On the occasion of Helloween's upcoming reunion tour with Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen by their side, RockOverdose and Dimitris Aloras communicated with guitarist Michael Weikath, who offered details on the tour, remembered the impact of the two ''Keeper...'' albums, and more. An excerpt follows:

RockOverdose: Many people believe that the idea about this reunion was brought upon when you toured extensively with Gamma Ray some years ago. Is this true, or was it something that came up naturally, as 2017 marks 30 years from the release of the first Keeper Of The Seven Keys album?

Michael Weikath: “Indeed, Kai Hansen had always spoken about that we ought to do this since a long time, and usually a few things had to fall into place for it to be transformed into reality. We had done the Hellish Tours 1 and 2 way after that meeting Michael Kiske again at Metal Fest France where he was performing with Avantasia. We carefully touched ground and the occasion was right and led by Kosta Zafiriou, who is our tour manager and then drummer in Unisonic… After it was decided to try this, Bottom Row management took action to get into planning for what would be called the Pumpkins United.”

RockOverdose: Though it is still early, how do you plan these gigs? People are waiting anxiously and they have already started asking about a possible setlist and the stage show. Will you include tracks from Pink Bubbles Go Ape and Chameleon as well? Or is it going to be something of a best of show, with a little more ''Keeper'' aura?

Michael Weikath: “So far it looks like being a “best of” show, one track from …Bubbles is included, none of Chameleon yet. We are looking at various songs and eventually adding and taking off tracks during the run of events. It’s a lot of work deciding, it is impossible to take everything into account but we are trying very hard to please everyone and ourselves.”

Read the full interview at rockoverdose.gr.

Confirmed Pumpkins United World Tour 2017 / 2018 dates include:

October
21 - Mexico City, Mexico - Arena Ciudad de Mexico
28 - Sao Paulo, Brazil - Espaco Das Americas
29 - Sao Paulo, Brazil - Espaco Das Americas
31 - Porto Alegre, Brazil - Pepsi On Stage

November
10 - Zurich, Switzerland - Samsung Hall
11 - Stuttgart, Germany - Porsche-Arena
14 - London, UK - O2 Academy Brixton
15 - Paris, France - Zenith Paris La Villette
18 - Milan, Italy - Mediolanum Forum
24 - Bochum, Germany - RuhrCongress
25 - Prague, Czech Republic - Tipsport Aréna     
26 - Bratislava, Slovakia - Aegon-arena     
30 - Helsinki, Finland - Black Box

December
2 - Partille, Sweden - Partille Arena
9 - Madrid, Spain - WiZink Center

The following is the official press release announcing the Pumpkins United tour:

Here comes the sensation for all Helloween fans: You believed in it for years and continued to ask for it - now is the time: In fall 2017, Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen will once again mount a Helloween stage together and resurrect the band’s legendary original line-up.

Yes, it’s official: Weikath, Kiske, Hansen, Grosskopf are going to play Helloween classics live and on a joint tour.

Massive news. Awesome. But you might want to sit down again, because that’s not all of it! Under the flag Punpkins United all pumpkin heads will step up - meaning Andi and Michi on vocals, Kai and Weiki and Sascha on guitars, and Markus and Dani in the rhythm section.

Undisputedly, Helloween  are one of Germany’s most respected metal exports and considered the founders of German melodic speed metal. As godfathers of the genre, they have grown to become one of the most influential metal bands of the planet. In an unbelievable career reaching back as far as 1984, Helloween  have performed at innumerable metal festivals around the globe such as Rock in Rio, Loud Park in Tokyo, Wacken, or the Woodstock in Poland, which they headlined in front of over 500,000 fans.

The band has delivered countless headliner world tours, spectacular shows with the likes of Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Dio, Slayer, or Ozzy Osbourne to name just a few, and played at exotic locations in Borneo, Indonesia, Manaus, Brazil, or, at over 10,600 ft in the world’s highest capital, La Paz, Bolivia. The band’s spectacular show at the »Monsters Of Rock« festival in Castle Donington in front of over 100,000 metal heads in 1988 was just as memorable as the massive MTV Headbanger’s Ball US tour with Anthrax and Exodus. Including genre masterpieces Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I & II, they’ve released 15 studio- and three live albums to date, selling over eight million records and earning fourteen gold and six platinum awards. For 30 years, Helloween  have been delighting their fans with fantastic riffs, great songs, and haunting melodies - three decades of a global career they officially celebrated with the Hellbook in 2015. This is when the idea for Punpkins United was born: The Anniversary Bible as well as touring with Kai made them realize that this band’s story is demanding its next chapter. Or, as Michael Kiske describes it: "Playing an original Helloween track with Unisonic was quite a flashback already, but rocking with the original line-up and Andi will be something really special. The time has come!" The chemistry between Kiske, Hansen, Weikath, and Grosskopf is singular - and sees its revival not least because of you: You’ve never stopped asking for it - now the mega event is coming up live, with the complete cast, and heavily wired!

The super tour’s first confirmed date is October 28, 2017 in Sao Paulo and takes the full Pumpkins United entourage across selected cities and venues in Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the US. An extremely big deal, which, including a few secret surprises, will present almost three hours of the biggest hits from three decades of Helloween  as the band will obviously insist on performing a full-speed trip through the Helloween  repertoire. "We already had an awesome time on the Hellish Rock part 1 & 2, but this time we’ll definitely double down on it," says Kai Hansen, and Markus Grosskopf adds: "There’ll for sure be songs that we haven’t played in a very long time or even ever before." Whoever doesn’t secure tickets for this tour, probably doesn’t have all their pumpkins in a row: The original line-up wants to celebrate a global party with you, which is also going to be highly emotional because this special tour is actually not a reunion and most probably won’t happen again.

Andi channels our metal hearts when he says: "I’m so much looking forward to playing Michi’s and my tunes together with him live on stage. It’s going to be absolutely exceptional."

And now, breathe...

(Photo - Franz Schepers)