Author: Dennis Bruitzman

According to a press release issued by record company Universal Music, the reason for the split has nothing to do with arguments, personal differences, or anything of the kind. ‘We have lived this band for years already, and now it feels like it’s time to move on in life,’ according to the members of the chart-topping girl band .

The six girls from Helsinki signed their first record deal in 1999 at the young age of 13 and have released seven albums and 22 singles. Their biggest hits include Lopeta (1999), Sekoitat mun elämän (1999), Kyyneleet (2001), Häiritsen sinua (2001), Jää (2002) and Sankaritar (2005).

In 2000 and 2001, the band also had reasonable success elsewhere in Europe and performed in Asia and the United States with English language material under the name Tik N’ Tak.

On November 7th, Tiktak will release one more (double)album, “Sinkut 99-07”, containing all their singles, b-sides as well as rare and new material. The first single from the album, Miten onni korjataan, will be made available for airplay on Monday (17.9).

Petra, Tuuli, Mimmu, Noora, Nea and Emppu will also go on a farewell tour spanning major Finnish cities in November and December.

Tiktak:

Official website (in Finnish)

MySpace

Belgian-born comics fanatic Jelle Hugaerts, who has written about Finnish comics and their creators for FREE! Magazine, will be part of the stage programme at Gloria Cultural Arena. On Saturday at  4 p.m., he will host a discussion in English with the festival’s foreign guests about the public response to comics as an art form in different cultures and countries. On Sunday at 2 p.m. Jelle will himself be part of a panel discussing whether web stores will take over from traditional comic book stores as the main distribution channel for comics.

Fans of Reviews from Marte, FREE! Magazine’s popular music reviews in the form of comics, will have the chance to see more works by our Portuguese contributor. Marte (whose real name is Marcos Farrajota) is a member of the Portuguese comics association Chili Com Carne, of which albums are available through Canicola at the Festival’s comics fair at Gloria.

The Helsinki Comics Festival, the biggest of its kind in Northern Europe, will be held for the 22nd time this weekend. The main venue is Gloria Cultural Arena (Pieni Roobertinkatu 12), with additional programmes at the Päivälehti Museum (Ludviginkatu 2-4), Library 10 (in the main Post Office) and Black Door pub (Iso Roobertinkatu 1).

The programmes consist of lectures, discussions, signings, interviews and different comics-related performances. This year’s foreign guests include Christophe Blain (France), Gunnar Lundkvist (Sweden), Keitaro Arima (Japan), Yvan Alagbé (France), Helge Reumann (Switzerland) and Ruppert & Mulot (France). Comics teams from Holland and Finland will compete in an international comics drawing contest.

In addition, there will be a total of 14 different exhibitions at galleries and bars in the city centre.

22nd HELSINKI COMICS FESTIVAL
15-16 September, 2007

Venues:
Gloria Cultural Arena (main venue; Pieni Roobertinkatu 12)
Päivälehti museum (Ludviginkatu 2-4)
Library 10 (Main Post Office, Elielinaukio 2 G)
Black Door pub (Iso Roobertinkatu 1)

Also exhibitions at:
MUU gallery (Lönnrotinkatu 33)
Gallery Jangva (Uudenmaankatu 4-6)
mbar (Lasipalatsi, Mannerheimintie 22-24)
and other locations in the city centre

Jelle Hugaerts:
Of pigs and ducks (FREE! Magazine)
The First Book of Hope (FREE! Magazine)

Marte:
Chili Com Carne
Reviews from Marte (FREE! Magazine)

Related:
Cartoon tracks – FREE! Magazine's interview with Puupäähattu prize winner Marko Turunen

Sculptor Timo Hannunen is currently working on the monument, which will consist of two high memorial stones (210 cm high, 120 cm broad and 60 cm deep) that will be placed close to each other. In between them will remain a crack of about 20 centimetres.

Next winter the two-part sculpture will be moved to Kalevankangas cemetery in Tampere, where Leskinen lies buried. It will be placed close to a memorial to artist Veikko Sinisalo, also a work by Hannunen.

Juice Leskinen was one of Finland’s most prominent singer-songwriters and musicians during the last quarter of the past decade. He died of renal insufficiency, cirrhosis and diabetes on November the 24th, 2006.

Obituary of Juice Leskinen [Helsingin Sanomat, in English] 

The venue will offer live entertainment Wednesdays through Saturdays. The first major live act was already announced last week; popular Swedish group The Ark will take the Apollo stage on the 3rd of November.

In addition to special concerts, the Apollo All Stars Band will offer live music in different line-ups with special guest vocalists. The club also intends to bring ‘restaurant theatre’ and comedy acts.

The venue is owned by Sedu Koskinen’s SK-Ravintolat, the company behind bars and nightclubs such as Baarikärpänen, Lux Nightclub and The Club in Helsinki and the Onnela and Giggling Marlin bar/restaurants throughout Finland.

Apollo Live Club is the latest in a series of new major venues opened in Helsinki in a little over one year‘s time. Other newcomers include Club Liberté in Kallio (opened in June 2006) and Redrum in the centre of Helsinki (24th of May, 2007).

Apollo Live Club (in Finnish only)

The Ark

Club Liberté
Redrum

In Pori, Tampere, Turku and Jyväskylä the two bands will be joined by indie group Sister Flo and in Oulu and Rovaniemi by Moses Hazy from Tornio. In Helsinki, the third group on the bill will be Sweatmaster.

Through the No Torture Here! campaign the human rights organisation hopes to get wide public support for its demand that the United States, the European Union and Finland take an active stance against the use of torture. According to Amnesty, terrorism can only be overcome if human rights are respected, and human rights’ violations in the so-called “war on terror” only make the world more insecure.

Concert visitors can sign an appeal against torture. Amnesty International will present the results of the campaign to Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and the US Embassy to Finland.

NO TORTURE HERE! TOUR

Bands:


The Valkyrians
I Walk the Line
Sister Flo (SF) or Moses Hazy (MH) or Sweatmaster (SM)

Tour dates:

Thu 6 Sept (8 pm): Bar Kino, Pori (SF)
Fri 7 Sept (8 pm): YO-talo, Tampere (SF)
Sat 8 Sept (8 pm): Klubi, Turku (SF)
Thu 13 Sept (8 pm): Club 45, Oulu (MH)
Fri 14 Sept (8 pm): Café Tivoli, Rovaniemi (MH)
Sat 15 Sept (8 pm): Lutakko, Jyväskylä (SF)
Sat 29 Sept (9 pm): Tavastia, Helsinki (SM)

More info on the campaign:

Amnesty International No Torture Here!

 

Related:

Tender melodies – FREE! Magazine interview with Sister Flo 

At the end of October Northern Kings will release their first album, containing well-known 80s classics that have been given a heavy metal treatment. The first single from the album will be a metal version of Tina Turner’s We Don’t Need Another Hero, out on the 26th of September.

Other tracks on the album include the line-up’s own interpretations of David Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes, Cutting Crew’s I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight, Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight, Peter Gabriel’s Sledge Hammer and the Dire Straits classic Brothers In Arms.

The songs on the album are sung and played in different metal styles, but symphonic metal will be the uniting factor.

The members of Northern Kings have worked together before. They were also part of the big line-up of Raskas Joulu (“Heavy Christmas“), a metal band that has released two albums containing Finnish language metal versions of well-known Christmas carols and has toured several times since late 2004.

Marco Hietala – Tarot, Nightwish

Jarkko Ahola – Teräsbetoni

Tony Kakko – Sonata Arctica

J-P Leppäluoto – Charon

Raskas Joulu
 

Related:

A piece of Arctic Metal music – FREE Magazine's interview with Tony Kakko and Henrik Klingenberg (Sonata Arctica)

Platinum debut for "HevAri" 

Finnish public funding for domestic film productions is less than half of the state subsidies in other Nordic countries. In the programme of the new government, film is mentioned as an area of focus. In June Minister of Culture Stefan Wallin hinted at an increase of 1.2 million euros for film productions.

According to the film producers, Wallin is now breaking a promise. In the current budget draft for next year, the amount of state funding allocated to film production is the same as this year: 13.5 million euros. The money comes from the profits of state-owned gambling company Veikkaus.

The statement issued on Monday was signed by 28 Finnish film producers, including Jörn Donner, (former FREE! Magazine columnist) Aleksi Bardy, Timo Koivusalo, Claes Olsson, Marko Röhr, Aki Kaurismäki and Markus Selin. They have agreed not to take up any new film projects until an extra 1.2 million euros for film production is included in next year’s state budget. They have, however, promised to finish ongoing projects that have already received state funding.

Minister Wallin has admitted that he brought up the increase in public funding in talks with the directors of the Finnish Film Foundation in June, but added that he was unaware of the limits on the state budget back then. He has promised to re-consider the matter when the budget draft is finalized, however.

Related:

FREE! Magazine columns by film maker Aleksi Bardy:

Finnish cinema reaches abroad

Art makes the world go around

Dark people make dark films

Monkey business

Dance couples from 16 European countries took part in the finals of the dance competition held on Saturday night in London.

Koukkula and Väänänen, who danced a rumba routine to Carmen McRae's All In Love Is Fair and a freestyle paso doble to The Unforgiven by Apocalyptica, managed to score 132 points.

Ukraine’s Ilyia Sydorenko and Julia Okropiridze finished second, 11 points behind the Finnish couple. Mick Donegan and Nicola Byrne from Ireland ended in third place with 95 points.

The voting process was identical to the one used during the European Song Contest.

Other than with the singing competition, the next edition of the Eurovision Dance Competition will not be held in the winning country, Finland. British public broadcaster BBC has vowed to organize the first two editions in London.

Watch Katja and Jussi's winning dance performances:
(courtesy of RTR Planeta TV, Russia)

1. Rumba / All In Love Is Fair – Carmen McRae

2. Freestyle Paso doble / The Unforgiven – Apocalyptica

More info:

Eurovision Dance Contest 2007 – official site

The winning couple (YLE)

‘Everything was done in good spirits and we thank the guys for an
unbelievably great and fun seven years and wish them all the best in
their private endeavors‘, according to a statement by the band. 

The
split came at a very inconvenient time, however.
Thunderstone was just preparing for their European tour with Swedish power metal band Nocturnal Rites. As they didn’t want to let down the fans, the tour will go ahead as planned.

The band found top class musicians willing to fill in for Rantanen and Tornack at short notice: Stratovarius’ Swedish keyboard player Jens Johansson and on vocals Tommi ‘Tuple’ Salmela, who, together with Marco Hietala is responsible for the vocals in Finnish metal band Tarot.

The Nordic Metal Mayhem Tour 2007 will start on the 27th of October in Lenzburg, Switzerland and end at Hamburg’s Markthalle in Germany on the 11th of November.

Thunderstone

Jens Johansson – Stratovarius
Tommi 'Tuple' Salmela – Tarot

Nocturnal Rites
 

The Judas Priest guitarist happened to be in Finland and went to Salo to meet the young band from Vaasa. He then decided to join André, Calle, Jeppe, Alexander and Henkka on stage to play the legendary British metal band’s classic hit Breaking the Law.

During the joint performance history was made: it was the first time ever that K.K. Downing played in public with any other band than Judas Priest.


Sturm und Drang's own remarkable story
Sturm und Drang’s own history is nothing but remarkable. The band was formed in the autumn of 2004 when the members were just 12 and 13 years old. They got a record deal with HMC – Helsinki Music Company in late 2005 and played with The Hellacopters from Sweden and opened for Glenn Hughes (Black Sabbath, Deep Purple) even before they released their debut single Rising Son last February (2007).

After extensive touring through Finland and Sweden, playing major rock festivals, they signed a European record deal with GUN-Records in Germany, the same record label that catapulted HIM to international fame. Only then their first album “Learning to Rock” was released in Finland (30.5.2007).

In August (2007), Sturm und Drang recorded a new version of Forever with Udo Dirkschneider (U.D.O., Accept) after he had heard the young band play at Sweden Rock festival and had proposed to work together with them. In addition they recorded a cover version of Judas Priest’s Breaking the Law. Both tracks were only released in Germany.

It is widely known that the Sturm und Drang members are big fans of Judas Priest.

U P D A T E Sturm und Drang's German website is reporting that the band will be supporting Apocalyptica on their European tour this October and November.

Sturm und Drang with K.K. Downing at VRock, Salo [WMV]

Sturm und Drang: official site – MySpace
K.K. Downing: official site
Judas Priest: official site – MySpace
U.D.O.: official site – MySpace

VRock (in Finnish) 
 

Related:

Metal God's predictions – FREE! Magazine's interview with K.K. Downing

Releasing a violent storm of music – Interview with Mick Cervino about his Violent Storm project with K.K. Downing

Headliner Amy Winehouse cancels Provinssirock 

Other highlights this year include Musta Jää by Finnish director Petri Kotwica, 2 Days in Paris a romantic comedy directed by and starring Julie Delpy, and Canadian director David Cronenberg’s latest film Eastern Promises.

The closing film this year will be the eagerly awaited Du levande (You, the Living) by Swedish director Roy Andersson (A Swedish Love Story, Songs from the Second Floor).

This year three new themed series will be introduced at the festival: Itä Lähellä (The East Nearby; films from the Middle East), México Lindo (Mexican directors) and Perverssi mediaopas (Perverted Media guide; media critical documentaries with subjects stretching from hip-hop culture to modern art).

The advance ticket sales will start on the 7th (festival passes) and 11th of September (individual tickets).

20TH HELSINKI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL – LOVE & ANARCHY

20 – 30 September, 2007

Festival cinemas in Helsinki:
Bio Rex, Mannerheimintie 22-24
Kino Engel and open air cinema Kesäkino Engel, Sofiankatu 4
Andorra and Koff-screen Dubrovnik, Eerikinkatu 11
Maxim, Kluuvikatu 1
Kinopalatsi, Kaisaniemenkatu 2

More info: www.hiff.fi
 

According to DMX’s management the hip-hopper still hasn’t gotten permission to leave the United States. He was stopped at the airport when he was about to travel to Finland for the kick-off of his European tour at the beginning of the month, apparently because he had failed to attend a court session involving driving without a licence.

The concert in Helsinki on the 2nd of August was cancelled only one day prior to the scheduled date, as was a performance at Pipefest in Vuokatti scheduled for the next day. This time, the Finnish concert organizer Speed Promotion & Agency was given four days to spread the news that the replacement gig in Helsinki won’t take place either.

Furious
Concert promoter Kalle Keskinen is furious. ‘Now it’s enough! Complete messing around! As far as we are concerned DMX can be in court and stay in Yankeeland for the rest of his life!,’ Keskinen rages in his press release, written in capitals and containing lots of exclamation marks.

‘I am sorry for all the DMX fans! And we, too, have wasted enough time and money on this case. I am sick and tired of it!,’ the angry concert promoter continues.

Video
The management of the rapper has announced a video by DMX with explanations and apologies.

Keskinen: ‘Let’s see whether we will get any video […] here in Finland or if it, too, will stay at customs, in police custody or at passport control.

‘We won’t start this game with the gentleman in question for a third time any more however! Under no circumstances do we want to cause new disappointment to the fans, nor do we want to get disappointed ourselves!’


Refunds
Ticket holders can get their money back at Lippupalvelu ticket offices.

DMX

Speed Promotion & Agency (in Finnish)

Related:
DMX gigs in Finland cancelled, European tour delayed

The show by the acrobats from Melbourne who performed on top of 4-metre high flexible poles was the single most watched performance in the history of the Night of the Arts. According to the police, their first performance drew an audience of 20,000 people. Their second even managed to attract about 30,000 spectators.

Police taken by surprise
Taken by surprise by the huge number of people watching Strange Fruit's  performances, the police had to close off Mannerheimintie in front of the parliament building and trams had to be diverted. Long-distance bus traffic suffered delays.

The Night of the Arts is part of the yearly Helsinki Festival and was this year organized for the nineteenth time. In all, the 2008 edition of the Night boasted more than 200 different cultural happenings throughout the city.
This year, the event was held for the first time on Friday instead of Thursday.

The Helsinki Festival continues until the 2nd of September.

Helsinki Festival

Strange Fruit
 

OurVision 2008 takes place during the spring of 2008. New this time is, that also musical talents from Northern America, Europe and Oceania may apply.

This year’s first edition of Caisa’s song contest was won by 25-year-old Samantha Marie José Sayegh, who originates from Lebanon.

On the Night of the Arts from 7 pm ‘till 8.30 pm, Caisa will host the Best of OurVision 2007 Concert, with highlights from the first edition of the popular contest.

OurVision

International Cultural Centre Caisa
(Fennia block)
Mikonkatu 17 C / Vuorikatu 14
Helsinki

Night of the Arts (24 August 2007)

Metropol Cinema will start modestly, circulating only one copy of the film. The film (Finnish title: Ei minua kukaan rakasta; English: Not Here To Be Loved) will open on 28 September at a Finnkino cinema in Helsinki. The copy will later circulate through the rest of Finland.

The company will decide later how many different films to distribute on a yearly basis and whether to circulate more copies of each film.

Managing director of Metropol Cinema is Sam Kamras, whose family used to run Bio City, a seven hall cinema showing quality films in the centre of Helsinki. The theatre went bankrupt last year due to disappointing visitor numbers.