So it happened that the Eurovision Song Contest didn't turn out to be the success we had planned it to be. When we were there on the stage together with Hanna and Thunderstone, I was pretty sure that we had won because our performance in the “super final” had been pretty good and because we really believed in our song. When the hosts told the fact that we're only third, it was quite a shock. We were pissed off. Really.
All the respect to the winners but we still strongly believe in our song. But you can't always win and that's something we obviously can't tolerate. Consequently, six deeply depressed and gloomy-looking guys ran to our monitor technician Mike's room to grieve together over the defeat. There were also people from the record company, technicians, loved ones and friends. You might think that such a company would be a noisy one but there was a silence of a grave until we started searching for a special bottle, which Mike had prepared for us - be it for victory or loss. To give you an idea about the contents of the bottle I could say that a huge amount of Fisherman's Friend breath mints had been needed.
We sipped that delicious drink and little by little everyone started to relax. People started to make little jokes about the defeat and sarcastic comments on the overall competition, with an appropriately bitter tone. And as always, we survive even the most difficult circumstances with self-irony and humor. We spent the rest of the night at Hotel Caribia partying, getting to know all kinds of people and during the night many more or less confusing things took place. As an example of confusing things I could mention the 60's-styled rock dance movements on the dance floor, which I and Sammy so perfectly mastered... It was such an outrageous act that there were people as well as other obstacles falling over... Well, the rest of the things are such that they can't be mentioned in public and those "less confusing" facts aren't of interest to anyone.
We celebrated like winners through the night and even in the morning some of us were sitting in a taxi together with a legendary character of Finnish music business searching for some illegal underground pub. It was a night to remember and definitely lots of fun. Thanks to all those people, who partied with us and especially to Thunderstone guys, who were very funny and nice to party with.
In the morning, that is around 14:00, we climbed into the bus and started slowly driving back home. It had been quite a journey, because we had arrived at Turku directly from the student cruise, which wasn't the easiest one. The morning was quite hard. Because of what happened the night before, we weren't in the best possible mood. We felt depressed and definitely still pissed off. The drive back home was spent in a gloomy mood eating junk food and swearing because of the voting results. The fact is that rockstars just can't understand, why their song doesn't win even though it's definitely the best. Well, of course the reason is that everybody doesn't have so good a taste when it comes to music, as we do…
Then it was Wednesday and 16.2. and I was to travel to Germany with Theon to promote our Divine Insanity album, which was released there on the very same day. We had our promoter Inka from EMI Finland with us. She shot plenty of video material during the trip to be used for all kinds of purposes in the future. We flew to Berlin in the morning, visited Sony/BMG office to make a couple of phone interviews and a few other interviews as well. I can say about the German interviewers that they want to know a lot more about one's private issues than the Finnish reporters. It's really annoying when they cross that certain border of politeness and start asking too personal questions. Sometimes they get so personal that I can't help laughing at certain questions and I’m, like, "how can anybody ask such a thing?". For example, "What's your favorite thing when having sex?". Is there really somebody who wants to know that? I do like interviews and they're usually lots of fun but sometimes I just can't understand why some people are so curious about my private life.
There were lots going on in Berlin. We went to visit a show of StarFM, which is one of the biggest rock radio stations in Germany. In front of the door there was a horde of German fans and it was nice to see them there. We went upstairs to the studio and while walking in the corridor we heard a rumor that Stone Sour would also be interviewed in the program, just prior to us. Stone Sour, that’s the new band of Slipknot's leading man, Corey Taylor. We were, like, "What?". "Are they really here?".
Once we entered the studio there was Corey Taylor himself standing right in front of us. We really respect him for his vocal talent. I didn't know what to do. Theon casually introduced himself shaking hands and when it was my turn, I just said hi. He patted my shoulder and told us to have fun, before exiting the studio. It felt quite unreal to meet such a famous star like that, completely by accident.
The best was yet to come. While we were talking to the host of the radio show, it turned out that Stone Sour would play a gig in Berlin the very night. We asked our record company for help and they managed to get our names on the guestlist of the gig. We were really excited, had a huge smile on our faces and had a very relaxed and nice interview session with StarFM and really enjoyed ourselves. Thank you, StarFM.
After the radio interview we heard that never before StarFM had hosted a guest with such a huge amount of fans waiting in the lobby as we did have. That was very nice to hear because they have been visited by lots of famous artists. In the lobby we wrote autographs and chatted with the fans. It was nice to see that we really have German fans and now we’re even more eager to start our tour in Germany.
We returned to the hotel and then headed for the nearby steak restaurant to enjoy delicious food and some wine. With our stomachs full, it was time to move on to see the show. Stone Sour gave quite a performance and even though the sounds were a bit trashy, I was very happy to see the gig. Corey was a real showman even though he wasn’t in perfect health. Thank you, Stone Sour. After the gig we went back to the hotel, had a little nightcap and then we went to bed.
After a nice night the next morning rarely is too good. Especially, when you must wake up at six o’clock. We had a shower, enjoyed the breakfast and felt ready to continue the promotional work. Our next stop was the airport because we were to fly to Munich. This time there were no problems at the security check and we soon landed in Munich and took a taxi to our hotel. The taxi drove past the home arena of FC Bayern München. The stadium is enormous and a really amazing sight because of its massive structures. If you visit Munich, I recommend that you check out that building.
We visited another radio station, NRJ München, did an interview and then it was time to visit the headquarters of Bravo music magazine. It’s the biggest European magazine for youngsters with emphasis on music and entertainment. They sell an amazing number of copies and naturally their office is enormous, too. Bravo magazine has existed around 50 years and has a central role when it comes to promoting fresh names in Central Europe. It happened with the Beatles and it happened with HIM.
At the Bravo headquarters we had a photo shoot and did some interviews but the best thing was when the editor-in-chief spent time with us, offered refreshments and introduced us to all those 50 employees. He also showed us pictures where he’s posing together with “small” stars like Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi, Tina Turner, Slash etc. And he also told us very interesting anecdotes about the meetings he had had with Michael Jackson. I must admit that I was a bit jealous, when he kept on talking about Jackson, Oasis - and especially when I was looking at the photo where he’s together with Slash. After all, Slash is my biggest idol ever. It was a real compliment that a man in such an important position was flexible with his agenda and had both time and interest to entertain us during our visit. Thank you, all people at Bravo magazine.
We spent the rest of the day at the hotel doing interviews for different magazines, Metal Hammer, for example. In between the interviews we had dinner and after the last interview we remained in the restaurant and enjoyed those quality drinks, which Munich region offers. The evening just fled and we were naturally pretty tired after a working day of thirteen hours.
In the morning, it was again wake-up at six, a fast drive (200km/h) to the airport and boarding on our flight to Helsinki. We had some hours of rest at Helsinki airport before taking the plane to Oulu, reaching the bus and starting the journey towards Kemi and Levi, where we were to perform next but that’s a different story.
Vivian Sin'amor
