I hope you all had a
peaceful and contemplative Christmas time. We surely did. Before
Christmas, we went amongst others to "CaféArt" here in Turku / Finland... Highly recommended!
The other day (Friday,
19th December 2014), I met the one and only Michael Monroe during my
Christmas shopping in the shopping centre "Skanssi" while
he was signing the updated version of his autobiography in the
bookstore "Suomalainen Kirjakauppa"...
And now I'm
drinking some coffee out of one of my Christmas presents, this lovely
girly Moomin cup, since I need to get myself going; a lot needs to be
done before jumping on the "Viking Grace" ship tonight,
celebrating into the new year while floating around somewhere between Turku and Stockholm / Sweden...
In the meantime, it
snowed again here in Turku / Finland. This time, the snow
remained an entire weekend. And this time, I also enjoyed the
beauty of the snowfall a little bit more than last time... ;o)
One of the reasons why
I was able to enjoy this time's snowfall a little bit more than the
snowfall before might have been the fact that I could finally fix the
plans for New Year's Eve 2014 / 2015. This year, New Year's Eve
will look something like this... Just a little bit wilder and
fancier... ;o)
Using a hashtag
and presenting my latest "hauls" (formerly known as
"purchases"): I'm so hip(ster) right now! Nah, don't worry,
I'm just kidding... ;o) But, indeed, I lately spent some money and
thus supported my local record stores here in Turku / Finland,
namely "8raita" and "Levykauppa Äx - Turku". Two
CDs I bought myself...
Deathstars - "Night
Electric Night (Gold Edition)"
Dregen - "Dregen (Exclusive
Hardback Cover CD)"
... and one CD I got as a present...
Finntroll - "Nattfödd (Limited
Edition Re-Issue)"
It's not that hard to
support the local record stores when they have such treasures in
their stock - but especially in times like these, it's very important
to support the rather small shops. Here in Turku, we recently faced
the close-down of both branches of the Finnish department store chain
"Anttila" as well as the close-down of many other shops.
Loads of empty facilities with "To hire" or "For sale"
signs everywhere... I wonder how the city centre of Turku will look
like in the near future...
Apart from buying CDs,
I'm also not getting tired of buying boxes of whatever kind in order
to keep my stuff in order. My latest catch were these super cool tin
boxes; I simply couldn't say "no" when I saw them at "Tiger
Store"... Retro-style rocks!
Ok, what else? Well,
yeah, we had this winter's first snow here in Turku last week, and it
was the first time that I wasn't happy about the first snow. After
living over half a decade in Finland, one simply knows too well that
snow might be the only thing one can see outside, all the way until
April. Fortunately, the snowfall turned into a slush which vanished
the very next day, so it's still possible to cruise around with the
bike... :o)
Look at that:
This year, I even manage to write a Halloween post, despite all the
work I have at the moment... ;o) Although I must admit that Halloween
2013 was way more stressful than Halloween 2014 could ever be. The
muffins you see in the picture above were baked by me for a Halloween
party which was held last year here in Turku / Finland and
entirely planned, organised and accomplished by my humble self. Due
to that Halloween party and me being the event manager of that Halloween party, there
was no opportunity to go to any gigs. Then again, the year before, in
2012, we visited more than one Halloween event...
... and then we jumped
on the boat to Stockholm / Sweden in order to attend the fabulous
"Berliner Nacht's Halloween" party at "Kolingsborg",
presented by the one and only Damón Zurawski (The Catastrophe
Orchestra) and featuring amongst others Deathstars' Skinny Disco as
Osama bin Laden...
Halloween 2014
will probably be less spectacular as there aren't any gigs we will go
to this year. Our schedules are in fact that full that I rather
started to plan New Year's Eve. If you have any suggestions
regarding interesting events on New Year's Eve, feel free to share them here in a
comment...
The work never stops,
and so I had to rush to "Vimma" (Turku Rock Academy) last
Wednesday (22nd October 2014) in order to attend the drum clinic with
Stratovarius drummer Rolf Pilve...
I don't want to
reveal too much about it yet since there is a LIVE review
on the way, but here is already an audiovisual impression of the drum
clinic... Enjoy!
And then, on Friday, it was time for
the first gig after 3 1/2 months... Yes, that's right: Before Friday,
I haven't been to a single gig, not even to a party, not to mention
to any festivals this summer. Why? Well, I could say that I was too
busy with other stuff, and it wouldn't be a lie, but the truth is
also that basically none of the events going on this summer were
appealing to me, especially not any of the summer festivals this
year...
Within Finland,
it's mostly the same national acts touring over and over again while
some international acts apparently never include Finland in their
tour schedules. And if they do, then
it's usually only one show, and for that one show, one has to travel
all the way to the capital of Finland which is Helsinki. Well,
luckily for me, a show in Helsinki means in most cases that the tour
schedule also includes a show in the capital of Sweden which is
Stockholm. Living between these two capitals, I always go for the
option "Stockholm". Or at least it used to be the case
until March 2013. After March 2013, things changed. Either we were
busy with other things or - if we had the time to go somewhere -
there was simply nothing interesting going on regarding parties,
concerts and festivals. Not even in my beloved Stockholm. And
sometimes, one got to know about interesting events just afterwards,
due to poor promotion. Well, don't get me started on those people who
seem to know how to post a picture of their lunch with a hashtag and
the trendy term "foodporn" but not how to create a simple
facebook event with proper information - and within a reasonable time
frame.
Well, things
changed even more in June 2014 with the final close-down of Stockholm's biggest and most popular rock and metal club "Rocks". With
that, the heart of Stockholm's rock scene is gone, making it even more
likely for us to travel to other European cities such as Rome (Italy)
and Berlin (Germany) in the future, in order to join the one or other
event... If only gigs and tours wouldn't be postponed, preponed,
re-scheduled or completely cancelled so frequently these days! In the
end, we often decide just to stay in Turku instead of running the risk of
losing money on flights, hotels et cetera in case of a cancelled gig
/ tour. And so we rather wait for the good stuff coming to town, as
it was the case on Friday when Santa Cruz first had a guitar clinic
at "Vimma" (Turku Rock Academy) and then played a gig at
"Klubi" which was bursting at the seams. The corresponding
LIVE review is going to be published soon - but here is already an
audiovisual impression of the guitar clinic with Archie (Vocals /
Guitar) and Johnny (Guitar) at "Vimma"...
Also this window at
"Vimma" deserves some admiration... ;o)
Santa Cruz were not the
only "good stuff" coming to town on Friday as I also
received another visitor from Helsinki: My friend who accompanied me
to the gig at "Klubi" in order to take pictures of the
event. While she is working on the pictures right now, here are two
shots by me...
Unfortunately, my
friend had to return home already on Saturday in the early afternoon
- but no sooner had she been on the train than I received already the
next visitor. This time, it was a friend from Stockholm who also
brought a friend of hers from Germany, so we were quite an
international table while drinking some cappuccino at "Tintå"...
;o)
Another thing I finally managed to do
after two years of living in Turku:
Grabbing some cappuccino at
"Tintå"
So, yeah, as I said: The past one and a half weeks were quite active...
I would lie if I
said that it comes as a total surprise, yet the finality of the
following news is so damn sad: "Rocks", the biggest and
most popular Rock and Metal club in Sweden's capital Stockholm, is
closed down.
The final
close-down was confirmed by Danne Ekholm, one of the DJs at "Rocks",
on 26th June 2014 via his private facebook profile,
saying amongst others that "Rocks" is "carried to the
grave" and that "we tried but it was not enough".
Just one year
ago, "Rocks" was undergoing a renovation,
including new colours, more screens and even a stage. Despite four
(!!!) different facebook profiles which were supposed to keep the
audience of the bar updated about the single events held at "Rocks",
it was a rather laborious task to receive that kind of information.
In between, there were incoherent notes such as "'Rocks' changed
its owner AGAIN" and "'Rocks' will be back with more info
soon" before a fifth facebook profile appeared in April 2014,
announcing that the venue "has closed its stage, set back the
time some years... and became what it used to be... Club Rocks
Stockholm - 'Stockholms Hårdaste Dansgolv'". So, apparently,
the stage disappeared, the walls were repainted and events organised
by "The Painkiller Horde" were suddenly held outside
"Rocks". A request of mine in order to receive more
information on that issue remained unanswered till this day. And now,
"Rocks" doesn't exist at all anymore...
Is
this just another consequence of the global economic crisis or is the
end of "Rocks" a result of disorganisation? After
all, the final close-down hasn't been mentioned on all the facebook
profiles of "Rocks" yet, not to mention the absence of an
explanation of what actually happened and caused the end of "Rocks".
Does a loyal audience such as the one "Rocks" had not
deserve at least an explanation? After all these years?!?
In
any case, I'm going to miss "Rocks". I'm going to miss its
audience, its DJs (Danne Ekholm, Christ Painkiller & The
Painkiller Horde, Linus Core) and the one and only "Lasse The Bloodtender". For me, "Rocks" was not only the heart
of Stockholm's rock scene but overall "the place to be".
During the past two years, I have become rather quiet regarding
parties - but when I was in the mood for partying, the jump on the
boat from Turku to Stockholm always paid off...
January 2010: Me seeing "Rocks"
for the very first time, at least from outside
(It was a weekday;
"Rocks" used to be open on weekends only)
March 2011: Me
being inside "Rocks" for the very first time, at a DJ
session of The 69 Eyes singer Jyrki69
[And since I took the crew and
the crowd to my heart right away, I returned the very next night...
;o) ]
April 2011: Me, Christ
Painkiller (The Painkiller Horde) and other nice people
at the "Dark
Decadence Efterfest" with DJ Jyrki69 [Source of the picture:
crankitup.se]
More parties at "Rocks"
followed in December 2011 and February 2012 - but just in August
2012,
Thank you sooo much, my
beloved friends, for all the birthday wishes via text message and
email... I'll get back to all of you as soon as possible! ♥ And
very special thanks to all those who travelled all the way to
Berlin / Germany to celebrate my birthday with me... What a weekend! ♥ Very, very nice - but way too short...! As Vera Lynn says:
"We'll Meet Again"... Hopefully as soon as possible! :o)
Almost a classic: The
chocolate cream cake in 2014...
The very first video I just uploaded there is the one of U.K. Subs
performing "Endangered Species" together with Michael
Monroe at "Klubi" in Turku / Finland on 31st January
2014.
There
is also a nice picture which U.K. Subs guitarist Jet took from the
audience in Turku and posted on different social media platforms
afterwards. Maybe you recognise the girl on the left side of the
picture? ;o)
Ok,
what else? Well, Deathstars have rescheduled their entire "Claws
Through Europe" tour which was supposed to start on 15th March
2014 in Stockholm / Sweden. We were planning to go to that kick-off
show and maybe to the shows in Hamburg / Germany (17th March 2014),
Berlin / Germany (18th March 2014) and even some other cities as well. It's
always nice to combine this kind of events with the possibility of
meeting good old friends. And what can I say now? Thank God, we
haven't booked and paid anything for that tour yet! And it's already
the second time that something like this happens in the recent past:
Last time we wanted to go to Hamburg, Buckcherry and Hardcore
Superstar preponed their common Hamburg gig from 8th December 2013
(Sunday) to 5th November 2013 (Tuesday). Also then, we were really
lucky that we haven't booked and paid anything before the preponement
was announced (And, no, we were not able to make it to the new
date...). So, what do we learn from this? It seems that one cannot
really rely on anything in this scene anymore. Gigs are postponed,
preponed or cancelled, tours are re-scheduled or cancelled... It
happens awfully a lot these days! Probably no big deal if it happens
in front of your door - but definitely a big deal if you are
travelling somewhere for an event and book and pay flights, hotels et
cetera...
We
are currently planning some other trip which is combined with a gig -
but that trip has a special background behind, the gig itself is
rather a minor matter and some of us are even counting on a
cancellation of it anyway, so there is not much to lose... ;o)
In general, time
will tell if such trips combined with gigs will still pay off in the
future. At the moment, I'm rather doubtful since many things in this
scene seem to be have become rather fragile...
On that note: I'm
looking forward to the next gig which is going to take place at
"Klubi" again - Finntroll! :o)
A punk rock concert here in Turku / Finland was on this week's
agenda for Friday. So yesterday. The U.K. Subs and TV Smith were
performing at "Klubi". And as if that wasn't cool enough,
guess who joined the U.K. Subs for one song on stage last night...
Yes, no-one less than the
one and only Mister Michael Monroe... What a nice surprise! The
cherry on the cream, so to speak. Living in Turku truly rocks!
The corresponding
LIVE review is going to be published soon...
Until then...
Turun tuomiokirkko [in English: Turku Cathedral] on
my way back home last night
![Stefanie Singh [Sound Kitchen]](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ATF3xaj7OxA/U-flHWZ-51I/AAAAAAAAA3U/SBEsfSHKQlA/s1600/BlogspotBannerBlueberry2014.jpg)
