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Misc News

R.E.M. coming to Finland

R.E.M. was formed in 1980 by Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry and is best known for mega hits like Losing My Religion, Man On The Moon, Daysleeper and Everybody Hurts. Drummer Bill Berry retired from the band in 1997 to become a farmer.

In April, the band releases its fourteenth studio album Accelerate, the first new studio album in four years.

The group has performed in Finland twice before: at the Provinssirock
festival in 1989 and at a sold-out Hartwall Areena in 2005.

Also check: Coming to Finland


R.E.M.:
Official site | MySpace


Finnair Stadium
(in Finnish)

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Misc News

Eurovision 2008: Kari Tapio and Movetron through to national final

Twelve artists are competing for the honour to represent Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade. Other hopefuls include popular metal group Teräsbetoni and near-drag act Cristal Snow, former Idols candidate Kristian Meurman, singer-songwriter Jippu, and former Ultra Bra singer and actress Vuokko Hovatta.

The final will be held on Friday, the 1st of March from 20:00.

Click on the names below to go to the artists' websites and click 'listen' to listen to their Eurovision 2008 entries

Eurovison 2008 Finnish Qualifying Rounds
(broadcast live on YLE TV2)

Qualifying Round 1: Friday 8 February, 21:00

Hanna Marsh [MySpace]”Broken Flower” – listen (Choose 'Hanna Marsh' in player)
music & lyrics Hanna Marsh | arr. Lennart Östlund

Kari Tapio [Last.fm]– ”Valaise yö”listen (Choose 'Kari Tapio' in player) –> Final
music & arr. Pertti Haverinen | lyrics Ilkka Vainio – Pertti Haverinen 

Movetron [MySpace]– ”Cupido” listen (Choose 'Movetron' in player) –> Final
music Jukka Tanttari | lyrics Timo Löyvä | arr. Jukka Tanttari – Timo Löyvä

Crumbland [MySpace] ”Pleasure” – listen

(Choose 'Crumbland' in player)
music Crumbland | lyrics Jonas Genberg | arr. Crumbland – Mikko Raita


Qualifying Round 2: Friday 15 February, 21:00

Ninja [MySpace] – ”Battlefield Of Love”
music & lyrics Susan Nova | arr. Susan Nova – Jani Saastamoinen

Kristian Meurman [Last.fm] – ”Jos en sua saa”
music & lyrics Kristian Meurman | arr. Kristian Meurman – Tapio Niemelä – Imre Szabó

Jippu [MySpace] – ”Kanna minut”
music & lyrics Jippu – Markus Koskinen | arr. Markus Koskinen

Mikael Konttinen [MySpace] – ”Milloin”
music & arr. Kerkko Koskinen | lyrics Kyösti Salokorpi


Qualifying Round 3: Friday 22 February, 21:00

Jenna – ”Sinua varten”
music & arr. Risto Asikainen | lyrics Ilkka Vainio – Risto Asikainen

Cristal Snow [MySpace] – ”Can't Save Me”
music, lyrics & arr. Cristal Snow – Heikki Liimatainen – Jimi Constantine

Vuokko Hovatta [MySpace, Last.fm] – ”Virginia”
music & arr. Kerkko Koskinen | lyrics Anna Viitala

Teräsbetoni [MySpace] – ”Missä miehet ratsastaa”
music & lyrics & arr. J. Ahola

Eurovision 2008 (YLE, in Finnish)


The 2008 dozen revealed
(ESC Finland)

Categories
Misc News

Judas Priest in Helsinki this June

 


  • A little (wild) speculation…
  •  COMMENT  A support act for the concert in Helsinki has not been announced yet, but some of us here at FREE! are placing our bets on Sturm und Drang. The members of the popular Vaasa-based band have often publicly said that they are huge fans of Judas Priest. K.K. Downing even went on stage to play with the young band when he saw them perform at the Vrock festival in Salo in August last year. It was the first time ever the guitarist and founding member of Judas Priest played in public with another band than his own.
  • Sturm und Drang have made a 'storming' career and joined Apocalyptica on their European tour in October and November last year. The young metal sensation will go on their first own European tour in late March. They will be back well in time to be at the Judas Priest gig in Helsinki, whether on stage or amongst the audience…


Related:

Metal God's predictions – FREE's interview with K.K. Downing (February 2007)

History made during Sturm und Drang performance – news (28.8.2007)

Also check: Coming to Finland

Judas Priest: official website | MySpace | K.K. Downing
Jäähalli (in Finnish)

Sturm und Drang: official website | MySpace

Apocalyptica

Categories
Misc News

February good ‘free film’ month

Films offered free of charge include box office hits like Man's Job (Miehen työ), Mr. Bean’s Holiday, Shrek the Third, The Passionate Life of Edith Piaf, The Holiday, Kaurismäki films The Man Without a Past and Lights in the Dusk, and V2- Dead Angel.

With some cultural centres offering Finnish documentaries from the recent DocPoint Helsinki Documentary Festival
(many with English subtitles) and extra children’s films during the
school winter holidays, the total number of free film screenings is
close to one hundred.

Categories
Misc News

Hanoi Rocks drummer replaced

 
Popedia (formed in 1977) has announced a new line-up which, in addition to founding member Pate Mustajärvi (vocals) and long-time members Costello Hautamäki (guitar) and Jyrki Melartin (bass), consists of Lahtinen and keyboard player Iso-Pate Kivinen. A new album by the group Tampere-based group is scheduled to be released this autumn.

Lacu Lahtinen has played with Hanoi Rocks since lead singer Michael Monroe and guitarist Andy McCoy
reformed the band in 2002. Before that, he worked with Monroe on his
solo projects.

Hanoi Rocks
will announce the name of a new drummer soon.

Lacu Lahtinen: MySpace

Hanoi Rocks:
official website | MySpace

Popeda: official website (in Finnish) | Last.fm

Related:

Another shot on the rocks – FREE!'s interview with Hanoi Rocks (May 2007)

Review: Street Poetry – Hanoi Rocks

News: Hanoi Rocks meets the fans! (31.8.2007)

Categories
Misc News

Legendary nightclub closes its doors

The nightclub closed because it couldn’t compete any more with the ever growing number of other nightclubs in the Finnish capital. Last Saturday (26.1) was the discotheque’s last club night, a special night open to all, to which members and other regular customers had been invited by SMS.

Celebrities and yuppies

Hotel Helsinki’s nightclub opened its doors on Hallituskatu (nowadays Yliopistonkatu) under the name ‘Helsinki Club’ in 1971. Before that, the hotel had run a restaurant under the same name and the hotel’s nightclub was called 'Helsinki-by-Night'.

For a long time, the club attracted especially lots of celebrities. As late as in 1989, even the Rolling StonesMick Jagger went to party at the Helsinki Club after a gig.

In the 1980s the Helsinki Club got a yuppie image, when the well-off could become club members and walk straight past the cues outside for 500 marks (about 83 euros) per year. Later, the membership became free of charge.

Downs
The Helsinki Club, for a long time one of only a few nightclubs in the capital, saw many ups, but also had its downs. During the early nineties there were often fights reported at the club. Once a man was even beaten to death in front of the premises. Some racist customers harassed people with a foreign background. Also notorious were the arguments between taxi drivers.

The Helsinki Club changed its image and interior many times, and last reopened in September 2006.

Since then, the nightclub still managed to attract enough costumers during weekends. But
on other days visitor numbers just were not high enough any more to
cover the high rental costs of the A location property in the capital’s
centre.

Future
In the future, some of Helsinki Club’s bars will be open on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. On other days the former nightclub can be booked for private occasions. In February the place will renovated and prepared for its future purposes.

Helsinki Club (in Finnish)

360° virtual tour

Categories
Misc News

All What You Can Get: English-language theatre in Helsinki


The fresh comedy, written by Romanian Ioan Peter and directed by David Kozma, tells the story of three Romanians on their way to the England of their dreams. They wait for instructions at a train station. While many trains are rushing by, they get orders from a certain ‘Mr. Polonius’ through a public phone. The bones of Hamlet and Ceauşescu and the statue of Lenin lead the threesome from one situation to another. Ultimately they find out whether the grass is really greener at the other side of the fence.

All What You Can Get, described as 'a comical mixture of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, a road-movie and a satirical thriller', is performed daily until the end of January (except on Thursday the 24th and Monday the 28th).

 

ALL WHAT YOU CAN GET
European Theatre Collective

23.1, 25-27.1 and 29-31.1

at 19:00

KokoTeatteri [website, in Finnish]
Unioninkatu 45
Helsinki

Tickets: 15 / 10 €
Groups (min. 8): 8 € /person


  • All What You Can Get

  • Director: David Kozma

  • Dramaturgy: Markus Alanen

  • Performers: Romulus Chiciuc, Timo-Pekka Luoma, Salla Kozma, David Kozma

  • Music: Lauri Wuolio

  • Choreography: Mari Koponen
Categories
Misc News

Also stopping by in Finland: Rihanna, Juanes, Foo Fighters, Deep Purple and Nazareth

Popular R & B star Rihanna will fill Helsinki’s Hartwall
Areena on the 14th of March. Tickets will cost 49 and 46 euro and will
go on sale on Tuesday at 9.00 via Lippupalvelu. Latino heartthrob Juanes
performs at Helsinki’s Jäähalli (Ice Hall) on the 31st of July. Tickets
costing 53 euro are available via Menolippu.fi or from Thursday (24.1)
via Lippupalvelu.

Also Deep Purple and Nazareth are heading to
Finland as part of their 40th anniversary tour. The legendary British
rockers play the Jäähalli in the capital on the 12th of August
(tickets: 57 euro) and the Kuopio Hall in Kuopio (50 euro) the next
day. Tickets can be bought via Menolippu.fi or from Friday (25.1) via
Lippupalvelu.

For more info and more foreign acts playing in the country, check Coming to Finland


UPDATE: The organisers of Provinssirock in Seinäjoki, held for the thirtieth time during the second weekend of June, have announced this year's first big international act performing at the festival. The Foo Fighters will take the stage on Sunday, the 15th of June. It will be the first time the American rock group lead by Dave Grohl play in Finland at a publicly accessible event.


Categories
Misc News

Good Charlotte coming to Helsinki

Other foreign bands that have announced gigs in Finland include
Low (5.4 Helsinki), Down (21.3 Tampere, 22.3 Helsinki), No Use for a Name (27.4  Helsinki) and Neverstore (11.3 Helsinki, 12.3 Turku, 13.3 Tampere, 14.3 Joensuu and 15.3 Seinäjoki).

For more info, check Coming to Finland

Categories
Misc News

No Oscar for Miehen Työ


 
Miehen Työ (Man’s Job) tells about family father Juha (Tommi Korpela) who, after being fired from his job at a concrete factory, ends up secretly working as a prostitute.

Last year, leading actor Korpela won the Best Actor award at the Marrakech International Film Festival. Director Aleksi Salmenperä was nominated for the Golden Saint George at the International Moscow Film Festival. Miehen Työ was also nominated for the Nordic Council Film Prize and submitted as Finland’s entry for the European Film Awards.

On Tuesday (22.1) the Academy Awards selection committee will announce the final five nominees for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film. The winners will be announced during the live televised awards ceremony on the 24th of February.

 



UPDATE: The final shortlist of nominees was announced on the 22nd of January. The five films that are nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film are: Beaufort (Israel), The Counterfeiters (Austria), Katyń (Poland), Mongol (Kazakhstan) and 12 (Russia).



Miehen Työ
– official site (in Finnish)
Miehen Työ / Man's Job – Blind Spot Pictures
Trailer (with English subtitles)

The Oscars

4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days – official site

Persepolis – official US site

Categories
Misc News

Rufus Wainwright in Helsinki in April


Rufus Wainwright:
official site | MySpace

Kulttuuritalo

Categories
Misc News

The Simpsons Movie Finnish box office hit of 2007

In all, the number of people going to the cinema in Finland was 2 per
cent lower than in 2006. Finnish films attracted 1.3 million visitors,
20 per cent of the total number of cinema visits.

This year, at least
eleven Finnish films are expected to premiere.


The Simpsons Movie

Joulutarina (Christmas Story)

Trailer (with Englsih subtitles)

Categories
Misc News

Avril Lavigne and Backstreet Boys coming to Helsinki

Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne will perform at the
capital's Hartwall Areena on the 30th of June as part of her Best Damn
Tour. Tickets will go on sale in January. The Backstreet Boys
bring their more mature new sound to Finnish fans at the same venue on
the 16th of April. Both Avril Lavigne and the Backstreet Boys last
performed in Finland in 2005.


UPDATE: On January 21, concert promoter Welldone announced that the Avril Lavigne gig will take place at Helsinki's Jäähalli, in spite of what it said on Lavigne's official website.


Also check Coming to Finland >>

Categories
Misc News

Finns on skates 5000 years ago

 

Dashing Finns were first to get their skates on 5,000 years ago – The Times Online

Categories
Misc News

Domestic films attract over 1 million people to Finnish cinemas

Number 2 on the list is Joulutarina (Christmas Story) directed by Juha Wuolijoki,
which premiered on the 16th of November and may well end up being the
most popular Finnish film of 2007. Last weekend it again topped the box
office list with 20,826 viewers. So far (17.12) it has drawn a total of
172,254 people to Finnish cinemas.

V2: Dead Angel (V2: Jäätynyt enkeli) | trailer (with English subtitles)

Christmas Story (Joulutarina) | trailer (with English subtitles)