Farewell to Saints European Tour 2009 Tour Diary

11.11.09
Ok, here we go again! We gathered at the train station in our home town 2.30 in the morning or night, whatever it is. Some came from home, some straight from the bar. Some of us put on a little show in the train to tease the other passangers trying to sleep. Sorry about that! But well, we were in Tampere like 6 in the morning and went straight to the airport. There a few calming drinks or beers and then some sleep on the airport terminal floor. Jukka also came to join the group straight from Tampere and then he got stuck in the boarding with his truck size luggages! The woman behind the boarding table wasn`t too happy about Jukka`s performance and charged him extra for his stuff. And Lauri made a joke not too good in the custom check point: I got drugs in my laptop! It sort of slowed the process a bit. They threatned to search his asshole! Not too good ! Luckily they did not and understood the joke after all. Way to go Lauri! Well, we happily got on board and flight was good.
We had a day to spend in Bremen and did some eating, drinking and shopping. After that we went to a local truck terminal where we had our gear waiting. The tour came to pick us up at 8 and after loading the gear in, we hit the road and headed to Prague! We may have put on a little party right away in the bus and the other group from Holland we pretty amazed these crazy guys from Finland. But Delain seemed to be a good bunch of people and we get along fine.


12.11.09
Ok, we arrived to Prague in the morning after along drive at night. The venue, Club Roxy was quite allright. The stage though was a bit small but otherwise the place was ok. It was really in the middle of Prague. Well, it was the first night of the tour so you could forget any schedules. We didn`t get to do soundcheck at all. As soon as we got our gear wired, we started playing. The first few songs sounded really rubbish and after 4 songs we had to stop because we were so behind of the time table. So not too good night for us. But the main thing was that people did like our stuff a lot and the reaction from the audience was really great! Thanks Prague! After the show we sold some cd`s and t-shirts and talked with some fans. It was nice. After the night was over, we hit the bar otherside the street with Henkka and Marko from Sonata Arctica and the tour manager Neubi. We had a really good time and some free shots from the bar. Then of to Zlin during the night.


13.11.09
Zlin, Masters of Rock café. Nice place in the shopping mall complex. We woke up from the parking lot of the venue. We ate some breakfast and hang out with Sonata guys Henkka and Elias. It`s very nice to be on the road with Finnish guys, and specially with Sonata. We are both from Northern Finland and we do think alike. We managed to do a real soundcheck and the show was a lot better from us. Excellent response from the crowd! Thanks Zlin!


14.11.09
After a really, really rough bus drive during the night to Kosice, Slovakia. And it was freezing cold in the bus, even for us Finns. We arrived to the Venue sometime midday and the first reaction was, this can`t be it. It is supposed to be a sport arena! But it was. The outside appearance of the place wasn`t too convincing but inside the place is really ok. Nice big hall with capacity of 2000+ and really nice dressing rooms and catering. The show was the best one we`ve done so far ever. It git it all, and the crowd really rocked so we are pleased. It was such a rush! This is by far the coolest thing that a man can do. Be rockin for thousands. And the after party was like it should be after a great show. And we are really pleased also for the fact that we are touring with Sonata because we get along so bloody nice. Well, after the party, the tour managers got everybody in their busses and we continued still in the bus while we were driving towards Serbia.


15.11.09
Serbia! Our wake up call was when the bus hit a bridge in the morning. Our driver miscalculated the height of the bus and bridge or then he is blind. Either way, we were stuck under the bridge like 3 hours waiting for the local police to arrive. Well, after they finally came, we were of and moving. But after 10 minute horrifying ride under like 10 bridges with clearance of maximum 1-2 centimeters , the police stopped us and took our driver away. Well, there were we, in the middle of Belgrad, with no driver and not a clue what happened. Well, after an hour, they brought our driver back and we drove to the venue at last, like 5 hours late. And we also heard during the day, that in the Serbian border, they wouldn`t let us in to the country unless we give them some Winterborn t-shirts. Well, everything was behind schedule with Sonatas gear also. The locals who were supposed to help the crew, weren`t actually the fastest ones on the planet. So we ended up not doing any soundcheck at all and the first 3 songs sounded just like you could expect. Shit. But you know, the show was excellent and the crowd was the best one so far! After the show, we met a lot of excited fans by the bus and they took a shit load of pictures of us and them. It was really nice. Thanks Belgrad! Hopefully we are coming back one day. Then a really nice after party with some Finnish meininki and it was nice.


16.11.09
Day off. Budapest. We got ourselves a free hotel in Budapest because the bus had to leave us cause it was going to service after the accident with the fucking bridge. You know, the bridge won that battle! So, little bit tired after the long night, but still enough power to hit the streets of the city. We went to eat to a very nice restaurant and after that, Jukka and Lauri went back to the hotel, as the rest of us went to see the town. A very beautiful city, in every way if you know what I mean.

Pasi V. / Winterborn