc etc but the chances of that are as likely as me smashing up my acoustic guitar and then setting fire to it at my local open mic night.
One of earliest line-ups of Whitesnake to tour…
Coverdale, Micky Moody, Bernie Marsden, Jon Lord, Ian Paice, Neil Murray….would be a successful tour, even if Bernie has put on loads of wait, both him and Micky are great bluesy guitarist….
Also could get Adje and/or John Sykes back in…to tour/album….
Original Sabbath to do small US/Euro tour, then an album (with the fact Ozzy hasnt made album with Sabbath in 30 years, would cause a lot of interest)…
Original Line-up of Dio, touring doing first four albums, then a new album….
Inside the Electric Circus/The Crimson Idol line-up of W.A.S.P. touring, and then new album…would be great…
Just some Ideas..
Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. would be mind blowing.
powerwolf-blind guardian-scorpions
sabaton-yngwie malmsteen
scorps line up of meine,schenker,roth,lenners,buchholz playing stuff from the 70’s era
the original sab line up
Status quo with Allan Lancaster and John Coghlan,
All respect to Rhino, but Alan’s voice is great!
Also leave Andy out, We want the Frantic Four! :d
How about a nice glam line up?
The Sweet (Originals)
Slade
Roxy Music
David Bowie
shame we cant have Bolan..
Well maybe Bon Jovi can make a tour playing the 5 first albums (i think Keep The Faith has some nice and heavy tracks).
Rainbow..
soundgarden suck
bon jovi should spend some time rehearsing back in getiing back to shape on doing some real rock..not like brotney boobs sorry i mean spears..
bon jovi should spend some time rehearsing back in getiing back to shape on doing some real rock..not like britney boobs sorry i mean spears..
def leppard bon jovi europe whitesnake guns n roses pleease!
^ Only Def Leppard and Whitesnake are good, the other suck.
Megadeth! Testament! Overkill!
guns n roses sucks, they are the worst band ever.