Road diary - Summer 1998

Page 1 of 3 Entry 1. Sault St. Marie, Wednesday July 8 We made it to Canada! Everybody brought their passports and only one suitcase got lost on the way. We got it back though. After spending one night in Toronto we are now on our way to The Winnipeg Folk Festival. We´re gonna play there for three days, and do some workshops with The Saw Doctors. The weather is GREAT, and the radio is playing country music. We couldn´t ask for more. Canada is a very beautiful country and, since we´re gonna break some sort of record in car driving over the next weeks, we´re gonna see a lot of it. Looking forward to that. / Björn Entry 2. Winnipeg, Saturday July 11 Breakfast at Robin´s Donuts. (Calories !!!) It´s noon, and yesterday we did the shortest gig in history. Our first show at The Winnipeg Folk Festival ended somewhat abruptly when the soundguy cut us off after two songs. He had to because the main stage went on a half hour earlier ahead of schedual. But the festival is realy great. (HUGE!) We´ve seen Los Lobos, Ron Sexsmith, Richard Thompson, and tonight Bosse is gonna show David Lindley how to work a fretboard at the after party. See us live on the internet Monday night (the 13:th), around 3 am Swedish time. We´re hoping for a longer show this time.... We´re playing after Stephen Fearing, and before Ani De Franco. Log on to www.wpgfolkfest.mb.ca. / Hugs and kisses from Jens Entry 3. Winnipeg, Sunday July 12 Once again breakfast at Robin´s Donuts. The band is starting to look like The Blimp Family.... Yesterday we shared the stage with two other bands; The Saw Doctors and Taxi Chain. The show was called "On The Edge Of Folk". We got to play three songs and the crowd seemed to like us. I think the main stage tonight is going to be a killer! Then we´ll have time to do four songs....at least. Talk to you again when we get to Sudberry. / Pedro. P.S. Björn knows David Lindley !!! Entry 4. On the way to Sudberry, Tuesday July 14 We got to do five songs, plus two encores! Yahooo! Let´s take it from the top. We all woke up around the same time to experience a typical Canadian breakfast. Meaning; a sub and a donut. Bosse left the table early because he was going to hook up with Dave. (That´s what we call David Lindley...you know, between friends....) Me and Björn went down to the pool for a swim after seeing "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly" on the big de luxe TV in our hotel room. After that it was time to head down to the festival area. The bus was already waiting to pick us up. A little drop of sweat dripped from the drivers nose, and then we were on our way. The spirit was high and we all laughed and made jokes, with big expectations for the evening. Me and Björn did an interview while Jens and Janne prepared for transportation of our backline. The festival area looked like the evenings before, with great weather and great crowds. Everything felt great, and the interviews went well. We told the reporters how great we are, and they all understood....we hope. Then dinner. Great catering. Then soundcheck. How many have we done by now ? Impossoble to count.... The soundcheck went very smoothly. Great sound, (though we miss our Pelle tremendosly!), and a great crew. Björn scratched his head, wondering if the thin drum heads were going to hold up for his bashing ? We couldn´t tell, but we all agreed that it would be kinda "rock n´roll" if he would break them! We all laughed. Suddenly it was showtime! Somewhere around 10.000 festival goers was sitting in front of the stage. We entered the stage. The fiddle was silent. I paniced ! But Bosse, cool as always, put his fatherly hand on my shoulder and then plugged in the cord in my pre-amp. As usual I had done it all wrong. The fiddle worked and I eased down. The presenter on stage left suddenly screamed over the PA; "HOOOVEN DROOOOOVEN!!!!". We opened with "Myhrpolska". It sounded quite alright. As the song went on the crowd suddenly got up, for the first time during the evening, and started dancing! What a sight! 10.000 people, following our every command. The show went very well and we got to do two encores. Later on, six tired but very happy band members sat on the bus on the way back to the hotel. Once there, we hugged and said goodnight. The others went to bed, but Me, Jens and Pedro wanted to stay up. After party!!! Of course the fiddle and the saxophone came to use. It was a very loooong, and relaxed night. Me and Jens wrapped the party, then went to make sandwiches for the boys. Then we woke them all up. -"C´mon let´s do some driving!", said we. -"O.K", said them. Off we went. Right now we have about 30 Swedish miles left to Sudberry. COOL! / Kjell-Erik << Start < Prev 1 2 3 Next > End >>