The time Blue Oyster Cult separated,an offer for 2 concerts came from Greece(Hellas).So,Eric Bloom who at that time had a new band with Dio’s guitarist Vinian Cambell, and Buck Dharma rejoined Allen Lanier (who had left the band since 1984) on keyboards,Ron Riddle on drums and Jon Rogers on bass(he replaced Joe Bouchard who gave up the band in 1986).

And there we had it………..BOC for first time in Hellas even like this.The venue was an old soccer stadium.The first day there were about 7,500 people,the concert was very cool but the bad thing was the fights between the fans and the police.As I can recall the cause was some people(about 50 or more) probably anarchy guys who always go in such places to cause trouble,who wanted to watch the concert for free.So the policemen,who at that age were always presented in (rare in my country that time) rock concerts started to beat them and then suddenly almost everybody started to fight with the police.I have a picture where a policeman pulls out his gun to protect his self(he didn’t use it at last…).I also have to say that in tha previous decades government guys used to call rock bands (rarely) to prove that Rock n Roll is a violent thing.

So,you can guess who might cause troubles sometimes(see Rory Gallagher’s concert in 1981 with 25,000 people).

The concert was great.BOC played for about two hours.They started with “Are U ready 2 rock?”.

They continued with classic tunes such as “E.T.I”, “Dominance & Submission”, “Cities on flame with Rock n Roll”

“ME 262”, “Godzilla”, “Burnin’ for you”, “Don’t fear the reaper”, “Veteran of the psychic wars”, “Joan Crawford”, “Take me away”,and they ended with “Born to be wild”(Eric showed-up ridin’ a Harley),and “Roadhouse blues/Love me 2 times”.There was a blue laser beam which was established over the crowd.

The next day the crowd was less(about 3,500 people).BOC played also very good.The only thing I didn’t like was that they played EXACTLY the same set(& same order of songs) as they did the previous day.

Two special memories I have from that concert:

1)While started playing “Roadhouse blues”,Buck made a mistake(he was playing the song in wrong key) and stopped playing(if you listen to the cassette you’ll understand it).He started again after 2-3 seconds,but he was upset because of this.

2)while Buck was playing the solo during the above track(the conclusion of the concert),Eric took his videocamera and started recording the chearing-crowd from one to the other corner of the stadium.