Casino time

Last night was our opening at the Casino Helsinki where we will be performing for five weeks, 4 nights a week. The opening went fine but the hours before the opening, or lets say even the minutes before entering the stage, were pretty hectic. I´ll give you a small glimpse of what was happening backstage:

This is in the morning. Tobias is programming lights and Kasper and Greg are trying to figure out how to get the tvs working. And to their own surprise they succeeded!
After this we had soundcheck which went fine except that we have this new song with lots, I mean lots of words to learn by heart to sing all together at the same time with the right words in the right key. Gregory looked really concerned during soundcheck and also the rest of us didn´t feel too comfortable but let me tell you, it is amazing how these old brains still, at times, work! Not a single word went wrong in front of the audience. Tonight we are going to find out if our long-term memory still works.

Yesterday we also got new stage clothes which we were all looking very much forward to. Actually they were supposed to come already on Tuesday so there would be time to, well, at least try them on once before entering the stage. But they came one hour before the show so the following pictures are a bit unsharp since the atmosphere was quite tense.

Yes it fits! Now we just need to get the zipper up.

Yes, great, except a shirt is missing. This is our own little Slash.

I am ironing Annas dress on a chair. Of course with a glass of champagne. Wait, why am I ironing Annas dress?

Oh yes, because Anna is trying to get her shoes on.

Jonte and his new jewellery.

Seconds before entering the stage. The smiles are a bit tense I admit. Especially Annas and mine since we weren´t totally sure if the dresses were going to stay up or not.

And then we have Linda. Who no matter how busy we are always have the time to strike a pose.

Games we play

Only two more performances and our Sweden tour is over. Tonight we are in Vaggeryd, tomorrow in Falköping and on Sunday we are flying home. I will miss all the fun we have had but I wont miss the unpacking and repacking of the suitcase over and over again..

Last night was a night off and the whole crew went bowling. We divided into two teams - Technicians and Artists. We have done two game nights already, Mega Zone, which the Artists won and Combined sports with mini-golf, thai chi, shooting sports and intelligence test, which the Artist won as well.  Yesterday it was time for the Technicians to finally win. And oh that joy.

Ubbe, Henrik and Baba. On their way to victory.

You can´t always win.

We do have the best technician crew ever, they make life so easy for us. The only thing we have to do is show up for soundcheck and then be good on stage for 120 minutes. We do try to help them sometimes but I have a feeling they just think we slow things down.

Jonte is helping Tobias.

On our way to work.

Heading South

Yesterday we finished our week up in north by doing a concert in Östersund which is situated in the mid of Sweden. We had some fantastic days up in Luleå and Boden, not only was the audience wonderful but also the scenery was incredible. Here some pictures from Storforsen, Big Rapids, in Älvsbyn.

Yes, sometimes we look like dorks.

This place was really energizing!

We had the weekend off and Kasper, Jonte and Anna went to visit some friends and do some fishing. According to them the size of the fish they caught could feed the whole swedish population for a decade.

Me again I flew home to see my family and on Sunday I flew back via Stockholm, Arlanda to Östersund, in good time before the concert. The trip didn´t go as smoothly as I was hoping for - of course the flight from Helsinki was late and when we landed in Stockholm I had exactly 12 minutes time to make it from terminal 5 to terminal 4. There was nothing else to do than to use the advice I got when I as a teenager was training for the 800 meters. Picture me running, like a nordic elk with its butt on fire, while pulling down the quite short skirt I was wearing and holding on to my hand luggage. Then through the security control where you nowadays have to strip down to almost nothing and pull out everything you have in your bag and still the alarm is beeping and you have to go back and take off your shoes (at that point I might have said a bad word to the security woman and for that I am sorry). But yes, I made it and the whole crew of the aircraft was cheering for me.

Today we drove 550 km to Västerås where we will be doing a show tomorrow.

Going north

On our way up to Umeå we enjoyed some spectacular views. Naturally we had to stop for a picnic and our daily yoga routine.

Greeting the Sun.

And this would be Down Dog. Very flexible people.

We really didn´t know what to expect of the Umeå audience or would there be any audience at all but after our two performances I feel like we made a lot of new friends. It is always a bit scary to perform in a city you never done before and especially in the beginning of the show you can see people think What am I watching, Who are these people and Where is the a cappella?

We all have our own routines before the show on how to concentrate and focus on the coming performance. I am not totally convinced of Jonte´s and Kasper´s ways.

An average day at work.

Usually we do our own makeup and hair but sometimes it is easier to get by with a little help from your friends.

Gregory reveals some hidden skills of him.

Tomorrow we have a day off, the only thing we have to do is to drive to Luleå because on Thursday we have a performance in Boden.

Thank you Umeå!

First stop

Yesterday was our grand opening for the Pink Noise by Fork tour in Sweden and our journey began in Gävle. Our 18 meter long truck with Tobias, Baba and Henrik already arrived on Thursday and we flew in on Friday. It was quite impressive to watch the guys unload the truck, everything was on wheels and the roading went so smoothly that by the time I got up on stage to give a helping hand it was already done.

This is where we keep our costumes when touring. On the note it says Forks clothes service done. Please take them away. The greeting is from the wonderful people at Svenska Teaterns costume department who agreed on washing and serving our clothes after we had used them for 30 days in Edinburgh. They were not the freshest clothes in town...

First day on tour and they still smell so good.

Soundcheck at Gävle teater. Very relaxed feeling.

Behind the light, sound and video desk the feeling wasn´t as relaxed. I have no idea what the problem was, they usually don´t tell us, but by the time the show started everything worked just fine.
We had a great crowd in Gävle, I am sure a big part of the audience had no idea what they were about to experience but in the end of the evening the house was full of happy people.

Happy people.

Soon we are on our way to Umeå. Tobias and Baba with the truck, Henrik, Gregory and Ubbe in one car and Anna, Kasper, Jonte and me in the other car. I am guessing the level of the jokes will be really high...

                              

                                                                Gävle.

Back in Business!

Vacation is over and on Tuesday we flew to Stockholm, Sweden to do a corporate gig. Since we hadn´t seen each other for such a long time we were all very happy to meet again. The jokes seemed so fresh and new even if they were not.

Kasper and Anna look happy but as you can see Jonte is a bit sad. It´s just because he wasn´t professional enough to catch a cold while being on vacation like the rest of the group did. He got the worst cough ever a few days ago but amazingly enough there was no coughing during the performance. Now that´s Professional.

And this is supposed to help?

It seems like we really have good luck with our backstage rooms wherever we go nowadays. This time we got to enjoy this spectacular view:

On wednesday morning a taxi picked us up at 3.30 a.m (seriously, 3.30?!) to take us to TV 4 where we performed two songs and gave an interview on the Morning show. I cannot imagine what it would be like getting up that early every morning. How do you manage? Because this is what we looked like:

No brain function whatsoever. Nothing. This is backstage at TV 4, if you look really closely at the numbers in the picture you see that it says 03.59.06. Not a good time to sing a cappella. Except of course if you are at a night club and you are hitting the last high notes in the last song of the evening.

But the crew at TV 4 is so nice and they have really good coffee and excellent breakfast so it was definitely worth a visit.
On Friday we fly back to Sweden to start our Pink Noise by Fork tour with Riksteatern. We are doing 8 cities in two weeks and I will keep you updated on what´s going on. So far it seems like we don´t have to change our clothes while singing. But who knows, things might be different on Friday.

Traveling light

Even if we are an a cappella band doesn´t mean we travel light. This is Gregs 108 kg beautybox which he needs with him on every gig. The expression of the person behind the check-in counter is usually not the happiest one when we are the next in line.

This is last Saturday at Arlanda airport, Sweden, on our way to do a concert in Dalhalla.

The concert in Dalhalla took place in a huge mine and was quite an experience. The concert was a mix of the Dala symphony orchestra, opera singer Loa Falkman, actress and singer Åsa Fång and us. It was, to say the least, a grand mixture of music genres but it seemed to work really well and the audience was very happy!

Dalhalla concert place. As you can see there is water in front of the stage and we really had to do some serious impulse stopping not to stage dive. Greg is sitting in the small booth in the middle of the audience. He usually has the best seat in the house.

The stage, the guys, and the orchestra in the back doing their soundcheck.

Our two concerts in Sellosali, Espoo last week were so much fun and we fully enjoyed not having a time limit to have to keep. I have a feeling we were talking more than singing... sorry for that. The concerts were sold out and the crowd was great! It felt good to be home.

The audience and us in Sellosali 31.8.

Now we are having some time off, two weeks to be exact, before we start touring Sweden. Personally I will be focusing on picking mushrooms, washing windows and family dinners. And the task that was given to each and everyone: coming up with ideas for a new repertoire.

Last picture from Edinburgh. Traveling light.