Freedom Call

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Fotos: J. E. Gómez © IndyRock 
Granada, Anfiteatro Maracena 05-06-2002 + Blind Guardian
Promotor BRF

BIOGRAFÍA
Chris Bay and Dan Zimmermann first met in the year of 1988. At this time, the members of Daniels Cover-Rock-Band "China White" where looking for a new singer. Chris was the right one for China White, to make a good job in the cover scene of the southern part of Germany. From this point on, Chris and Dan played together in several cover bands (e.g. "Lanzer") for some years. There where also times, when they went seperate ways, but finally they came together again.
Both guys talked very often about once having an own band togetherand in January 1998 their visions became reality: Chris asked Dan to write some songs together and came up with some most promising ideas. So they started putting their ideas together on tape. In the beginning of1998,there was a lot of free time for Daniel to do different things, because Gamma Ray had a long break at this time and in summer they played just a few festivals.
The cooperation between the two guys was really harmonic and after a few weeks, they could finish their first 6 song demotape. In the person of Charlie Bauerfeind,- Chris and Dan knew him since a couple of years, they found the right one to produce the songs with. He listened to the tape and liked the songs very much. He offered the tape to several record companies and the responses where pretty positiv.
At the same time, the Freedom Call line up was completed by Ilker Ersin on the Bass guitar and Sascha Gerstner on Guitar. Chris and Dan saw Sascha in the beginning of 1998, playing in one of the numerous cover bands in the south of Germany. They where impressed about his precise and variable guitar playing and asked him immediately to join the band. Ilker was well-known for being a reliable and engaged musician. Chris played with him together in a band called Moon?Doc for some years.
In summer of 1998 another 5 songs where finished. In autum 1998 the contracts with our record companies in France, Japan, and Germany where fixed and Freedom Call began to rehearse all the songs. On January 2th, one year after Freedom Call was founded, the recordings to the first album called "Stairway to fairyland" began and lasted for 2 ½ month.
At the 25th of May the guys had their official Live debut during a France tour as support band of Angra and Edguy, in Grenoble.
The France tour was very successful and in the reader polls of the Hard Rock magazine in France Freedom Call were chosen as the second best Newcomer of the year 1999. During summer '99 the band played some single shows and festivals like Wacken or Cologne (at the Pop Komm, together with Savatage).The rest of the time the guys spent on writing new songs. In the end of August Freedom Call started recording the 5-track Mini LP called "Taragon", with new songs, a cover version of Ultravox' "Dancing with tears in my eyes", a new-sung version of the "Stairway to Fairyland" Japanese bonus track called "Kingdom Come" and a new version of "Tears of Taragon" with Biff Byford, singer of Saxon narrating the "Tale of Taragon" on it. In November 1999 Freedom Call played 17 Shows in Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, France and Switzerland as support of Saxon, during their Metalhead tour. The reactions of the audience to the Freedom Call performances were very good. 
Right after finishing the Saxon tour, Freedom Call prepared to enter the studio again to record the the second album called "Crystal Empire". On the 17th of December 1999, the drum-recordings started in Hamburg. The whole production lasted until the middle of September 2000. There were several breaks in between and so the guys could play some shows and festivals, e.g. in Fulda with Edguy, in Bourges (France) with Stratovarius and Rhapsody, in Pratteln (Switzerland) with Saxon, U.D.O., in Bologna (Italy) with Gamma Ray and Labyrinth. 

In October 2000 Freedom Call were asked to support Hammerfall and Virgin Steele on their Renegade World Crusade tour 2001 from the 10th of January to the 28th of February. In the beginning of the year 2001 Freedom Call will play 40 shows all over Europe: Norway, Sweden, Danmark, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, France.

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