A couple of months ago, one of Belgium’s finest metal bands TheGuardian received an invitation to perform in the prison of Antwerp. Needless to say the band felt honoured and they immediately accepted. Everything was arranged and The Guardian was expected in jail on 3.30 pm in the afternoon of January 25th.

When entering jail the band was of course very impressed with all the precautions, but the very friendly reception of the prison staff, made up for that. A couple of prisoners even were allowed to help unload The Guardian’s material and they also helped setting up the stage for tonight’s gig. Due to the strict time schedule all help was welcome. They had to start at 6 pm and of course the band also wanted to do a decent soundcheck, so there was no time to waste. The room were The Guardian was to perform had a capacity of 80 people. Much to the surprise of the band that room was filled with chairs. It seems that for security reasons, prisones were not allowed to stand up during concerts. So by then, the band really knew this was going to be something different. Normally a The Guardian concert is all about fun and loads of audience participation, but tonight that would be tricky. Still setting up the gear and the soundcheck all went very smoothly and when the first group of prisoners came in, The Guardian was ready to rock.

First the female prisoners were allowed in, followed a little while later by their male inmates. The women were all given a seat in the back of the room and the men had the privilege to sit in the front rows. A short introduction about what they were going to see and hear was given and then it was time for The Guardian to let the metal do the talking.

The lights went down, the intro taped rolled and then the band burst into an energetic version of Dragonland. Some of the prisoners were baffled by the sound and cleary never had witnessed a metalband before (a lot of the people in Antwerp prison are foreigners hailing from all over the globe and as we all know in some parts of the world, metal isn’t very popular). Still halfway through the first song some cheers could be heard and some heads were already banging, when all of a sudden there was a bit of turmoil. Two prisoners decided to settle their differences right there and then, but luckily the well trained prison staff intervened quickly and managed to calm down the people involved. Despite all this going on The Guardian stayed focused and kept on playin’ their butts off. The band was determined to put up the best show they could and win over the crowd. Some more songs of the band’s most recent cd Dragonland were played and you could tell most people were really starting to enjoy themselves.

With their first cover tune of the evening, Maiden’s Wasted Years, they managed to win over most people and the band’s beautiful ballad ‘The Reason’ got a lot of response, especially from the ladies. Luke then dedicated the song ‘The War’ to the events of September 11th and seeing the amount of Arabs present, that was quite a ballsy thing to do. They delivered the song in a fast and furious manner and again stunned a lot of people. It seems the really fast songs and the ballad went down best. For some reason none of the public seemed to care much for the mid-paced songs. No, for these guys (& gals) it was fast & heavy or really slow, but nothing in-between. Luckily the band seemed to pick up on that and played quite a few of their heavier songs like Imagination, Cross the Swords & Never Again. After about 80 minutes the band left the stage, only to return for a storming rendition of The Golden Earring’s Radar Love. A lot of people sang along and threw their fists in the air. When Luke jumped into the crowd still shredding his guitar, it almost felt and looked like a normal TheGuardian gig. After this highlight, the band were allowed to play one more song. They chose to bring their version of Axel Rudi Pell’s Carousel and again got a lot of positive responses from the crowd. Then the band really had to stop, but I’m certain everyone present had a fantastic time.

Stef

Thanks to: TheGuardian & the prisoners of Antwerp jail.

Very special thanks to : the prison staff for the great welcome, tour and fantastic meal!