W.A.S.P. will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its classic fifth album, “The Crimson Idol”, by releasing a re-recorded version of the LP along with a 50-minute DVD film of the album’s story. In addition, the band will perform “The Crimson Idol” in its entirety — on a tour dubbed “Re-Idolized: The 25th Anniversary Of The Crimson Idol” — along with three missing songs originally intended to be part of the recordings. The show will be done in two parts, with the first being “The Crimson Idol”, and part two being a collection of greatest hits.
Dates and locations are listed below.
Released in 1992, “The Crimson Idol” is a full-length conceptual album that tells the twisted tale of a suicidal rock and roll icon and the perils that come with fame. With guitarist Chris Holmes no longer a member of W.A.S.P., Blackie Lawless recorded “The Crimson Idol” with guitarist Bob Kulick and drummers Stet Howland and Frankie Banali. Voted one of the Top 20 conceptual albums of all-time by Metal Hammer magazine, “The Crimson Idol” is obviously more of a soundtrack than, say, a straight rock ‘n’ roll album.
Issued internationally in 1992, “The Crimson Idol” was not made available in the United States until 1993 and it gave W.A.S.P. the band’s first U.S. radio hit single with ‘Hold On To My Heart’. Ironcally enough, it was the way Capitol Records handled the push (or lack thereof) on ‘Hold On To My Hear’ that made Blackie decide to leave the label.
“The main theme of ‘The Crimson Idol’ which is a haunting acoustic guitar riff was in a [pre-W.A.S.P. band] SISTER song called ‘What I Am’,” Blackie said. “I’ve always been very economical with my songwriting. If something wasn’t working out I’d scrap it. But if something was a good idea but not ready, or didn’t quite fit what we were doing at the time, I’d go back to it later and re-work it.”
During an interview with RIP magazine, Lawless had this to say about the album: “‘The Crimson Idol’ is an enormously complicated story. There are ten songs on it and each one is a euphenism for something else. Nothing on this album is really what it appears to be at first glance. Everything is a symbol for something else. The story was written from a satirical point of view. That means that wherever a person is at their life and whoever’s viewpoint they’re listening to in the story are going to determine the story they’re going to get. If you’re 18 and you listen to it, you’re going to see one thing. If you go back and listen to it five or ten years later, you’re going to get a completely different story. I didn’t want to create fast food for the ears. I wanted something that I thought was going to have longevity.”
Blackie also spoke about “The Crimson Idol” in a 2010 chat with Metal Asylum. He stated at the time: “‘The Crimson Idol’ was about a kid who was a musician and gets famous and all this stuff, and he finds out fame really isn’t what he is looking for, but, really, ‘Crimson Idol’ is about love. It’s a real simple story, and at the time when I did it, I thought it was more complex than it was. But looking back on it, you can see what it really boils down to, and I’m not diminishing the value of the album because it is real powerful. Part of the reason it worked is because its something everyone can relate to. Especially that whole idea of not getting what you want from your parents, or being loved in general; that’s what struck a nerve in people. And at the time, I was almost writing it as a footnote, but when I look back, it was much bigger in the story than I gave it credit for.”
W.A.S.P.’s latest album “Golgotha” was released on October 2nd. 2015 via Austria’s Napalm Records. Our review of “Golgotha” can be found here.
UPCOMING SHOWS:
JUNE 11th 2017 BULGARIA VILIGE MOGILOO ROCK IN THE WINE VALLEY
JUNE 16th 2017 BELGIUM DESSEL GRASPOP
JUNE 17th 2017 FRANCE CLISSON HELLFEST
JUNE 30th 2017 SPAIN BARCELONA ROCKFEST BARCELONA
SEPTEMBER 25th 2017 SWEDEN GOTHENBURG TRADGARN
SEPTEMBER 26th 2017 SWEDEN STOCKHOLM FRYSHUSET
SEPTEMBER 28th 2017 FINLAND TAMPERE PAKKAHUONE
SEPTEMBER 29th 2017 FINLAND SEINÄJOKI RYTMIKORJAAMO
SEPTEMBER 30th 2017 FINLAND HELSINKI THE CIRCUS
OCTOBER 2nd 2017 SWEDEN LULEA KULTURENS HUS
OCTOBER 3rd 2017 SWEDEN UMEA IDUN
OCTOBER 5th 2017 SWEDEN BORLANGE LILJAN
OCTOBER 6th 2017 SWEDEN ÖREBRO KONGRESS
OCTOBER 7th 2017 SWEDEN GAVLE GASKLOCKORNA
OCTOBER 8th 2017 NORWAY OSLO ROCKEFELLER
OCTOBER 10th 2017 SWEDEN HELSINGBORG TIVOLI
OCTOBER 11th 2017 DENMARK AARHUS VOXHALL
OCTOBER 12th 2017 ENGLAND HASTINGS WHITE ROCK THEATER
OCTOBER 13th 2017 ENGLAND NOTTINGHAM ROCK CITY
OCTOBER 14th 2017 ENGLAND LEEDS O2 ACADEMY
OCTOBER 15th 2017 ENGLAND NEWCASTLE O2 ACADEMY
OCTOBER 16th 2017 SCOTLAND GLASGOW O2 ABC
OCTOBER 18th 2017 N. IRELAND BELFAST LIMELIGHT
OCTOBER 19th 2017 IRELAND DUBLIN THE ACADEMY
OCTOBER 20th 2017 ENGLAND WOLVERHAMPTON WULFRUN HALL
OCTOBER 21st 2017 ENGLAND MANCHESTER O2 RITZ
OCTOBER 22nd 2017 WALES BUCKLEY TIVOLI
OCTOBER 24th 2017 WALES CARDIFF TRAMSHED
OCTOBER 25th 2017 ENGLAND BRISTOL O2 ACADEMY
OCTOBER 26th 2017 ENGLAND NORWICH UEA
OCTOBER 27th 2017 ENGLAND LONDON O2 FORUM KENTISH TOWN
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