Last summer The Dust Coda played the weekend-long Rock Imperium Festival in Cartagena, Spain. Scorpions, Europe and Black Label Society were among the headliners, and although the London quartet’s stage time was 2am, the gorgeous marina location, balmy weather and the famous Spanish disregard for an early night ensured that this was no graveyard slot.
“I’d spent eight hours drinking white wine and eating tapas,” singer John Drake recalls. He’s Australian, and everything he says sounds sunnier for it. “We watched Europe, Black Label Society, Scorpions, and then we had this signing. All these kids came up with Dust Coda T-shirts and posters, wanting photographs. It was really cool.”
After a nap on a bench under palm trees, Drake was roused by the strains of Mr. Big’s hit To Be With You, as that band’s singer Eric Martin was rounding off his acoustic set, late. By now it was nearly 3am and Drake was worried. “I’m thinking: ‘Is this gonna be a good gig?’ I take a peek, and there’s thousands of people there waiting. Three in the morning in Spain. Hot as fuck. We’re all on different levels of sobriety, and we go out there, and the Spaniards lose their shit! It was the wildest gig we’ve played.
“There’s kids in our T-shirts, flying our banners, and they know every word. Our song Breakdown has a singalong part in it, and it was huge. We finished by debuting a new song, Road To Hell, and they went apeshit. By the end they were singing the chorus back to us, the motherfuckers! I’ve told our agent I definitely want us to go back to Spain.”
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