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Published November 14, 2016 | 
This just in!! Helloween announced a big surprise. They will tour for the 30 year Pumpkins United World Tour in 2017 / 2018 !!! with Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske!
“HERE COMES THE SENSATION FOR ALL HELLOWEEN FANS: YOU BELIEVED IN IT FOR YEARS AND CON-TINUED TO ASK FOR IT – NOW IS THE TIME: IN FALL 2017, MICHAEL KISKE AND KAI HANSEN WILL ONCE AGAIN MOUNT A HELLOWEEN STAGE TOGETHER AND RESURRECT THE BAND’S LEGENDARY ORIGINAL LINE-UP. YES, IT’S OFFICIAL: WEIKATH, KISKE, HANSEN, GROSSKOPF ARE GOING TO PLAY HELLOWEEN CLASSICS LIVE AND ON A JOINT TOUR. MASSIVE NEWS. AWESOME. BUT YOU MIGHT WANT TO SIT DOWN AGAIN, BECAUSE THAT’S NOT ALL OF IT! UNDER THE FLAG PUMPKINS UNITED ALL PUMPKIN HEADS WILL STEP UP – MEANING ANDI & MICHI ON VOCALS, KAI & WEIKI & SASCHA ON GUITARS, AND MARKUS & DANI IN THE RHYTHM SECTION.”
http://pumpkins-united.helloween.org/en/pumpkins-united.html
Published March 5, 2016 | 05.03.16 – Germany, Hamburg, Avantasia
Avantasia played their 2nd show in Michael Kiske’s hometown and it was the first concert which was sold out. Here are all details about it:
The setlist:1. Mystery Of A Blood Red Rose |
Hamburg, GermanyRandom Photo from the show
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Comments/review
The crowd was very enthusiastic in Hamburg. During the show a lot of fans repeatedly were shouting “Kiske”. Great response in the hometown of Michael Kiske
Videos
 Avantasia – Unchain the Light (feat. Kiske, Atkins) – Hamburg 05.03.2016
Avantasia – Stargazers (feat. Kiske, Lande, Atkins) – Hamburg 05.03.2016
Avantasia – Avantasia (feat. Kiske) – Hamburg 05.03.2016
Press stuff
Check our photo albums here: (coming soon)
Published March 4, 2016 | 04.03.16 – Germany, Berlin, Avantasia (first show)
Avantasia started their new world tour in Berlin on 04.03.2016 with a 3 hours show and it was already a sold out show. Here are all details about it:
The setlist:Setlist: |
Berlin, GermanyRandom Photo from the show
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Comments/review
It was a great first show of the new Avantasia world tour. 🙂
Videos
Avantasia – Ghostlights (feat. Kiske)
Avantasia – Shelter from the Rain (feat. Kiske, Â Catley)
Avantasia – Reach out for the Light (feat. Kiske)
Press stuff
Check our photo albums here: facebook
Published February 5, 2016 |
Exclusive Tobias Sammet (Avantasia) interview for Kiske Fanclub (February 2016) |
 Kiske Fanclub: We know songs like ‘Reach out for the Light’ are real classics for Avantasia now, but is there a reason why new album songs like ‘Where clock hands freeze’ or ‘Dweller in a dream’ were not added to the last tour?
Tobias Sammet: The setlist is always a combination of what feels right naturally and what we assume most people would want to listen to. You simply can’t leave out ‘Reach Out For The Light’ and ‘Avantasia’, and ‘Shelter From The Rain’ has been established as a live monster as well. But on this forth coming tour I can promise we’ll do new stuff with Michael singing on too. Kiske Fanclub: You often told us that you love to write a kind of ‘Eagle fly Free’ song for Avantasia and especially for Michi Kiske’s voice. So which song you have written in this style for Michi is your favorite one? Tobias Sammet: That’s a tough question, because I like them all. Every of the aforementioned and also the ones on the new album. Right now it’s probably ‘Ghostlights’, for sentimental reasons it’s got to be ‘Reach Out For The Light’, because that was the first time I heard Michi sing one of my songs. It may not be as well crafted if you look at the lyrics, but it was the first one with Michi and it has that primal naive energy, which I love! And all the great memories…
Kiske Fanclub: The Metal Opera celebrated its 15thbirthday, so imagine your first ideas and what is happening right now. Have you ever imagined in these ancient times that you would be releasing albums and touring several continents 15 years later? Tobias Sammet: No way. I wanted to fulfill myself a dream, work with my idols, write an album with a lot of singers out of my private record collection and try to get Michael – the singer that influenced me most when I was young – to sing Metal again, the way I wanted to hear him, although he had done a lot of interesting stuff outside Metal. “Avantasia – The Metal Opera” was meant to be just those two albums, like “Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom Of The Opera” in a Metal version. Just with real songs with chorusses and verses. I didn’t plan more albums, I didn’t even mean to establish Avantasia as a bandname, it was the title of a musical, that wasn’t meant to be played on stage. In fact I knew that we could do whatever we wanted on the record, because it would never have to be reproduced live on stage… And I was completely wrong, haha!
Kiske Fanclub: Have you ever thought about playing ‘Judas at the opera’ with Avantasia or at the latest Edguy/Unisonic tour? Tobias Sammet: No. We never thought about that, I don’t know why…
Tobias Sammet: We are so busy getting ready for the tour, I don’t really have much time and interest to prepare for that. And how should I? Rehearse singing? I am a Rock singer, if I have a bad day I have a bad day, I hate rehearsing to sing just so I sound like all these high gloss vocal teachers who wanna sound like Mariah Carey. My vocal lessons happen when I stand between Jorn and Michi in front of 3000 Mexican Metal heads that are so loud that we can’t hear or control our own voices anymore. Overall the tour is what counts. That’s where we’ll be in front of our fans, that’s what we’re known for. That’s what my focus is on. The whole ESC thing is a nice bonus, something funny, something to promote ourselves and wave the flag of Metal to an audience in an environment that usually ignores us. No more no less. So we’ll go there, sing, and then kick off a world tour.
Kiske Fanclub: If Avanatasia wins the pre-selection, who will play in the ESC event in Stockholm? Sascha, Miro, Andre, Felix? Maybe you think about adding other Avantasia musicians/singers as support? Maybe even adding an orchestra? Tobias Sammet: Orchestra won’t work. You’re just allowed to have 6 people on stage. Amanda will play Piano for that show and Herbie will play bass, because he did all the backing vocals on the studio version, and as we’ll sing live I wanted him on bass for the TV thing. He usually is a bass player and mainly guitarist by the way.
Kiske Fanclub: I know you were asked several times about singers you would like to add to the Avantasia family. Besides a long life wish like Bruce Dickinson, do you have any other wishes for a new Avantasia album? Maybe someone new and not so well known until now? Tobias Sammet: I’d love to have Steve Perry and Paul Stanley. Actually they’re not really new and not really unknown either, but I would love to work with them.
Kiske Fanclub: Did you ever consider changing the name of ‘Tobias Sammet’s Avantasia’ to maybe just only Avantasia or Tobias Sammet? Tobias Sammet: No, it was established like that and I never thought about it after that. In the beginning I really thought about calling the band “Tobias Sammet” and the album “Avantasia – The Metal Opera” but I thought that it sounded like an ego thing, yet we wanted my name on the cover as we wanted to reach the fans I already had as the singer of Edguy. Also “Avantasia” was the name of the album, the ‘musical’ so to speak. After it was perceived like that and established as that, there was no reason to think about it anymore.
Tobias Sammet: They aren’t too similar I think. And we have a discography of around 85 songs to choose from, we’ll play 3 hours every night, I don’t think it will be difficult to find enough great songs for both.
Kiske Fanclub: Eric Martin didn’t sing in the last album, so what can we expect from him in the new tour? Tobias Sammet: He will do what he did on the last tour plus a few surprised once Bob Catley leaves the tour. Eric is such a distinctive singer, I love to have him on board again.
Kiske Fanclub: Michi Kiske once said that he gave you his Playstation Fifa account to play but you never showed up. Did you find time for it until now? J Tobias Sammet: Ha, did he say that. You know what? This whole wifi playstation thing made me nuts, first it blew our whole wifi setup at home, then Sony was hacked and all the credit card information apparently stolen. I hate that kind of shit. I rarely play, sometimes 20’minutes on my own, but I am not overly crazy about it. Michi is so good, on tour we played tennis against each others on a playstation, I had no chance… On the next tour we should play real tennis, on a playstation Michi is not a fun match partner, because I’ll lose without a chance.
Kiske Fanclub: Do you like Star Wars? If so, who is your favorite character and what did you think about the latest movie ‘The Force awakens’? Tobias Sammet: To be honest, I don’t know it. I think I joined the other Edguys to a movie theater in Australia on tour once, and they wanted to see that one new Starwars movie about 8 or 10’years ago. I fell asleep. I can’t stand surround sounds and starships flying around me all the time and making noise and shooting at each others, and that talking Bigfoot and all these weird characters.
Kiske Fanclub: Have you ever thought about writing an album based on a real historic event or a novel/movie? Tobias Sammet: No, not really. But Scarecrow was influenced by Goethe’s Faust. Not really a novel, but strongly inspired by something that had been written and published, if that counts.
Kiske Fanclub: Avantasia played festivals and concert hall shows. Now with ESC something special, but have you ever thought about playing at a special location like Metallica playing at the South Pole? Tobias Sammet: Did they really do that? Wow, if you’re extremely really rich, life must be extremely boring… No, I am happy to play Arena in Ludwigsburg. I’d love to play the Madison Square Garden in New York, but why would I wanna play the South Pole? It’s cold and there are just penguins. I don’t get the point…
Tobias Sammet: It is always a problem, this is why Avantasia tours don’t happen too often, we never know if we’ll tour again and what the lineup will be then. Bob will just join us for the first European shows and then be on tour with Magnum. It’s always difficult, that’s why I’m so happy that most things work out this time, Michi and the others will join all shows.
Kiske Fanclub: What do you think about the progression or evolution of Unisonic? I mean from the 1st album to the second album. The same regarding live experiences, since you were on tour together. Tobias Sammet: I haven’t seen them on their first tour, but on our tour they were great. Great songs, great playing, great singing, great guys.
Kiske Fanclub: That’s it from the Kiske Fanclub and thanks a lot for taking your time. 🙂 |
Kiske Fanclub: Now switching to a very recent event for Avantasia, the Eurovision Song Contest: Do you have anything specific to prepare for it?
Kiske Fanclub: With Ronnie Atkins and Jorn Lande you have 2 singers with a quite a similar style. Is it not difficult to find enough songs for both vocalists?
Kiske Fanclub: The new Avantasia tour including festivals will be the longest one. Did you have problems with the scheduling and especially the scheduling of all the guest musicians?Published March 3, 2015 | The new videoclip for Kiske & Somerville ‘City of Heroes’ is now uploaded to the youtube channel of Frontiers Records, so enjoy it:
Published August 18, 2014 | A few days after the warm-up show, Avantasia played at the 25th anniversary edition of Wacken 2014 (sold out) as headliner
Tobias said to the warm up show and Wacken the following: “I am so looking forward to meet my AVANTASIA buddies again, finally -after one year- to finish the ‘Mystery World Tour‘ with a huge bang at the most prestigious Metal festival on earth. And because we want to prove to ourselves that we haven‘t rusted since last year‘s final show we‘ve decided to play a little warm-show in a nice and cozy atmosphere. Fans who couldn‘t get a Wacken ticket, or people who‘re on their way to Wacken, even those who’ll be already at the festival site: They can all check out AVANTASIA in a completely different environment there. We‘re so looking forward to it, because the only thing better than an AVANTASIA show, well, that‘s TWO AVANTASIA SHOWS! Ha! See ya all there!“
Here is the setlist:
01. Instrumental Intro
02. Spectres
03. Invoke the Machine
04. Scarecrow
05. The story ain’t over
06. Reach out for the Light
07. Avantasia
08. What’s left of me
09. Dying for an Angel
10. Farewell
11. Shelter from the Rain
12. The great mystery
13. Twisted Mind
14. Promised Land
15. Lost in Space
16. Sign of the Angels
Comments:
“I was at Wacken festival since Thursday 31. August and the weather was quite hot and sunny, so a lot of dust there. Apart from Avantasia, Starchild (the band of Kiske friend Sandro Giampietro), Masterplan (band of old Kiske companion Roland Grapow) and Neopera (band of Gamma Ray member Dirk Schlächter) played there as well.
After Amon Amarth finished, I managed to get in a quite good position for Avantasia at around 4th row. They started at 22:00 with the concert and the same setlist than at the warm-up show. Sadly Tobias voice problems were worse than before and he could not hit any high notes here. He was not the only one with a few voice problems here. Michael Kiske and Eric Martin did the best vocal performances at this concert. The sound was not very good and the sound engineer seemed to have problems with a good vocal mix, the picrofones were not working sometimes or were too low in the sound. This was even noticeable in the TV recording. Nevertheless I had a quite good position for Kiske’s voice and he did a much better performance than at Wacken 2011. regarding the audiences, there could have been a little more enthusiasm at some songs. Crowdsurfer mainyl only arrived during the fast Kiske tracks. Tobias joked a little with the waiting Kreator fans on the other stage and all in all it was a good performance with too few songs for Michael Kiske. Amanda Somerville was also back for this concert and they played a set of 2 hours. ” 🙂
Videos
Full professional TV recording in HD:
Press
Here is our photo album, click here:
Published August 18, 2014 | Avantasia decided to play wo days prior to the beginning of the 25th edition of Wacken Open Air AVANTASIA a special “Family & Friends Show“ at Eiderland-Halle, Pahlen. Never before there has been such a warm-up show: AVANTASIA are gonna play a little club show in Pahlen near Wacken four days prior to their gig at the giant festival. The warm-up party started at 8.30PM.
Tobias said to this: “I am so looking forward to meet my AVANTASIA buddies again, finally -after one year- to finish the ‘Mystery World Tour‘ with a huge bang at the most prestigious Metal festival on earth. And because we want to prove to ourselves that we haven‘t rusted since last year‘s final show we‘ve decided to play a little warm-show in a nice and cozy atmosphere. Fans who couldn‘t get a Wacken ticket, or people who‘re on their way to Wacken, even those who’ll be already at the festival site: They can all check out AVANTASIA in a completely different environment there. We‘re so looking forward to it, because the only thing better than an AVANTASIA show, well, that‘s TWO AVANTASIA SHOWS! Ha! See ya all there!“
Here is the setlist:
01. Instrumental Intro
02. Spectres
03. Invoke the Machine
04. Scarecrow
05. The story ain’t over
06. Reach out for the Light
07. Avantasia
08. What’s left of me
09. Dying for an Angel
10. Farewell
11. Shelter from the Rain
12. The great mystery
13. Twisted Mind
14. Promised Land
15. Lost in Space
16. Sign of the Angels
Comments:
“Ramona and me arrived at the location around 19:30 and when we stood in front of the concert hall, it looked like a small concert hall, but after entering we found out, it was bigger than expected. It was very hot in the venue, but not completely filled. I guess it were aroud 500 people, while the venue can handle around 2000 people. I guess people thoight they already play at Wacken and for other interested people it was too far away.
Nevertheless the concert started around 20:30 with the known ‘Spectres’ and was followed by a nice performance, but you could see they were not on stage together for a long time. A few mistakes with starting to sing etc. Also Tobias seemed to have vocal problems, especially during the very high parts. I guess he had a flu, since the same happened a few days later in Wacken. Michael Kiske dod a very good performance, despite that it was too short. A little curiosity was the performance of ‘Farewell’, since Amanda Somerville was not available for this warm-up show, so Tobias also sang the female part, for the enjoyment of the audience. They played a set of 2 hours. ” 🙂
Videos
‘Reach out for the Light’:
‘Avantasia’:
Press
Here is our photo album, click here:
Published June 26, 2014 | 
Two days prior to the beginning of the 25th edition of Wacken Open Air AVANTASIA are going to play a special “Family & Friends Show“ at Eiderland-Halle, Pahlen. A bus shuttle is going to bring fans from W:O:A festival to the concert venue and back.
Never before there has been such a warm-up show: AVANTASIA are gonna play a little club show in Pahlen near Wacken four days prior to their gig at the giant festival. The warm-up party is gonna start at 8.30PM, doors will open at 7PM.
Tobias says: “I am so looking forward to meet my AVANTASIA buddies again, finally -after one year- to finish the ‘Mystery World Tour‘ with a huge bang at the most prestigious Metal festival on earth. And because we want to prove to ourselves that we haven‘t rusted since last year‘s final show we‘ve decided to play a little warm-show in a nice and cozy atmosphere. Fans who couldn‘t get a Wacken ticket, or people who‘re on their way to Wacken, even those who’ll be already at the festival site: They can all check out AVANTASIA in a completely different environment there. We‘re so looking forward to it, because the only thing better than an AVANTASIA show, well, that‘s TWO AVANTASIA SHOWS! Ha! See ya all there!“
W:O:A 2014 ticket holders and Savage Union Fanclub members will pay only 15,- € plus fee. The regular price is going to be only 25,- € plus fee. Tickets only available while supplies last. Fans who‘ll plant to be at the Wacken festival grounds on Tuesday already can book a shuttle from the festival to the warm-up show and back. Shuttle tickets have to be booked in advance at www.wacken.com/avantasiashuttle_en.
Tickets for the show are available at www.Metaltix.com. Ticket-hotline +49 (0) 4827 – 99966666.
Published June 10, 2014 | 
Starchild, the new band of Sandro Giampietro is opening for Edguy and Unisonic during the upcoming European tour in Germany and Italy. Don’t forget Michael Kiske and comedian Helge Schneider were guest on Starchild’s debut album. So Michael Kiske and Sandro Giampietro together on tour, what a perfect package ‘Black&White Forever’.
The tour dates are:
27.09.14 – Germany, Bremen, Aladin (w. Unisonic/Edguy)
28.09.14 – Germany, Oberhausen, Turbinenhalle (w. Unisonic/Edguy)
30.09.14 – Germany, Munich, Backstage (w. Unisonic/Edguy)
02.10.14 – Germany, Bamberg, brose Arena (w. Unisonic/Edguy)
03.10.14 – Germany, Filderstadt, Filharmonie (w. Unisonic/Edguy)
04.10.14 – Germany, Kaufbeuren, All Kart Halle  (w. Unisonic/Edguy)
06.10.14 – Italy, Rome, Orion  (w. Unisonic/Edguy)
07.10.14 – Italy, Milan, Live Club  (w. Unisonic/Edguy)
09.10.14 – Germany, Saarbruecken, Garage  (w. Unisonic/Edguy)
10.10.14 – Germany, Wartenbergoval, Angersbach  (w. Unisonic/Edguy)
11.10.14 – Germany, Frankfurt-Langen, Stadthalle  (w. Unisonic/Edguy)
Published May 5, 2014 | 
Picture by Harald Krüger
Michael Kiske jamming Elvis songs together with Eric Martin in Hamburg on 04.05.2014. Eric Martin is doing a solo acoustic tour at the moment and Michael Kiske joined him on stage for some Elvis tunes. Here is some nice footage of this very special event. 🙂
some more footage is here: facelink1Â Â facelink2
and pictures are here: facelink3