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I was working on that Anathema tour as merch seller.
The tour being pulled was a financial disaster, as I'm sure is no surprise to anyone.
Any bands who got cancelled before setting off were slightly luckier...being able to cancel their bus, no crew wages even for travel days (usually 50% of a working day's rate).
We were in Bilbao on Tuesday 10 March and heard the Vienna and Madrid shows were pulled and at that point I just knew once it started everybody would follow.
Madrid was already sold out - 1,100 tickets. Zurich was on around 1,400 tickets. Budapest about 1,000. So that made it sting even more.
So in Lisbon the next day word came down that we were going home the next day.......and I know that booking all the last minute flights with baggage/instruments to check in came to around €4,000. And cos the German shows were not pulled, the bus had to park up and wait for word on whether it was to be held for Germany or sent back.
That was another two days at around €1,500 a day for the bus.
Disaster. For everyone!
And regarding insurance, I asked the tour manager about this and he said there was no entitlement for insurance companies in a case like this. Falls under Force Majeure

I saw someone mention 'Formless' as being one of their top albums of the 2010's!!!
Have to copy that narrative myself and say that if I had to choose one album for the past decade then it'd be this one.
I hate saying things like 'It's the best'......but certainly, nothing can match it for me 

I absolutely love this album.
Easily some of their finest moments, for me anyway!
And like was already said, I wouldn't be into the sorta stuff (for example: Jester Race) that this was heavily compared to...yet this just has a very special something.
In conversation with one if the Stockholm heads about 10 - 12 years ago (they would get very irate at anything they saw as anything other than praise of Dissection) I mentioned that I loved the album (thumbs up) but that it did have that G-berg sound and was eff'd and blinded  from Tallaght to Tallinn.......I had to point out in exaggerated syllables that I LOVE THE AL-BUM.
So, I was immediately floored by it (having been big into  Mammy Caddy too) but have never seen an album of its standing (being relatively top 40 for its scene and with the huge, huge weight of expectation) so roundly poo'd upon when the reviews hit.
They were generally awful.
Of course much of that was due to the style change...either for what it had gone towards or simply because of what it was not, regardless of what it was.
A LOT of folk have come around since but it's probably the majority who haven't.
With how recycling/drawing out the glory days has become the default for so many in the Rock & Metal worlds now, talking about this album and this band at that time and sheer neck to release such a contentious album makes you realise how that attitude seems sorely missing.
I saw them live , I think, 6 times after this was released they were generally good to really, really good. Never brilliant though.

The fucking SFX!!!!
It's very true that the SFX was the venue of choice during the darkest times for proper Metal in the 90's and yet it holds endless great memories.
The thing is that back then you could go ages without a gig of any real note (by today's standards anyway) and then when something happened it was pretty much an event. Actually, even when there were more things happening it still seemed like an occasion.
Was just the way then I suppose!
That walk up to the venue, via Dorset Street or cutting off from O'Connell Street.....always felt you were off to something big.
There was a group of us, all into underground Death Metal, Black Metal mainly that would still go to almost everything there simply cos you didn't know when there would be another one coming up.
Some craic!
Some particular memories - going to Fear Factory in late 1999, Obsolete tour. My sister and her group of friends.....all 15/16 years old....dabbled in Metal for a year or so, so we brought them along as part of our partying party.
Knacker drinking in that laneway/car park just off Dawson Street, then the walk up to the SFX.
I'd started bringing bands over then with Aido Butler under the Emerald Promotions name and we had Morbid Angel soon after in December 1999. Had, whatever it was, 6 - 8 teenage girls all milling around handing out fliers for the Morbid gig.
Someone mentioned how they'd let anyone into the venue - it wasn't until the very last few gigs there that they sold alcohol. So I think it was 'under 14s accompanied by an adult'.
I went to one gig there with a naggin of vodka pressed to the back of my neck, then sellotaped around my neck...disguised with a scarf and my hair out over.
Made it in too.....downed the vodka in a matter of seconds, ended up chucked outta the gig very soon after.
Paradise Lost in March 1996 was  a weird one. They just seemed to come over with no vibe, felt like one random gig here, not part of a tour....just no feeling of event around it. Turnout was poor alright.
Someone mentioned Maiden in the SFX. Again, it was at their low point, or beginning of that period.
January 1996. Was a Sunday. I'd say around 600 at it. Little over half full venue.
Apparently the night before in Belfast had around 400. Things've changed since.
Wasn't at Priest/Annihilator in 1991 (31 March)...but the Painkiller rebirth thing hadn't really happened here at that stage. Priest were still considered a band well past their prime but more importantly it was the day before Megadeth played The Point on the Rust In Peace tour and there was massive hype around that gig. It got all the attention.
Consider Megadeth came back with Pantera 17 months later and had less than half the crowd the Rust In Peace show did.
I was a nipper and everything seemed huge then but I'd say the show with Pantera (Sept 1992) had around 2,500 maybe?
The Rust... show (April 1991) must have had at least 5,000...maybe as much as 6,000.
Can anyone verify?
Andy's right about the Tool show in June (I think) 2001. They were so en vogue at that stage and were very popular here...but there was just no sense of occasion around that gig for some reason.Show was packed and was good and all, but it was underwhelming.
Best night there?
Probably Type O Negative in May 1997.......was just a huge, huge happening.
Type O were one of the few bands dug by everyone from us underground heads, the Slayyyyyeeerrrr heads, the Machine Head juggas (tm*Scobes). Everyone.
They changed the landscape with Bloody Kisses, and then with October Rust.
There was so much excitement around that gig.
Then it being on a bank holiday Sunday meant that it was even more of a session/event. Was a magical weekend. Brilliant gig. Fibbers afterwards.
And even....shock......women at the gig.....
All sorts of deadly!

"Yes, I imagine most of the audience for this film won't be either Joey DeMaio or on the autism scale, so you're probably correct. And I can't for one second believe a former Bathory member would have any understanding whatsoever of metal, least of all how over the top it is."

By people who don't understand Metal for people who don't understand Metal.......

Made by people who don't understand Metal for people who don't understand Metal..

I'm in agreement with everyone who's in some kind of awe towards this album. It is a masterpiece, an absolute slab of genius.
Without question I think they are the greatest band ever to come from Ireland...by some distance. The only release that disappointed me was AMC, the rest are brilliant I reckon...but this one is a step above even the rest of their own catalogue.
It was a fucking crime that it was released on a label who did not give a toss about the band, such a waste. So, them being on Van Records now is great.
Frank Brennan will always be a focal point because he is, without question, the greatest voice to ever be associated with Irish rock or metal but Moore's tone, phrasing and lyrics are a work of art in their own right.
Genius band, genius album.