Misc. -> Tour Diaries

Tangled on Tour 2001 - Tour Diary by Chris Porcianko

I don't know where and how to start with this because I really haven't read many tour diaries in the past, of musicians on the road, playing in places that they only previously dreamt of and finally having the opportunity to play in front of so many people and new found fans.
Within this diary I have written, it is all pretty much about our tour with Gamma Ray and Sonata Arctica on Gamma Ray's "No World Order" European tour.
Within the diary you will read about road stories, bad smell descriptions, funny hotel/hotel party stories, bus trips from hell and back, road crew stories and most of all, you will read how we got through it in one piece and survived, so we can do our next album and repeat the madness all over again in the future heh heh.
It is all good fun and I will try to keep you all entertained for the duration of the diary :)
So here we go...

Wednesday 26/9/01
We meet up with our tour manager for the tour whose name is Jorg, many tour managers seem to have a legacy or stigma attached to them because they are the prime decision makers.
Either way somewhere in the past hard decisions have been made by tour managers and some people have suffered as a result... we were very lucky that our tour manager is no such person.
He is the decision maker and although he has to make order and sense out of all the chaos, we all felt calm knowing that the tour was going to be smooth and well organised.
At approximately 10pm we were to load our gear into the trailer that was attached to the tour bus, but as always you have to be realistic and remember that although you are beginning a tour, it sometimes does not make you exempt from having to load and still put in your fair share of input, so that everything goes smoothly.
The saying "many hands, makes for light work" is true, but when you have many, many road cases, they must be stacked in an orderly fashion, so all the expensive gear does not break and make hell break loose.
Another thing is, most of the crew were already in Bochum where the first date of the tour was to commence.
After all the gear was loaded in, and we were refreshed from the Hamburg rain (which is normal of Hamburg, this I will elaborate on further heh heh), at 1am we were rolling and we just sat back in the bus and had a couple of beers with Markus from Helloween and Henjo from Gamma Ray.
Many beers were being consumed and of course we opted for the taste of Warsteiner beer instead of Jever, because Jever is a very bitter beer and for some of us it was too bitter to drink.
Anyways, Markus is playing bass in Gamma Ray temporarily live until Dirk Schlacter, who is the bass player in Gamma Ray recovers from his knee operation.
Either way, Markus like Dirk is a comical guy who we had many laughs with and we all shared many jokes.
The atmosphere in the bus was cool for us because we are all Gamma Ray and Helloween fans from way back, so for us this was a trip and a half.
After a few hours conversing, joking, laughing and a couple more cans of Warsteiner, I decided to retire to the upstairs lounge (the bus was a double Decker, cool huh....) and have some much needed rest.
After waking up with my back slightly sore and out of alignment (actually felt like a bull hit me heh heh ), I decided to take a look around, I had never been to Bochum before, so I went into the venue and...

Thursday 27/0/01
The madness begins!!!!! muhahahahahahahahah
I went upstairs to the lounge in the Venue for breakfast to find a wide variety of foods that made us feel at home, after eating breakfast all of us in the band hung around inside the venue and we were introduced to the Gamma Ray crew which was cool, because these guys are the lifeline of the tour.
We finally were introduced to our new mates from Finland, Sonata Arctica, these guys are cool and we all hit it off well from the start, which was really cool because we were sharing the same tour bus for the next 5 weeks.
We finally at 3pm get into our own tour bus which is really cool,classy,cramped,and comfortable,has a DVD/Video CD player, pretty much the whole bus has everything that we need to call home for the next 5 weeks.
As anyone can tell you, the bunks/beds we had on our bus were great, but you HAD to crawl into them because of the size of the bunks, which can be interesting when you are over 6ft tall and you have to pretty much do the limbo or crawl sideways to get into the bunk.
Nevertheless although the bunks look like catacombs when you walk down the middle of the bus, they are very comfortable.
Anyways back at the venue, the stage is all set. The props are up and the doors open at 7pm, people were lining up outside for hours, so this was really cool to see them all rush in and shelter from the rain outside as well, in Germany the fans are die-hards and they would wait through a sandstorm if they had to, such is their dedication to the music.
We take to the stage at 7pm for a half hour set which judging by the response we received from the audience, we went down really well, the people were really cool and they just went nuts.
This is definitely a place we want to come back to in the future, the venue is great, we had no soundcheck, yet we had a good sound, the crowd liked us, what more could anyone possibly want... a shower, a drink, food and good company, and that is what we got.
We watched Sonata Arctica kick ass live, saw Gamma Ray kick ass as well, so after the shows were over, we met many people, signed some autographs, had many laughs with new friends and old friends from the previous year that we met (greetings to Chico, thankyou for the shirt and vodka, dzienkuje!!!) from our show at Wacken.
We had to leave at approximately 2-3am for our next destination, so after saying our goodbyes to our new found friends and fans, we were rolling onto Osnabruk.
In the bus we were trying out this drink called Salmiakki (not sure isf this is the correct spelling!) which the guys from Sonata Arctica gave to us as gifts, this is great yet a truly evil drink from Finland.
Let me tell you, this stuff is cool if you want to have a couple of shots, but if you intend on drinking a lot then be prepared to feel a little hungover the next day, this stuff that tastes like Sambuca or Ouzo is truly evil shit!!!!!! heh heh heh it can surely beat drinking warm milk or cocoa before you go to bed if you have a cold, that's for sure.

Friday 28/9/01
We wake up in Osnabruk which is a cool place surrounded by forests and is basically situated in rural Germany.
We have breakfast somewhere around 2pm which is weird when the only time you see the morning is when you are on the bus, driving through the dark to the next gig, thats the mornings we see.
It seems strange yet at the same time for those who like to sleep, a good thing.
We hung out with the guys from Gamma Ray and Sonata Arctica and just generally talked about normal things, which is really cool to see because behind all the experience, tours, road stories, CD sales, they are people who are just normal who like a joke and a laugh.
Whenever we were sitting at a table having something to eat or drink beer with Markus, we all put on these false (really bad attempts, mind you) english accents, so throughout the day you could hear Markus saying to us "Onya Mates, have a pint of lager" or "awww bloody 'ell" just for a laugh.
Anything silly or funny is good to know when you know that later you have to be focussed before and during the gig.
All the fun and games makes the day go well and nobody feels homesick.
We took to the stage at 7:45pm opening as usual with "two minds, one soul" and everything was going well for us until I started having technical problems with my amplifier.
If you ask any guitarist what they fear the most during a live show, they will tell you the following (A) breaking a guitar string during the gig (especially during a solo) OR (B) having your amp play games with you during the gig.
I unfortunately had to deal with part (B) which kinda pissed me off because I was worried that my amp was going to fry, we are lucky that we have experienced people in the crew who are always there to help when equipment goes down.
This evening I had Piesel (guitarist from Iron Saviour) who is also Kai Hansen's guitar tech, help me out with my gear and luckily with some calm thinking my amp survived and Piesel turned the power off to my amp before it went into total meltdown.
Logic prevails in the end and thanks to Piesel, I had a relatively calm gig considering the technical problems that I had with my amp.
Afterwards the party we had with the guys from Sonata Arctica was great and very funny, the venue after the gig was transformed into a massive nightclub where the DJ's play nu-metal stuff and some old grunge stuff which was cool, plus it was very funny to see Jani from Sonata Arctica do the disco dance and do the splits on the dance floor heh heh. It was a classic!
At 2am it was back in the bus to sleep and go to the next show.

Saturday 29/9/01
Oh no, I looked like 'hangover boy" today when I woke up a little worse for wear and most of us definitely had hangovers because we all pretty much looked like ghosts heh heh heh
Tonight the gig was in Lichtenfels which is really cool and the venue was really nice and big.
Many great bands have played here in the past including Manowar, Gary Moore, Rage, Helloween etc.
The vibe is great, we have a shower/bathroom next to our dressing room (oh, woweee!!!!!!) and of course there is the usual waiting and waiting and err umm waiting.
Stories from the past speak of some bands getting drunk DURING THE DAY to kill the time, which to us seemed dumb, with us it was nothing like that at all, so to kill the time I started to teach Tony and Tommy from Sonata Arctica some English words with a Maltese accent, (courtesy of our good friend Shane back home), so in event I was calling Tony "Charlie ", he was calling me "Joey", we spoke about fishing for "La Pookey" and watching "chef chef chef ougiy", which anyone who knows the Maltese language will tell you that "chef chef etc etc " is actually fireworks.
Anyone who knows me, knows that even the silliest or craziest humour no matter how juvenile, makes me tick, I mean c 'mon I loved the Monty Python movies, doesn't that tell you something hah hah.
Luckily our show tonight went really well and I was fortunate enough to have no problems with my amp, we all had fun onstage and the crowd liked us as well, which was really cool.
Tonight was the first chance most of us in the band had a chance to see the full set by Sonata Arctica, these guys are awesome and they are very tight live, we were blown away.
Gamma Ray as usual also kicked ass big time and it was really cool to see our Danny up there with them playing keyboards for the tour.
Its a big bonus for him because for him Markus is one of his favourite bass players and they shared the same stage, mega-cool I say and we are all proud of Dan :)

Sunday30/9/01
Today we played in Koln / Cologne which is cool because the venue once again is nice and it looks like being a packed night with many people.
Yes, yes the show was as usual really cool and Sonata Arctica and Gamma Ray played awesome sets.
Some of us had the opportunity to meet fans that have our CD and were singing all the words when we played live, it was really cool to meet them and thank them for their support. Greetings to Cora and Sonya.
Some of the people who could not get in time to see our set at Bochum came all the way to Koln to see us play, this is pretty cool to know and its a huge buzz knowing that we have loyal fans everywhere.
Joe, Tom and myself also had the opportunity to be driven to the Cologne Dom/Cathedral in all its gothic splendour and 1000 year history.
It is so huge and beautiful in its appearance that we were all in shock, it was like being back in time or something, it proved to in our memories.
Another memorable experience we will never forget is when our friend Christoph from Mindcrime (and all his crew who showed us the Dom and parts of Koln...hello!!!) was driving us back to get to the bus on time.
I can tell you, I was impressed with his driving experience and I thought his indecision on where to turn at the last minute was amusing, this guy was a racing car driver in his past life for sure.
Either way due to some slight driving misdemeanours, the police had pulled the car over and luckily Christoph got away with a small fine instead of a big fine, had they of seen the other driving tricks he was doing heh heh heh.
In a way we felt bad for him too, because he took some risks to get us back to the venue on time and for this we thank him a lot, so if you are reading this Christoph, wherever you are, Prost!!!! Danke!!!! And a Big Hail to the Eisen Pimmel!!!!!!! heh heh heh

Monday 1/10/01
Today is our first day off and we are in Hamburg in a nice hotel called the Astron, which is very nice.
Jack, Dan and myself decided to go CD hunting and get our laundry done, its pretty boring but never the less a necessary evil unless you want to walk around in stale clothes.
When Jack and I arrived back to our hotel rooms we came across different room numbers on our room doors, so thinking that we were on a different floor, we went back to the lifts to see if we were on the wrong floor, and we found that we were on our floor.
We also had found out that Tom, Joe and Dan had changed the numbers on the doors in order to stooge us into thinking that we were on the wrong floor heh heh heh "bastards!!!!" Nevertheless I saw the humour in it and Tom and myself decided to change a couple more numbers heh heh.
There was a dude across the hallway who came out of his room and was Australian, he noticed our accents, so he decided to see what was going on with all the noise we were making.
Is just so happened that Craig is one of the guys who sings in Australia's "Ten Tenors" which had been touring Germany and playing to packed out opera theatres.
He was cool and we all talked Australian football for ten minutes and then we decided to change the room numbers on Sonata Arctica's rooms as well heh heh, tonight ended up becoming crazy and a big party followed on from there.
By the time some of the guys were slightly drunk with the guys from Sonata Arctica, we all heard noises as if someone was taping something to the door with duct tape, heh heh heh we were right, it was the guys from the Ten Tenors taping jars, tapes, CD's and even a spanner to the door, which we could not stop pissing ourselves from laughing.
The thing that really had us all in hysterics was when they tried to tape a mountain bike to our door, when we opened the door to see this virtually brand new bike attached to it, we could not believe it, the funny thing is the dudes gave us the bike, so as a result some of us decided to ride the bike up and down the hallway and we took the bike on tour with us, which subsequently at the end of the tour we passed onto Mikko from Sonata Arctica.
Nevertheless the Gamma Ray crew that was with us could not believe what was happening and when we got hold of a master key and made our way into one of the crew guys room, he wasn't impressed as we thought he would be, maybe we woke him out of his comatose state, who knows heh heh heh.
After all the madness had quietened down, we decided to get some rest at 4:30am, the joys of partying heh heh.

Tuesday 2/10/01
Hamburg for us guys in Vanishing Point is pretty much our second home in Europe, we have close friends there and it's always really cool to catch up with them.
Tonight's show was at the "Markthalle" venue which is situated in the centre of Hamburg.
The venue is nice and the staff always look after the bands, which is cool because the whole set up in there is great and very band friendly.
Before checking our gear, I met some people out the front (Gabriella, Rena & Tim) who were waiting to meet all the guys in the bands, should we ever use the entrance they were standing at.
I introduced myself and I could not believe that they had been there for 5 hours already, just standing there waiting and getting drenched from the Hamburg rain, and if you ask anyone who has been to Hamburg, if it rains there, it pours down.
Anyways the venue tonight was packed full with people, after all this is Gamma Ray's home town and tonight was testament to the fact that they have many friends in Hamburg.
Our show tonight went really well and we had a lot of fun onstage, we were actually surprised because we were told in the past that the Hamburg crowds tend to be a bit quiet, luckily for us this wasn't the case and we had a very enjoyable evening.
Sonata Arctica as usual kicked ass and Gamma Ray played a cool set which saw Dirk Schlacter get up onstage for the first time on this tour to play after his knee operation.
By the vibe that was around, tonight was an awesome night and much fun was had by everyone who was there and attended the gig.
There was many guests there including our best bud Andreas from Megace, Limb & TC from LMP music and staff, Alex Strapoli from Rhapsody, Jan from Paragon, Sherree and Thomas from Wacken, all the staff from All Access (greetings Jorg!!!) and many others.
Tonight is definitely a night that we wont forget and if anyone asks you what the vibe is like in Hamburg, tell them that Hamburg is the place and it rocks, simple.
The CD shopping extravaganza there is damn cool as well, just ask Dan and Jack heh heh.

Wednesday 3/10/01
Berlin, tonight we played at a venue called HOF 23 which is a nice venue, yet this place gets damn hot, while we were playing it felt like we were playing in front of an open fire place, there just didn't seem to be any way out from sweating your ass off in there and just trying to have as much fun as possible.
The vibe was great, we had a good response and it was nice to see people who never heard of us before, yet really liked our music.
Tonight, Sonata Arctica played a killer show and it looked like they were having heaps of fun on stage. As usual, Gamma Ray kicked ass and it was a cool night in Berlin, we hope to come back here one day to at least see some sights while on tour if time allows that would be awesome! Special mention goes to Tony from Sonata Arctica for his fantastic spray-painting techniques hehehe.

Thursday 4/10/01
Today we had a day off, and instead of resting we decided to spend as much time as we could and check out Frankfurt while the sun was out. All of us did the usual and went CD hunting in the shopping district and while walking around we saw many great sights like the Frankfurt Opera House. Other sights we checked out (of the walking kind) were quite amusing and cool at the same time but, provided, a strain on the eyes from looking in all different directions other than looking straight when walking. The Hotel we were staying at was The Queen's Hotel in outer Frankfurt which is really nice and the staff were really great and helpful. All in all after the day in the city was done we all pretty much kicked back and had an early night this evening.
Boring huh?

Friday 5/10/01
Today the show was at Langen which is just outside of Frankfurt. The venue is called Stadthalle Langen which is situated in the town of Langen the set up is made up of a bunch of people who organise and promote gigs who are a kind of Heavy-Metal Union/Club who put their hearts and all their hard work on the line and they proved to be truly professional in their approach and teamwork. Today's show was a breeze and the atmosphere amongst the crowd was great, for us regardless of my technical problems with my amp it was awesome because there was approx. 2,000 people in the crowd who were just going crazy and enjoying the music.
I wished we could have played for longer but that's the way it goes! Can you imagine playing a gig and having Kai Hansen on one side of the stage and Markus from Helloween on the other side watching your show? Either could we before we began this tour, pretty cool huh?
After we finished our set, and Sonata Arctica's crew were setting up I was dared to run across the stage and back in my boxer shorts, t-shirt and white sport socks much to the amazement of our tour manager, we all seemed to have had a laugh and I nearly slipped ass over on the slippery stage with my sport socks on. Nevertheless, the rest of the crowd seemed to have had a laugh, so did the rest of our crew. Who could have imagined that Silvio was to better this in Helsinki... BASTARD hahaha!!
While I was writing this diary, in the tour bus Markus from Helloween came onto the bus and asked what I was writing here and when I told him what I was writing he said "Hello" to everyone who reads this so there you have it from the man himself!
Tonight we had beers with Markus because this was his 3rd last show before he was going back home, so in a sense it was logic to have a couple of beers with our new friend.
For the 6 of us in the band, this was really cool since we grew up in our teenage years listening to Helloween and Gamma Ray. Tonight's show will definitely go down as one of our best and favourite shows that we have played in our career.
It's funny and weird at the same time when you are enjoying yourself and you don't even realise what day it is because everyday in a way seems the same yet you are in a different city and playing to different people.
Tonight we also met Alex who is one of our biggest fans.

Saturday 6/10/01
Tonight we played in a town called Kaufbeuren which is located in Southern Germany, the venue is called the Zeppelin Halle and is actually an old beer brewery, so it has great acoustics and it definitely is nice to play in a place that I'm sure is over 100 years of age.
Mikko from Sonata Arctica and myself went into the town during the day for a look around and we found ourselves in the middle of a festival with beer, food and heaps of people strolling around in traditional Bavarian clothes. The atmosphere was great and it was a great day weather wise amongst all the rainy days to be out.
We didn't even realise that it was the time of the Octoberfest duh duh!!
We kicked off our set at 8pm and we went down well. We have been very happy with every place we have played in considering that, to many European metal fans we are still a new band.
Sonata Arctica played a great set, these guys have their shit down and for a young age they at every show amazed me with their professionalism and musicianship.
They are great guys and we are happy to have them as great friends now.
Gamma Ray kicked ass as usual, and the crowd went crazy for them singing the words and generally head banging like many fans do.
What can one say when always witnessing a band like this, I'm not sure apart from the fact that I know many friends back home are jealous.
Who could blame them?
We met up with some good friends of ours Marion and Manu and we also met up with the crew (Rina, Gabriela and Tim) who waited outside the venue in Hamburg, we were blown away to hear about them travelling 13 hours by train to come to see the show, now that's dedication!
We also met Alex from the "Metal Observer" who was really cool and we met lots of fans of ours who came to the show with both CD's for us to sign etc, it was a cool night and we had a great time.

Sunday 7/10/01
Today was the big show in Stuttgart which had us playing on the same bill as Freedom Call, Sonata Arctica, Primal Fear and Gamma Ray. The venue was pretty big and many bands have played there previously.
We started early at 5.50pm for a short set which went well, the crowd liked us and it was good to see that bands sharing the bill liked us also. The guys from Freedom Call were cool and we hung out with Ferdy Doernberg who is the keyboard player from a cool band called Rough Silk as he also plays with many other bands including Axel Rudi Pell. Tonight he was doing live work with Freedom Call. He was a cool guy as well as a great musician who we are now happy to call a mate. The bonus for us was that he really dug our music now Joe and Ferdy will be swapping CD's.
Freedom Call's set was great and it was cool to hear them do a cool mixture of songs from their Crystal Empire CD and debut album.
Their sound was great and the crowd went crazy for them! Sonata Arctica played next and were H-U-G-E, their sound was massive and they played tight. The heat in the room at times felt as if someone had turned the heating on full with there being no room for ventilation, which proved hard for all bands at one point or another yet, the atmosphere was fantastic and overcame the minor comfort setbacks.
Primal Fear were good and they played their metal with style and showed no signs of slowing down. These guys rock big time and it was awesome to see Ralph Scheepers sing since I never had the chance to see him sing live with Gamma Ray......... until tonight! Gamma Ray were awesome and displayed their usual musical prowess, kicking ass and enjoying the crowd's enthusiasm.
Before finishing tonight, they had Markus from Helloween come up on stage to play "I Want Out" which was huge then they followed by playing "Future World" with Ralph from Primal Fear singing. Talking of musical bliss we thought we saw it all until, we heard the opening riff to "Ride The Sky" we went totally crazy and some of us felt as though we dropped our cookies hehehe
Tommy was in a state of bliss, Joe was grinning from ear to ear so was Silv, Danny was rapt, I was as happy as could be and our beloved Jack was a little "sick" resting in the tour bus.
It was a cool live ending to a great yet long day which was enjoyable for all of us, it was cool to see all the bands watching each other as well as showing support, it will surely remain in our memories for many years to come.
This evening was the last for Markus on the tour, so for all of us, it was a kind of sad/happy ending because we all became friends with Markus and we all shared many beers on the tour with him.
We would have shared many more if it wasn't Jever beer hehehe
We all swapped our contact details with him and we all promised to keep in touch, the man is a good bloke who is as real as they come and would rather be amongst the fans and general people instead of all the VIP treatment that bands receive on tour.
It was a bit of a sad ending (but nevertheless in the immortal words of Freddie Mercury and Queen... the show must go on)

Monday 8/10/01
Today we woke up in the bus to discover we were already in Prague (which is in the Czech Republic). Today was our day off, so Joe, Jack and myself decided to go and do the tourist thing armed with cameras and check out Prague.
I can now happily say that I have been to Prague and the reports by many people saying that it's a beautiful city are true.
It is truly a place to be seen by your own eyes and the historical buildings, the Castle, Charles Bridge and the many little side streets that sell little souvenirs etc, are fantastic!
We ventured down many streets, brought CD's cheap!!, brought souvenirs, cheap again!! Dined on KFC (twice!!), took photos and we even went to the famous Prague Torture Museum which was thrilling, shocking and entertaining at the same time.
It was really cool to check out all these places and just wander around in a city we have only read about and seen on TV.
Oh yeah a couple of hints... it's cheap for CD's, KFC menu deal bullshit meal will set you back about 5 German marks, the taxi's are cheap (do a deal with a taxi driver,DONTt go for the first offer,DO a bit of bargaining), watch your wallet because it's easy to spend copious amounts of money on souvenirs.
Always do your conversion calculations and don't wander around here at night alone, not that anything could happen, but it's better to be safe than broke or broken!
Other than that Prague rocked and it is truly the golden eye these days for tourism in Eastern Europe.
Check it out!

Tuesday 9/10/01
We woke up this morning, from our crusty hotel to get ready for our 11.30am departure. In what can be defined as an interesting hotel with a reception dude with a nonchalant attitude. Maybe he hates his job or maybe he hated the fact that we all including crew, hung out in the foyer lounge making asses of ourselves joking and he could not enjoy himself too.
Anyways, we leave to only 5 minutes later have a shit situation happen where the trailer of the other bus hit the road by bottoming out and basically engraving/ploughing 2 channels into the road surface that were approx 2-3 inches deep and 6 feet long. We held up trams, buses and many cars (basically we made a traffic jam that could not be avoided).
The police came and re-directed traffic, people were looking from every direction, people were losing their minds, nerves were fraying, chaos was reigning supreme \m/.
All the bands and crew were a little bemused and surprised at the road conditions, who the hell is the civil engineer, is it a circus clown? hehehe must be because it was getting beyond a joke and at one stage with all the traffic it was looking more like a street parade of people with varying pissed off looks on their faces instead of a traffic jam. Trams from over a kilometre away, had to empty out their passengers and they had to walk the rest of the way... you'd be pissed off if you had an important lunch meeting hehehe
After 45 minutes the Prague dudes with heavy machinery and a crane that could lift a tank, helped move the trailer and bus, luckily no-one was injured the damage factor was minimal and we were on our way to tonight's show :o)
We arrived to the venue which is called The FUTURUM about 1 hour late which taking the situation into consideration was pretty good going.
What can one say? The crew are professionals.
The venue in Prague was the smallest of the first part of the tour and held maximum 600-700 people, as you could imagine how packed the place was inside with all the die-hard people in there, Prague absolutely rocks big time!
For us it was unbelievable to have people going crazy over our songs and set, it was like a heavy metal utopian world of serious and hungry fans who just want to let loose and have fun.
I was happy to see my cousin and friends from Poland there and we also caught up with our good friends from America Kit and Jen, it was a mini re-union for us and we all definitely had a great night.
Sonata Arctica played a great set and the crowd was chanting their name at the start of their set, they guys kicked ass and Tony was in top shape delivering each song with great finesse, emotion, passion and class.
It seems that every time I see them play I am always blown away.
Gamma Ray simply crushed the audience and the audience got what they wanted.
These guys are proof that you can still be making albums and not slow down or compromise an inch, these guys kick ass.
We all pretty much went out after the show and checked out a metal club called Hells Bells which was good and had a great atmosphere and many people until late. We got back to our bus relatively pissed, intoxicated (yeah whatever) at approx 4.30am, 1 hour after we were meant to leave. Needless to say, our bus driver Oliver wasn't too impressed, in fact he said to us "Fuck Off" instead of "Hello".
He's a funny character who likes a joke and is a cool guy to hang out with, just never get on his bad side because he doesn't take shit from anyone.
We left Prague for Brno with many great memories and we will definitely come here in the future.

Wednesday 10/10/01
Brno is around 2 hours drive from Prague and is the 2nd biggest city in the Czech Republic from what I know.
The venue tonight held 1500-2000 people and man was it hot in there and hot onstage!
We felt like we were in the depths of Satan's bunghole it was that hot!
The crowd was going crazy, covered in sweat and constantly cheering. One can describe crowd participation at these shows to be similar to soccer chants... these people don't mess around, they live for their music :o)
We went down well, Sonata Arctica went down well and Gamma Ray went down well.
Tonight's show will definitely be one of the hottest we have played in our career and our clothes were soaked!
You could actually see the moisture and steam on the windows and the walls inside of the venue, it was not the safest of venues, in fact how the balcony did not fall with all the people on it is beyond me. Nevertheless, it was a great night and luckily there was not a fire or riot breaking out in the venue otherwise we would all be finished.
Nevertheless, the night rocked, the promoters were nice and hospitable and the crowds were great.
Any band that tours Europe should definitely play the Czech Republic, it's a must!

Thursday 11/10/01
Austria!
Vienna is a nice place, I remember hearing from friends and some of the crew that it is a pretty cool place to check out... so we did.
Anyone who knows us, knows that we are keen CD collectors so we searched everywhere and found not many shops at all, which was kind of weird because later in the evening, at the venue there was a guy selling tonnes of CD's very cheap... if only we had known.
It's like you are searching for your watch while you're wearing it, we looked everywhere in Vienna only to have the best selection right under our noses hehehe
Anyways, tonight's show was great! The people were very receptive, it was cool to hear the positive feedback after the show.
Sonata Arctica played an awesome show and so did Gamma Ray.
The after show party was very cool and all up Vienna was a great gig!

Friday 12/10/01
Budapest!!
Budapest!!
Oh Fuck Hungary rules!!
The city is nice, the sun was shining and the view from all corners was breathtaking. Tonight's show will definitely be a memorable one. I could not believe how great the crowd were, these guys are damn hungry and just want to let loose. Sonata Arctica kicked ass as usual and it was cool to see a lot of people know their songs.
The mid set crowd participating - I sing you follow, was a classic with Tony getting the crowd to do some yodelling metal style.
I was pissing myself laughing backstage in our dressing rooms because we were all yodelling and being generally silly. Gamma Ray absolutely crushed the crowd and went absolutely ballistic. It was obvious that they are very well respected and that is truly deserved to them. They earned their following through years of hard work. Oh yeah and we played well and the crowd loved us!
A quick hello goes out to Kit and Jen our buds from America who showed us around Budapest during the day and were very hospitable, we were happy to catch up with them this day seeing that the previous year in Hamburg we all partied big time.
Another thing I was really happy to do was finally introduce Kit to Kai from Gamma Ray because Kit has been a big fan of Kai's music for many years, so it was really cool that his dream was finally a reality, cheers bro!!!!!
We will have many more good times in the future :)
We hope to come here again next tour.

Saturday 13/10/01
Today was our day off so in effect we should have arrived at our hotel in Cesena, Italy at approximately 12.00pm, but and I mean a big BUT, our 2nd bus driver who's a new dude, decided to turn a different way, making us have an extra 3-4 hours on top of our journey. Now I know shit happens, but really, c'mon fuck!! How can one lose thyself and bus/crew and finally after 3-4 hours say "Um I tink we are lost?"
Heh heh our normal bus driver Oliver was not happy, in fact he went apeshit and the 2nd driver dude did not drive with us again.
We made it to the hotel at approximately 7.30pm, yeah there goes a day off wasted and of course the hotel just had to be 50-100 metres away from the beach on a day of 25 or so degrees!

Sunday 14/10/01
Cesena is a nice place with a quiet vibe that I think is situated in North Italy.
The venue was small with a capacity of 800 people and the stage was small as well.
The crowd was gathering outside the venue during the day and they waited in the hot sun so that when the doors opened then they would get a front position close to the stage. Outside the venue also was another interesting thing happening before our eyes, damn bootlegger bastards were setting up a stall of bootlegged/false/cheap shirts.
Unfortunately due to unforseen circumstances, nothing could be done, after all we are in Italy and if you put two and two together then I'm sure you will know what the reason/answer is.
Nevertheless the gig went well and we played well, but during the show we thought that maybe the crowd thought that we sucked, luckily it was not the case and after the show we met many new friends who loved our gig and music, pretty cool huh?
Sonata Arctica had a great show and they are truly a band that shines, we are honestly very happy to be on tour with them, because not only are they a great band, we are friends as well.
Gamma Ray played great and the crowd lapped it up, they knew the words to their songs and they chanted like a soccer crowd.
All in all Cesena was great and everybody enjoyed themselves.
Another thing that really spun us out was the fact that dudes in the crowd were slamming to our music, hehehe they went nuts during "Father " and "Surreal". It was rather funny watching them trying to slam to the off-timing stuff we do.
Truly remarkable and memorable.

Monday 15/10/01
Florence, ah Florence, what would you expect a majority of us guys to do today when the sun is out and it feels like summer. Would you expect many of us to go sightseeing and doing the tourist thing? Dude, no way! Most of us washed our clothes and let them dry in the sun, hehehe very glamorous yet necessary thing to do unless you want to walk around in unwashed clothes.
So a majority of the day was spent doing washing until it was dinner time where the master cook, a lady who walks around with a smoke in her mouth cooked a 3 course meal for the band and crew. The food consisted of vegetable soup, pasta and chicken that was phenomenal, even though there was so much of it and to not eat would cause offence, we found room in our stomachs for it.
So we got up on stage at 8.00pm to a crowd who are vibed and ready to let loose, and let loose they did! The moshpit was unbelievable tonight with the crowd going apeshit in the moshpit to "Surreal" and "Never Walk Away".
It was great and we were glad that there were no injuries which was a relief to know after a hell of a show. Tonight we were all happy with the gig.
Sonata Arctica played a great set and we all noticed from the top level that the moshpit was truly bigger than any of us expected, now I don't mind when people want to mosh, but when people standing against the front barrier cant move it's another thing and it is dangerous when people in the pit are pushing others into the pit and against other people.
Apart from this situation during the night, it was a great evening and there were no injuries, All up, today was a great one and we hope to play in Florence again.

Tuesday 16/10/01
Today the gig was In Turin which is a very nice city, although we were in the suburbs of Turin it seemed nice and we went into the city to check out the sites. Some of us wanted to see the Shroud of Turin which is said to be where Jesus Christ's Burial cloth is and has his face imprinted on it, some of us wanted to see this yet we could not because the Shroud has been covered for 20 years and only last year it was revealed during the jubilee celebration that was held in Turin.
We had a look around anyways and we made it back just in time for soundcheck. The venue was ok considering they connected the mains power the morning we arrived, hehehe this is a new place, yet there are no dressing rooms or showers, there was not even a place the band could stay backstage before the show.
We had to be escorted by security to the stage which is kinda weird and strange because we are no superstars, we are just six guys who enjoy playing music.
Nevertheless the show went well and the crowd liked us, which was cool considering that these people are die hard Gamma Ray and Sonata Arctica fans and they didn't really know of us our music.
This tour is helping us in a lot of ways and we are very fortunate to play in front of so many people. Sonata Arctica went down great as did Gamma Ray, the crowds know their music and therefore they always get a great response. They deserve it.
All in all irrespective of the lack of food, warm showers and general daily information the club owners should be giving the management and crew, it was a cool night. The runner (person who takes the band members to various locations, including hotel showers for places/venues without) was a classic.
The way he drove the hire car and changed gears I questioned whether he was a manual driver or if he just didn't care, because at one stage during the drive we could not stop laughing at how many times he ran red lights and didn't give a shit for the speed limits.
I'd like to see him do that in Australia hehehe!
I'll never forget when he rang our hotel room and said "Hello, I am the runner, are you READY?" Heh heh! It was almost as if he was a rapper in a past life.

Wednesday 17/10/01
Today was our day off, and we pretty much spent the whole time in the bus on our way to Madrid, Spain.
The trip from Turin to Madrid is approximately 1360km which was a long road. So what can one do?
Well by now, you would have read I have not mentioned anything about the bus and want we can do to kill time.
We have a CD player, play station, DVD player, video recorder, reading material, windows to see the passing views, and if you are tired you can sleep in your bunk which is comfortable and peaceful as long as they are no bumpy roads to drive over.
The drive to Madrid was long, yet cool, considering most of it is highway and it is rather smooth. Food and drink was not a problem because we had 2 fridges, a microwave, hot water jug and bread toaster on board. The seating is comfortable because all the seats are leather and the bathroom is small, yet ok.
Did I tell you about the tour bus rule concerning never taking a dump in the bus toilet...? Well some anonymous phantom decided to break the rule when everyone was asleep and you guessed it, we suffered for some hours. I hope the person has the fate of having 1,000 camels fertilise his lounge room carpet hehehe My guess is that it was Sonata's live sound guy but there is no positive proof and we were reluctant to find out if it was actually him hehehe!
All up the bus is rather comfortable and there are always rather interesting conversations and tour stories to listen to which are very funny, especially when you hear about past tour occurrences which are classics. Believe me, when I say that, everything you could imagine to happen on tour from the stories we have heard... has happened.
Of course you can drink cheap wine from Italy, that is cheaper than a bottle of water (works out to be the equivalent of $1 per carton) but you won't feel any better for it. All you can do is just kick back, and enjoy the ride. Special mention goes to our 2nd bus driver dude who managed to scratch the left hand side and yell obscenities at himself for being stuck on a narrow road and not knowing what to do, so in a fit of panic he did some damage to the bus and because of this, he was told off by our bus driver Oliver.
We arrived out our hotel at midnight for a few hours sleep before the madness began for another day. Of course we loved every minute of it.

Thursday 18/10/01
Madrid, Spain... what can one say that can out words into equation that can describe our first time in Spain?
Spanish metal fans are very loyal with their metal music, we are talking that Spain has a great and growing metal scene, make no mistake, we will definitely be here in the future.
There are no questions left unanswered about Spanish metal fans, they're awesome!
When we walked onto the stage, the crowd applauded, cheered and made us feel welcome. We played a good set and taking into account that we are still a relatively new band, the crowd got into us and went off!
Imagine a soccer crowd mixed with a vocal metal crowd, then, you can imagine how fantastic Spanish metal fans really are.
Sonata Arctica kicked ass, Spain remembered them from the tour they did the previous year with Rhapsody and Stratovarius. The people knew their lyrics and they went crazy on pretty much every song.
Gamma Ray as usual kicked ass big time, I have never stood on a concrete floor and felt it vibrate from the crowd jumping and going crazy, and if that wasn't enough when Gamma Ray played "I Want Out" the crowd went absolutely apeshit! It's a good thing that the security kept their cool and understood that people were just having fun. Oh yeah, Madrid was babe city! A great evening was had by all.

Friday 19/10/01
Barcelona, Barcelona, Barcelona aaahhh! This is the shit man!!!!! Oh my god, what a night, what a night damnit!!
The stage was massive enough to park several cars on it, I could not believe that we had so much space, ah man it was a dream!
We moved around onstage as much as our instrument cables would allow us to hehehe. The crowd went crazy and it was really cool to see that the guy who was holding the Aussie flag was one of our friends Simon who we met in Hamburg the previous year (how you goin' man?)... It was very hot inside, yet the atmosphere was incredible, so much sweat, smoke and loud music ah it was great!
Once again, the crowd enjoyed us, once again the crowd enjoyed Sonata Arctica and of course Gamma Ray kicked ass.
We spent a couple of hours after the show meeting people and signing autographs which was cool. Which is normal for us to do every night after our gig to go and sign autographs and meet up with new people and friends. As we left on our way to San Sebastian we were told that the venue in Barcelona was the same place that Sepultura filmed their live "Under Siege" video, so for some of us, it was a memorable yet great night knowing that a cool band made a damn cool live video there, that many of us have in our collections.

Saturday 20/10/01
Today the venue was in San Sebastian because originally, we were meant to play tonight in Bergara, but due to the concert being sold out the venue was changed so more people could see the bands.
San Sebastian is a great place, some of us went sight-seeing, during the day and to say that it is a cool place would be an understatement.
San Sebastian is simply beautiful. It is located from what I know, on the Atlantic coast line, the scenery and the atmosphere is breathtaking! We wished that we could have stayed here longer than just one day. The venue was massive and the stage was equally huge, it was so far the biggest place we had played in and it was absolutely full from the front to the back and the seats that were on both sides of the venue. The crowd was incredible and just let loose big time. For me, apart from having many technical problems with my amp it was a great night and truly for all of us in Vanishing Point an evening that will remain in our memories forever.
Sonata Arctica played a great set finishing off with the song "San Sebastian". Gamma Ray's performance was for us truly great, it was easily the best show in our opinions and the audience were totally into Gamma Ray's music.
If two encores is an example of what the vibe was then you can tell, that tonight was incredible!
We had the time of our lives playing in Spain, from the reception we received from the people, they liked our stuff and we can not wait to come back here again.
A special mention and hello goes out to Santiago from Rock Hard magazine Spain, thanks for the interview and warm words man, keep up the good work!

Sunday 21/10/01
Porto, Portugal was the next city we played in on the southern part of the European tour. Porto is a nice place and the venue is situated right on the harbour so the view from the venue was fantastic.
From a distance, there was a bridge in view that was designed by the same dude who designed the Eiffel Tower in Paris France. Needless, to say, we would have loved to had a look around Porto but due to late arrival and the rain we had to kick back at the venue which was ok because it was one of the most modern and comfortable venues we have ever played. The organisers, staff and people were fantastic in their assistance and they made sure we were ok and that everything was taken care of. It was a spin out for us because one of the organizers was the female vocalist in a band called Oratory who are a well known band from Portugal as well as being label mates of ours that are on LMP.
Our show went down well and it truly felt for us that we were back home playing the Esplanade in Melbourne, the people were singing the words to our songs and they went off to our music.
We finished the concert smiling from ear to ear and we will have to get back here in the future, we just have to come back.
We met a guy named Rodrigo who was in a wheelchair and who's a Vanishing point fan.
We had photo's taken with him and it was a warm moment for us to see the joy in his eyes, although he could not speak, his heart was buzzing with joy and we were very happy to see that we made his day :)
It was a moment of happiness that we were and still are honoured to have been part of.
It is people that you meet in your travels who really put things into perspective and remind you that music is the universal language that helps people connect, regardless of age, distance or language.
Sonata Arctica kicked ass as usual, the people in Portugal, loved them :)
Gamma Ray played a good set as well taking into account that some of the members that day were in bed with the flu.
Porto is a great place, the venue, organizers and the fans were absolutely fantastic.
We will be here again in the future.

Monday 22/10/01
This day was our day off and what else would you expect us to do on our day off?
a) Do the tourist thing and take a look around?
b) Do our washing/laundry thing?
c) Spend time on the bus?
If by chance you answered a), the hehehe we wish we had the chance to have a look around.
If you answered b), then we wish we had time to do our clothes because they were starting to get a little bit um err stale.
If you answered c), then you are an absolute champion and you have qualifications to be a tour manager!! Only kidding of course, The reason we were on the bus, is because we were driving from Portugal to France which is a considerable effort in one day in time and distance. Anyways, on the bus we spent time sleeping watching videos, listening to CD's, talking bullshit and just taking in the views via the windows.
It gives you a lot of time to think, which sometimes is really cool and can be constructive yet when you think about family and loved ones back home you realise just how much you miss them,
Anyways (again!!) enough of my crap, we arrived at the hotel in Bordeaux, France at 9.30pm which was cool enough for some of us to go and eat out and for some of us to have an early nights sleep.
That was it folks, glamorous huh?

Tuesday 23/10/01
Bordeaux, France was were our first show in France was to be, so the venue was really cool and set out very well for a concert. The only thing is that tonight the concert was in a big auditorium which to anyone who knows sound acoustics will tell you that a good auditorium will have a very clear sound. Well, just our luck, the sound was crystal clear on stage yet there was no bass existant whatsoever. So in effect, it was a little too clear for a heavy metal concert. Sometimes, some chaotic noise frequencies are good enough to get a vibe yet the lack of these frequencies can make concerts sound a little too nice. This place nevertheless rocked and our first experience with a French crowd was fantastic to say the least. They moshed (to our stuff hehehe), sang and let loose because for us being the support band, it is normal for people to stand and watch with arms folded observing every move you do. Luckily, on this tour, we had good responses at every place we played at.
After our show we met many people including many new fans so it was cool for us to sign autographs and get photos taken. It seems France is a country, that follows heavy metal and progressive metal so the vibe here was pretty cool.

Wednesday 24/10/01
Lyon is a very nice place, and like Bordeaux the people here were very friendly. We were fortunate to be playing in front of great crowds in big venues on this tour. Tonight's gig had a massive crowd turn out yet it was held in a smaller venue, that holds a maximum crowd capacity of 650 people. So in a way it was small, but it was jam packed with people and the atmosphere was great!
From what we heard, it was Kai Hansen who requested to play here because he liked the vibe and this venue has sentimental value for him.
The stage was cool, the sound was great, the crew was fantastic, but we didn't know what to think about the dressing room Sonata Arctica and us shared. It more or less resembled a bathroom with a fridge and a table full of food. It was pretty funny!
Nevertheless, our show went well and the crowd enjoyed our music, there was a mosh pit happening (again hehehe) and we walked off stage happy.
Sonata Arctica played a great show and apart from having technical problems, with Mikko's keyboard dying half way through their set, they kicked ass.
Gamma Ray kicked ass as usual, and the crowd went crazy.
All in all it was a great night and much fun was had by all. Lyon rocked big time!
Hopefully next time we will have a proper shower at the venue that will not be in the middle of a thoroughfare with strangers walking in and out of the place. Pretty funny huh?

Thursday 25/10/01
Pratteln's venue would have to be one of the friendliest band venues in Europe, you ask any band that has toured Europe and they will tell you the same thing. I know it sounds as if we are, picky, but when it comes to playing at a venue that has a warm shower, a great size stage, decent backstage rooms, great staff, great cooked meals and last but not least a washing machine and dryer who can complain? The guy who runs and promotes this venue has our double thumbs up!!
Tonight's crowd was to be approximately 1500 people and judging by the vibe it was going to be a great night.
Alex and some new found friends of ours, drove all the way from Frankfurt to come and see us. Of course they came bearing gifts (alcohol, very strong alcohol that was home made and aussie style cookies) which was very cool. Alex's home made brew looks like domestos is called domestos yet is quite a nice tasting cocktail, but, let me assure you as good as this stuff looks it is truly evil! So as you could imagine, it was very popular with all the bands and crew.
We also had a close fan Nani, who brought to us and gave us her artwork she did for a university exam in which she chose to do artwork about Vanishing Point. I can honestly say, that all of us in the band were and still are today, blown away with her work. We were speechless, and it was fantastic to see her artwork, and read the descriptions she wrote pertaining to each piece of work which were all in depth and excellently presented. We will never forget this ever.
Tonight's show for us was really cool and everything went very well, considering most of the time we have a line check. The sound out front was good and the crowd enjoyed us.
During Gamma Ray's set, I wandered out into the audience to meet up with friends and to my surprise there was Schmier the main man from thrash pioneers Destruction standing by the bar having a drink. As always I had to go up and say hello and ask if it was cool for some photos to be taken, of course it was and not only that, the true gentleman that he is, he shouted me a bourbon and coke. Along the way you meet some well known people who are a bit reserved and quiet or you get to meet well known people who are friendly and very down to earth. I can happily say that Schmier is the latter and very down to earth. There's no bullshit with him and we all enjoyed hanging out with him.
We also caught up with our new mate, Cede from Freedom Call, so of course we had a few drinks and many laughs along the way. Tonight was also another reason to celebrate because it was our sound guy Ernie's birthday, so in a sense all of us and crew got merrily drunk and had many laughs. These are really great times and today was surely one of those days we will remember with a smile :o)

Friday 26/10/01
Back to the land of croissants, good food, great people and to a venue only 5 minutes walk from the world famous Moulin Rouge, which is situated in the souvenir shop and red light district of Paris. It is a little bit dirty yet it has a certain atmosphere that is interesting while at the same time, you can't help but walk in to one of the many porn (das good) shops there to have a look and a laugh. I find it amusing because in Europe people walk into porn shops like they walk into supermarkets, while in Australia, some people are some what secretive about their secret hobby of collecting video art! The vibe Paris has, is nice and tonight's venue, in which we were performing at was very nice and had a great atmosphere to it. A bonus for us was that we had very cool conditions, including, a great dressing room that had a shower which actually had hot water running. The crowd tonight was really good and responsive, the overall vibe we had was good and we made a lot of new friends in Paris. Judging by the response that Sonata Arctica received they are well-known in France. Gamma Ray got a huge response from the crowd also. Tonight's show was truly supreme and a great night was had by all of us guys.

Saturday 27/10/01
Today we played in Vosselaar, Belgium at a venue called Biebob, which is famous for being small, has a good vibe and is popular for having many bands passing through playing shows here.
The venue I mentioned is small. Backstage access is via a small stair case/ladder that leads to some rooms that have a damp smell happening, which eats into your clothes. Lucky in a way I had a blocked nose from a head cold.
Anyways, tonight's show was truly supreme, Belgium has many people who know of us and we seem to have a warm connection with people in Belgium. The sound tonight was good considering we didn't have a sound check. Sometimes it is hard for all three bands to have a sound check, either way being the opening band sometimes can be hard due to time limit restrictions etc.
Although sometimes, it is hard, it is great that we get to play in front of many people and we are very lucky to have such an opportunity.
Tonight I didn't have a chance to see Sonata Arctica and Gamma Ray because I went to a heavy metal CD shop a few doors down to get some rare stuff. The shop is really well set out and they know their music very well. If you are ever in the same area, I recommend you go and check out the "ISP Company" because I'm sure you will walk out of there quite a few dollars less, their selection is awesome.
After the shop, we bumped into many friends of ours from Germany who travelled all the way to see us and we also caught up with good friends of ours Dirk and Sylvia. Dirk played bass in a great band called Shadowdance who supported us at our Brussels' show in August. Dirk mentioned that Shadowdance had split, I know that the new band he will put together will be good and you can guarantee that we will keep you posted. We had a couple of drinks outside and we even autographed a car believe it or not?
It was a classic and of course it being a quiet neighbourhood Jack just had to do his famous dog bark that started every dog in the area in a barking frenzy. As usual, it was a classic and we couldn't stop laughing.
At approximately 2.30am and after saying our goodbyes to Ernie our sound guy and PIESEL, we made our way back to the bus for the journey to Gothenburg, Sweden!

Sunday 28/10/01
Today was our day off and during this day, most of the time was spent travelling on the bus and on two ferries to get to Sweden.
Our journey took us via Denmark and finally we arrived at our hotel in Gothenburg at 6.30pm. It was very dark and very cold, in fact the wind just blew through you regardless of how many clothes you wore.
This was our introduction to the Scandinavian winter and the local folk said it was still relatively warm.
I'd hate to see how cold it really gets. Either which way, Gothenburg was a very nice city from what we saw and it seemed very peaceful. We all had an early night after a day of constant travel.
A quick note for any Australian's who are going to visit Gothenburg, be prepared to pay a lot of money for a beer, Jack and myself were at an Australian bar in Gothenburg and I shouted Jack and myself a Coldie each and to my amazement it worked out to be close to twenty dollars Australian currency, which is very steep heh heh heh.

Monday 29/10/01
Today we were playing in Gothenburg and the venue was very nice, it was a student union hall in which many concerts throughout the year are held.
The stage set up was good with there being a lot of room onstage and the organization was fantastic.
For me it was also a very cool day because I met Tom who is the vocalist in a band from Gothenburg called Everygrey, which I am a huge fan, if you have not heard their music, go and check it out.
Anyways back to the events of the day, it was the first time we were getting mixed by Ukka (I hope that I spelt his name correctly) and he had not heard us play before, so without a proper soundcheck or even a line check some of us ( including myself, well ok, I admit, mostly myself) were a little unsure of how the sound was going to be and the overall vibe of the show.
I mean you can't blame me for feeling a little nervous for playing live in Gothenburg and in front of some very well known musicians that the metal world respects.
Despite some minor glitches, our show went really well and much fun was had by all of us, I must say, the sound guy did an awesome job and he deserves credit.
Backstage after the show we bumped into, took photos, drank some beer and hung out with the dudes from In Flames, Evergrey and Hammerfall which was very cool.
Jack was in heaven talking to the guys from In Flames, seeing that they are one of his favourite bands, Joe was having an in depth conversation with Oscar from Hammerfall talking about all things metal \m/
Sonata's set went well and so did Gamma Ray's set which ended with Gamma Ray doing I Want Out with Joacim from Hammerfall getting up onstage.
Tonight was cool and after the venue closed, we ventured to a bar that was having the after show party to celebrate Daniel Zimmerman's birthday.
For me it was very cool to catch up with Wojtech who is in Lost Horizon which I'm sure is a band in the future who are going to be huge.
It was very cool to converse with him because we are both from Polish backgrounds, so of course we spoke mainly in Polish language and had many laughs along the way (Czesc stary, co nowego heh heh), we all got along very well with him and we will be keeping in touch in the future.
Anyways at 3:00am we had to leave to go to Stockholm where the next show was going to be.
We left behind many new friends.
We will back here one day.
A special mention goes out to Thomas and his buds who drove over 300 kilometres to come and see us play, thanks man :)

Tuesday 30/10/01
I don't know were to start concerning Stockholm, it was a very nice venue, in fact we were one of the first bands to play at the venue and all the conditions we had were first class.
Our backstage room was very comfortable, we had a shower with hot water, cold beer, good food and most of all a comfortable atmosphere.
Today's show was meant to be in a different venue but due to tickets being sold out very long ago, the decision to move the whole concert to a bigger place was put in place and thus tonight we had a crowd of around 1400 instead of the maximum 550 people in the original venue that was booked.
Tonight we took to the stage at 8:00pm the response we received was great, many people in the crew mentioned that the Swedish crowd can be somewhat cool towards support bands, which at first we noticed but it did not take long for the crowd to loosen up and get into out music :)
It is a very cool feeling to have a positive response knowing that many of the people there don't know our music, yet they liked and enjoyed what they heard for the first time.
Judging by the responses we received I think that the Swedish people liked what we were playing and like the previous night in Gothenburg, Stockholm was fantastic, and we cannot wait to come here again.
After our show tonight and when everything was finished, we met up with many friends of ours who included Ronny, John and Nobby from Dionysis.
Any fans of Nation would know that John and Nobby were both in Nation which to many of us guys in Vanishing Point were a great band, many people would also know that Ronny used to be the drummer in Sinergy for their first album.
We had a great time catching up with them and it was cool to meet John after all this time listening to his playing on CD, believe me when I say that John can shred on guitar with the best of them :)
It was a big spinout for Tom and myself to walk from the backstage area to talk to these two dudes who were standing out there in the freezing cold weather, the security guy told us that they had been standing out there for over 2 hours wanting to speak with one of us.
Anyways we got talking with them and they were totally in shock and very happy to talk with us, we apologized and said that we didn't know that they had been waiting outside in the ice-cold temperature, had we have known earlier, we would have got some passes for the dudes just so they didn't get a cold.
They said that they were in a band and that we were an inspiration to them, which to us was a very nice compliment, to be honest Tom and myself were floored in a positive sense.
These sure are good times and to hear warm words like the ones the guys complimented our music with, definitely make all our worries and troubles seem like nothing.
Its times like these that we realise how lucky we are :)
A quick and very special mention also goes out to Anne and Arne who came to see us all the way from Norway, it was a great pleasure to finally meet them and we had a great time together with many laughs along the way.
For those who don't know, Arne is our webmaster in Norway who has a Vanishing Point website in Norwegian and English language, so check it out :)
I remember that when we played onstage that night, I remember seeing a couple standing there with Vanishing Point shirts singing our songs, something inside of me told me that it was Anne and Arne, I was correct :)
Stockholm Rocked!!!!!!!!!!! That's all!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday 31/10/01
Day off!!!!! Day off!!!!! Day off!!!!! umm ahh and you guessed it... a day off.
Today's day off was spent on the ferry/ ship that travels overnight from Stockholm to Helsinki, Finland.
And you guessed it, all we did was party, I mean what can you expect from a boatload of people who by 11pm are totally drunk and in party mode, and that wasn't just us who had a couple of drinks, it was the whole damn place!!!! heh heh heh
We witnessed karaoke singing in Finnish and Swedish which was interesting and there was this dude who always came up onstage and wanted to sing, the funny thing was, he was too drunk to even try to read the lyrics as they came across the television screen heh heh heh nevertheless it was good value and he provided good entertainment that was short lived for the karaoke bar.
After all the laughs some of us decided to go and get something to eat, some of us decided to hang around and drink, Silvio and myself decided to go and have dinner in the huge buffet restaurant that served some classy food, we ate like we hadn't had any food for many hours (actually come to think of it, we did'nt eat for many hours) and I could only manage to eat not much at all, so while we were eating I decided to have a couple of glasses of wine with the food, wrong move.
As I was going to get a refill and try to have some more food, I could not help myself, I started to laugh at everything and everyone, ask any of the guys and they will tell you that I am a clown when I am slightly drunk.
Anyways after all the wine and food we went to the nightclub that was on the ferry and check out what was happening, everyone from the bands to the crew were there and having a drink.
It was not long before all of us guys in the BANDS and some of the crew started to dance to silly doo bee doo be dum dum techno/Euro/disco songs...
Imagine a bunch of long haired, inebriated people dancing to Britney n stuff, neither could we, but neither could we stop from taking the absolute piss out of each other and the people there by holding the disco dance floor to ransom heh heh..
It was like a really bad version of the film called "Fame", we were the most silly people there but at the same time everyone kept on dancing with us heh heh heh, it was like a really bad un-choreographed version of "Fame" because when the ship was rocking from side to side, so was everyone on the dance floot, it was very funny.
It was kind of like a disco survivor type of thing because everyone was bumping into each other, we were all falling all over the place, drinks were spilled on the dance floor (Tommy) some dudes were doing like a drunken Cossak dance (Jani and Tommy from Sonata ) someone danced like Michael Jackson ( Kai ), someone was really getting off and dancing to Britney ( Danny Klupp ), all of us were trying to moonwalk and of course most of us fell on our asses ( me included, duh ).
The great thing about it was that after all the shows and just before the last show in Finland, we all just let loose and had fun, it was a very enjoyable evening, we dont know what time we got to bed, dont know how we got to bed and most off all we didnt have any fear of sleeping 25 feet below the water line, scary huh...
Sometime during the morning someone was knocking on our room door and would not stop, so after 10minutes of this going on, I got out of my bed and checked what was going on, well would you know it, there was Tommy standing there with a drunk smile on his face, when I asked him what the hell he wanted, he just said " I just thought to come down and say hello and see how your doing", what a prick heh heh well as you would have guessed the door was slammed shut and we forgot about him and ignored his knocking on the door until he gave up.
A couple hours later (felt like we only had 15minutes of sleep)., we arrived in Helsinki and boarded our bus to go the the venue which was the...

Thursday 1/11/01
Nosturi in Helsinki, Finland...
The Nosturi is a venue that is popular with many bands having played there and it is actually an old ship motor assembly building, so it has a really cool vibe to it and taking into account the cold weather that we were experiencing, the Nosturi is actually situated right on near the sea water, so it was very cold.
During the day, Joe, Mikko, Danny, Jack and myself decided to go CD shopping and have a look around in the 1degree temperature which was blowing a strong north wind gust accompanied by a rain that was falling on top of us like small ice pieces, this kind of weather none of us other than Mikko were used to, neither was Danny heh heh heh.
Anyone who knows Danny will tell you that he lives in his shorts, and do you think that he wore long pants today...
NO WAY!!!!!! he wasn't cold at all, in fact he put on his Vanishing Point jacket just so he could put his hands in his pockets so that they would not freeze heh heh heh.
I was not suprised that many people were looking at Danny with absolute horror concerning his clothing sense and our body temperatures dropped half a degree by looking at him heh heh heh he is a classic, how he does it, I will never know.
Anyways after returning from our CD spending spree and cold snap we had short showers, soundchecked and some of us sat down to have dinner.
Tonight the doors opened at 8pm and there was a line of hundreds of people waiting to get inside the Nosturi for the evening, which was sold out.
We took to the stage at 9pm for what was going to be an unforgettable yet extremely funny last show of the tour.
Any band will tell you that it is custom to have a total prank night on the last evening and everything that can be stuck together, lubricated, go missing, be thrown, and even covered with condoms is normal and that everyone on the last show just goes into stupid mode heh heh heh.
One of many examples was when our CD intro was playing as we were walking onstage I noticed that my microphone stand was very low, as if a Minime from Austin Powers' "The Spy Who Shagged Me" was going to sing through it heh heh, so after adjusting the microphone stand I noticed that covering the microphone was a condom heh heh.
I tried so many times to get the fucker off the microphone, but it kept slipping because of all the lube that was on it, eventually I got a grip of it and I lost it to have it slap really loud into the microphone that all the audience could hear and laugh to because the PA sound system was turned on, I could not stop laughing myself and either could the rest of the guys, another thing was there were messages stuck to the fold back speakers and all around the stage that had very funny smart-ass remarks and quotes from tour happenings that some of us had forgotten, by the look on Christian's face who does our lights, he was the culprit.
Little did we know that later on in our set, more things were going to happen...
During Samsara some of the guys from Sonata Arctica walked on stage and began brushing their teeth while Dan from Gamma Ray played odd time signature drum beats to try to throw Jack out of sync with the song, we were all laughing our asses off on stage and it was very amusing to have all this going on and still have the people in the crowd enjoy what we do.
Luckily enough we finished Samsara with not many mistakes and still standing after laughing so much heh heh.
As Kai told us earlier on in the tour, we made many new friends here tonight in Helsinki, the crowd really liked our music and we were very happy to have been received in such a nice way, Finland has many cool bands that most of us in Vanishing Point have CDs of in our collections, so for us it was a great night and a very memorable experience.
For us this was the last concert of our whole entire stay in Europe and it truly was a sentimental one.
When Sonata Arctica took to the stage, the crowd went nuts once again and the whole place was alive.
During Sonata's set a whole lot of tricks were going on, one included Kai taping a box of breakfast cereal to a stick and tipping the contents over Jani's head while he was playing, Dan from Gamma Ray as usual got behind his drum kit and did blast beats during Sonata's slow song and the funniest thing that we all saw was Silvio getting up onstage with a white towel wrapped around him and shaving cream on his face.
He made Tony hold a mirror while he started to shave himself on stage and when the towel was torn from his waist he had a white sock taped to his dick (like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers band photo shot) which was amusing, to be honest with you, I thought myself running across the stage in boxer shorts in Frankfurt was silly, but this took the cake heh heh heh.
It was definitely a classic what Silv had done and everyone in the place was pissing themselves laughing, I must say I could not believe he did it, come to think of it, either did the rest of the people there heh heh heh.
After Sonata's set, Gamma Ray took to the stage for a blistering set which had the crowd going nuts again, all of us were in party mode and we were all goofing around like idiots.
A highlight for us all was to be invited onstage during a Gamma Ray encore to sing backing vocals to "I Want Out" which to all of us is an absolute classic song, we were jumping around and just generally having a great time while Tony sang the lead vocals with Kai standing back and playing guitar, it was a moment I don't think any of us will ever forget.
Many years ago we listened to Helloween and Gamma Ray, we never ever thought that we would be on a tour of this scale let alone share the same stage for a classic song.
All up tonight was great, actually it was excellent, we had so much fun and we met so many cool people in Helsinki, that we can't wait to go back to Finland.
We had to say goodbye to the guys from Sonata Arctica tonight and we knew that it would be the last time that we would see the guys from Sonata Arctica for a while, its the way it goes, all of us were teary and we all didn't want to say goodbye, yet we all know that friendships like these are not forged for just for a couple of years, they are made for a life time.
We boarded our bus and travelled to Turku which is in southern Finland to board our Ferry ride back home, all in the bus were silent, and we finally let it set in that we had no more shows to play, it finally set in that we had completed the tour, it finally had set in that 6 normal guys from Melbourne, Australia completed a European tour playing with two great bands and finally some of us were going home for the first time in 3 and a half months.
When we arrived back to Hamburg, we said our goodbyes to all the guys in Gamma Ray and all the crew. Once again it was weird saying bye to people that 5 weeks before were complete strangers and now good friends, once again we know that one day we will cross paths again... in another place, another country and another tour :)
The tour bus took us to Altona train station in Hamburg most of us prepared ourselves to get home, we purchased tickets and said goodbye.
It was the last time I was to see 5 guys I consider brothers of mine for another month and a half, it was the last time I was to see the guys who I finally was able to achieve my lifetime ambition and dream with.
The train took them to Frankfurt and I stood there until I could not see the train anymore with a bit of a lump in my throat, that's the way it goes and I was happy for some of them that after all this time they were at last going back home to see their families, I was sorry for some because they wanted to stay behind, as for me... I was off to another place for another journey :)
We want to thank everyone for their kindness, warm words, help, patience, friendship and last but not least their support...
You guys are the best...
Take care and stay safe / see you sometime, somewhere on tour...
All the best.
Chris (Vanishing Point)