So this weekend I was in Sweden (and actually Finland) too. I'll try to write a small report of my adventures...
I took the flight from Düsseldorf/Niederrhein to Stockholm/Skavsta.. went fairly easy altough it was very dark outside when I arrived (the sun sets earlier in Sweden in the winter.. around 3pm). I took the bus to Stockholm Central where I would be picked up by my buddy Steve
After spending the night at his place and some necessary X-mas shopping it was time to head to the cruise ship on thursday night.
When entering the big terminal it seemed pretty empty but after we sat down in the terminal's restaurant that changed quickly as about 2500 people were supposed to show up :P
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Terminal building loaded with peeps
The boarding process began and without too much police and customs interference we made it onto the boat and found our cabins. Time to change clothes and do some pre-partying. I quickly managed to find PeterK's hut since he was pumping out hardstyle really loud. He and his friends had taken some huge ass JBL speakers, two CDJ-players and a DJM600 :D
After some running around I ran into Dana in the hallways who was on her way to dinner in the captain's restaurant. I talked shortly with her and told about GHR and said I would meet her later which in fact I did. In total I think I hung around with her between 2 to 3 hours on the first day which was really delightful cause in Holland you would never get the option of speaking with such a famous DJ personally. We talked about loads of things but also about music and it's history... hardcore.. trance.. producing.. DJing.. what not :P
Later on she also showed up at PeterK's pre-party and listened to their music 8) I also got the DJ to play one of my latest tracks :+
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Me & Dana @ the pre-party
While down at the pre-party some gorgeous Swedish X-mas babes came by to give us some pepperkakor (Swedish pepper cookies specially made for X-mas)
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Later we went around on the boat to see some of the other DJ's. Above & Beyond was some quality trance but Dana told me she really didn't like trance because of the slow breaks and only listened to the intro's and outro's cause she likes the beats. Even so she thinks that trance producers are amongst the best of all producers since creating such melodical (nearly classical) productions is an art of it's own.
Mistress Barbara didn't really impress me. A bit of slow house/techno stuff.
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Main Floor
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Later Anne Savage was supposed to come on but something went wrong with her and soon we had found out why. Somebody of the management jumped forward to Dana to ask her if she was able to begin a bit earlier because Anne Savage didn't feel so well.
When we went up to the backstage area we saw Anne sitting in a chair hanging with her head besides it. She was totally wasted. When it was her time to play her roadie had to pull her up from the chair and put her behind the turntables. She could barely stand and made 3 very bad mixes (big-time off-beat !!). She had to sit down again and her roadie took over for some tracks. Later she tried to play again but this time she ****ed up so hard that the sound-technicians kicked her away from the TT's :D Her roadie went on playing after that while she sat in a chair kicking his ass and picking CD's from her catalog.
The first and most likely also the last time Anne Savage will play in Sweden.
Here is a story cut from her diary:
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MONDAY 12 DEC ENTRY:
Well I just finished probably the most extraordinary weekend of my life. A four date weekend is something I'm a bit out of practice for. It all started with me and Terry from DJ Mag on Thursday where we set off on the legendary Monday Bar boat cruise from Stockholm, Sweden to Helsinki in Finland.
Things kicked off when we all met up at Heatrow to fly to Stockholm, bumping into Fergie at the airport early doors about 10am. Arriving in Sweden we were kindly shown round the beautiful city whilst waiting to board. We were also shown a few local beers, which lead to wine at dinner etc. etc. The boat was huge, several rooms with Above & Beyond, Misstress Barbara and Lady Dana as my dj companions. Now it's been a while since I've been led astray, and without mentioning any names I partied a bit too much, resulting in me not getting my 8 hours beauty sleep for the flight home from Helsinki on Friday morning. I lost my boarding pass and some noydy woman at the gate wouldn't issue me with another one, resulting me being bumped from the flight. I caused a bit of a stir and ended up getting arrested for aggitated behaviour and ended up being interrogated by some rather fit policemen. A slap of the wrist later and another 1800 down so I could buy another flight to make my gig at Nuklear Puppy.
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Then because Anne Savage had totally collapsed Dana was allowed to play one hour extra. The first hardstyle artist ever to be playing for a Swedish organizer (whether it not be on Swedish soil since we were floating somewhere in Finland between the Åland islands :D )... I was a bit nervous but it went down like a BOMB. The audience simply loved it!
They kept on screaming, shouting and throwing their hands up in the air during the 3 hour set! Dana said she played on many places in the world but this was by far the most enthusiastic crowd ever. The panorama room she played in had never been so full before. At a certain point the security had to stop people from coming back in because the room was too full! :D
A big hardstyle artist in Sweden for the first time and it worked .. crazy!
I think this will probably be the break for many new hardstyle events and acts in the country which is only positive for everybody involved with the hs scene.
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Dana behind the wheels of steel
Here are 8 clips from Dana's performance
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Sun setting in the Baltic Sea
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Eastern Sweden from the air
DJ Mag was also on the boat with some reporters & photographers.. so keep track of their forthcoming issues for a full report
