Gig Of The Week: Rammstein Mutter UK Tour Taken from Kerrang, Issue May 18 2002-06-01 (With interviews from Band members) Dates: London Docklands May 16, Manchester Apollo 17 and 18. Admission: London £20, £18.50 elsewhere. Supported By: American Head Charge and Raging Speedhorn How would you describe a Rammstein show to someone who's never seen you? Richard Z Kruspe-Bernstein (guitar): "I would say, imagine you've seen 'Star Wars' for the first time." Who comes up with all the pyro effects? Paul Landers (guitar:) "Sometimes we each come up with idea to improve effects, sometimes we'll all work on it. The mouth flamethrower for example comes from Till (Lindermann, vocals). It's an evil invention. Sometimes we'll be rehearsing and we'll hear a really loud explosion - Booom! We'll run outside nd Till will be standing there with a black face and he'll go "So what did you think of that?". Ten minutes later the guy we rent the rehearsel room from comes round to kick us out. It's always the same one. The guy always calms down. Until the next explosion…" Have stunts ever gone wrong? Richard: "Of course! If you play fire, you must understand that it's not something you can ever completely control. Five years ago in Berlin, we had adisaster when Burning backdrop that we used to have, fell down onstage onto the audience. No-one was hurt, but back then we used to do the pyrotechnics ourselves. After we had decided it was too dangerous and hired a special company. And you can always get the extra close Rammstein shave from a buring mic stand if you get too close. We also used to have a stunt where we'd set fire to Till as if by accident and then he would start to burn all the way up to his face, and then he'd fall on the floor and pretend to be hurt - he was wearing a special mask to protect his face, but it looked real from the stage. Then we would stop playing as if something was wrong…" How on earth did the crowds react? Richard: "The crowd would get scared, some people would cry and the energy would go down. It was always hard to bring it back up because they took a long time to be convinced that Till was OK. To be honest I never really like the stunt - I didn't think it was necessary. Sometimes you overstep the line and for me it's important that everyone who goes to a show has a good time." What's the best thing about touring? Richard: "Coming home! At the moment I feel much more creative at home. Touring is a very superficial life. It's like ground hog day - everything is the same, I don't like it." So er, What's the worst? Richard: "The thing about touring is that you become retarded - you can't do anything. You can't read a book, you can't write music, you're just waiting all the time for the hour where you get to go on stage, when you go and wait again I haven't figured out a way to deal with this yet and use the time in different ways - and that's the worst. Also as a band, we're all in out mid 30s - we're not 20 anymore and for me it's like, I really like to have my own space. We've played together in a band for seven years and sometimes you just need breaks." The UK was one of the last territories in the world to accept Rammstein. Has the Brixton gig given you a more positive picture of the UK? Christoph Schneider (drums): "Every time we go to the UK we always had bad experiences - hostile press, in different labels, real idiots. We drew the conclusion that 'England ist scheisse! (shit)", and decided not to go there. And we finally did, the Astoria show got cancelled so we were under a lot of pressure. But hearing 5,000 people singing in German at the Brixton show has been one of our greatest successes. We came offstage and we said, 'Now we've done it! We've conquered England. And we did it without tanks.' How different will this UK arena tour be? Richard: "It will be a bigger production, but It won't be so different. A Rammstein show is always like… 'Star Wars'. There's a part two, and a part three and a part four…" We should leave a Rammstein gig feeling…? Richard: "My wife came up with a really good expression for this actually. And I really believe this because I hear it from a lot of people who see Rammstein. She says it's like being 14 years old again." CATHERINE YATES COMMENTS ON ARTICLE: Conducted before Rammstein played the three arenas in the UK it's a nice touch, knowing what they thing about it all. PICTURES ACCOMPANYING THE ARTICLE: (Click each thumbnail to open up the large picture. Right click the pictures and then select 'Save Picture As' to save it to your desktop.)