Kicked off: Stormzone

Irish band Stormzone have revealed how Sebastian Bach made their lives hell when they supported him on last week’s UK tour.

They say he blocked access to their dressing room, made it nearly impossible for them to play their set – then sent them home without full pay before the three-date trek was over.

The four-piece includes former Sweet Savage drummer Davy Bates, who’s been credited as an influence on Metallica sticksman Lars Ulrich.

They were delighted when they landed the gig with Bach and enjoyed a successful first night in Belfast. But things began to go wrong when they met the former Skid Row singer on the ferry to Glasgow for the second show.

Stormzone say in a statement: "We were still buzzing from the show and expected him to to express his own satisfaction with it. He didn’t share our enthusiasm, complained about the monitors, discovered we had nothing to smoke and made off mid-sentence.”

The band arrived at their Glasgow venue the following afternoon in good time to soundcheck – but things didn’t work out as expected.

"We decided to put our bags in our dressing room, which was when the first alarm bell rang,” they say. "Staff apologetically told us that we no longer had a dressing room as the Sebastian Bach tour manager wanted a room for himself and his laptop. We could either get changed in our van or in the hallway.

"We were kind of miffed but not too annoyed – we’ve changed in worse places. The venue provided us with some water and beers. The fridge was in the dressing room, but it’s still better warm than nothing!”

Bach’s band finished soundcheck with ten minutes to go before doors opened, leaving Stormzone almost no time to get set up. While they raced to complete the task they were ordered not to move anything already on the stage. As a result they found themselves arranged in cramped corners round the headline act’s gear, with no chance of hearing themselves properly.

"Under instructions from Sebastian Bach’s tour management, we were to get one monitor, one vocal microphone each and only one microphone for Davy’s entire drumkit,” they explain. But they add: "Although realisation was beginning to dawn on us that we were being given one up the arse we just kept our heads down and tried to make the best of what we had to work with.”

They admit it was "getting a bit emotional for us to see a wonderful guy and drummer being stuck in a corner with one mic on his kit.” They credit Bates with keeping his cool.

Despite all the tension they report their show went well – but they were only paid half their fee. Then Bach’s tour bus blocked the only exit from the venue car park, and that’s when a Stormzone member lost his cool.

"A scuffle took place,” the band say, "but to all intents and purposes it was quickly and easily resolved. We did our usual round of thank-yous and their tour manager stated categorically that the next night in London we’d have absolutely everything we needed to make us sound as best as possible. We left feeling very happy with ourselves.”

Next day, however, Stormzone were approaching London when they received a call from Bach’s tour agency telling them they were off the tour. "We were given the tour manager’s phone number and asked to resolve it ourselves,” the explain. "He told us, ‘Sorry guys, nothing I can do, Sebastian wants you off the tour,’ and hung up.”

They believe the decision was made far earlier than it was explained to them – and if they’d been told in good time it would have saved them a full day’s travelling.

"No future dates with Sebastian Bach,” they reflect, before saying: "This is a one-off and we’ve lived through it to fight another day.”