A very confusing roundabout

That's what this tour sometimes feels like - a very confusing roundabout. On Saturday morning we left Eastleigh and drove towards Selsey and Bunn leisure Park. 

Little did we know that the cold car was the warmest place we would find in the upcoming 24 hours. Bunn leisure Park is a place with 2000 caravans and a huge entertainment complex and no heating system what so ever. (maybe they have one but they just don't use it)

And little did it help us when the staff told us that last year at this time people were sunbathing. Well, not this year. 

We had decided already in Finland that we would go a bit wild and crazy and sleep in a caravan this one night. 

Why, I ask myself? 

Sometimes the glamour and the bling bling feels very distant from an a cappella singers life. 

Welcome home girls! 

In the girls caravan the temperature was above freezing point. In the boys caravan it wasn't. 

The backstage room was the only warm place in the whole area.  And the spirit was high.

And Linda was crying and Anna was trying to choke her gently.

The gig went fine once we were able to open our frozen jaws and the crowd at Selsey seemed happy and made sure we felt warm. 

The next day we left the wonderful Selsey very early in the morning and headed towards St Albans were we had a gig in the evening. We have almost nothing to complain about St Albans, the hotel rooms were warm, the audience was great, but the breakfast out on the terrace was a bit too much.

So we went to eat at the best breakfast place in town.

There are clearly a few things that makes us sad and a few things that makes us happy. In that way we are very simple people. Good food makes us happy.

Look at that happy face. Who would't want to have hot chocolate with marshmallows for breakfast?!

Today we arrived to Wavendon, Milton Keynes. Looking forward to the gig tonight! At least the hotel rooms are warm.

He is so ready for Wavendon! The question is: is Wavendon ready for him?

The UK tour!

Here we are in the English countryside on our first UK tour. This morning we woke up in Eastleigh at the Ellington lodge hotel where we also had a gig last night.

The hotel has a bar where non members like us are welcome.

We landed in Birmingham on Thursday morning. Hasse and Greg had arrived a day earlier with our technical equipments and a van and they were kind enough to pick us up at the airport. The left hand side driving doesn't seem to be a problem for Hasse, that is why he will be driving for the whole tour!

While Greg and Hasse were roading and building the rest of us focused on the more important things. Like food.

In Birmingham we performed at the JamHouse. The place was packed with students who in the beginning of the show wasn't quite sure of how to behave in front of four Finns dressed in white and singing Final countdown, was this for real?

Yes it was for real and when we came to our last song which of course was Bohemian Rhapsody we actually didn't need to sing at all.  The crowd was singing for us. Wonderful!

The next day while Hasse and Greg were roading and building we were focusing on the more important things. The local cheesecake.
Jonte: why are you doing this to me?! Why?!
Kasper: I am so happy I didn't have any cake, not jealous at all, just happy!

After the cheesecake we had to do a very soft version of a soundcheck.

The gig in Eastleigh was lots of fun. We told the crowd that before the night was over they would all be dancing. And so they did!

After the gigs we like to hang around as a group and just share our thought and feelings of the evening.

Enjoying each others company.

Also Hasse, our light guy, is enjoying our company.

Today we are heading towards Bunn Leisure Park in Selsey!

The Year of the Snake

It is already February and the Year of the Snake has just begun. You might think we´ve been on vacation for this long (except if you´ve been following us on facebook, then you know we´ve actually been working a bit already). Anyway, here is a small update on what´s been going on so far.

Our first gig this year was on the new ship Viking Grace. You can see the design lamp in the back. Oh yes, and the champagne of course.

A new year means new arrangements. Oh the joy in this group when we actually have to work. Fun fun fun.

After work party. Jonte is doing his victory dance.

Then we went to Freiburg, supposed to be the sunniest city in Germany. It rained for two days and then it started snowing. The bad weather doesn´t do any good to the group spirit. Here Kasper is left outside. Probably for a good reason. Or then not.

In this picture Greg is running.

The after party in Freiburg wasn´t as wild as the one on the ship.

Here we are back at Casino Helsinki where we will be spending many evenings this spring doing our show Spin the wheel. In this picture we weren´t still sure of what we were going to do and Greg got so frustrated that he suggested a different sound system for us. Just to bring something new into the show.

Kasper had been using his skills in counting Pi and the result was a very round and nice circle.

Look at that proud face!
Since we are spinning the wheel many times during the night it means that each night is different. It is all up to Lady Luck what songs we are singing. One night Jonte had 6 solos and I had 1. Clearly my career  can not be left to Lady luck alone.

Linda working.

 Queen Linda. Anna wears that crown on stage. Linda wears it off stage.

Yeah so basically nothing new with us. We are older and wiser and ready for the year of 2013!

Thank you!

Last night we had our last show of the year 2012. It has been quite a turbulent year with over 100 gigs and lots of travelling. Like the rest of Europe we´ve been struggling with the economics but we made it so far and for the moment things look pretty good.

There has been so many good moments both on and off stage. Like the late nights in Edinburgh, first sweating like small animals on stage in front of a dancing audience and then later on having a glass of wine in our flat and making decisions about Forks future.

Or in KL, Malaysia, where we were driven around in a very very small car where the bottom hit the ground every time there was a bump in the road. And all the wonderful people we met there and of course the mornings by the pool where more decisions about our future were made.

Or The US with the wildest audience who made us forget all about jet lag and just wanted us to rock.

And the new warm audience we have met in Germany and Austria, we will be back in 2013, that is a promise! And my German will be better by then, that is almost a promise.

And then, maybe as some kind of a highlight of the year, the sold out performances of ElectroVocal Circus at Aleksanterinteatteri in Helsinki and the wonderful audience who night after night stood up and danced.

We are so grateful to each and everyone who has been working and helping us along the year and we are looking forward to a continuing cooperation in the year of 2013.

And we are thankful for each and everyone who came and saw our show because without you this really wouldn´t make much sense!

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
See you in January.

Normal stuff

Since it is still snowing here in wonderful Helsinki we decided to do some indoor practice for next years golf season.

I dont know what Jonte is doing. Trying to be a mechanic? Or got hit by the car?

In Vienna the rest of the group tried to get rid of me by employing Mr Mozart instead. Much to their surprise he didn´t want to be in this band. So I am still here.

Here we are drinking a peace gluhwein. Look at their guilty faces.

While the rest of us were enjoying the wonderful city and the Christmas market Greg tried to go solo.

But it isn´t that easy to leave us. So we did the show in the normal way, us on the stage and Greg behind the desk.

Then we flew home with Finnair and two happy sheep.
Thank you Vienna!!

Next week we are back at Aleksanterinteatteri in Helsinki. Looking forward!

EVC all over the place

We are already in our second week of doing ElectroVocal Circus, I guess once again time flies when you are having fun. I really have no idea how we made it to the opening, maybe we were just high on jet lag or something but suddenly it was the D-day and we could only hope that everything was going to work as planned.
When we, we as in the singers, came to the theatre a day before the opening the technical crew had already been working there for 24 hours. It was an incredible feeling to realize that all of us were aiming for the same goal, to make this show as good as possible. I think we have the best technical crew in the world!

Is there anybody out there?

Could someone please tell us where to go and on what mark. 

Outi who designed and made our clothes was not happy with my pants during the run through. She is a perfectionist which is a very good thing except on the opening night. The show started at 7 p.m and when the clothes weren´t yet at the theatre at 6.20 I called Outi to ask if everything was okay and was she maybe on her way soon? Yes, I am in the taxi she said calmly. Just around the corner. There any minute now. Which was a slight lie because at that point she was on the other side of the town waiting for the taxi that never showed up and then running out on the street with all our feathers desperately looking for anything that could take her to the theatre. She made it and we were all dressed and ready to rock at 7 p.m. With a bit higher pulse than usually.

Women at work.

After each performance we talk about how the show went and what we can do to make it better. Things like are we standing in the right places for the light, how did everybody´s speaks between the songs go, are we singing too loud or too quiet (too quiet is not something that would happen too often in this group...) and so on. But we have an one-hour rule. You are not allowed to give any negative feedback during the first hour after the show. Only positive things can be said out loud. It is not like we are very good on hiding our face expressions though...

Face expression. Pain. 

Jonte in action.

I am clearly looking for something.

Is it up there?

Or down there?

Love lifts us up where we belong.

As you can see on Kasper love really lifts us up.

And the audience? What can I say, I guess you have to be there to feel it. Helsinki is Helsinki. It is good to be home!

@SoJam

Imagination is more important than knowledge said Einstein and we like to think that is true. At least in this group.

After some hasty and nasty packing in KL we made it to the airport on time and got all our very colourful bags checked in. The goodbyes were tearful but the hope for a return to Malaysia kept us going. Maybe next year again!

Passport - check.

The flight to Raleigh via Tokio and Dallas went fine except that the sleeping schedule Linda had made  wasn´t really working as we hoped. The timezone changes and the 48 hour without sleep didn´t exactly made us into the sharpest tools in the box.

The SoJam people thought it was a good idea to have us do an interview early next morning. We probably didn´t answer a single question without offending someone unintentionally. But Mark and Dwayne (who by the way had the pleasure of driving us around and only tried to kill me once, unintentionally he claims) still seemed happy with us. Or maybe they smile out of horror.

At the cheesecake factory in the Crab tree mall where a small salad is the size of Helsinki. Here we did some shopping, shoes and other necessities.

I don´t know how it happened but all of a sudden we were in a picture with the fire department of the City of Raleigh. Who was on fire and why? Or why not?

Then it was workshop time. Anna and me in I am woman - class. Yes I am. The topics we discussed were:
belting - we were like uhh well we just sing and if you need to sing higher you just sing a bit higher.
how to tour with men - we were like uh, well it´s nice.
how you take care of your voice - we were like uh, well, never thought of that before. Should we?
clothes on stage - uh, well, you need to know how to wear them.

Soundchecking. Anna, Kasper and Richard Gardner.

Minutes before entering the stage. Anna is still working on her Gangnam style.
We had so much fun during the concert, the audience was wild and crazy and the energy level was extremely high!  Thank you SoJam!

The day after. Bill Hare is taking the Finns out for a beer. Then back to the hotel, once again packing our bags and off to Helsinki.
We have had a very good four weeks on the road, met so many nice people, had such warm audiences and had quite a few good laughs. Now, once the jet lag is tackled, the preparations for our upcoming premiere on ElectroVocal Circus begins.

It´s good to be home.

In many ways but one...