Last weekend was a good one, for me at least. I took a trip to Stockholm with my wife. We flew there with an old Danish airplane, which still had propellers. It was a Blue1 flight, so that was expectable. The crew spoke both languages: English and Danish. Especially the last one was a big help. I had bought the tickets something like six months ago, thus getting them quite cheap. They totalled 100 euros. The only thing that saddened me (yes, there must be one) was that I couldn't join the Christmas party arranged by our company. It was the first time for me not to take part in it during this 9-year span of working there. I'm not really missing the missing, LOL, but it has been such a tradition to follow. Maybe I'll start a new one from now on?
My old mobile, Nokia N73, gave me another disappointment. When I started it up after the flight, it showed me the notorious "Contact the retailer" sign. It was no news to me, I had experienced that a lot lately. For a normal user, it would have been the next thing to apocalypse, but as an experienced user I know the 'secret' magic-key to force format it. Secret in quotes, because it's common knowledge in the Internet. The downside of it is that you lose all of your personal data. That's why I install all the applications and pictures on the memory card. It's true that sometimes even the magic-format won't help. Then it really is time to contact the retailer. Or, like in my case, murmur by myself and throw the cellphone away.
I hadn't experienced the Arlanda Express before. It's a fast train that doesn't stop between Arlanda airport and the Stockholm city. It promises to take us to the capital of Sweden in twenty minutes. Hell, it took even less than that! It was fast alright, but it was expensive too: 240 crowns (about 24 €) each.
We had booked a room in Scandic Alvik hotel which was a pretty good choice. Thanks to Amig-J for recommending it to us! Alvik lies reasonably near Stockholm center and the subway station is close to the hotel. The room was tidy and modern, the breakfast was awesome (there were even pancakes available!) and the service was immaculate. I'll be sure to visit there again, when possible.
The main course was of course yet to come. Another lucky break for us was the subway connection. It led directly to Globen arena. Ericsson Globe, if you will. I won't. It was my second visit to the holy place where Finland won its first (and the only) WM ice-hockey title in 1995. This was the first one to attend a concert there. The event was part of Cliff Richard and The Shadows' final re-union tour. They started together over 50 years ago and now it was time to gather to dissolve.
I have always liked both Cliff and The Shadows, together and separately, but I have never been a huge fan. But this time it was an opportunity to see them all at the same time, performing those oldies. Classics like Move it, Lucky Lips, Living Doll, Summer Holiday, Young ones, Apache, Atlantis, FBI, Shadoogie and many, many more were heard during that night. It was somewhat ecstatic, somewhat unreal to testify it happen. Men around 70 were rocking and rolling, doing those simple - or difficult but only simple-sounding - early songs. They all have an impressive back catalogue after 1966, particularly in case of sir Cliff, but last Friday it was non-existent.
My personal rock favorite by Cliff & The Shads "Dynamite" was also included. They all sang (Shadows can sing too, if you didn't know) perfect harmonies and played amazingly well. One of my Shadows favorites "Dance On" was there too. Sure I missed a couple of my personal favorites of the era, but you just can't have them all. A 3-hour-lasting spectacle with an intermission was more than enough for one concert.
Personally I was a bit disappointed in Hank Marvin's playing, but it may be that he deliberately wanted to sound just as rough as he did in his early days. Kind of refused to exploit his later skills in guitar playing. Or on the other hand he may have lost some of his touch due to his age or some illness. I don't know, really. And furthermore, he must have had to re-learn those riffs, guitar breaks and solos. Can't expect that he would have remembered all of those fingerings by heart.
The drummer Brian Bennett was doing the best job of all, if you ask me. He was in real good shape when it comes to playing drums. In fact, most of the classics of the night were recorded before he joined the group in 1961, so he had to mimic his predessor. His son was on stage too, playing multiple instruments in the background and providing great symphonic instrumentations on synths whenever needed.
Bruce Welch, the rhythm guitarist, lead singer and the lead composer of many Cliff's and Shadows' hits, was playing tight rhythm all over. It's a shame that his guitar was almost drowning in the sea of musical extravaganza.
The bass player had been playing with the group for decades, but to me he was a newcomer. Nevertheless, he played pretty well. There was yet another musician on stage, a keyboardist. He was the most invisible man there - and to me, the most inaudible. I couldn't tell what parts he played, but I'm sure he wasn't there for nothing. I don't believe another "Linda case" (yes, for me to know and for you to shrug your shoulders).
Because we had a luck of getting the first row seats, I could watch them live; I mean real live, not just from screens behind the group. It's a totally different kind of experience to see them close close. Wrinkles, liver spots, sighs and off-the-mic comments. When the show was over and the group bowed to audience in standing ovation, I felt Mr. Bennett looking at me straight in the eye. For a fracture of a second, there was a contact and it felt good. In addition to his own talent, the man has talked and played with such rock legends as Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. I'd give a penny for Brian's thoughts when they played C'mon Everybody - a Cochran classic - which was one of the three "new" songs by Cliff and his lot. It's because he had played it behind Eddie himself too, on Cochran's and Vincent's tour to Britain in 1960.
They still had the same old dryish sense of humour left. Very British indeed. Actually, they had even the same jokes as always before. Stunts, wise cracks, fake stumble - the works. Now it was more than ok to include them. The best of their songs go together with the best of their stage routine. I found two bridges to the Paul Anka show I witnessed earlier this year. One of them was a speak by Bruce: "It's great to here in Stockholm tonight. At this age, it's great to be anywhere.." Anka said the same about Tampere. Another one was another "new" song, Singing the blues. Mr. Anka had recorded it in the sixties in fact and was for his part only going through his diverse but uneven back catalogue, that being the difference. I like the song, but let's face it: it's not THAT good.
There was a lot of different merchandise available. I bought an extensive tour booklet at 140 kronor. It's pretty neatly illustrated, offering a little information on the side. Well worth buying. The T-shirts were too expensive for my taste, although I must admit that they looked good.
It fits about 16000 people in Globen according to Wiki and I'm not the one to argue. It was a full house as far as I could see. Sitting so close to the target, I managed to snap one intermediate shot with my mobile. It's included here in this post. Damn I wish I had had a decent camera with me! These darn mobile cameras don't work too well in the dark.
Saturday was a second-hand record store time for me. This time I concentrated solely on Solna stores. I started with the one closest to my ex-residence in Råsunda. They have a huge storage of the 80's records. And they are cheap, 10 crowns each. I like the place. My friend S. has his atelier there in the back stage, if you will, but the man himself wasn't there. Then I moved on to the next store. The owner knows me by my face and I'm not that flattered by the fact. Luckily he wasn't around this time. He might have cross-examined me about my absence. I wasn't prepared to speak that much Swedish this time either. The third store lies right beside the second, but it's a whole different gold mine. George Harrison's All things must pass, a-triple album from 1970 was a steal at 50 kronor. I had to act accordingly. Well, not to steal but you know... I was too tired to check out the fourth place. It would have required some walking and the place is by far the most expensive. It has the biggest storage of records in Solna, perhaps in entire Stockholm area, but for some reason I have left the place empty-handed several times.
It was more than crowded at Kulturhuset on Saturday. I don't know what was the occasion, but a lot of families with small children were present. In spite of it, we had a dinner on the fifth floor. There's a reasonably cheap restaurant there. Warm food with salad and coffee cost only 190 crowns - and that was the sum of two persons. You can spend some time up on the roof as well. It served us a fine view over Stan for dessert.
On the ground floor of Kulturhuset there was a miniatyre of Stockholm on display. For such it was huge. I took a picture of it. You can see Globen in front, leaving the center of the city in the background. Although the architectural masterpiece seemed unfinished, it was impressive just the same.
A lot of Christmas lightings sparkled everywhere already in November. Yup, it's approaching once again: time for hot toddies (glögg) and pepper cakes (pepparkakor). We had some foretaste of it in Stockholm. Along with serious gift shopping. Plus my ever-confusing vinyl collecting. Did some great findings there, but who cares? Besides me. Finally we walked to Slussen and Vikingterminal. It had been a beautiful day all day. The long walks require a plenty of rest afterwards. Most of the passengers were eager and ready to start partying, while we were expecting to get a good night sleep. And we did.
My old mobile, Nokia N73, gave me another disappointment. When I started it up after the flight, it showed me the notorious "Contact the retailer" sign. It was no news to me, I had experienced that a lot lately. For a normal user, it would have been the next thing to apocalypse, but as an experienced user I know the 'secret' magic-key to force format it. Secret in quotes, because it's common knowledge in the Internet. The downside of it is that you lose all of your personal data. That's why I install all the applications and pictures on the memory card. It's true that sometimes even the magic-format won't help. Then it really is time to contact the retailer. Or, like in my case, murmur by myself and throw the cellphone away.
I hadn't experienced the Arlanda Express before. It's a fast train that doesn't stop between Arlanda airport and the Stockholm city. It promises to take us to the capital of Sweden in twenty minutes. Hell, it took even less than that! It was fast alright, but it was expensive too: 240 crowns (about 24 €) each.
We had booked a room in Scandic Alvik hotel which was a pretty good choice. Thanks to Amig-J for recommending it to us! Alvik lies reasonably near Stockholm center and the subway station is close to the hotel. The room was tidy and modern, the breakfast was awesome (there were even pancakes available!) and the service was immaculate. I'll be sure to visit there again, when possible.
The main course was of course yet to come. Another lucky break for us was the subway connection. It led directly to Globen arena. Ericsson Globe, if you will. I won't. It was my second visit to the holy place where Finland won its first (and the only) WM ice-hockey title in 1995. This was the first one to attend a concert there. The event was part of Cliff Richard and The Shadows' final re-union tour. They started together over 50 years ago and now it was time to gather to dissolve.
I have always liked both Cliff and The Shadows, together and separately, but I have never been a huge fan. But this time it was an opportunity to see them all at the same time, performing those oldies. Classics like Move it, Lucky Lips, Living Doll, Summer Holiday, Young ones, Apache, Atlantis, FBI, Shadoogie and many, many more were heard during that night. It was somewhat ecstatic, somewhat unreal to testify it happen. Men around 70 were rocking and rolling, doing those simple - or difficult but only simple-sounding - early songs. They all have an impressive back catalogue after 1966, particularly in case of sir Cliff, but last Friday it was non-existent.
My personal rock favorite by Cliff & The Shads "Dynamite" was also included. They all sang (Shadows can sing too, if you didn't know) perfect harmonies and played amazingly well. One of my Shadows favorites "Dance On" was there too. Sure I missed a couple of my personal favorites of the era, but you just can't have them all. A 3-hour-lasting spectacle with an intermission was more than enough for one concert.
Personally I was a bit disappointed in Hank Marvin's playing, but it may be that he deliberately wanted to sound just as rough as he did in his early days. Kind of refused to exploit his later skills in guitar playing. Or on the other hand he may have lost some of his touch due to his age or some illness. I don't know, really. And furthermore, he must have had to re-learn those riffs, guitar breaks and solos. Can't expect that he would have remembered all of those fingerings by heart.
The drummer Brian Bennett was doing the best job of all, if you ask me. He was in real good shape when it comes to playing drums. In fact, most of the classics of the night were recorded before he joined the group in 1961, so he had to mimic his predessor. His son was on stage too, playing multiple instruments in the background and providing great symphonic instrumentations on synths whenever needed.
Bruce Welch, the rhythm guitarist, lead singer and the lead composer of many Cliff's and Shadows' hits, was playing tight rhythm all over. It's a shame that his guitar was almost drowning in the sea of musical extravaganza.
The bass player had been playing with the group for decades, but to me he was a newcomer. Nevertheless, he played pretty well. There was yet another musician on stage, a keyboardist. He was the most invisible man there - and to me, the most inaudible. I couldn't tell what parts he played, but I'm sure he wasn't there for nothing. I don't believe another "Linda case" (yes, for me to know and for you to shrug your shoulders).
Because we had a luck of getting the first row seats, I could watch them live; I mean real live, not just from screens behind the group. It's a totally different kind of experience to see them close close. Wrinkles, liver spots, sighs and off-the-mic comments. When the show was over and the group bowed to audience in standing ovation, I felt Mr. Bennett looking at me straight in the eye. For a fracture of a second, there was a contact and it felt good. In addition to his own talent, the man has talked and played with such rock legends as Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. I'd give a penny for Brian's thoughts when they played C'mon Everybody - a Cochran classic - which was one of the three "new" songs by Cliff and his lot. It's because he had played it behind Eddie himself too, on Cochran's and Vincent's tour to Britain in 1960.
They still had the same old dryish sense of humour left. Very British indeed. Actually, they had even the same jokes as always before. Stunts, wise cracks, fake stumble - the works. Now it was more than ok to include them. The best of their songs go together with the best of their stage routine. I found two bridges to the Paul Anka show I witnessed earlier this year. One of them was a speak by Bruce: "It's great to here in Stockholm tonight. At this age, it's great to be anywhere.." Anka said the same about Tampere. Another one was another "new" song, Singing the blues. Mr. Anka had recorded it in the sixties in fact and was for his part only going through his diverse but uneven back catalogue, that being the difference. I like the song, but let's face it: it's not THAT good.
There was a lot of different merchandise available. I bought an extensive tour booklet at 140 kronor. It's pretty neatly illustrated, offering a little information on the side. Well worth buying. The T-shirts were too expensive for my taste, although I must admit that they looked good.
It fits about 16000 people in Globen according to Wiki and I'm not the one to argue. It was a full house as far as I could see. Sitting so close to the target, I managed to snap one intermediate shot with my mobile. It's included here in this post. Damn I wish I had had a decent camera with me! These darn mobile cameras don't work too well in the dark.
Saturday was a second-hand record store time for me. This time I concentrated solely on Solna stores. I started with the one closest to my ex-residence in Råsunda. They have a huge storage of the 80's records. And they are cheap, 10 crowns each. I like the place. My friend S. has his atelier there in the back stage, if you will, but the man himself wasn't there. Then I moved on to the next store. The owner knows me by my face and I'm not that flattered by the fact. Luckily he wasn't around this time. He might have cross-examined me about my absence. I wasn't prepared to speak that much Swedish this time either. The third store lies right beside the second, but it's a whole different gold mine. George Harrison's All things must pass, a-triple album from 1970 was a steal at 50 kronor. I had to act accordingly. Well, not to steal but you know... I was too tired to check out the fourth place. It would have required some walking and the place is by far the most expensive. It has the biggest storage of records in Solna, perhaps in entire Stockholm area, but for some reason I have left the place empty-handed several times.
It was more than crowded at Kulturhuset on Saturday. I don't know what was the occasion, but a lot of families with small children were present. In spite of it, we had a dinner on the fifth floor. There's a reasonably cheap restaurant there. Warm food with salad and coffee cost only 190 crowns - and that was the sum of two persons. You can spend some time up on the roof as well. It served us a fine view over Stan for dessert.
On the ground floor of Kulturhuset there was a miniatyre of Stockholm on display. For such it was huge. I took a picture of it. You can see Globen in front, leaving the center of the city in the background. Although the architectural masterpiece seemed unfinished, it was impressive just the same.
A lot of Christmas lightings sparkled everywhere already in November. Yup, it's approaching once again: time for hot toddies (glögg) and pepper cakes (pepparkakor). We had some foretaste of it in Stockholm. Along with serious gift shopping. Plus my ever-confusing vinyl collecting. Did some great findings there, but who cares? Besides me. Finally we walked to Slussen and Vikingterminal. It had been a beautiful day all day. The long walks require a plenty of rest afterwards. Most of the passengers were eager and ready to start partying, while we were expecting to get a good night sleep. And we did.
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sounds a like a fun-filled week end! hope to visit some friends in stockholm early next year.
ReplyDeleteYes, it was fun with relaxing moments at the cafeterias. It's my second hometown now.
ReplyDelete