Dinxperlo, June 13th, 1999 by Johan

The following is a review of Dio show on the EuroFest 99 tour. The review was originally posted on the WeRock! mailing list.

From: "skorzeny" (skorzeny@worldonline.nl)
Subject: [werock] Dio in Dinxperlo Holland.
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 01:10:07 +0200

Hello,

Well, I hope I'll have the honour to give the first revieuw of the Dio gig in Dinxperlo Holland on june 13th.

The concert started with Evilution. Dio looked very happy with his new guitar player and smiled a lot during the first tracks. After Straight through the heart(?) Holy Diver and Don't talk to strangers there was a tragic and nasty incident happening before my very eyes. A few drunken idiots threw all kinds of stuff (cardboard beer trays) at Ronnie who after a while almost exploded right at the beginning of Stargazer. He was really upset (and rightfully so) at these few idiots and gave them the middle finger shouting something like "Don't do that ever again or I'll smah your face (or something like that). After this these drunken fools carried on irritating Ronnie which made him leave the stage for awhile after asking them to come forward to recieve some beating.

He went away for quite some time to come back at the end of the song to pick it up from there. I was furious and tried with the help of a few others to get rid of these trolls. The security took it over from there and the incidents didn't occur after that anymore.

The rest of the concers was a real feast with Ronnie and the band playing all the classics from Heaven and Hell to King of Rock and Roll to Man on the Silver Mountain. I think the setlist was very much the same as the setlist at the Sweden Festival. Some of you may remember that I asked Ronnie next week at the chat session if he wanted to dedicate one track to the Dutch Dio Disciples (the first Dio Fanclub in the world what is told me).

He agreed by giving the evil eye sign and he DID remember that and dedicated one song (I guess it was Don't talk to Strangers) to us. I couldn't believe my ears when I heard that. It show that Ronnie does care about his fans...absolutely brilliant. I was able to get a photocamera into the venue (which was forbidden without some sort of presscard) and took about 80 pictures!!

Charlie was able to arrange some backstage passes for me but meeting Ronnie did not happen because of some f**king stubborn Dutch Security who didn't want to make contact with the tour manager. So after 15 years I still wasen't able to meet Ronnie (Not even after the gig. Anyways, it was the best concert I've ever seen overhere in the Netherlands......The band was sparkling, full of fire and they rocked!!! I think Ronnie made the right choice by bringing Craig back in the band who seemed to feel "at home" being back in the band.

Dio Rules!! 'til next year.

Johan.