Author: Dennis Bruitzman

Referring to the title of Sunrise Avenue’s album On the Way to
Wonderland, Kärkkäinen said on Friday: ‘My trip to Wonderland has
unfortunately ended. Why things have gone this way, I unfortunately
don’t exactly know myself either. The decision wasn’t mine. I would
have been ready to give my all, if things wouldn’t have gone this way.’

Sunrise Avenue is planning to continue, but a new guitarist has not
been hired yet. The group’s gigs in Seinäjoki (5.10) and Helsinki
(6.10) will be moved to other dates which will be announced later. The
band will try to be ready with a new line-up in time for the European
tour in October and November.

Sunrise Avenue – official website
The band on MySpace

The leading role in the French film is played by Christopher Lambert, who is mostly known for his action roles. Unlike the Finnish version, co-written (with Paasilinna and Kullervo Kukkasjärvi) and directed by Risto Jarva, Le Lièvre de Vatanen (2006) is situated in Canada and was filmed in Bulgaria. In the film, the name of Vatanen is about the only link with Finland.

The drama will be shown at the Espoo Cultural Centre in Tapiola, Espoo, on 26 August. Rivière will introduce the film right before the screening. Also Paasilinna, whose books are very successful in France, will take part in the film’s presentation at the festival.

The French language film will be shown with English subtitles.

Le Lièvre de Vatanen (in French)

Espoo Ciné International Film Festival

Arto Paasilinna [Virtual Finland]
 

The source of the leak has been traced to a French journalist. The person in question has been caught, but the damage has already been done.

‘It will surely affect record sales,’ according to Nelli Ahvenlahti , International Exploitation Manager at Spinefarm Records in a reaction to Iltalehti, the daily paper that first reported the story in Finland. ‘It has been made very easy [to download a pirate copy, D.B.] and the threshold is low.’

Large numbers of  pirate copies of Dark Passion Play have by now been downloaded, many thousands via one single Finnish web service alone.

It is not the first time Nuclear Blast has blundered with Nightwish material. Earlier this year, the release of “Eva“, Nightwish’s long-anticipated first single with new singer Anette Olzon, had to be put forward after it, too, had been leaked onto the internet via the German record company.

Related: 

Nightwish announce first tour with Anette

Nightwish – official website
Nightwish on MySpace

Nuclear Blast

Spinefarm Records
 

‘This matter, and everything that goes with it, caused a split between Jani and the other band members. This split was impossible to mend without Jani's help and co-operation,’ the statement continues.

Liimatainen was one of the founding members of Sonata Arctica (back then called Tricky Beans) in 1996. He had been absent from the line-up this spring and summer. During those periods Elias Viljanen filled in for him.

Liimainen was asked to leave the band already in May. His departure from the group was only announced publicly this week (6.8.2007) ‘to give Jani the chance to get his life together’, according to the statement

Elias Viljanen will now be a full and official member of the band. Earlier, he released two solo albums and played with metal bands Mess and Arched.

Sonata Arctica is currently one of the biggest names in the international metal scene and enjoys great popularity especially in South America and elsewhere in Europe and manages to play sold out arena concerts in bigger markets like the United States and Japan. After a short break, the band will head to North America for a tour through Mexico and the United States this autumn, which will be followed by a European tour at the end of the year. The group’s latest album, Unia, was released on 25 May.

Related:

A piece of Artic Metal Music
– FREE! Magazine's interview with Sonata Arctica's Toni Kakko (vocals) and Henrik Klingenberg (keyboards)

Sonata Arctica – official website
Sonata Arctica on MySpace

Elias Viljanen – official website
Elias Viljanen on MySpace
 

The long-desired Archive would contain material from both public broadcasting company YLE and other broadcasters and will most probably be connected to the Finnish Film Archive, according to Riita Kaivosoja, Director General at the Ministry of Education, responsible for culture politics, in Helsingin Sanomat (4.8.2007).

The Ministry is also willing to support digitalisation of Finnish cultural heritage by 2 million euro. Public libraries will have to make do with the same amount of state funding as in 2007: about 2.5 million euro. The Ministry rejected a request for a 2-million euro state subsidy for culture export.

In total, 209.6 million euro in the draft state budget is allocated to arts and culture. Another 205.1 million would come from the profits of state-owned lottery company Veikkaus.

The Government will decide on the draft budget in negotiations beginning on 30 August.

(Sources: Helsingin Sanomat, Finnish government, draft budget 2008 – Ministry of Finance) 

Spitfire was founded in the early nineties as a garage rock group but
later turned to a unique way of playing skapunk. The band from Saint Petersburg has played in
Finland numerous times and performs in both Russian and English.

Ankkarock is held this weekend (4 and 5 August) in Vantaa. Spitfire will play Saturday at 4 pm.

Spitfire – official website
Spitfire on MySpace

Leningrad (in Russian)

Ankkarock

According to the hip-hopper’s management, DMX (real name: Earl Simmons)
was arrested at the airport passport control for failing to attend a
court session earlier this year and prevented from leaving the United
States until the case has been settled.

The court case involved driving without a driver’s licence, a minor offence, so it shouldn’t take much time to solve the matter, the management reassures.

A replacement concert at Kulttuuritalo will take place at the end of August. The exact date will be announced as soon as possible. 

Ticket holders who can’t (or don’t want to) attend the gig at Kulttuuritalo on the new date can have their tickets refunded at Lippupalvelu ticket offices.

UPDATE:  

Early on 3 August, the organizers of Pipefest in Vuokatti announced that American rapper Cassidy will take DMX's place the same day.  

DMX – official website
DMX on MySpace

Cassidy – official website
Cassidy on MySpace

Kulttuuritalo
Pipefest  (in Finnish only)

Jann Wilde & Rose Avenue’s first album Tokio Okei made it to No. 9 in Finland’s Official Album List. The band last performed at music festivals Tammerfest in Tampere and Down By The Laituri in Turku. In November 2006, the group did a tour through Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

Earlier this year, the band’s initial two entries into the national Eurovision competition were both disqualified because they had already been widely available for download on the Internet and played during live performances as early as in 2006. The group eventually participated with two new songs that had been put together in a rush and failed to make it to the national finals.

Jann Wilde & Rose Avenue’s official website
The band on MySpace

The group in the national Eurovision semi-finals:

"Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams" (YouTube)
"Cinnamon" (YouTube)

The group’s disqualified entries, performed live:

"Lover Lover Lover" (YouTube)
"Soft Is Selling" (short clip, YouTube)

In Finland, the company’s Finnkino cinema ticket services merged with the event ticket sales services of Lippupalvelu in 2003. Its R-Kioski outlets serve as pick up points for tickets booked via Lippupalvelu.

Besides Finnkino cinemas and R-kioski corner shops, SanonomaWSOY also runs, among others, Finnish newspapers (a.o. Helsingin Sanomat, Ilta-Sanomat, Metro and Uutislehti 100), TV stations (Nelonen and JIM tv), radiostations (Radio Helsinki, Radio Rock and Radio Aalto), cable and internet provider Welho, book publishing companies like WSOY, bookstores including Suomalainen Kirjakauppa, as well as many of Finland’s leading magazines. 

The SanomaWSOY media empire operates in 20 countries.

‘Last Friday's gig at Sunset Beach Party, which lasted only two songs,
proved that the mental health of the members of the group is no longer
in condition required for touring,’ the band writes.

The decision for the long break was taken more precisely because of singer Matthau Mikojan’s substance abuse and mental problems.

'First and foremost everyone must be in control of their own lives, and
at the moment the band's vocalist's personal problems and his need to
mess or clear his mind with whatever substance happens to be at hand
both affect the actions of the entire group to excess,' the frank statement continues on Bloodpit's MySpace page.

Earlier during the week, Bloodpit had already cancelled all the rest of the week’s gigs in Finland ‘due to sudden illness’, announcing that more information would follow.

The band from Tampere had scheduled a European tour for late autumn, with dates in Germany, Russia, Switzerland and Austria, all of which now won’t take place.

The members of the group are unsure about Bloodpit‘s future. ‘We [will] return to the stage as a band once we, as a whole, are in a condition worthy of our audience. Should this never happen, we reckon that for us, this was it,’ says the statement.

Bloodpit have so far released two albums: Mental Circus (2005) and Off The Hook (2007). Last month (7 July) the group opened for Mötley Crüe at Helsinki’s Jäähalli (Ice Stadium).

Links:

Bloodpit’s official website

Bloodpit on MySpace

The group members last year in a TV interview on American music channel IMF (YouTube)

Videos of some of Bloodpit’s la(te)st live performances (YouTube)

The programme features about 90 films in total. Other highlights include Mika Kaurismäki’s latest music documentary Sonic Mirror, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s 28 Weeks Later, and the premier of the long awaited drama Colorado Avenue by Finnish director Claes Olsson.

The festival will also see the first screening in Finland of Destino, the unique collaboration between Salvador Dalí and Walt Disney.

Espoo Ciné XVIII International Film Festival
21-26 August
Espoo Cultural Centre, Tapiola, Espoo

Website: www.espoocine.fi
 

Bloodhound Gang’s mix of (comedy) rock, hip-hop, metal, punk and other
music styles with humorous, often controversial lyrics (which they
themselves refer to as ‘Christian Rap’ on their MySpace page) have been
good for many entertaining videos and live performances and world wide
record sales of over 4 million copies.

The band’s other hits include “The Bad
Touch”, “The Ballad of Chasey Lain” and “Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo”. 

Bloodhound Gang’s last performance in Finland in 2005 was said to be so
wild at times, that age limits have been set this time: 18 for the show
at Himos Areena and 15 for Nosturi.

Bloodhound Gang’s official website
Bloodhound Gang on MySpace
 

Links:

Machine Head:

Official website

MySpace

Trivium:

Official website

MySpace



Dragonforce:

Official website

MySpace

Arch Enemy:

Official website

MySpace