The legendary heavy rock "monsters" - band "Nazareth" will perform on the Kilučia peninsula
The village of Kilučiai, which has no more than 300 inhabitants, does not stop and raises the bar to an even higher level! In the summer of 2024, several concerts will be held on the peninsula of the Biržai district and music will be played all weekend!
On June 15, stars Bonnie Tyler, Samanta Fox, Suzi Quatro and Nik Kershaw, who will be performing for the first time in Lithuania, will be joined by the legendary heavy rock group - "Nazareth" on Sunday, June 16!
The Scots are not from a Pennsylvania town
The legendary band from Scotland needs no extensive introduction for the music artists. When they hear the name, they know that Nazareth is a sign of quality in heavy rock music, whose name comes from the words of the song "The Weight" by the Canadian group "The Band" - "I pulled into Nazareth, feeling 'bout half past dead."
Named after the Pennsylvania town of Nazareth in 1968, the band from the Scottish town of Dumfriesland previously called themselves The Shadettes. In the beginning, the band, founded by Peter Agnew, who still plays bass guitar in Nazareth, mainly played covers, performed in bars and clubs. These were not acne-prone teenagers, but men who were married, had children and wanted to provide for their families.
The Shadettes had to learn a few new hits every week in order to be popular enough in their hometown of Dumfries. The group's vocalist Dan McCafferty did not hide that it developed them as musicians, helped them understand what kind of music people need.
Eventually, the guys got tired of playing covers, they wanted to gain popularity with their songs, although they also became famous in their town for the very bright clothes they wore at concerts. They were noticed later by Bill Fehilly, a millionaire who died in a plane crash in 1976, who became a sponsor, the group changed its name and moved to London a couple of years later.
Deep Purple warm-up band and good friends
In 1971, the Scots released their first album, also titled "Nazareth", which was well received by critics, but not by buyers. However, two singles released the following year were successful: "Dear John" reached the top three in France and "Morning Dew" (a cover) was extremely popular in Germany. It was enough that the musical schedule was filled with concerts in 1972. They soon became the opening act for Deep Purple, who were at the height of their fame, and participated in their concert tours in the United States.
The members of Deep Purple became good bandmates, and their bassist Roger Glover produced several Nazareth albums, John Lord played several keyboard parts on their songs. These groups still often perform together, and the influence of "Deep Purple" can also be felt in the work of "Nazareth".
Another heavy rock legend, Uriah Heep, was also a close friend of the band, participating in many Nazareth concerts together.
Since 1968, the band from Scotland has released 25 studio albums. One of her most famous records is the album "Hair Of The Dog", released in 1975, which featured one of the first so-called "power" ballads in the history of rock, their most famous hit "Love Hurts", which became almost the main song played on rock radio stations. and the album became platinum both in Great Britain and the United States. Incidentally, "Love Hurts" was the only song to enter the US Top 10.
In 2018, to celebrate their 50th anniversary, they toured together with Formosa on The 50th Anniversary Tour, and in 2022 they released their latest album, Surviving the Law. It features the hits "Strange Days", "Falling In Love", "Ciggies&Booze", which are well known to rock music fans as well as "Ruby Tuesday", "Dream On", "Shanghai'd In Shanghai", "Holy Roller", "Love Leads To Madness", "Place in Your Heart" will echo over the Kilučiai peninsula on June 16.
If you make music from the heart, it's impossible not to notice
During the entire period of its existence, Nazareth changed both its composition and musical style more than once - the genres of music they performed varied from the so-called "boogie" to heavy metal, from progressive rock experiments to popular culture. In their concert tours, they also explored almost the whole world, and their hits, played by such popular artists as "Aerosmith", "Ace of Bace" and others, entered the European and world charts many times.
"Nazareth" also became one of the first bright Western rock stars to visit Lithuania - back in the 1990s, the Scots performed in the Kaunas sports hall, and later they held more shows in our country, which received enormous interest.
Nazareth gained worldwide recognition for their unique sound, being one of the first to use rough, "fused" guitar sounds, and also the first to illustrate their records with drawings of monsters, and music critics noted that this group brought elements of Scottish music to the sound of heavy rock.
