Tourblog Manzana
we started on wednesday,off to Helsinki. Selena people came to Tampere, Inks got in Helsininki, and also Mikko the driver an Matzo rockn roll God…in the boat in Turku, immediately to bar and great party up in Karaoke Bar. Annabella gave her best and fell off the stage on Karaoke already hahahaa.
Met some girls from California; hugs for you , was great fun. In the morning there was plenty of people naked in our cabin, and I was safe and sound teeth brushed in my bed. Hah. I must get better that that, too little drinks = P
Breakfast was great on the Swedish boat, then off to park the bus on the bridge. Miki was off to swim in the river, Matzo played on the street and made money, and other Circus took off to town. Great hunging around the hot Stockholm (summer came back ) , and after sleeping a bit more up to the bar. Soundcheck, great food and a show. Not so many people, but met great folks, sold albums and had a ball, and Bella fell off the stage again hahaha. All of us were a bit rusty, the fist show of the tour, but it+s over with. Back in the bus, straight off and party up.
Friday morning the basic wake up, bus broke down. Miraculously at the same time Mona calls that the Lubeck show has been cancelled. Oh well, we spend a day on a swedish Skania garage = P We started with a yoga rehearsal, wrestling class, then human pyramids on four floors, some more circus activities on the sunny yard- more bruises, and accidentaly drunk about 100 cans of beer on the way. What happens, at 6 pm the bus is fixed and everybody slept haha. A day off buugie. Also picked up Kristoff, a hitch hiker, our male groupie = P
Now we´re heading to Hamburg for a nit, Dino forgot himself on the Danish ferry, got taken to custody oops. We just got him back , they had asked him if he was coming or going, and he said "how could I know that " . Ok , grey bus, walk half a kilometer that way. Scary shit, to be honest. But alls cool now. I´m looking forward to have a Falafel and go to this great metal bar at Reeberbahn. It is a party street, not a brothel street in my opinion. But I like circus so maybe some people disagree hahaha. Great to see Mona and the guys.
After show some hunting around in the rain with the miles.
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ok, its sunday now, yesterday in Hamburg was great, hunting around the city all day, same old breakfast place still proved to be the best, then buying loads of headpins and all the shiny stuff that is PLENTY on the Reeperbahn stores. There was a festival going on, a lot of people on the streets, also ST Pauli football match. The venue Headcrash was nice , a rock club, and it was one of the trickiest secret passageways we had to carry to stuff, but managed. A Million Miles appeared, I was overwhelmed to see my Metal Sister Mona. We took off with Annika to visit a cool music club she and her boyfriend work. It was really beautiful, and we ALso got some great indian cheese stuff I had been craving for nomnom. Frances and Steffi appeared, which was a ball, and they were kind to take care of the merchandise AND drink with us backstage hahaha. BTW they looked awesome in the new Manzana Panda Girl shirts = P Before the show I was singing on the streets to throw people in. I was a bit too cheap for Reeperbahn, only 6 euros for a show, people were asking why the hell are you so cheap, " because I sing" , "well it wouldn´t bother me" hahaa. The Inks were great again, and Selena too and miles. We played the last song all together like like =)
I fell asleep in the bus and woke up in Rotterdam.
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It was 1 pm and the showtime was at 3.30 for the Inks, 4.30 for us. 5,.30 for Selena. They have a great custom om having sunday clubs with real bands, a lot of people appeared, was awesome shows with good lights and the most helpful staff ever anywhere! The Brazilian Wizard of kitchen made great food, also tofu for me , and I started crying for having a chanche to hung in the kitchen with people, felt like home thank you guys! Especially the warrior of light, sorry for not joining you for drinks like I wanted ands said, I was tricked into the bus…. = P These great folks also packed us food to go for the bus, we were so taken of the venues hospitality.
We followed a motorbike to lead us out of the city , and off towards Paris we were.
In the night I woke up to a big wind blowing on my face, the ceiling plate of the bus over my bed, which is on third floor, had fell off. It was fucking cold in my bed, I tried to ignore it but I could´t anymore, so I came down cursing heavily, and with Dino I tried to fix it with screws, tape , whatever we found., But it didn´n help. Hahaa, some great fixers, both wasted, at 4 am haha. Dino was a gentleman and gave me his bed, and soon we were in Paris.
A day-off in Paris. I came out of the bus and saw arch of triumph right next to our bus. nice parking Mikko ! Annabella and some other night creatures had been wandering straight into the Paris night, I slept like a baby, and now we had a shift change hahaha. Somebody has to sleep in the bus. Bandit, Johannes, Martti, Annika and I took off to see the city. We went to the Eiffel tower, Notre Dame and all that stuff, ate croissants and battongs and cheese and all the needed Paris stuff, was great walking around getting fresh air after bus.
At the tower , I was wearing my normal clothes, red stockings, red leopard ect. and all of a sudden someone yelled " Lady Gaga " , and pointed at me. In a second we all relized the fun, and I put on my sunglasses and Martti stepped next to me chasing people away; " no pictures! " He was also talking to his watch , as a security man would. Annika " the tour manager " , Bandit is " the dealer boyfriend " and we kept on acting hah. People went on "lady gaga lady gaga". I just waved at then " I love You Paris" and all that shit hahaa.
Now it is 10 pm and we are all back in the bus. MIkko and Teme had fixed my beds ceiling THANK YOU GUYS <3>
" More Wine please" .
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We drove in the nite towards ST. Etienne, and I woke up in the morning at a gas station somewhere in South France. Out to get some food, beautiful landscape of hills and sheep and a lots of Trucks . A real nice French Roadside, I sure fuckin love the roadside <3
St. Etienne is about 200 000 people, and on we drew quite an attention hunting around. Food, beer, walking around, no internet, no people speaking english.The club Thunderbird Lounge was on the other side of the town, we had some great moments trying to get the bus in front of it. Tram train trying to come in, bus stuck in a middle of a junction in old town ect. French do not wait long when they starts screaming out of their car windows = P
Food, beer, talking to people, the bar owner was a great dude. We asked for drinks backstage, looked funny when they served us excellent wine and brought nice glasses and all. An we just drank Jagermeister from the bottle, they looked kind of amused hah. Selena played first , then us. It was really fucking hot downstairs, quite a punk place, low ceiling, no ear monitors, very VERY hot. Was sweating like a pig already before the show, everyone ended up striping off most clothes on stage. I even took off my stockings, which caused a surprised sigh…?? what?? in a punk club ? French are so well behaving we mast have smelled like wild animals , and I felt kind of twisted pleasure when Inks really got their cannons loose on this show. Annabella was rolling on the floors, crawling around at peoples feet , screaming and jumping on people, and Mike and Juha ran around with their guitars like race dogs hahaha. Like I said to them after show: No further questions hahaha. It was fun, more beer, talking to people, and dogs, which were also in the bar haha. Into the bus and towards Lyon.
Now we are in Lyon, we´re sitting outside the bus , Annika is studying her books, and I´m just enjoying the sun. It is fucking hot here, summer to us Finns. Looks like Spain to me, old houses, clean people, high heels. The bus is hot too, I feel like a chicken in an oven in my bed, 20 cm from the metal ceiling in the sun wuhuu. We dream of getting a shower at the venue, soon, soon….At 3 PM. we get going to the place to do soundcheck. Lyon Hall. shall see. The breakfast was great, French do know how to make food. But coffees are too small, I bough three at a time today, the lady was like " all for yourself? " . Yes I´m a fucking finn, when I say big I mean big hahaa. Maybe put the coffee straight to vein if I´d wake up = P
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Lyon place was punky, but nice feeling, big. We hassled around with lines and sounds for a while, but it turned out ok. Two other bands were there, local bands, I especially liked the latter one with a great lady in front, great rockn roll even though the singer was late because she got into a car accident. huh. Ink left no questions as usual, and today people started to be pretty drunk hahaa. Selena had a good show, the French audience was great, they were jumping around and screaming, hell of a fun to play for that kind of people. We went on last, was hot and fun and all that shit, and today the substitute Manzana was on fire. Johannes was jumping ( yes, he said himself it was true ) and singing more backgrounds, was great fun. Everyone messed on stage on each other shows today, when I put my feet on a monitor, and Juha came from the audience to suck my toes and Miki jumped around the stage in a Panda Girl Shirt, Martti was hassling Dino in every other song so the French had no more question hahaha. Great audience, loads of fun. thank you Lyon! We got really drunk and the Lyon girls were after the poor sweaty finnish boys but they didn´t seem to mind hahaha. In the nite we still had to count all merchandise because we should cross the Swiss border in the night and pay the tax.
I woke up in a bus in Uster/ Zurich at Rock Citys. Our friend Susi came to pick me and Annika up. We took all our clothes with us, went to her place to do some laundry and shower AND to see her =) . It was lovely afternoon at her clean apartment after the dirty bus. THANK YOU =). We drove back to Rock city around 6, and ate, and the loads of friends started to appear. Was great, Tom, Valerie, Joey, Attila ect. and many people with the last tours Manzana shirt on them! That felt really good. Cd´s also sold pretty well, and some people had travelled from Italy to see Vanity Ink. Felt proud, good nite. We played first because we change the order all the time, the Ink and Selena last. Was funny when I was singing Vampire, "have a piece of me" I opened my armas and broke exactly same time by beads, that were rolling all over on the audience. haha. Piece of me. And during Selena stew decided to make Pasi happy, since he always says nobody shows him boobs when he plays, the Susi, Valerie, Me and Joey didi it hahaa. Was fun. In the nit we took off towards Berlin. Party in the Bus again, acoustic guitars and booze. Käy. Hell of a drive, but Circus has to move <3 please ="">
Berlin Blackland is a motorcycle bar/club, pretty cool looking bar. The workers were really nice and helpful, and we got into soundchecks
quickly. Some mind blowing halloumi Döners, then off to sleep a bit. Kultasiipi arrived, was great to see them, party mood started to come up again. We heard that Berlin TV channel was coming to shoot this gig, oh well, why not ! I had a rockstar moment when I realized I´m at the same time on Finnish Tv and German TV ! If one didn´t know better would be possible to mistake us as stars hahaha. People arrived from Hamburg show, some also Ink fans from Italy and plenty of people in Manzana shirts, felt great. Selena went first, then Ink, then us, and last Kultasiipi. At some point things sort of started getting out of hands, and everyone jumped onstage on each others shows. WE played Heavens On Fire of Kiss together, and then came off the shirts and beer started flowing, hahaha. Everyoneon stage was soaking wet and rolling on the floors, great great fuckin show. KUltasiipi rocked great as the last, and we sang " Metsäkukkia" with them as loud as we can hah. Nice meeting you all !!! We also discussed festival shows…Would be awesome, lets see. Karolina joined us from Berlin, and she had organized tour T-shirts, " I Love This Circus" for all of us, hahaha. great =) My shirt says " The Blonde Singer" hahaa.
Took off to Prague in the nite, woke up at the same familiar place at the Prague bus station. Felt like home, my computer remembered the passwords of the nearest cafe haha. Sleep, then to Bunkr. Nice place under the ground, I tried to ask people what it used to be, but since nobody knew what it was, I decided it used to be a dungeon!! They used to torture people there , yes I like that version, more gothic haha.
1st choose played first, old friends, nice to see Jan ect. We played second, then Selena, then Ink. People appeared again some from far away, which is always an honor. Thank you for coming, we are so happy to play for you ! I also met a great person Lupus, thank you for many things, was great energy discussion. We stayed for a while, then off to hostel, but on the way something happened to me and Miki , we heard "I wan It All" from a little bars window, raised our hands and we just had to go in. It was a small place, and in about one second 6 drunk Finns were on the tables, in two seconds, there was only Ink and Manzana playing in the bar, everyone singing and dancing and strippin off their clothes, booze was all over, costed nothing. o- ou. Johannes, Bandit, Annabella, Miki, Me….the ADHD rabbit club, bad sign…the next thing i remember is falling off the table singing our own song, then crawling on a hotel floor , bare feet and a "japanese" hair do Bandit had madefor me, it consisted 20 straws, cocktail sticks, spoons, ash, beer hahaha. Amy Whinehouse would have given me a hi five sister for the look for sure hahaha.