- Crows Over Germany Tour 2007 -
I’m writing this tour report on 17th February, in the night between
Saturday and Sunday, sipping some vodka Gorbatschow
in order to refresh my memory.
It’s been almost two weeks since we sat down at Helsinki-Vantaa
airport in the very morning of February the 2nd. Ewo
and Marco told us what there is to come and what to expect from our next
ten days in Germany.
Butterflies in the stomach and a good vibrating in
our bodies we met the Diablo guys in the smoker’s cabinet and immediately
these boys turned out to be our soul mates.
Then it was the time to move in to our BlueOne airplane
taking us to Berlin.
All our backline equipment had gone to Berlin with different transport
companies during the last week and we all were hoping this really had
happened. There was a Coach service Night-Liner waiting for us at the
Tegel airport which was supposed to be our home the next ten days. At
the same time we got to know our tour manager Basty from Contra Promotions
- a great guy indeed!
The first real setback was at the Columbia Club Berlin when we opened
the trailer where our backline was supposed to be.
All Cinnari’s
cymbal and snare cases were gone. Fuck!
Ewo started to solve the problem and the things seemed
to be so complicated that we didn’t have any other choice but to
use the Diablo drummer Heikki’s cymbals for our first gig.
Fortunately the Diablo guys are gentle and they loaned
us their drum mic selection too. Surprise, surprise
the local techs couldn’t
follow our technical-rider. That turned out to become common since.
After the first gig, which went fine, we relaxed in the buss with our
vodka Gorba and speculated about some horrific visions what could still
happen on this tour and how to possibly avoid them. It’s become
obvious that the equipment and all the other promised stuff might not
work the way we pictured it. Catering is something which worked out better
than you could imagine. In Germany they never run out of meat… there’s
always meat everywhere and in the restaurants if you order beef, it’s
so big you can never eat it completely. We tested this all the way.

About the nightlife in Berlin, there’s a special bar for the Priest
fans called Halford. Three meters high rubber Halford figure at the main
door invite customers inside. The owner, the local Halford look-alike
with all the same tattoos and outfit gave us sooo many cayenne-chili
drinks that hardly anybody of us remembered where the hell the buss was.
In Hamburg the undersigned was so worn out that he had to pass the sightseeing.
Almost everyone else went shopping and checking out
the “display
window girls” at Reeperbahn.
Marco introduced the boys to a local delicacy, currywürst. God knows
what I missed!
In the Knust club Hamburg, Ewo got the information that Pecu’s
equipment had got lost in Germany and that they would probably be at
the Frankfurt sorting center. Until we got them back, we were to survive
with Diablo’s cymbals. The “Fuck you meter” was getting
higher - if Pecu broke some of the Diablo cymbals, we would be the ones
to pay.
Great feelings from the Knust gig and after a “few” drinks
we started to night drive to the next city. The next city was Köln
and it would be our first day off, so it was party time and the party
got started in the morning.
When you are really drunk there’s always something funny going
on. For example we went to the Köln cathedral and Janne wanted to
do an echo test. Howling in the church is not one of the smartest things
to do. Pecu went indoors with his Stetson on. Fortunately the local church
member corrected the boys friendly.
Understandably the next day gig at the Underground club begun a little
bit painfully, but both bands’ gigs went great and the crowd was
satisfied as well.
Then happened the classic, Half of us got sick. Marco,
me, Tommi and Rainer caught a flu or some kind of allergy
reactions. Marco went to see a doctor and got antibiotics
and the rest of us took
some tabs from the local drugstore to ease our conditions.
A couple of the days later I noticed there are feather
pillows in the bus and they are really killing me with
the air condition. My eyes are full of matter in the
mornings and it’s
really hard to breathe. Okay, the show must go on.
Matrix club Bochum, built in the misguided sewer tunnel complex was
our next destination.
All the walls of its backstage were covered by tour
ppsters of many famous bands and some of them not so
famous. However, the fact is, it’s really windy at the top and
from the top only way is down. There were poster of Magnum, Motorhead,
Saxon, etc, those
hundreds of thousands or even millions sold bands that
are doing gigs in the same places as we are doing now. The world is strange
place to
live.
Everything worked out perfectly, the gig was hot and
we did a lot of autograph sessions.
After our gig there started some kind of a halloween
party or a party for abnormal people. All the guys
were wearing rubber skirts, make up and so…interesting?
Somewhere down the line the Diablo name changed to Bablo (Finnish folk
singer) and our first encore Rider Of The Last day to Rainer Of the Last
Day. Strange things happening…
After the München Metropolis, tinplate hall gig, we got our worst
night sleep ever. We didn’t have to drive to the next place until
at eight in the morning, so the buss stayed at the Metropolis yard the
whole night and they started a rave party one a clock in the morning.
The whole buss vibrated by the bass sound and the noise was enormous.
And somebody had to work next day...
Diablo did their 40-45 minute and we did our 70-75 minute set. The Diablo
guys wanted us to do Warhead every night. Marco and
Tommi preferred to save their voices a bit, so Warhead
was exceptional. This led to an interesting
conversation between the bands.
We were kind of polite and cut out those Warhead last
section samples by Hitler out of the song.
But the Diablo bassist’s name is Aadolf, so what could we possibly
do? We gave them a proposal. If would introduce him
as Horst Bulau on stage, then we would play Warhead.
Actually they did that…quite many times since, but we played Warhead
only twice, if I remember correct…sorry boys.
The next day off was coming and the road to Stuttgart was open. A really
beautiful city.
Gigs at Röhre went great and the both bands did lots of fan meetings
and as much pr. as possible.
Ewo and Basty were in good mood all the time. Merch
was selling fine. It was really great to be on the
tour. This was what we had expected.
A basic morning routine went pretty much like this: At nine o’clock
the driver says: “coffee break 30 minutes pause!” Which means
you have to fucking hurry up to take a dump, wash yourself up and order
the coffee. With this system the tour goes on and on, so Hirsh club Nurnberg
went by its own. The both bands gave their best and the last gig in Ascaffenburg
was to take place.
Colos-saal was the first place where all the tech-rider requirements
were handled they way they were supposed to. Our techs Mikko Tegelman
and Sami Jauhiainen were really satisfied for the equipment, those guys
are the best of the best. They had handled the two bands for eight gigs
in a row, with more or less good equipment and 20 minute break between
the bands. Real professionals, thanks to them!
Two of Hezekiel’s cymbals got broken, so after this tour we have
to pay him those. This was expected. Shit happens! This little city was
exciting and there were nice shopping streets to buy some souvenirs to
bring home. Specific shops, gothic, oriental, Lord of the Rings, Egyptian
and so on…
The last set for the little audience was actually one of the best. The
fan meeting was great too. There were people who had
been with us on three Germany gigs, thank you! You know who you are.
With sad feelings we had to take more than a 600 kilometer
trip against the night to Berlin to catch our flight
back to Helsinki.
There was a terrible hangover at the Tegel airport. Too many equipment
cases to carry, but we had still one more gig to play, the sold out Tavastia
club. The Helsinki was waiting.
In Helsinki, we gave nostalgic farewells to the Bablo boys and went
straight to Tavastia. The tour was done...
On the tour we used more than 32 litres of Gorbatschow vodka…More
than 1000 bottles of beer... Hundreds of cigarette packages…An
incalculable amount of mineral water and lots of exclusive products.
Okay, Tommi was in such a bad shape that he needed to go to see doctor
and we hoped he could do more than a hiss on stage. He had to go straight
from the doctor to the hotel to take a rest…and then in to hell.
Marco and I did some interviews about the tour, then it was time for
the sound check and waiting.
In Finland you have to go on stage after the midnight,
in Europe you start around 9 or 10 pm.
Our national system sucks!
After the great gig for the sold out house, most of us went to Helsinki
night life, but me and Janne went to hotel to take some Gorba and had
a pleasant conversation about the past weeks.
Next day we took the flight to Kuopio to have a three week pause and
then shall the next Finnish gigs begin.
Yours, Zac


Visit also the gallery for more live pics from the tour © Jiri Rogl