Fulfilling high demands
RPWL start their tour with world renowned star Ray Wilson

Freising. It was a sympathetic and unspectacular gig: The man entering the stage of Lindenkeller without any special show effects on Thursday night could as well have been any roadie or sound assistant you please. Only by the time he picked up his acoustic guitar and captivated the audience in playing the Phil Collins’ classic “In the Air Tonight” you recognized he was world wide renowned star Ray Wilson.
The great Scottish voice was the star guest of Freising’s symphonic rock band RPWL in kicking off their European tour with this gig at Lindenkeller. They are going to tour through Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and France. “Basiscally spoken this is a little festival”, RPWL-singer Joachim “Yogi” Lang told – and was right in that, because “The Amber Light” performed before Ray Wilson went on stage. The promising newcomers from Wiesbaden played complex compositions covering the range from hard- to art-rock, supported by the impressive voice of their front singer Louis Gabbiani.
The band from Hessen was in no way less epic than RPWL. Then Ray Wilson, the former Genesis singer, entered the stage. Equipped solely with his acoustic guitar, his dry sense of humour and, of course, his spine-tangling voice, he offered a well-fitting contrast to the other artists. The Scot performed a mixture of his own songs and cover songs from the ‘Genesis Universe’ – from Genesis as well as from ex-singers Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel.
So, there were high demands to be met by local heroes RPWL – and nonetheless ‘the Freising response to Pink Floyd’ succeeded to impress their fans even more. The ‘Lang-Combo’ brought along with them songs of their new record “World through my Eyes”, being their rockiest record ever on the one side, most of all represented by their opening track “Sleep”. On the other side, RPWL surprised with oriental influences like Indian percussion and Sitar sounds. Even if they were not performed live that night, they were just as fascinating. The new sounds fit well to the reflective texts of the band being strongly influenced by Lang’s special liking of Far-Eastern wisdoms.
As usual, they impressed the audience with their love for musical experiments, perfect arrangements and extensive ecstatic instrumental solos. The evening reached its climax, when Ray Wilson once again came on stage to sing “Roses” with the band. This song is not as progressive as the remaining RPWL-repertoire, but the more catching. RPWL then also rocked off with “Inside” – the song Wilson’s former band Stiltskin went into the charts with due to a Jeans-advert.
RPWL could not have started their tour better than with this four-hours lasting spectacle.

Translated by Anne Weber