sunnuntai 18. elokuuta 2013

The Stones Grow Her Name World Tour is Officially over !!

So, this world tour is over and it's time to say goodbye. It's been nice to have something
to do while on the road so I might do this for the next tour as well. Thank you all so much,
and a huge thanks to everyone who came to see us during this tour, highly appreciated.
Some stats for this blog: 

92800 views and 69 posts...

..and for the tour:
95 shows in 31 countries during 17 months... I'm too lazy to count the cities ;-)

...there ya go, now the question might arise for some of you: What's next for SA ? Well, we take some time off and in September we'll start rehearsing for the upcoming album, we'll go into the studio in the beginning of October and the album should be done by the end of the year.With a spring 2014 release...

Our next World Tour will start in the spring of 2014, and we're looking forward to seeing everyone at the shows again ! 

This blog will close now and I'll open a new one as soon as I have something to tell you all. Thanks you all once more and as this chapter is over, it's time to recharge and make another run for it with the next album. See you, take care and a big cheers !!!

until next time,
cheers,

Henkka

Festival de la Foire aux Vins, Colmar, France 14.8.-19.8. (including Rockova Ostrava, Czech rep. w/Silent Voices)

Wednesday 14.8.- Travel Day
So, it's time to leave for the last show of the festival season as well as the last show of the Stones Grow Her Name World Tour. It's been a lot of fun with the occasional hassle but hey, life on the road, it ain't for everyone. Anyways, the start of this trip was as usual, the evening flight to Helsinki 'cause the next morning it was again time to get up early, at 0400 to make it to the 0630 flight.

Thursday 15.8.- Travel & Show Day
Early wake up for those who went to sleep. Sleeping on the plane, then a changeover and some more sleep. From Basel we were picked up and went straight to the festival. Pretty much your average day, with the exception of the short 60min set. Afterwards we had some dinner and drinks at the hotel. It was a bit weird to end the tour at a festival and not on our own show....so the tourending party was also more on the mellow side.

Friday 16.8. - Travel Day
Up in the morning and after the basic airport-things we got to Helsinki....from which I took one of my other keyboards and checked in to my next flight. I had one more festival with my other band Silent Voices to take care of before going home. Maybe not the smartest idea but I like to play so...why not ? I met up with Teemu (voc) and J-P (drums) at the airport...they had been enjoying the nice patio and quite a few drinks but we managed to get them both on the plane. Upon arrival in Krakow, Poland...we took a cab to the hotel and then to the city as well. Had some beer and walked around before it was time to call it a night....and prepare for a really interestingly organized festival. We were told that someone would pick us up in the morning, whatever that might mean it was time to sleep.

Saturday 17.8. - Show Day
Nobody came in the morning, but in the early afternoon we got a ride....we also picked up Kreator from the airport before a 2 hour drive to Ostrava....and that's were it got interesting. Upon arrival we were asked to put up the gear and start playing but since our guitarist and drummer were still at the hotel waiting for a ride it didn't happend. After a day without backstage and including general disorganisation = chaos, we finally hit the stage just after Kreator and before Tim " Ripper" Owens...nice slot and people actually seemed to enjoy the show as well. Waited around for some of our dudes to finish with Ripper before getting to the hotel and go to sleep. This was a really chaotic, long and tiresome day...luckily the show rocked.

Sunday 18.8 & Monday 19.8.. - Travel Day
Naturally we did have some truble again with getting a shuttle to the airport since the driver was too wasted to do it. After some phone calls and more chaos we got someone to pick us up and managed to get to the airport. After a late night flight into Helsinki it was time to enjoy the confort of the airport floor since my return flight home was in the morning...since Teemu & J-P were taking the train that also didn't leave until morning we hung out together before they took the cab and I went to the plane, got home...took a quick shower and  then it was time to meet up with Tony to check out some rehersal spaces for our album-rehersals which would start in a couple of weeks...but that's another story....

cheers,

Henkka

tiistai 13. elokuuta 2013

Some summer photos 3/3: Vagos


It was very hot in Vagos so instead of taking pics from the standard festival backstage, I delight you
with some pics from the beach-day and from the trip home...


I was shocked to find out that euroshopper makes portwine...luckily the store was closed....


Palm trees, always when you see them you have to take a pic...pretty amazing
that they managed to grow up through the pavement don't you think ?


The lighthouse or someones ode to a cock...


...getting a bit lost here, as you can see I have a new shirt...and look like I'm going 
bald...which is not actually the case...at least not yet...shit I'll have to go and check
something in the mirror...brb...


Getting ready to swim, or something...



Here's the proof that our biggest winter dude was at the beach
as well and enjoying it ....got ya bro !!



Hats, sunglasses, beards....our job here is done so we head out home...


Between Ville and me there was this huge middle seat....luckily no one tried to sit there this
time....

Finally, at the lounge we had some drinks with Elias and in one of the chips bags we found some 
tattoos...when 30+ dudes gets excited about removable kids tattoos you know that something is going
on. (...since we both have two kids and there was just two tattoos we decided to use them ourselves, 
see ? we're not totally self-indulgent pricks all the time)


Elias chose the dolphin....



...while I got stuck with the star, sorry about the blurry pic but it's hard to take a decent pic
when you're crying in disappointment over not getting the dolphin..


cheers,
Henkka



Some summer photos part 2/3: At the mystery cabin & Wacken


Some off-day pics and then a few from wacken, there was of course a lot of shit that I should have
gotten on camera at the biggest metal festival in the world but sometimes you just want to enjoy yourself...which I bet we all did.


The workers chilling at what turned out to be a long "coffee"-break...



The boss, Ari, doing all the work...this is kinda fucked up, right ?


The chairs me & Miika spent almost two days in, the only way Ari got us up is when he took the
chainsaw and cut that stump of a tree into pieces, talking about disturbing the peace...


...and of course the view we were looking at while listening to Mr.Merrows guitar playing



@wacken, Elias raving about the beer-machine or whatever it's called, that you can see on his
right side...


Last time I took a pic with Lordi was in 2003, we didn't know each other that well back then, this time
it's a lot different.. I don't envy him (or is it called it ?) at all for having to wear that thing during the hot summer day....well he wasn't complaining so...


Just one of the friends I bumped into while watching the NW show, cheers Bas !!


I nice touch with the Marshall fridge in the backstage... Coolio...

cheers,
Henkka




Some summer photos part 1/3: Slovenia



Hola, at least I found something...yeah I promise to try to be a bit more on the gun with these on the next world tour....



Why do you have a bottle and I just got a can ?


Elias new stage face...or hopefully not.


A palm tree in the dressing room, always a nice touch ;-)


Can you see the mountains reflecting from my glasses ? ..didn't think so...


On the way to the festival....


...still on the way.....


...and the last one of the: look at the view series...at least for now.


The pic is a bit dark but you might see that this is a lapland-style hands free device....


..and finally Ville and his amazing Eastbound & Down t-shirt, I'm gonna steal it from 
him some day...

cheers,
Henkka






tiistai 6. elokuuta 2013

Satama Open Air, Kemi, Finland & Wacken Open Air, Germany 1.8.-3.8.2013

Thursday 01.08. - Show day- Kemi

Hometown gigs are always difficult, if not for anything else, trying to relax around the house while waiting for the show doesn't work for me. Anyways, we did a soundcheck in the afternoon and then went home for some hours before getting together about 2 hours before the show. You'll find some nice pics of the show here: https://www.facebook.com/satamaopenair

Being that we had to be at the airport just after 0700 the next morning, I left the partying up to some of the  other dudes and jumpend in the car with Tony, pretty much straight after the show.

Friday 02.08. - Travel Day

Got to the airport just about the same time as the rest of our guys. Basically the whole day was pretty much uneventful. Flew down to Helsinki for about 8 hours of sitting on our asses drinking beer, then another 2 hour flight to Hamburg, were we stayed at the Radisson next to the airport. Still managed to hang out a bit on the patio before it was time to get some sleep. Tomorrow was gonna be a long day.

Saturday 03.08- Show Day, Wacken.

It's always nice to play at the world's  biggest metal festival...and naturally you meet all your friends that you never see elsewhere. Bands, Drivers, Techs etc etc... We headed out from the hotel just after a late breakfast, and 1,5 hours later we were at the site. Just got settled in the dressingroom before it was time to do a signing session. Heard that Sabaton had signed stuff for 5 hours last night...crazy dudes. Also found out that Mötörhead had to cut their show short. Bummer, hope Lemmy is fine. 

I got a bunch of pics, but it'll have to wait for the next post...to lazy right now. Meanwhile you'll find our show here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Ia7aZBQWI

..haven't had the time to check it out myself yet. Anyways, after the show we did some press, beers and a lot of talking to a lot of people before it was time to check out Nightwish. Actually me & Tony went and saw a couple of songs of Alice Cooper...somehow I think it would have been better if we'd have a darker sky. Done with NW, which we of course enjoyed it was shuttle-time and back to the hotel for a few last beers. Goodnight.

Sunday 04.08 - Travel Day

Time to go home. An afternoon flight to Helsinki and then a couple of hours at the airport before we got up north. Most of us were tired and mellow so it was easy....until next week.

cheers,

Henkka

Metal Days, Tolmin, Slovenia & Lieksa, Finland 23.7.-29.7.2013

Tuesday 23.7. - Travel Day

Ok, so what do we have here, a show at the Metal Fest, some off-days at my friends summer cottage and another show in the east of Finland....but it all started with a major fuck-up. Here we go:

We were supposed to leave for Helsinki in the evening on Tuesday....but when I got a phone call from our manager around noon, with him asking why we weren't on the morning flight the day took an unexpected turn. Just for the record and as a greeting to flybe, if you change our departure to be 9 hours earlier, fucking tell us you idiiots !! Being that there were no other flights from Kemi that day, and we had an early flight from Helsinki to Ljubljana (correct spelling ? ) on Wednesday morning...it was time to make quick decisions and get myself, Tony & Tommy to Helsinki asap....our options: get to Oulu or Rovaniemi and fly from there, with Finnair we'd  get up to over 1000e for 3 persons to fly to Helsinki so luckily I found a flight with Norwegian which was a lot less. I had about an hour (and so did the rest of the dudes) to get my shit together and haul my ass to the trainstation, 1 hour by train to Oulu and then a 20min cabdrive to the airport and we made it in time for the last flight of the day. Hopefully the rest of the travel will be a bit less stressful ;-) 

Upon arrival it was time to get some evening-food & drinks from the alepa (local supermarket) at the airport before checking into the Hilton and trying to find out if Elias also wanted some beer ;-)...and while doing that I checked out the rest of the youtube crop. Granted we've seen the dog vs cat stuff and how animal eat their food...funny shit...also the not give a fuck was nice...but the winner today is The Loner....and just so you don't get to tell me I never give anything back,  a bit of music:



btw some of the videos in the comments were really crazy...and some were boring...maybe this
will make you laugh a bit though (not for too sensitive ppl):


...and there's a lot more in that well ;-)


Wednesday 24.7. - Travel & Show Day, Tolmin

Gedappa, at around 0530 for a 0600 lobby call, this will be awesome ;-) Took a nap on the plane,
and tried again in the car...it worked...almost. It took us about 140min to drive to the hotel. Upon arrival
we had some late lunch and went to bed for an hour or so. At 1830 it was time to drive to the festival, eat dinner and have a signing session. So far so good ;-)

Be that as it may, the show was great (hate to repeat myself but whaddayado when you rule haha ). Back at the hotel just before 3 and leaving at 0445 means that you pretend to sleep or you're just honest and have another drink. During the 120min (note the difference of early hour travel) ride to the airport some of us shared a van with some of the Messhuggah guys. Some drank some didn't. Cheers Mr.H.
We also got some nice wine with Sonata Arctica-labels on it...had to taste it right away ;-)

Thursday 25.7. - Travel Day
Got to Helsinki somewhat ok and jumped into our pyroguy Ari's truck, heading for his islands. Somehow the dude owns 3 Islands somewhere around Jyväskylä and we decided to spend a few days there since being  at home doesn't really constitute as a holiday. Loaded up on drinks and food and got to the main island.

Friday 26.7. - Summer Island Day

Beer, Sauna, Sun, Swimming, BBQ (repeat several times in no particular order). We got blessed with an incredible summer weather, sunshine and whatnot. Total bliss.

Saturday 27.7. - Summer Island Day & Drive to Iisalmi

Started off the day with the same formula as yesterday. However since we used the sauna next to the sleeping room for the whole day, last night we had 27 degrees celcius in our bedroom. Well, shit happends. ..eventually we got off the island and went to a friends mansion for some more sauna, excellent food and a sleepover. Thanks Mika.

Sunday 28.7.-  Showday, Lieksa

After a sturdy breakfast it was time to head towards our show in Lieksa. Upon arrival (the first ones to get there from our party btw) it was just about waiting for the other dudes to arrive. Met up with the Battle Beast guys since they were already there. Janne had broke his wireless midi at Q-stock so I borrowed him mine for their show. He also had the Alesis keytar which I'll have to check out some day. It's kinda cheap and I usually brake my keyboards, even by accident so it might be a good idea to step down if I can play our stuff on one of those. Anyways, later as our guys arrived me, Tony, Marko and the pyro dudes went to play fresbee (spell check ?) golf. It was kinda fun but I'm not sure if this is my thing or not. Eventually we got around to actually play the show (kinda the reason why we where in Lieksa anyhow). Our hotel for the night was a local villagehouse or whatever it could be called in english. Basically this ment that I could hear the snoring from 3 rooms down, nevertheless we had beer.

Monday 29.7. - Travel Day

Spent most of the day in a van driving home....technically speaking riding home since Punky was driving. Well, that's about it and we still have 4 more shows to go. Kemi & Wacken...plus a trip to Portugal and the last show in France.

cheers,

Henkka