It's the stuff that rock n roll dreams are made of – touring the world and putting your musical wares squarely before an avid audience," writes Sammy Jones.
And for Milton Keynes' power-rock trio RavenEye, that dream turned into reality when they were picked to support legendary guitarist Slash on a tour around Europe.
“Someone from Slash's crew sent him our single, Breaking Out and from there they got in touch to offer us the dates,” RavenEye's multi-award winning guitarist and singer Oli Brown told us.
“It's quite surreal...in terms of who got hold of the track I have no idea, but I would love to buy them a drink!”
Pre-RavenEye, Oli had taken a break from touring and set up in Canada for a while: “I wanted to really explore my writing without any outside influence and get down to the music that I was really feeling,” he said.
“I took the tunes to a real studio to record a blues album for my solo career and realised they weren't anything close to what I'd previously recorded.
“Unintentionally it sounded more like a rock record and at that point I realised how much further I wanted to venture into that style of music....as much as I enjoy being a solo artist, I wanted to be part of a band, where there is more focus on the whole energy of the group.
“The idea of starting a whole new project from scratch was way too enticing and I started looking for musicians at the perfect time...”
Almost immediately, Oli found one of Kev's (Hickman) drum covers on YouTube. It was fate working its magic: “Oli sent me a message with the track Breaking Out and I was sold,” he recounts.
“We spoke a few times and he flew back to the UK to focus on this project.”
Last summer RavenEye toured Europe with another guitar hero, Joe Satriani, but they were still using a session musician for bass duties.
“When we returned we contacted Aaron (Spiers), who I'd been playing in other bands with for a few years, we all hit it off together and he was in,” Kev said.
Slash is in the upper echelons of guitar stars. Heck, everyone knows the man and his music - this is the fret-feeler responsible for colouring up millions of record collections worldwide.
Getting the call to accompany the former GnR guitarist on tour must have been a buzz.
“It was...we were in some small bar just doing a covers gig for a bit of fun and then all of a sudden we got the call.
“When I was starting to learn the guitar, I vividly remember watching the music video to November Rain, seeing Slash rip up a solo in the desert, and thinking 'I want to do that!”
“He is the epitome of rock n roll.”
Obviously, walking out on stage supporting the master for the first time was a memorable experience.
“It felt incredible,” Aaron says, “Our first show was in Oslo and the crowd was nuts.
“In fact, the crowds across the whole tour have been a crazy, and a cool thing for us.
“The further we went on tour, the more the fans seemed to know who we were. At our last show in Nice we got an ovation when we walked out on the stage, let alone the roar we got when we finished our set. It's a great feeling!
“We were all proud to be opening for Slash. His band puts on a killer show too, and for us to be warming up the crowd for him is an honour and we always try and take it to the next level every time we play.”
Things on stage have been a breeze – RavenEye typically walk on and then blast the assembled. Job done.
But getting to the shows? That proved altogether more taxing – not least the journey from Hungary to Romania.
And Kev was steering the wheels: “We were taking the drive in two hour shifts and I began mine with half a tank of fuel. Some thirty minutes before the end of my shift the Sat Nav took us off the main road, onto a side road and up the side of a mountain range – just in time for the low fuel light to come on.
“We kept driving, kept driving, but nothing; no towns, no people just a lot of trees and most importantly, no petrol station. And we were still going uphill.”
It was the horror drive that just kept on rolling too: “For an hour and a half we were on the last bar on the fuel gauge and delirious on anxiety and fear. There was nothing around for miles, and we only saw another four cars on the road the whole time.
“We finally got to the other side and then spent 45 minutes in neutral coasting down this giant mountain on a pothole-riddled dirt track.”
Obviously they lived to rock another day though, which is just as well – RavenEye made such an impression on that European jaunt that Slash's camp have just invited them to join him on tour in the States this Autumn.
“We are beyond stoked,” the band said, “..it's going to be a fun October!”
> Breaking Out is available on iTunes and Amazon now.
Raveneye in the US, October 2015:
Sat-Oct-03 Louisville, KY Louder Than Life (Festival) Wed-Oct-07 Minneapolis, MN Mill City Nights Fri-Oct-09 Calgary, AB Grey Eagle Event Center Sat-Oct-10 Edmonton, AB Northern Alberta Jubilee Mon-Oct-12 Vancouver, BC Queen Elizabeth Theatre Tue-Oct-13 Seattle, WA Moore Theatre Thu-Oct-15 Salt Lake City, UT The Depot Fri-Oct-16 Denver, CO Fillmore Auditorium Sun-Oct-18 San Francisco, CA Warfield Tue-Oct-20 Chandler, AZ Wild Horse Pass Hotel and Casino Wed-Oct-21 Anaheim, CA House of Blues Fri-Oct-23 Los Angeles, CA Hollywood Palladium Sat-Oct-24 Sacramento, CA Aftershock (Festival)
