Hammerskins Milano Gig

As soon as I find out that "Bully Boys" will play in Italy I was in a hurry to search for details and to arrange my trip to Milano. I had several weeks to 21st January to find the easiest and most convenient route for me. I was glad to know that my friends from different countries that I have not seen for a while will be there. Most suitable and sentimental route for me was a flight from Sofia to Marseille and then a car drive to Milano with my French comrades. It happened to be a long and emotional journey. I arrived in Sofia at noon, having just 3 hours before departure time which I spent drinking a few beers with friends in Sofia. We had a great fun together, but time ran out so fast, so I got the flight in perfect condition of spirits. Flight was long, I switched to another one in Paris and arrived in Marseille late at the evening. Next day I went to the streets of the city. I was a little bit scared of this journey, because Marseille have the reputation of the capital of Islam in Europe, but thankfully I found out that the city is a really wonderful and combines beautiful sea and stunning mountains. On Friday night, we had a party with the local comrades, I was in a great mood and show them how strong drinkers people from Eastern Europe can be:).

So finally Saturday – the day of the gig came. We get up early in the morning, had a breakfast and headed to Milano. It was my first ever gig in Italy, so I was really excited. So after six hours of driving, a lot of RAC music and fun with comrades we arrived in the cold weathered city.

The concert was organized by Hammerskins, so it took place in their Skinhouse which was found easily by the French guys, who are regular visitors in this venue. I was happy to meet some old friends, which I haven’t seen in years :) Cheers Gergo! The hours till the start of the gig was spend in nice conversations, cold beers and a lot of laughs.

Codex Frei

 The gig started around 20.00 h. with the first band for the eve – “Codex Frei” from Germany. They began their performance with everyone’s favorite "Tomorrow belongs to me". Really well chosen song for a start. It’s was followed by their own repertoire of songs in German. I liked the style of the band in general despite the fact I’m not big fan of German music. The guys had a strong support from their friends and fans, with whom I met later. They were really great blokes, and unexpected for me it appeared that Germans are able to smile and have fun (hahha).

Second band on stage were Italians from “Garrota”. What a great band. A top level of classical RAC/OI! with Italian “trade mark”. I’ve listened to all this songs for the first time, but the party atmosphere they made was awesome. I’ve noticed that their singer didn’t stop smiling during the whole performance and all the Italians comrades sand and danced on their songs. To sum it up it was a impressing music and stage attitude from Garrota and wish them a long and successful “career” on the RAC scene! Hope I’ll have the chance to hear them live again.

Garrota

Third band for the evening was from Italy again – “Nativi”. To be honest during most of their set I was outside the hall at the yard of the club, I’ve heard just a few of their songs, all in Italian as usual, which left a good impression at me, but the previous band grabbed my attention a bit harder.

So finally…the time for the legendary “Bully Boys” has come. Their played songs like "Time to die", "Lionsheart", "White Kids Gonna Fight","Rage on This", etc. It’s needless to mention that the atmosphere they created was second to none and they were the top band of the night. The moshpit was dynamic and brutal even for the skinhead standards! The Texas guys ended their incredible performance with the all time classic “Skinhead superstar”!!!

 

Bully Boys

After the end of the gig I had the chance to share a beer with Scott, and I reminded him that Bulgaria and Belarus are two different countries (hahaha…see the Bully boys interview in our blog HERE ). We laughed a lot about this and I got the impression he’s very really nice and natural person.

Around 1.00 a.m. we got back into our cars for the long way back to France. Returning went nicely listening to the “People haters” songs and sharing the excitement from the concert.

The gig was attended by around 250 people from Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Hungary and at last but not the least – me from BULGARIA! All passed really well, perfectly organized and guarded concert (security guards were Hammerskins from different countries). The bar service was in charge of few Italians comrades, which done they job really fast and professional. Gig hall was clean, there was a large choice of merchandise items (T-shirts, cd’s patches, etc.) and all the gig guests were very friendly.

I would like to thank to Hammerskins Italy for the wonderful gig and professional organization, to the guys at the bar who took care not to run out of cold beer, the bands that made a gig night to remember, to Daniela from Italy, to B&H Hexagone and particularly Loic, without his help my travel and attendance to this concert would not become reality.

Exclusive report for Revolt NS by S.