Last bit of this tour: exploring Sweden, Tyrolen and Möllan

09/06

We're lucky again with the weather and as the drive is not really a very long one today we decide to stop here and there for a coffee. Conveniently the Swedish make it easy for foreigners to catch some nice sights without even having to leave the motorway. So we stop at Brahehus grab a cuppa and have a look at lake Vättern from top of the old castle there. Quite a view.Didn't buy polkagris though.

Tourist attractions on the way. Brahehus.

Fortunately we can leave the motorway after Jönköping just before the boring bit towards the south.

Close to Växjö.

Turning east onto smaller roads Smaland appears to be a beautiful sunny place. Lovely.

Even closer to Växjö.

And then it's Växjö. Kafe de Luxe. Sure one of the warmest receptions I had on this tour when arriving at a venue. Maybe it felt like that as it is the first time ever I'm playing a gig in Sweden. First thing they tell us: "Please feel like home here! Want a coffee? Piece of cake? Let us know when you want to have dinner!" What's wrong in here?

The day seems to be exceptionally sunny for this part of Sweden as they say and decisions are made to put up a stage out on the terrace. A small vocal pa is put up with speakers with embroidered (!) covers. Lovely.

Watching over Mäkkelä & van Velzen in Växjö.

As  this was in the first place booked as a Mäkkelä's Trash Lounge gig I'm playing the first set solo. For the second one later on Robin joins in and we're doing a Church Of The Blue Nun set. Turns out that half of the audience are the local musicians which can be a pain at times. Not in Växjö. In fact we're having a fantastic time with particularly Pelle, Mikael and Bobo. The latter entering stage after our last song - Roy Harper's "Another Day" - and plays an amazing dobro/slide version of "Hat's Off To Roy Harper". Brillant. Thanks guys for coming down that Sunday!

10/06

A short drive to Malmö today so we've got time for a little stroll around town. I remember a small recordshop I've discovered the day we arrived and by chance we meet Ulf, the owner, while having breakfast at the de Luxe. We walk those few meters down to his store and the place turns out to be what can be described as a memorial site of Scandinavian underground music. Apart from a huge vinyl selection Ulf shows us around the basement where the shop is located. He used to run a venue in the place and all the great Scandinavian bands played here over the early 90s. And I mean all of them. The Nomads, 22-Pistepirkko, Bob Hund...well you name it! This all in a basement venue, capacity of about 50, middle of picturesque Smaland, Sweden. How weird is this? Looking at the place one can almost feel the spirit of northern Rock'n'Roll... Besides he used to run a studio down here which is still set up but apparently not in use anymore as I understood this. Shame. A fantastic, full analogue, recording unit. If I get a chance to come here again I've got to convince him to do some recordings here. I bloody have to!
As a little souvenir I purchase a limited Bob Hund LP "Live In Ystad". Would have picked up an Ebba Grön too but there were none. Next time I'll be lucky. Before leaving we run into Nils the promoter who tells us he's putting up a psychedelic/prog rock festival ("Psykjunta") nearby the coming weekend. We decide to have a look at the festival site which he recommends as an interesting place worth seeing.
This place dear reader, named Tyrolen, is definitely one of the whackiest things the writer of these lines has seen in a while. An old countryside dance hall they put up I assume in the 60s.

Gateway to fairy land

Some theme park for lunatics. At least that's how it looks like. Trying to imagine hundreds of Swedish psychedelic music afficionados gathering here makes the whole thing even more bizarre. But have a look yourselves...

You might guess the purpose of this stage

Surrealistic icons of pop history

Ceiling fresco at Tyrolen...

Favourite Tyrolian pastime

Arriving in Malmö late afternoon. And no - I haven't got the faintest clue what to expect. The gig place is a bar named Cafe Simpan with an improvised vocal pa (which sounds surprisingly good) and we're curious about Rebecka, who got us this gig on pretty short notice. A friend of a friend who used to live here. She's a jazz singer (have to recommend her album here!) and turns out to be a wonderful person. She puts us up in her flat, there is even presents for Robin and me, and she shows us around the quarter named Möllan. To cut a long story short: this is just lovely. To say the least. Try to imagine a buzzing Berlin Kreutzberg or Neukölln plus a dash of Barcelona all condensed on a square mile with people being just unbelievably relaxed. A mixed, peaceful neighbourhood of immigrants and Swedes. Robin and me enjoying ourselves loitering about

11/06

Before leaving for Denmark for a last wind down gig at a party of my old friend Tina in Padborg, Rebecka takes us down to the Folkets Park and the west harbour for a coffee and we're having a look at Sweden's highest building.

Rebecka and Robin. Sunbathing.

We've been told about this by a very drunk, very excited young man on the ferry from Finland. I'm not sure if I fully agree to his words this being a very beautiful building. Well, it's revolving. That's something.

Very beautiful Swedish building. Revolving.

in a mild summer night this early June.  Not too many people turn up this Monday evening but the gig is a good one and a perfect official ending to this tour. Worth mentioning here is I have to say I'm kinda tempted to say I really love this country and it's people. Comes as a surprise as previous experiences had to do mostly with not very friendly Swedish customs and border police officers.

I think that's it. Thanks to all of you who put us up, fed us, bought drinks for us or been friendly in whatever way. Hope we'll meet again next year. The next longer tour stint will take me in opposite direction towards Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland and Spain in autumn...

Recording in the woods, The Church Of The Blue Nun in HKI and a first glance of Sweden

Marko Haavisto & Johan Forslund after our recordings

01/06

Tiring trip back to Helsinki where my car is parked. Decision is drawn to no more tour with VR (Finnish Railways). From today on there are no smokers rooms on their trains. New policy. Rubbish policy. You guys lost a customer. Ok, I know that's why you did it.

03/06
Picking up Johan Forslund in Helsinki who will be the soundguy for the recordings at our Mökki I've been planning for a long time now. Setting up our gear early afternoon. I'm amazed about the sound and as Marko Haavisto arrives we succeed in recording an intense version of "Reason", here in the backwoods of southern Finland.  I was trying to keep my expectations low on this session. There was merely two options - either it's going to work very well or it's not going to work at all. Apparently we did something right this first Monday of June 2013.


05/06

Weather is even hotter today - 30°C out on the cottage porch just before noon - and I'm driving down to Helsinki again. This time picking up my Church Of The Blue Nun compadre Robin van Velzen at Vantaa airport for what is going to be the first and only Church Of The Blue Nun appearance in Finland this year. Another interesting debut as we never rehearsed with cello player Ulla-Riikka Kuisma in full band line up. Turns out there is no reason to be concerned. She plays an amazing gig at Liberte in Kallio. In fact the whole thing went down in a most pleasant way.
Sami Kukka (heard him first time - a fucking great singer/songwriter) opens the evening. We're on second with a set that turns right away in some weird thing with a life of it's own. The three of us being just players in a game controlled by an invisible hand, directing us like puppets in an irresistible groove of it's own. A big hand once more to Ulla-Riikka who's cello playing was simply stunning.
Mikael H. & The Siberians are on last and finally get the crowd dancing. Good gig of their's as well, in fact more powerful than last time I saw them when we played Semifinal toghether years ago. A perfect evening to end a Finnish tour and a good beginning for the shows Robin and me are about to play the next days.

We've got two more days to spend at the cottage, taping new ideas, sitting in the sun, doing a short visit to Lahti to get Robin at least some little sight seeing. Just the evening before leaving, Finland finally get's it's share of rain. A lot of rain. While sitting on the porch watching thunderstorms and an impressive lot of water pouring down, an old elk hound, scared of the thunder joins our little round and is apparently not willing to leave anywhere. In a way this accomplishes the scenery - three tired old dogs on a porch staring into the pouring summer rain.

08/06

Boat from Turku to Stockholm. We off for the land of Epa-Traktor and Nödraket. Staying the night in Nykobing and learn a lot. Saturday night apparently every adult male in this Swedish town get's a US vintage car out and cruises the blocks of this small town in Sweden. Don't know if you get this in it's entirety: I mean every third vehicle is NO 50s or 60s cruiser. Part of this obviously much favoured ritual is, there is one guy driving, the rest of the passengers do their best to get seriously plastered. Successfully I assume recalling our observations.

Nightingales & Pontikka & Nubians

26/05

Arriving in Rovaniemi 10.00 am. Blue sky, sunshine, get picked up by Mäxi the Nightingales' drummer and his girlfriend Kirsi. This town always feels a bit like coming home. Afternoon rehearsals with Jorma (the Nightingales piano player) and Mäxi. Later on a pleasant little gig at Paha Kurki bar on Koskikatu makes this an enjoyable tour day. Otto Mikkola of Oskari Heikkinen & Arktinen Voodoo is there and passes me their new album. Great stuff as I expected after having them supporting me last year at the Grande just around the corner from here.



27/05

Mäxi preparing for the recordings

Recording sessions done and went down really well. Instrumental tracks of two songs fixed and thus half of the upcoming 7" ep. A pleasure working with the guys and sound engineer Tuomas.

28/05

Last day in Lapland. Did some cooking for Kirsi, here lovely daughter Sanni and Mäxi. That was most welcome fun. Love cooking. Should do this regularly on tour. Or at least any time there are decent facitilities. Gone for some tapa variation. Albondigas, chicken in white wine garlic sauce and a white beans and  serrano salad. A sunny summer day rounded up in the evening meeting all the boys from back in the days. Greenhouse AC, Nightingales and even Tuomas of Saariston Lapset. Good to see they're all doing fine. Got the second big compliment on this tour from Sanni and had some top notch Pontikka on top.

29/05

Timely at Vastavirta, Tampere. Yläkerta, their upstairs cafe, is just like made for my accoustic solo gigs. Amazing place. Attentive audience. After soundcheck the venue people send me to sauna. Just a few minutes' walk down Pispalan Valtatie one can find one of Finland's oldest still running public saunas. A very special place and just the right thing to have after 9 hours on a train and a possibly bit too crazy night at the Arctic Circle. Janne Laurila whom I haven't seen in years turns up for my show, invites me to stay at his place and hands me the latest album of his new band Janne Laurila & Tuhlaajapojat. Another familiar face is Jukka another member of Saariston Lapset. Last met 15 years ago. I still wonder if there is anybody apart from some really weird electronic music nerds who knows this band and how someone could have been so mad to put out their record then. Another miracle about this whacky art-meets-electronic-dada-pop project is that they've done a full tour of Germany after the album release. Gig was lovely. Really lovely.

30/05

Endless waiting for soundcheck at Henry's Pub in Helsinki but once we're there it feels most comfortable on stage. Playing a good 50 min set and leave stage soaking wet. My suit I must admit get's after this 7th gig pretty close to a state that can only be described as disgusting. Anyway a good one. The gig i mean. Great to see the Blue In The Face guys and Johan in the audience. Vallu who is hosting these "Helatorstai" clubs is like always brillantly compèring the evening. This hot summer evening's second band is Kap Kap from apparently Helsinki who are playing an eclectic blend of psychedelic indie rock, Bowie and Shellac. Good band. Later on we find out their guitarist and me met before. Some years ago after playing a Midnight Sun Filmfestival sideshow with Desert Planet we apparently had a chat on the river bank in Sodankylä at the traditional end of festival hang out.
Interesting news: Kimmo of Blue In The Face tells me they're going to play some German shows with Fucking World. The latter a punkrock legend from Finland with my old tour acquaintance Näkä Närhi on guitar.

31/05

Last day of May 2013 I find myself with two instrument cases and two way too heavy bags on the train to Kuopio. Last solo gig on this tour supporting Faarao Pirttikangas & Kuhmalahden Nubialaiset at Henry's Pub in Kuopio. Get there way too early and too knackered to have a look around town. Particularly because of all the rubbish I'm dragging across Finland.

Not light enough to travel. Not really.

Instead decide to smoke all of my accidentally bought menthol cigarettes and update my tourblog. Failed with the latter.      
The gig turns out to be the most satisfying one on this tour. A good crowd has turned up to see their hometeam Faarao Pirttikangas playing and is surprisingly really listening to what I'm doing. In fact they seem to be really into it. None is leaving, nobody chatting. Sound is fantastic and the playing goes down perfectly well this time. Hot again. Again wet suit. Respectful words and backslapping from the Faarao Pirttikangas guys makes this a perfect last one. Encouraging after a little down this afternoon. The odd tour crisis caught up with me on the way here.

Right after gig. Good there are are no odo-rama pics.

A word about Faarao Pirttikangas. It's a long time since I last heard some band like this perform. I don't think I'm exaggerating saying this is the most inspiring and definitely outstanding band from Finland. Absolutely unique in their way. Fingers crossed the wave of success they're currently riding carries on.

Faarao Pirttikangas right before gig

It's a long one this Friday night in Kuopio. Long talks with the Faarao guys (namely their bassist, their singer Pekka and their trombone player Pertti), run into Tomi Kosonen and Paul Staufenbiel of Aavikko and end the evening in the wee hours on Pekka's balcony, smoking a last ziggy and sipping red wine from coffee mugs round six in the morning. No less than a magic evening here in eastern Finland.
Footnote: before leaving I manage to get me a Kalakukko (no link here - ask Wikipedia or something) on the market square. The real thing.