Jul

Long Time Comin’

There sure has been a long time comin’, but now I’m back.

The activity with the film has been low in the past few years. But Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band has been busy. The saxophone player Clarence Clemons passed away on June 18th 2011 after a stroke, but that hasn’t stopped Springsteen and the band from turning out records and playing. The new album Wrecking Ball was released on March 6th 2012 and the band is currently on tour.

I went to see them in Berlin on May 30th. And tomorrow I’m heading to Gothenburg for the double shows at Ullevi on July 27th and 28th.

It feels starange to see the band without Clarence Clemons, but his nephew Jake is doing a good job on the saxophone. Springsteen has also added a horn section which gives the band a great sound. And Eddie Manion (sax), Curt Ramm (trumpet), Barry Danielian (trumpet), Clark Gayton (trombone) is really great, all of them.

The work with the photobook has progressed, the book is currently at the printers and I hope to be able to start selling it as soon as it has been thoroughly checked for typos.

12 years ago Short URL

Uncategorized

Jun

Growin’ Up

Today, as I walked by Handelshögskolan (The School of Economics) at Sveavägen I noticed something I haven’t seen before. There’s a playground behind the school, and on the roof of a small house somebody had written this:

20090619_kl1249w

You can only see it when you walk down the stairs from Obsevatorielunden (a small park) and I got really starteled because of what it said. Who ever wrote it must have been a Brucefan! 😀 The thought of this message on a play ground for children, behind the School of Economics – well it just made me laugh. I hope that the kids and the students get the message. 😀

“When they said sit down – I stood up ohoho, Growin’ Up!!

15 years ago Short URL 1 Comment

Uncategorized

Jun

Fade Away

For the final day the weather was actually decent, sunny, but still cold. Me and Peppe got into the line at noon, that was good, because mer people were in line and they were a bit pushy when the wristbands were handed out. Peppe got one last, I got really worried, but I managed to get another one. We got nice spots in the pit, maybe 6 rows from the stage. We were close to the right catwalk. 🙂

The show started as the other ones with Idas sommarvisa. Then we got No Surrender, Badlands and Night. Spitit in the Night was a nice addition and we got a beautiful Ther River. Bruce picked a sign for Mony Mony, that was a great song, as was Trapped. After that we got Fade Away. That was just incredible. Tobbe, a guy we have interviewed early on for our film requested it and got it on the Devils & Dust-tour. Now he had interviewed Steve for a radio show and asked him for it. Steve apparently must have told Bruce, they saw the signs and they played it! The first full band version of the song since The River-tour! Bruce had a long talk before it, talking about how you sometimes must swallow your pride and get down on your knees if you don’t want to lose your loved one.

After that I lost a little inspiration and energy, but I got it back when we got Jungle Land. The encores included Ramrod and Twist and Shout so it was a beautiful show with many great moments.

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15 years ago Short URL

concert/Tour

Stadion/Working on a Dream-tour

Jun

Lost in the Flood

20090605_kl2047w On the second night the weather was much better, no rain, but still cold and gloomy. I got in line later, shortly before 4 o’clock. But it all went well, me and my five friends got our wristbands and a spot a little futher back than yesterday. But it was still good, we could see well!

We got Dowbound Train as a starter, that was really great. Then all the songs we had been talking about were just popping out. First came Candy’s Room, then Darlington County and Youngstown. good Lovin’was a nice surprise, as was Growin’ Up, but Queen of the Supermarket wasn’t as good as good as I hoped. It swayed a little on the drums, Jay Weinberg almost lost the beat, but they picked it up again. Jay is really great filling in for his dad Max, and nobody can believe he’s just 18 years old!

But the biggest surprise of the evening was Lost in the Flood. I had a secret wish for that song, but I hadn’t made a sign, because I thought it would be useless. But others had made signs and we got it! Peppe and I was just screaming madly at each other when Bruce picked it out. The performance was really strong and very moving. We also got the Detroit Medley, with Land of 1000 Dances at the end. Great! A fabulous night!

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15 years ago Short URL

concert/Tour

Stadion/Working on a Dream-tour

Jun

Wild Thing

So it was time for the first of three shows at Stadion, Stockholm. The weather was really bad, cold and rainy. I got to the line at just before 2 o’clock and I met with Peppe shortly after. It was drizzling to and fro, so it wasn’t so nice to stand in line, but we got our wristbands and we could walk in easlily to the pit. We got a spot about 10-14 rows from the stage, inbetween Bruce and Steve, to the right of the stage.

We thought the band would be early because of the bad weather, but they came on at 20.10. Nils started on the accordion and he played Idas sommarvisa, a wellknown swedish tune. Thanks to the weather we got Who’ll Stop the Rain as a starter, and other great moments was I’m going Down, Cadillac Ranch and Wild Thing. I also enjoyed My Lucky Day and Outlaw Pete from the new album.

The encores ended with Glory Days, Twist and Shout and Dancing in the Dark. By that time I was soaked, not from the rain but from all the singing, jumping, clapping an shouting. What a finale! And I’m sure Bruce and the band didn’t do it just to make us stay warm in the cold night. 😀

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15 years ago Short URL

concert/Tour

Stadion/Working on a Dream-tour

Jun

Restless nights

20090603_kl2132w I know, I know, I know, it’s been ages since I updated… There’s no excuse, all the would’a, could’a, should’a won’t help, I still did’nt do it. But it has been calm on this front, so I’ll try to make up for it now as things are heating up again.

The Working on a Dream Tour is well on it’s way, the American leg is finished and Springsteen and the E Street Band came to Europe last weekend when they played the Pinkpop festival in Holland. Yesterday they played in Tampere, Finland and now they are here in Stockholm, getting ready for three shows at Stadion. The first one is tomorrow, the next on Friday and the last on Sunday, so there will be a busy weekend. I’ve been feeling kind of low, not particularly into it, but today I got the Fever again. I’ve been listening carefully to the album, watching dvd:s from recent tours and suddenly the passion came back. I’m really looking forward to the shows, though I don’t like the look of this weekends weather charts. I’ts going to rain, and it’s quite cold, so it’ll be a though time waiting.

I hope that the crowd is going to be nice, reports on the swedish fan forum springsteen.se says there are already 200 people in line. I’m a little nervous about getting a good spot, but at the same time I try not worry so much. I’ll be working until lunch time tomorrow, so I can’t go there early anyway. Besides, there are two more shows, so there’ll be time for standing in line. It’ll work out some how.

15 years ago Short URL

concert/Tour

queue/Stadion/Working on a Dream-tour

Jan

Tomorrow never knows

There has been busy days this week. In December last year Mr. Springsteen started to promote the new material from his record and as I posted then, it soon became clearthat the new album would be released on January 27th. The Title song, as well as The Wrestler and My Lucky Day was released via Amazon.com and Springsteen’s own official website.

The date for the Swedish release of the album varied a bit, but eventually the record was in the stores on the weekend before the US release date. There has been quite a lot of commotion about the cover. Fans even started a group on Facebook to make Springsteen change the cover since many thougt it was so ugly.

I joined the group on Facebook, because I really thought the cover was hideous. But now, with the result in my hand I must admit that I kind of like it. Or, rather, I approve of the style the pictures are made in, I do not like the cover so much, but there are some nice pics in the album.

Of course the rumors of a new tour started buzzing, and eventually the date for the ticket release was out. It was set on January 26th. Since these last days has been very hectic I take the liberty of posting what happened last Monday. So just scroll down a bit and I’ll tell you.

15 years ago Short URL

new album

tickets/Tour/Working on a Dream

Jan

This Life

After the chaotic ticket release I’ve spent a couple of days pondering who’s going to have which ticket, since I’ve promised to help some freinds who wasn’t able to stand in line for tickets. I think I finally have got my maths right, and I’ve also managed to get me a ticket for the third show. Nobody really believed it, but it turned out that the rumor actually was true. After the two first shows sold out, Live Nation announced that there would be a third one on June 7th.

I now have tickets for all three, and that feels good. 😀 It’s worth it to loose some sleep to stand in line, to freeze a bit and all the things you endure just to get into the show. Now I’m just going to sit back and wait until June and listen all that I can to the new album.

15 years ago Short URL

Tour

ticket exchange

Jan

Surprise, Surprise

On Thursday the 22nd I found out that the ticket releas would be on Monday, January 26th. In a way that was good, it was a quiet Monday and I wuld have no problem getting out of work for some hours to que for tickets.

The only thing was that my collegues and I had been working for four days straight on the motorcycle exhibition in Älvsjö. Four days of listening to people, making interviews, promoting our magazine, walking, standing… To make the long story short I was very tired, the night before the release I only got a few hours sleep and at 05.30 in the morning I got to the ticket drop outside the arena, Stadion.

I got number 246 in the line, chatted with my friends,listened to the rumors about a third show and waited. We lined up at seven, the security people arrived at eight, and just before ten o’clock everyone was really excited. When the bells tolled nobody had even time to say GA, before the crew told us that there had been a breakdown and that the sale would be delayed 30 minutes. We were told that the severs had broken down, there was something about a credit card pay system that wasn’t working. The good thing was that the call center, the internet booking and the few cashiers were all blocked, so nobody could buy anything.

After 55 minutes the sale finally got going. But oh, so slowly it went! There were four cash registers at Stadion, but they would have needed at least ten. Everybody was comparing the very haphasard way the new company Eventim was handling the sale to what we’ve been used to with Ticnet. To have the sale in a small shack that could easily have been mistaken for a hut on a construction site did not look professional.

Anyway, shortly after one o’clock I got my six GA’s, three for each night. The shows will take place on June 4th and 5th. I was very happy and hurried to work as fast as I could. But the ticket release was really a mess. People who tried to buy over the internet were charged for the money, but several bookings were maculated, so people payed, but got no tickets. And there were a lot of tickets out on the black market as soon as Eventim started their sale, so something must have gone wrong since the promotor had tried to restrict the scalping. That the internet booking would crash was no surprise, but that it would turn out to be such a mess, was. That’s why people stand in line for tickets, that seems to be the only certain way to get them.

15 years ago Short URL 1 Comment

Ticket release

Eventim/Stockholms Stadion

Dec