News
First of all, let us apologise to our English speaking readers26 July 2005
First of all, let us apologise to our English speaking readers for the news black-out stretching over a whole year. Partly because of the small number of English e-mails and Guestbook comments we get, we tend to forget that our site attracts non-Hungarian visitors too. So write more to let us know you're out there! :-) We haven't received any English newsletter subscriptions for the past 16 months, either. Subscribe to the English newsletter at the contact link or here thus reminding us that you're looking forward to the updates. To get you in the mood, here's the first part of a diary including the most important CF events of the past 13 months in chronological order.July, 2004
As the last news item let you know in June 2004, Cry Free started a busy summer last year. This continued throughout July and August with the band playing open air shows, festivals and bike rallies in the contryside as well as testing bars and halls in the capital for the monthly club starting in September.
August, 2004
The band featured on a Deep Purple life-work radio programme. The 5-day series presented the total studio material of DP along with some of their best live recordings, and to finish up, added Cry Free In Concert, the Hungarian followers' live album, to the long list of Purple stuff.
Keyboard player, Gabor Soulavy created the band's WAP page, which you can access at cry-free.try.hu if you have the appropiate telephone set. The page is a miniature version of the website containing all the important information e.g. concert dates and locations as well as providing fun material such as downloadable Deep Purple ring tones.
Cry Free received two separate invitations to play Sziget, one of Europe's biggest festivals taking place in Budapest, both of which were later turned down by the top management of the event. Both organisers who were planning to put the Hungarian Deep Purple Cover Band on their bill complained of Sziget's bureocratic inefficiency. Cry Free had played Sziget previously, before the festival turned away from the original concept of Eurowoodstock towards mainstream pop and rock.
September, 2004
Following the previous year's successful Cry Free appearance, the guys were once again invited to play one of the most prominent Budapest festivals attracting tens of thousands of people, Szeptemberfeszt. Cry Free headlined the tribute band stage playing after R.E.M, Oasis, and Scorpions cover acts.
The monthly Cry Free club restarted after the summer break with plans of a more interactive band-audiance concert series. The group were considering ways of involving the fans in the repertoire and setlist creating process (see below). What the guys didn't know was that the otherwise rather successful club was to become a regular victim of the corrupted and mafia directed Budapest nightlife and thus forced to keep changing locations.
October, 2004
On 19 October 2004, Scottish rock legends Nazareth visited Budapest playing the country's famous concert hall, Petofi Csarnok. Livesound Productions, the organisers of the event, invited the Hungarian Deep Purple Cover Band to play support. Cry Free played a hard-hitting 50-minute set gaining acclaim from audience as well as media. Even Nazareth singer Dan McCafferty congratulated the band on stage asking the Nazareth fans to give a big round of applause to Cry Free. After the gig the members of the two groups got together for a little friendly chat, the visual documentation of which can be viewed in our Photo section.
To start up the row of interactive sessions in the monthly club series, Cry Free announced that whoever visited the October show would be able to vote for their Deep Purple Top 20 by ticking the desired titles on sheets containing the band's total current repertoire (over 50 DP songs) to be found at the cashier's. The November setlist was strictly based upon the votesheets submitted, i.e. the band played the most wanted 20 DP songs in the order of the number of votes. A rather unique selection it was! :-)
November, 2004
Cry Free started the recording of their first studio album under the working title Purple (r)Evolution, which was to make it to the cover in the end. Similarly to the band's live concept, the aim of the LP was to present the whole of Deep Purple's life-work through its different line-ups. One signature song from each era was picked (after lengthy negotiations) to represent the musical heritage of the actual Purple line-up. The 9 tracks were recorded at Reaktor Studio and engineered by Gabor Nemeth, drummer of several classic Hungarian hard rock bands in the 70's and sound engineer of a long row of rock and jazz albums, assisted by Laszlo Karp, who had recorded albums for all the no. 1 rock acts in the country. The recording took 10 days with an extra week of mixing and mastering.
December, 2004
Alapitvany A Magyar Rockzeneszekert (Foundation For Hungarian Rock Musicians) was formed and singer Attila Scholtz was offered a post in the advisory board alongside some of the nation's leading musicians. As its name suggests, the foundation aims to help rock musicians in the country, who normally get little or no support whatsoever as opposed to pop artists, who usually have total backup. The organisation tries to help rock bands in all aspects of making music, e.g. by providing rehearsal rooms and recording studios for reduced prices, giving music lessons, arranging gigs etc. To celebrate the foundation, a grand opening show was organised on 27 December featuring Cry Free in an exclusive 1-hour set accompanied by a hot fashion show and choreography (see Photos).
The Hungarian Deep Purple Cover Band had a busy December playing a lot in the capital. The monthly club featured the second interactive gig, this time realizing the result of the November poll. Similarly to the October game, votesheets had been handed out to the fans, who had now been asked to vote for their favorite Purple songs they had never heard from Cry Free before. The winner of the poll 'You Keep On Moving' was performed by the band for the first time in December. In addition to the Foundation Show and the monthly club gig, you could also party with the guys on the very last night of 2004, as Cry Free were performing at a New Year's Eve show in the heart of Budapest, at Nyugati tér. However, the band were already busy preparing for their grand album premier concert scheduled for mid-January to kick off the new year.
Part 2 of the diary coming soon...