Here you will be able to read all the funny (hopefully not any not-funny-ones!) anecdotes from the road. This page will be updated with text and images as we go and have possibility to access internet. So enjoy and feel free to comment [ HERE ].

24th April, tuesday
Toni the Driver went to take the bus from Tampere today. Tomorrow morning he’ll go to Lappeenranta to pick up Henkka, Tommi, Eetu the Roadie and all the backline. Then they are off towards Helsinki. The ferry will leave at 22 o’clock towards Rostock, Germany. The ride will be long… What to do on a ferry with punch of your best friends going towards 3-week trek around Europe?! Well, maybe we’re able to come up with some activities. Lets see if we will get some images and text to add tomorrow.

25th April, wednesday
We did come up with some things to do on the ferry. Mainly drinking beer. The diary will be updated shortly with images and more info.

Ok, so we’ve already been on our trek around Europe since April 25th, Wednesday. This is the first day we’ve been able to get online to update the tour diary and check out our guest book entries etc. Hopefully we’ll be able to update stuff more frequently from now on… Hehe. Anyways, here’s some information and stuff: Our road crew consists of Battlelore members; Kaisa Jouhki, Tomi Mykkänen, Timo Honkanen, Henri Vahvanen, Jussi Rautio, Maria (me) and our session rasta Tommi “get down!” Lintunen; tour manager Mikko “if things don’t work out I’ll kill you with my laser eyes” Järvenpää; stage technician/roadie Eetu “yeah, I’ll remember the millions of things you want me to do on stage before the show” Keränen and our photographing/videoshooting KING of the bus drivers, Toni Salminen. With this group we’ve already managed to have a lot of fun and have done some great shows together! But I guess some of you have seen those already… Well. Ok, let’s get to business. These stories are written by both Tomi and Maria.

The first thing I want to say is a huge THANK YOU to all you people, who’ve come to see us play and supported us in the most amazing way. This is our first headlining tour and hell, we’ve enjoyed it a lot! And all that is thanks to you people out there, who’ve come to see our shows and shown us, what great fans are like. So thanks for that!

We came to Rostock by boat. It took 24 hours from Helsinki, Finland to Germany. And well – what will a bunch of metalheads and their crew do on a boat trip that takes 24 hours? Uhmm… Well, let’s just say that we didn’t spit in our bottles or sit in our cabins looking bored. Some pictures will be added later on… After getting to Rostock we took the bus out and Toni drove us safely to Berlin, where we had our first gig April 27th and a Friday night. Our entertainment in the bus was Conan the Barbarian on DVD, so later on we’ve heard quite a lot of Arnold Schwarzenegger imitation… Tommi seems to have the greatest talent in being Conan.

The club in Berlin, Germany, was good and we had a nice time in the warm city – coming from the cold Finland to Berlin, where you could just wear t-shirt and shorts was just great, hehe. Guys threw some balls around (as can be remembered from our previous tours) and made some serious skill shots with the rubber ball bouncing from the roofs and ceilings, walls, gutters etc. We haven’t lost any yet!! Before the gig everyone was pretty nervous and looking forward to getting on stage. The first gigs are always the hardest in a way, you don’t really know what to expect… But everything went well in the end, and the gig itself was great, although the club is quite small and the sounds could’ve been quite messy. The end result sounded good and we all enjoyed playing live again. The audience was amazing, it just seems like we have the best fans in the world. Very supportive! After the show we went to get some dinner, talked with Matte (our promoter) and drank some sauna beers to get the tour started… Great, I say. We had a bit of a tetris -game with the bus as we were about to leave since the parking lot had a lot of cars in it… And well, the bus isn’t the easiest car to get through a parking lot full of cars. Luckily, we got the bus out and gave Toni a new name – the King of bus drivers. That was amazing. I don’t know if I could’ve taken a normal car out of that lot the way he got the bus. King.

The second gig was in Annaberg, Germany. A place we’d never heard of before, except for some rumours about it being a nice town and a great venue. Later on, as we arrived at the venue, we noticed that all the rumours were true – the town was absolutely beautiful and peaceful, and the venue and organizing was beyond expectations! Catering and everything was really good, so we definitely enjoyed ourselves out there. The sun was shining and we just hang out on the lawn, with some small burn injuries… Then the people started showing up. There were loads of people there, and the local support bands got to play for a great crowd as well. We started playing and the whole place just exploded, the audience was absolutely amazing and we were overwhelmed by the feedback and response we got. We talked to the people after the show, signed some CD’s, shirts and me and Kaisa got to sign a few chests as well! Not the guys and the tits this time around, hehehee… After the shower and a few sauna beers we headed back to the bus and were ready to get on the road again. This time to Czech Republic!

Brno, Czech Republic was Battlelore’s first contact with this beautiful country. Some of us have visited Czech Republic as tourists before, but none of us had been to Brno and Battlelore had never played in Czech Republic before. So we were definitely anticipating what kind of feedback we’d get and whether there’d be people at all watching us… Tomi, Timo and I decided to go for a walk in the city, and stupid as we are (I know I shouldn’t admit to anything like that) we took the keys of the bus with us. Well, the city was amazing, filled with beautiful churches and houses, loads and loads to see and experience. We would’ve walked around even more had we not got a phone call “where the hell are you guys? we can’t do anything without the bus keys; not move the bus to where it should be or take any stuff out or anything…” So we took a cab back to the bus a.s.a.p. Then Toni got to show us his best performance and take the bus to the back of the venue by using reverse… It was a close call this time around too. The venue started filling up later on, and we had really good local support bands. When it was time for us to get on stage, we were all kind of nervous and didn’t know what to expect. It was silly, as the people in the audience gave us a warm welcome and greeted us with shouts. We definitely gave them our best as they gave their best too. After the show we went to the merchandise desk, where we talked to people, drank some sauna beers with them, took photos and signed stuff. That was a great moment and we are still overwhelmed by the beauty of the place and by the great service and venue we got. I can honestly say that I think we are very lucky to have been able to perform in a place like that to all those great people who came to see us.

The fourth show was at a gothic festival in Budapest, Hungary. It was extremely nice festival with lots and lots of people. We also walked around Budapest and there was lots of festivities going on probably due Walburgis night or something. We played the outside stage and there were probably around 500 (???) people watching the show. We played at the same time with Mortiis so we weren’t able to see their show. After our shows we got together and embarked on Scandinavian drunken party. We Battlelorians had serpentine, party whistles and balloons. I have to admit that some of the goths didn’t get the funny side of it. Haha! We also had a “homo sapien run” later that night in a park near by the Petofi hall. And then we were off to Münich.

Münich, Germany was the next gig. On the other side of the city Mortiis guys were playing with Pain and Deathstars. We were also told that there was hardly any promotion for the gig so we didn’t get that many people. Well, we played like hell and people liked it and we even played an encore.

During the night and the morning we rode to the beautiful Konstanz, Germany. We met up with the guys from club Contrast and got finally the bus parked and electricity. Toni was forced to do some more skill-drives. It’s always really interesting to see him maneuver such big bus through some really small spaces. Haha! Actually Toni did some lumberjacking with the bus. He drove the bus and there was one branch of a tree that got in the way, so he cut it off… :D

We walked around Konstanz and in the evening we played in the club. There wasn’t that many people enjoying the gig but those who were there did get a good show of ours. It was a total win for us. After the show we did the usual meet&greet with the fans and then the club was closed. Almost all the staff stayed there and threw a party for us. It was fun again.

Special thanks for the E-Lane guys and lady. Prost!

Next in line is Milan, Italy. Well, at least it was supposed to be. The organizer cancelled the gig so we had a free day on the road. We went on the lake Konstanz, had some beers and something to eat. Sun was shining and all was good. Then we started our trip towards Thun, Switzerland.

We arrived in Thun quite late in the day. The club Late Night staff was there to greet us, get the parking place and electricty and to show us some really nice Swiss courtesy. After nice BBQ we strolled a bit in the city. A beautiful place like many we’ve seen on this tour. After waking up we went to the city and checked out the castle and the city center. Then it was back to the club to set the systems up and make soundcheck. Henkka is ill at the moment so we were thinking that the set will be a strain for him. Well, the gig was a good one. The nice and quite a small club was sold out and the feeling was great. Afterwards we signed a heap of albums and posters and everything. It was also another partynight.

Now I’m writing this in Uster, Switzerland. We are going to play in hour and half. The support band is playing their instruments here in the backstage. They have violins and clarinet and all. They also helped me with the spelling of “prost”. They will play also tomorrow with us in Illingen. I think this is all for now. See you on tour!!!

We didn’t really see any of the city in Uster, since it was raining all day long and people were a bit tired from the partying from the night before. Rock City’s organizer was excellent and took very good care of us. It was a blast once again, and we also saw some friends from Elis!! Tom, Pete and René were there to greet us and it was a lot of fun seeing those great people again. Hopefully we’ll see them all soon!

10th May

Cheers from Eindhoven, Holland! We are playing Effenaar in an hour. We have played some nice gigs after Uster. In Illingen, Germany we played a festival called Earthquaker. We had a lot of problems with the organizers concerning the bus and keeping the timetables which led to the fact that our set got cut short. We were really sorry about that since the people couldn’t see the whole package. We also had to leave the building really fast, so it was kind of stressful after all the hassle…

After Illingen we drove off to Dortmund, Germany to a club called Tarantula. People were a bit tired and terribly hungry. Since it had been raining for days and days, we were feeling a bit down, especially since the bus leakes from the top and some of our stuff and the sofa in the back is wet more or less all the time. However, the promoter got to the club and handled everything so well that our day only got better. Not that many people at the club, but the show was extremely intimate and we really connected with the audience. It was a great feeling and the night in Dortmund will always stay in our minds.

The next one – another rainy day, and place this time: Stuttgart, Germany. We got in the club, and the breakfast table looked amazing! We also had some dark bread which tasted great. The club looked really good and the sound on stage was the best we had so far, so we were really looking forward to this gig. We heard that the club was going to close after May, and we thought what a pity it was; such a nice club. There were quite a lot of people and it was a nice show. After the shower and a few sauna beers we were ready to get to sleep…

Marburg, Germany.