This was salvaged from the old sonataarctica.com website for everyone to see. Whoever wrote this wrote it well, I don't know who. Translated from Finnish by me.
Dear diary.
Trip to Germany went alright. Nothing special other than small excess weight of luggage. We spent night at a hotel in Dortmund. Most people went to bed early. Moto Iittala and few others did not... 😎. On this morning or midday we travelled to the actual venue of today in Bochum. After that the same old waiting, meeting other bands and rushing into the bus to reserve your bunks etc. and in the evening the first gig of the tour. Tony was bit worried about his voice, him having had flu on and off for a month and antibiotics...but everything went surprisingly well despite the fact we didn't have time to do an actual soundcheck. The audience in Bochum was good today like it has always been. Here we go! Good night. See you tomorrow!
Dear diary
Osnabrück today. Different place than last year but with the same atmosphere: its in the middle of nowhere. The weather is cloudy like it was yesterday. Although it isn't raining...at least not yet. In fact you can see sun through the clouds!
EVENING: Yeah, sun really started to shine, also on stage! Everything worked out well, Tonys voice has come back (medicine kicks ass!). The only setback was that Jani broke a string, but that was fixed fast.... The audience was reeaally good! Lichtenfels tomorrow, it is in Germany...somewhere. We left our map home. Good night world, good night world. Kind regards!
Dear diary,
venue of today seems to be a sports hall. In 1988 Russian National Balette was here! This information didn't strike any chord on us for some reason. Sun is shining outside and Helloween's bass player Markus Grosskopf (who fills in Gamma Ray bassist with water in knee) had a laudry day and was drying his clothes in sun, which probably interests you very much. Because yesterdays gig went well people are still in good feelings.
EVENING: And good feelings after this gig too, even though the venue turned out having a bit too much echo. The band starts to clearly improve. The audience wasn't the best today. At least compared to few previous places. But who nows what the future will bring? Germans seem to like "The End of This Chapter" very much.
Dear diary,
the day started nicely with an "interview" for Radiomafia chart program at 10:45 local time. "Last Drop Falls" single went straight to 3rd place. Again. Is this a curse? (Wolf & Raven-single, Silence-album and now this, all of them straight to third!) Not that we can really complain about that! It was a positive surprise! BIG thanks for the ones who bought the single! Later when everyone had woken up, we went to check out a beach by foot. We were looking for the famous Cologne Cathetral. We found it! Its nice! And we took a subway back to venue. The dinner was spicy!!! 😲
EVENING: There were techical problems. First the intro music was too loud and had too much bass which shaked the whole building, stage and Jani's guitar amp, so that the wireless etc. equpment on top of it dropped to the floor and guitar went silent. It proved Jani can run too! And them show could start normally. Well, the monitoring had changed when Vanishing Point was playing and i.a. vocal mike started to feed back. That was fixed. And THEN the minidisc player started to cut in and out during "False News" and Tommy had to stop the whole device. All this put a damper on the day. The audience was aaaalright in the end. Tomorrow a "day off": just one TV-interview. To Hamburg!!
Just hanging around the town. One radio interview in the evening. Resting.
Oh diary,
What a rude awakening. We a stayed awake bit too late. After a day off you need a day off... A band from the same country as our Australian friends (...you can't write it more complex that that!) which is like 10 tenors or something, were rocking out, to put it this way. If Sonata makes a DVD someday, yesterday we got all the messing around stuff for it! Have you seen when a bicycle is taped to a door? There was a sauna at the hotel. Or "sauna": the local way of having a sauna is bit different that in Finland. Well it was better than nothing. A new experience.
EVENING: We had a gig. Really. The venue though wasn't so nice. The air was bad with too much smoke. Feels bad. The audience was so so. Homecourt of the Gamma Ray guys. Kai apparently had some problems. Rumour is that tomorrows gig would be cancelled, but we hope not. Day offs kill... In the middle of the night decided to got to some drive-in McDonalds, without a car...whole gang of twenty guys. It made all the people queueing there in cars mad. But we had fun! Eine mäc la bogie, bitte! Jim Beam, Sprite & sleep. See you tomorrow.
Day-off. We arrived to the hotel not until long after noon. Traffic jams... Some of the folk went to see the town, stayed to eat at the hotel...errr...club sandwiches or something. Weird lunch. This place is many kilometers from the center, but quite close to a airport. We could see places landing though a window every minute or so. Seeing a Finnair plane made us feel nationalistic! A boring day overall. Luckily tomorrow we have a gig. 😀 Rock!
Dear diary,
lunch at the hotel caused stomachaches, at least for us foreigners (SA & VP). The venue was only 20 kilometres away from the hotel. I's like community center with swimming pools and everything. We took a hike to the beach, but we found only two kiosks. Later Moto went there with bicycle we got (yes, the one taped to a door!) and found something. Make bought a football, so we could start making stress tests for stuff (buses, cars, windows...). Luckily we didn't broke anything...yet... still a long tour ahead with many chances to play.
EVENING: Quite large stage here! Unfortunately due to fire safety regulations or something monitors had to be set up quite far from edge of the stage. At leat there was space to jump! Tonys microphone was off at the beginning of the show (goddamn Danny-technician! 😃) which was more funny than annoying. No problems other than that. Nice gig, good audience, large stage.
Dear diary,
sun is beating down upon here! Le's roam around. There is a beer festival here! We didn't fancy for a drink so we rather did watch all kinds of music shows etc. on streets during the festival. Blody beautiful refion. Hills, forests, old houses, not too many people... Tony bought himself small keyboard from local music shop. Most popular piece of equipment on the bus, and most hated during the night. 😀
EVENING: Quite nice venue this old brewery. Showers are built in old freezer room (not quite typical household freezer!) and the place is cozy somehow. All bands had their own dressing room! The gig was alright. No serious problems except one annoying thing: smoke gathered to the front of the stage and there was a lot of it. Otherwise it was fun. Capacity here is 1400, but the place is nowhere near full, which was partly caused by poor marketing...and also due to current Octoberfest.
Dear diary,
since we were here last year we remembered this place being from center, so we stayed near the venue. Fast food restaurant was luckily near. 😀 Today is an exceptional day. The gig is a mini festival hosted by "Heavy Oder Was?" -magazine and along with us there are other bands: Freedom Call and Primal Fear. Soundchecks were festival level minus two, aka there was no soundcheck...
EVENING: Every band had to cut five minutes from their set list. It meant one song from us. Everything was crap on stage. You couldn't hear anything, extremely hot, no air conditioning...Yet the audience was one of the best of Germany, if not the best. Markus Grosskopf's final gig. Too bad, what a nice bloke he is. Not that the actual GR man isn't too bad. The dudes from Freedom Call are nice too. Tomorrow we'll got to Prague, Check Republic for a day off. Torture museum calls! Aaaaaaarrrgh!
Dear diary,
Just hanging around on the beach. Historical and fine town. A pint of good beer costs approximately 4 marks, which is nice. 😀 Food is shamelessly cheap too! And good!
Dear diary,
Showday. What a rocky start. Hotel is on a hill and and our bus is going on a steep downhill, behind Gamma Ray bus. Juction is too much for a bus towing a trailer, 45-degree angle turn and trailer's driving shaft gets stuck hard to the asphalt. There you have it. Chech Republic hits... terrible traffic jam. Multiple trams, buses and every transport there is are waiting in queue and it's no can do. Bus is stuck in there. Police and fire department show up. What a show! We may be on tomorrows newspaper. Or not ... a vehicle gets stuck here 'bout every second day. Is there nothing you can do? Well.... Trailer is emptied and then we're trying to get the bus moving...ouch. It does move, but at the same time the whole tow bar is ripped off. Party!
EVENING: Yes we went to a beach again before the gig. This venue is near the center. Noxt time we hope we have time to sightsee local very impressive looking castle. The gig went well! What a fucking great audience, something we could except based on our last year's visit to Hungary. People really dig bands around here. 😀 Brno tomorrow...somewhere in Chech Republic.
Dear diary,
Brno. Some idiot forgot to tear down this place. Or either it must be still under construction. Next to the venue there is some kind of a power plant. Scary.
EVENING: Alright! The place is more than full, temperature is in sauna levels, humidity is unbeliavable!! Very good audience! Kick ass gig and we all had fun despite the heat. A bit of problems with the P.A at the end of the set, but it didn't matter. Goodbye Chech Republic! We will miss your cheap beer. Austria calls!
Dear diary,
we went to see the city. There it still was. Very familiar to use, since we spent three days here last year. Much to see for the first timers. Now not so much anymore. We haven't seen the local castle or something of a castle yet. Maybe next time.
EVENING: Spinal Tap! Not as much people here like in Czech, naturally, but enough for us. Mikko's synth dropped twice, but he just kept on playing. We're pro's and at least the audience got to see something different. Fucking great gig as a whole!
Dear diary,
how nice it is to wake up when the weather is perfect outside. Budapest seems to like us, because the weather was nice last year too. Some of the folk went to see the town, some rested in the bus. The audience should be great in the evening, judging from the last year.
EVENING: Oh yes! Awesome audience! The gig itself maybe wasn't as good as few previous ones, but the show was eventful with very good feelings! Small problems with monitors due to there being no soundcheck. First band of the evening was some local band, which played for a half an hour.
Dear diary,
day off. Perkele. We sat on a bus the whole fucking day until 7 P.M. The we found our way to the hotel. Too bad we couln't go to check out the beach. 😕 Plans change. Tomorrow a we'll play a gig somewhere in Cesena. That's good.
Dear diary,
we had to wakeup early to watch Formula One. Local commentators did their best ... but it didn't stop Schumacher from winning. The supposedly 15 minute trip took an hour. Ahoy. Isn't it too hot todayfor us pinguins in Italy, eh?
EVENING: what a downer this gig was. Very small stage, the heat, dust, smoke yms. A small place too. Quite unlike previous year gigs in Milano and Rome, no...
Dear diary,
welcome back Firenze! The venue is the same as last year. The amount of presales not quite the same...hehe. Nice weather, closed yard behind the venue, water available = laundry day! Yeah. Clean clother are good thing. Black shirts dry very fast. Present here is the legendary cook-lady. She smokes when preparing food, the cigarette is half burned with ash almost dropping into the ingredients...BUT food she makes kicks ass!! Very good and best food!! Must use toilet before the gig...heh.
EVENING: We changed the setlist a bit today. Italy needs action so Kingdom and Revontulet were playeed instead of Chapter. They just seem to work better here. Today's gig was much better and more fun than yesterdays. Venues is better. More space and more outgoing audience. Feeling happier.
Dear diary,
aaalright. We're in Turin, local Tornio. Why on earth each and every town name is translated in English like Firenze as Florence, Torino as Turin etc.? The same with Swedish, perkele. We proved scientifically the fact "when one is lost, one starts to turn counter clockwise" when we went to look out for nice shops around the venue. It ended up being looooong hike, especially for the person carrying 5 litre wine bottle! Haha! Ironically the best supermarket (supermercat(??)) was across the road of this "Supermarket". And you could have gotted the same wines from there... sometimes you have to do things in a hard way. We're not in our best mood for Today's gig.
EVENING: Five minutes before the gig tour manager Jörg came to fetch us from the bus across the audience to the stage. Perkele! There's only small backstage in this place and there is no other way in/out from there than through audience mob. Not like this. Well this was the final gig in Italy and the best one. Mikko though didn't like to play behind PA monitors hidden from audience. We understand. 😀 Next time Tony stands singing behind the monitors and Mikko plays in the middle of the stage. 😃 This gig raised points on Italy. The audience was good like always in Italy. Tomorrow we're having a "day off"... 1360 kilometre journey to Mardrid takes whole day. We'll hopefully arrive at the hotel before midnight. Viva Spain!!!
Dear diary,
we were in hotel already at 23:40! Hurray! Perkele...
capacity: 900
Dear diary,
Madrid again. Just seeing the venue made us feel good. There's nothing to complain about for a change. The place is in somekind of a shopping center, thus you don't have to go outside for a shopping. Nice cause it's raining.
EVENING: Amazing audience! We're in absolutely great mood! Once in a while the audience screams louder than the band. Changing "Weballergy" to "San Sebastian" seems to be a good idea, at least in Spain. This is so cool! Viva Spain!
capacity: 2000
Dear diary,
this tour has is bit funky logistics wise! First we go in the middle of España, then back to shores of Mediterrania, tomorrow north to see the Atlantic Ocean and then to the very west of Europe, Porto of Portugal ... yay. Yes and from there we must go to Bordeuxiin France to have an off-day. Traveling day I mean. But. The weather wan't the best, people spend their time between venue and the bus. We saw the local must see beach already last year. The venue is the same as last year too, but its name has changed. Last year it was still called Celesty or something.
EVENING: YEEEE! Best atmosphere so far on this tour! People are nuts. I don't have any words to say... we could well be headliners here!
Dear diary,
San Sebastian is a beautiful city. We were here last year too, but the weather sucked and it was dangerous too. It was a huge hailstorm, and the roof of this place partially collapsed and the gig got almost cancelled. But now the weather is better. It rained in the morning though, but dudes from local record company wanted to take us to eat and and see the city. Very nice harbour/beach area here!! A paradise.
EVENING: For some reason (hehe) there are few new aluminum panels in the roof. Backstage rooms are nice here. And the gig itself ... the audience cannot get better than this. This is a heaven for a rock musician. We played "San Sebastian" as the final song and it made the place go down (figuratively speaking 😎) Interviews etc after gig. Best gig so far! Rooock!
capacity: 1000
Dear diary,
rainy Porto ... is a desolate place unfortunately. We we're really hoping for good weather, so we could have walked few kilometres to see the Atlantic Ocean. The damned ocean is floating there so near, but no. Perkele. Boring.
EVENING: The gig started and ended. Not quite as good atmosphere as in San Sebastian, even though the end was brisky. Nose feels congested (everyone in Gamma Ray bus has flu. Opener bus is still ok..) way too much cigarette smoke or some other smoke. The venue itself is very beautiful with stone walls. I mean a real brick walls, not just a piece of concrete. PA is alright too. Shirts have been sold out ... 😀
Dear diary,
The people on the bus go up and down ... just kidding, we're having steady ride with Oliver as driver. Fuuuckiiiing booooriiiing.... We arrive at the hotel at least and we went to eat this weird looking "food" that was supposed to be a beef. Was frying it properly too much to ask for? In France very well done does not mean it. It's alive, ALIVE!!!! (shiver) EEK!
capacity: 876 (QUITE precise count!!)
Dear diary,
macmacmacmacmac ... we're hungry. Finding a local restaurant of the chain here is hard, but eventually hard work was paid off. This one is dead alright! 😀 We got impression this town is a maze. Lyon tomorrow and we're getting more shirts ...yes, like I said they have all been sold out. Sorry Bordeaux! I mean it.
EVENING: Feeling weird again before the gig. I hope I did not get flu from the other bus... Audience is really nuts! It's nice to play in France. We already got a clue when we played few gigs at a record store in the beginning of this summer. Success was surprisingly big them. France is a good country for us! The gig itself is filled with uncertainty. The venue does not fit for this kind of music acoustically, it's like an auditorium. Ahti said if we'd have more time and resources it could be possible to get good sound. Monitors don't work. But the gig itself was a plus! Millions of people in the audience! Sick slam pit...😀 Somhow both funny and unsettling, when people are crowd surfing and then crash to the ground, head first, when suddenly there's no people under them. People stop and look the guy for a worriedly, but seeing dude's alive, they just start again!
capacity: 550
Dear diary,
it's two months until Christmas. The place is fucking small. Probably the smallest on this tour. We were in much bigger venue last year. Complaining ... place is somewhere aloof. Lyon is a big city, this is just a residential area without any shops.
EVENING: Alright...Mikko's synth broke. Fuck. Dude has different tuning than the rest of the band. Restart the synth and back to FullMoon. Sounds about right, Tony sings the beginning of the song with piano, then the synth starts to raise its pitch ... huh? "Should have seen our faces them"... And everything was recorded in minidisk. ☹️ Yay. Luckily then synths of Vanishing Point and Gamma Ray worked. Unfortunately Mikko didn't know the gear and played solos with a piano sound. This gig was crappy for us. Funny yeah but never again! Audience was totally nuts!! 😀 Once in a minute some lad dropped to the floor and slam pit was huge. But feeling bad for audience about the slam pit. Some of the people don't like it at all when people bump into them. 😛 Still it's nice to play in France!!!
capacity: 1500
Dear diary,
cannot go to toilet, take a shower, do the laundry... since there's no water here. It felt really nice when it was fixed. Shower works now and the local chief Attila is a legend! Awesome food and great guy! For once we ate too much! Thanks! Mikko got his synth that played tricks fixed. The crew stuck with awe and admiration since the piece of equipment looked really bad just hour before the show. Broken in pieces around the locker room ... legendary.
EVENING: We we're worried before the show, since most of the people felt feverish. Despite the fact it went fine. Playing and singing went better than in ages. Playing-wise it was one of the best gigs. Audience and atmosphere was not as good as in France and Southern Europe, but still good. After the gig we hosted a shouting competition at the decibel meter hung on the wall. The best result from meter away from the meter was Tony's 116,6 dB. Ahti got the second place with 113,6 dB. Others shouted slightly less. And Attila made pizza for everyone! Yeeeeees! We want to come back here someday!
capacity: 2000
Dear diary,
got more shirts today despite our fears and suspisions. Good. We could sell many of them today. Paris is one of the most important places for us. Local record company boss had booked us hotel rooms for a day, which was nice. We could take a shower and groom ourselves for the afternoon interviews. We're gonna buy souvenirs today!
EVENING: We feared the gig. Tony is feeling down since he has a fever. Others have a flu too. Kai Hansen offered everyone pills from his huge medicine bag and in the end before the gig everyone felt better. Gig went surprisingly well, the audience was mega bueno! The shirts almost sold out again. Thirty minutes after doors were opened Stoney came to ask enthusiastically could he sell all the shirts we got today. Awesome! Merci beaucoup France! C'ya next time! We miss your audience.
capacity: 550
Dear diary,
some feel better, some worse. Tony's voice sounds like a teen having a voice change. Low growling and high sounds every now and them. Damn. Luckily we're not in Paris anymore. This place smells SO molded! Backstage is like a cold basement. 😕 Ugh. Cover artist Eric Philippe came to say hello. Very nice guy. We got to see the original "Silence" cover art. Very beautiful. Otherwise such a boring day. The "town" isn't too big. Actually you have to say it's fucking small. If you fart here everyone can smell it. Hehe.
EVENING: Before the gig we're in a hurry to the backstage through the audience. Gis starts and seems to go well, audiece is well with us! Good gig and we got in on tape. (No, we're not copying it for you even if you pay us.) The whole gig was a positive surprise. TOP 5 gigs on this tour. Audience was good but small. It was fun! Thanks Belgium! See you! To Sweden!
Dear diary,
we arrived at the hotel early, before 7 P.M. We went to eat to the beach. Awesome when you get cold milk from restaurant (in a clean glass). Skandinaaaaviaaaa!!
Dear diary,
Skandinaaaaaviaaaaa, it is. Nice to be back. The venue is the same as in last year. Anders Johansson called and said Hammerfall plays a small acoustic gig with couple of songs at a local record store! Must see and hear! Sounded good and the songs worked surprisingly well. Once again it was proved a good song is a good song, be it metal or country. There were also couple of lads from In Flames who told us they will come to see the show tonight.
EVENING: The gig was bit awkward. Fog machine was playingd tricks behind us. It made smoke whenever it wanted ... Joakim Cans (Hammerfall) came to sing "I Want Out" with Gamma Ray. Dan Zimmermanin Gamma Ray drummer) had a birthday and offered us drinks. There may be some practical jokes on tomorrow's gig!
Dear diary,
we walked around the "stad" a bit. Globen hand't moved anywhere. Autumn is really coming. Our album was playing at a local record store when we walked in! It felt confusing.
EVENING: Good gig, nice atmosphere, great audience! Where we are??! We guys had to be lifted away from the front row cause they were squished so badly from behind. During the first encore of Gamma Ray rest of the band sung Happy Birthday to Daniel. Great moment. The audience sang too loudly! Happy birthday Dan! Tomorrow afternoon we board on ferry! Yes! Finland is calling!
capacity: No idea.
Dear diary,
windy. Which means shaky trip ... Our cabins are at the second deck, aka as low as they can be, maybe. We were joking that if something happened, one would not bother to alarm us second deck passengers. They'd just close some lids and fill the cabins with water, so people would suffer. Black humour much? We wouldn't die in any serious illness ... just joking ...but when the ferry was shaking at night it was not so funny anymore.
capacity:1000
Dear diary,
home at laaaaast! Feeling great!
We went and had a nice t-shirt done for our driver Oliver and take care of things around homely Helsinki. I mean what the hell! Since when Helsinki has felt like a home! Huh?!
EVENING: There will be gags at this final gig. Luckily were not the first band to play, hehehehee! 😎
Vanishing Point: All us boys went to brush our teeth in the middle of the gig. We made the alien which is Gamma Ray's prop to do things with the vocalist Silvio. The crew members had put a condom and other stuff on the microphone. And everyone had fun I guess! 😀
Us: First nothing happened, remarkably. But then Jani was thrown with salt crackers and corn flakes. They are slippery on the floor by the way ... then during The Last Drop Falls Silvio came on stage with face filled with shaving cream, razor on hand and ... err, wearing only a sock. What a confusing sight in the middle of a "soft" ballad. Tony had the honor to hold a mirror when Silvio was shaving. At the same time Dan Zimmerman played other drum kit on the background. No other special things happened other than we got a change to play one extra song. Nice.
Gamma Ray: We went and took photos that were awkwardly close-up during the gig. Otherwise we were behaving well. Kai asked Tony to sing I Want Out, which was the final encore with three bands on the same stage. Great moment in time.
See you again, somewhere out in space...