HAMMERFALL Drummer Threatened With Arrest In Switzerland

April 24, 2005

HAMMERFALL drummer Anders Johansson was threatened with arrest after throwing one TV set and stealing another from a hotel in Switzerland last week.

"That's what happens when you're on tour," Johansson told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.

HAMMERFALL are in the middle of a European tour, which last Wednesday (April 20) reached the city of Pratteln in Switzerland. That night, the band checked into Hotel Etap and that's when drummer Anders Johansson and guitarist Oscar Dronjak suddenly decided to "pour a drink" into the TV.

"We wanted to make an 'atom bomb,' you know, when it sparkles," explained Anders Johansson.

Johansson and Dronjak then proceeded to throw the TV out of the hotel's first-floor window.

"It was broken anyway. But then we realized that they would notice that the TV was missing, so we went outside to get it," Johansson said.

When it became apparent that the picture tube was broken, Johansson and Dronjak threw the TV out the window one more time.

"But the second time we threw it further, into some bushes. That way no one would see it, we thought," Johansson explained.

To hide the fact that a crime had been commited, Johansson stole the TV set that was located in the hotel lobby and carried it up to the room. But a surveillance camera caught him on tape, and when the band were due to go on stage on Thursday they got a visit from the police.

"They were very upset and wanted to arrest me," said Johansson.

The concert could only go ahead after the band's German tour manager Rüdiger Dressein offered to pay for the TV.

"Afterwards I was very upset with Anders. It would have been a catastrophe to cancel [the concert]", stated Dressein.

The hotel said that they will not press charges.

"We found the TV in the bushes. We received 200 euros for it so as far as we're concerned everything is okay," said hotel receptionist Nadime Hilpirt.

Anders Johansson does not feel any remorse for his actions.

"I would have felt bad it the concert had to be cancelled. The TV I don't care about," he said.

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