La première en France!

France! Paris! Oh, la la. Here we are now, staying smack in the middle of Paris, in two different apartments. Boys in one and girls in the other. Not bad, not bad at all.

Before Paris we did a gig in Vendenheim and on our arrival we were offered lunch.

The French really knows how to cook, at least in Vendenheim. The lunch was so good with a local dish and local wine so it felt almost impossible to start thinking about work again. But luckily we eventually did because Vendenheim was sold out and the locals had high expectations on the Finns and our knowledge in French. Well, we had been practicing a bit so I would say we didn´t make fools out of ourselves. Even Jonte, who has absolutely no background of any kind of french lesson threw some unforgettable lines.

Another challenge was that we had decided to use our golden clothes in Vendenheim, which also involves some hair work for Anna and me. Since we don't have a hair dresser with us, Linda was the one to create something on top of our heads. I think she did pretty good.

Linda was nervous throughout the show that our hair would fall off. It didn´t.

The trip from Vendenheim to Paris took 5 hours and here are some pics of what usually goes on in our tour bus.

Linda counts money. Or actually checks. We stopped using checks in Finland in the 80's so this feels very special. And a bit antique...

Jonte does arrangements. Kasper is knitting. Yes, you heard me.

Anna is reading.
Greg is sleeping, I am writing and Tobias or Hasse (depends which one is on tour with us) is driving. After Vendenheim Tobias went home and we were joined by Hasse, who is now in charge of the lights. Welcome Hasse!

Then we came to Paris.

Oh la la.

The first night we just walked around and enjoyed this lovely city.

The next day we had a gig in Achères ( a suburb to Paris), at 14.00(!!) for 300 french speaking kids.

In the soundcheck we looked like this:

And this

And this

But OMG was it fun to sing for the youngsters. They knew exactly how to behave at a concert, dancing, singing along, screaming and enjoying themselves 100%.

And after the show we were this happy

And once again the stuff was put into the tour bus to go to the next place. We are staying in Paris the whole week but our gigs are in different places around the city. Tomorrow we are in Le Vesinet. 

Today we have a day off. Let's do Paris in one day!

From Hamburg to Berlin

So we did go shopping and Hamburg didn´t let us down. The only problem was that it suddenly became really cold. And please don't think that hey, you're a Finn, you can take it. I can't.

Girls freezing in downtown Hamburg. But also looking good.

It was great to be back gigging at the Fliegende Bauten where we were performing  also last summer.  Only this time the tent wasn't as hot as last time… and I managed to break my shoe just as I was doing my best boogie-woogie moves. No worries, no one got hurt.

Backstage food. Thumbs up.
The audience in Hamburg wasn't as easy-flirted as the previous crowds, maybe big-city-audiences are more picky since they do have happenings to chose between. Michael Bublé was gigging in town the same evening as we were, I wonder how he felt when part of his audience came to our show instead.

Then we were on the road again…

…and Jonte of course needs his toys to keep him satisfied and quiet….

...and then we came to Berlin!

Ahhh...

We were all very excited about our gig here and the place we were performing at, Kesselhaus, was fantastic. It is something special about Berlin, especially if you are in the performing business. You have to do Berlin at least once in your lifetime.

Maybe our next cd cover?  (where Linda will have a solo)

We were performing at an a cappella festival and had the pleasure to share the evening with MuSix, the a cappella band from Berlin.

Watching MuSix soundcheck. 

Then it was our turn and of course we started with a short warm-up in the dressing room.

A beautiful version of You raise me up, performed by Jonte. The singer from MuSix was amazed.

After that we raised the bar with some streching…

…and if you look really close you can see that the arranger of the festival had put a note up in the right corner where it says Tervetuloa. It means welcome in Finnish. Very nice. And indeed we felt very welcomed and we hope to be back in Berlin very soon again.

MuSix and us. It was a fun night.  Let´s hope for a soon return to Berlin.

Today we sat in the car for 10 hours and now we are somewhere in France.  Tomorrow I have to learn French.  Good night.

A day off

Time flies when your are singing a cappella.
After Hameln (great audience, sold-out show = happy Finns) we went to Wilhelmshaven, Germanys only deep water port. Once again I got to see a city that I probably never would visit if I would´t be in this band. Amazing. To be honest we really didn´t see that much of the town. Just an Italian restaurant, the hotel and the 600m walk from the hotel to the concert place. But anyway.

Backstage in Hameln. Jonte and Anna singing Phantom of the Opera. The rest of us were impressed.

Backstage in Wilhelmshaven. (Which I by the way referred to as Wiljamshaven throughout the concert…how difficult can it be, one might ask herself?!)
We filmed some material for our next youtube song and by the looks on my colleagues faces I'm not sure if it turned out very well…

This is not on our rider but we ate them all anyway.

After Wilhelmshaven (great audience, sold-out show =happy Finns) we drove to Hamburg. The weather has changed, it is cold and very windy. Luckily we found a nice warm restaurant last night, close to our hotel.

Today is our day off and we are celebrating that with a couple of Aperol spritz's.

Soon we will go shopping!

Promises in Hameln

Shadows on the wall in. This was taken while sound checking in the old but very nice Universum movie theatre in Bramsche. We had a great opening on our tour, the place was sold out and also Jan, the local promotor was happy.

The Vikings - Jan and Jonte. 

Like every serious band we also have a very long and demanding rider for backstage. I won't go into any details but mostly we are extremely satisfied with what we get.

There is nothing like a cold beer and a sandwich after a gig! Extreme glamour.

Yesterday we drove to Hameln where we are gigging tonight. This city is all about the Rattenfänger, the Ratcatcher, of Hameln, an exciting story that teaches you to stick to your promises or otherwise your kids will be taken away from you… 

Kasper is finding out what we have promised to Hameln...

…oh shit.

Dining at the local Mexican restaurant. Margarita! Hameln, we are ready!

First stop Bramsche!

Yesterday we left Helsinki, Finland…

for Bramsche, Germany…

and so far we are enjoying every minute of this tour. We are on the road again, this time for 18 days.
First we will be zigzagging across Germany and then we'll head down to France (gotta work a bit on that language before we get there, now we only know some phrases that cannot be said in the opening speak… or can they?)

So far everything's been going well, we landed yesterday in Hamburg (what a lovely short flight from Helsinki, not even 2 hours) where we were picked up by our  light guy on this tour - Tobias. He left Helsinki already on Sunday with our tour bus, took the ferry over to Germany and by the time he came to Hamburg he was bored. But after two our with us in the bus he was happy again, as happy as any light guy can be.

Tonight is our opening night on the tour and to get in shape we did some shopping.

Wir sind sehr glücklich hier zu sein!