GAMMA RAY's 'Hell Yeah!' DVD Lands On German Chart
November 9, 2008GAMMA RAY's long-awaited 2-DVD/2-CD DVD package, "Hell Yeah! The Awesome Foursome (And The Finnish Keyboarder Who Didn't Want To Wear His Donald Duck Costume) Live in Montreal", has entered the German Media Control chart at position No. 79 (German chart rules allow music DVDs to enter album charts). The set, which features a multi-camera recording of the band's May 6, 2006 show at Medley in Montreal, Quebec, several "road movies," promotional clips, and footage from the group's January 2008 concert in Barcelona, Spain, was released in the U.S. on November 4 via SPV.
Band leader Kai Hansen looks back at GAMMA RAY's first American tour with pride and great joy, saying: "We had played in the States only once before, so this was our first headliner tour of America. Of course we had no idea what exactly to expect, but the reactions were overwhelming. The tickets sold extremely well, and the atmosphere was amazing night after night. What you see on the footage from Montreal is what we experienced at almost every show."
He continued: "We had been thinking about releasing a live DVD for a long time, especially as our faithful fans had been nagging us about one for years. Unfortunately we'd never had the time to plan and realise such a large-scale project. Well, here you go! This is a DVD the way we like it: diverse and multi-faceted, featuring a musical cross-section of the GAMMA RAY albums recorded by the current line-up since 1998. The road movie speaks for itself, and those nice little extras are great mementoes of our band history to date."
The DVD's humorous subtitle "… And The Finnish Keyboarder Who Didn't Want To Wear His Donald Duck Costume…" refers to keyboardist Eero Kaukomies who plays in the GAMMA RAY cover band GUARDIANS OF MANKIND from Helsinki and who performed with GAMMA RAY during its entire American tour. Hansen explained: "During the tour, Henjo suddenly noticed that Eero has a somewhat duck-like walk. So the crazy idea developed to make him wear a Donald Duck costume at the show in Montreal and present him to the audience. Naturally, this great suggestion didn't meet with much enthusiasm from Eero, and the whole thing became a running gag." Hansen added with a wink: "By the way, the 'awesome foursome' refers to Henjo, Dirk, Daniel and myself, in case you were wondering."
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