24. October 2002 Sweden, Germany, UK, On the road

Oct 16th Karlstad Sweden
What a hellish day. A million things to do before we leave for Sweden, and
then my car won’t start. Fuckfuckfuck. On top of it all we have to move
evrything out of our rehearsal space and throw it into a new room. Our
space in in a small office building, mainly with offices for computer
companies. As we are loading up the elevator with stuff, all these office
creeps start moaning because they have to walk two flights of stairs. Raldo
is so pissed off he is emitting sparks. After 90 minutes of carrying stuff
we are done and can head for Karlstad. We arrive much too late, and are
greeted by the Hellacopters and their crew. The stage is 2 meters and 60
cm’s tall. I am not kidding. It is very weird. The house is full but
somehow well-behaved. It’s OK. After the show Hellacopters keyboard player
Boba Fett says he has found a party for us just next door to the club.
„Let’s all go to Leo Petterson’s house!" he keeps on yelling at us. Leo
Pettersons house is a one room appartment with five chandeliers hanging
from the roof. On the wall hangs a top hat with a white silk scarf draped
over it. Leo himself is very agitated, playing one Barry Manilow record
after another. Leo has about six friends ahnging out there too, all of them
male and looking like H&M posterboards. His friends are giggling insanely
all the time, and I understand why when the huge bottle of poppers are
passed my way. Not a tight sphincter in the house. A very bizarre thing to
experience in the sleepy city of Karlstad. We are driving overnight to
Malmö, and there is only one free bed in the Hellacopters bus. Danny gets
that, me and Poon hook up with Kenny Hellacopter and undergo his „Shiva
DeepSleep Programme" until we collapse on the couches downstairs in the bus.

Oct 17th Malmö, Sweden
This is the 5th or 6th time we have played the KB club in this city. Add to
it that we spent a month here in 1999 to record the „Tender is the Savage"
album, and you will understand me when I say that I have spent too many
days here. As always when we are here, it is kinda cold and rainy. Spend
most of the day doing nothing, except for a meeting with our booking agent
Tobbe that lives here. Raldo and I go for a stroll and a coffee after
soundcheck, discussing things like flightcases and loading procedures.
Boredom. The show is anything but boredom though, we sound great I think.
Hella show is top notch too. Spend the rest of the evening drinking and
talking to various people backstage. I have a lot of fun actually. Meet
some very resourceful friends of the Hellacopters that saves my evening.
Thank you guys. Nina Persson from Cardigans is in the house, and some
people from swedish popsters The Ark.

Oct 18th Nyköping, Sweden
Have to get some sleep today. The bus left from Malmö at 8 AM, whaich gave
me about three hours of pillow time. I sit in the downstairs lounge of the
bus and trey to crash out, but I can’t do it. The couch is too narrow(or
maybe I am too wide). Spend the morning and afternoon playing Grand Theft
Auto 3 instead, I kill a lot of people. The show is weird, the room is no
good and the club has quite an attitude. Just one of those nights that are
not really happening.

Oct 19th, Västeras Sweden
Non happening day again. Just strolling aimlessly around, buying small
things at the pharmacy and other places. The show takes place in a
converted cinema, very nice room. We spend most of the afternoon listening
to records, as the Hellacopters now have reached a level where they have a
flightcase for their stageclothes in their dresing room, and inside that
case they have rigged up a little stereo system. Nicke plays the upcoming
Peepshows record for us, and it is very good. Later that night we run into
Johan Peepshow, the drummer, and several other people we know. A nice but
short evening as we are leaving right after the show. Most of the tour goes
into Stockholm, but Gluecifer are invited to Nicke Hellacopters house,
about an hour outside Stockholm. We are dropped off the bus ion a very
desolate place, Nicke points to a gravel road and say that we have to walk
for about 30 minutes to get to his place. It is extremely cold, so I put a
pair of underpants on my head. It works actually. When we get to Nickes
place we end up playing pubrock records all night.

Oct 20-21st, Nicke’s house, Somewhere in Sweden
What a place he has got. Four old houses scattered on a big piece of land.
Very peaceful and very nice. We hang out here playing records, eating food
and just doing nothing. Raldo has bought a french pubrock record from 79 with a band called Little Bob Story. The hit song is "Riot in Toulouse" Check it out if you find it.

Oct 22nd, Lingen, Germany
Looks like we're in the middle of nowhere here. Classical German place that has a kindergarten, a rock hall and tons of small rooms where the kids can do stuff. Bus is parked right next to an old cemetary. I take a walk around and dig all the weird names. A lot of the headstones bears the names of the young sons killed in Russia during the war. Poon and I take a walk in the little city of Lingen and we both manage to get lost. Feel like a schmuck when I ask for directions in my stammering German. Show is fine enough.

Oct 23rd, Essen, Germany
Back on the scene of the crime where we once saw a dog lick nutella out of a severely drunk swede's ass. Essen is smack dab in the middle of the heavy metal belt. Autograph hunters turn up at 2 pm and stay there for hours. We have to sign tons of stuff. Weird people. I buy some socks from a shopkeeper that has limp wrists and a very nervous laugh. I figure out why he's laughing whan I realize how much I paid for those socks. Rip-off strasse! We play our songs to shreds and the Judas Priest hits like a broadsword in the metal hearts. Aiaiaiaiaiaiaiiiiii.....!

Oct 24th, Bielefeld, Germany
Second place on this tour that has a kindergarten in the same house as the club. What will these toddlers be like after growing up to the sounds of shitty bands soundchecking.  They will be the outcasts, the small time criminals, the filth, the shame of Bielefeld. Poor kids. The backstage is heavenly, cute girls cooking for us and several beds, washingmachines etc. Danny's friend Saskia comes by with her dad Fritz the Jazzman and some friends. Our new manager Julie from Norway also comes to visit us along with Maria and Jay from SPV.  Maria keeps on reminding me to tell the punters that our new single "Losing End" will be in the shops on Monday, I am a nice marionette and do as I am told. Very cool crowd, the best show so far on the tour. After the show we all go to some bar called Eingang sieben or something. A 50 year old DJ is playing wonderful and very heavy rock music. It goes well with our mood. The girl who owns the bar keeps on tellin us that she knows excactly what it is like to be in a band. She also gets recognized a lot, since she is serving everybody drinks. While I try to make some meaning out of her insane garble she keeps on giving me free drinks. A good deal.

Oct 25th, Dresden, Germany
This is the third time I am here, and so far I have seen nothing but the club. It is supposed to be a very nice city, and I have promised myself to check it out some time, but it's not happening today either. Meet an old Oslo face called Martin. He met a girl here when he was on tour, and moved in with her this summer. We hang around until it's time, play the show and it's so hot that every piece of clothing I wear is soaked right thru after five songs. Killer crowd again. After the show we go to a bar in the city where there is an aftershow party going on. Not too happening, but we have a good time anyhow. Serious levels of wastedness in the bus afterwards. What an ugly gang.



8. October 2002 GLUEBASE, OSLO
Hello Rockers!!
We are back from our longest norwegian tour ever, and it was fun!!
We had the pleasure to play with some great bands; AMULET,
RICCOCHETS and our long time companions THE HELLACOPTERS.
We are going to Sweden next week to play 4 more gigs
with THE HELLACOPTERS,something that we are really looking forward to.

As always there have been some amazing things happening on and off stage...
I think that Trondheim was one of the highlights in that area.
During the end of 'Rockthrone' (our second encore)
I seem to lose the beat completly so both Raldo & Cpt. Poon
are desperatly trying to get me back on track... without any luck...
Fortunately for me Nicke and Strengen comes running on stage
with their guitars strapped on, they jump down on their knees and
start playing wild hard rock solo's making the whole thing look
like it was planned! I am truly greatful for them saving my ass!!
It was aslo truly wonderful to see Boba up there on stage behind
his synthesizer in perfect Gene Simmons make-up, painted on by
Nicke who later that morning was a victim of some norwegian Manly Living...

We will be touring alot in Oct/Nov; see our tour page for further information.

Looking forward to seeing y'all!!

Danny 'dr gOmp' Young



2. September 2002 Gluebase, Oslo, Norway
Getting ready for touring again. Pressing the suit, washing the shirts, spitpolishing the shoes etc. Can't wait to go out. Think we'll have a killer time this fall. Playing with great bands like Amulet, Ricochets and the Hellacopters will be fun, must be fun, cannot be anything but fun.

We have also started writing some stuff for the next record. Once again we went up to Trysil in Norway and locked ourselves in a ski cabin for three days, coming out of there with some new stuff. It's gonna be pretty good I think. Once again we will work with producer Kåre Vestrheim. The masterplan is to have the new record ready next fall.

See you kids on the road, you will love us....

The all-seeing Doctor Malibu



9. August 2002 August 9th 2002, Gluebase, Oslo, Norway
Hi everyone.
Biff is back on the diary page. Summer is still here and we have done a lot of cool shows the last weeks. Thanks to everyone who has showed up and to all those who have sent us nice words, marriage proposals, dirty letters etc.

Since the last entry we have shot a new video for Losing End. It was shot in a gigantic old factory building in Oslo and featured the five of us and a dog. It's being edited right now, and will be ready next week. After the 13 hour video shoot some scum stole a couple of bags from Poon's car. In the bags were several leather jackets, some shoes and other pieces of favorite clothing that Poon and Raldo had used in the video. What a fucking bummer. We still haven't found any of the stuff.

Except for the theft the summer has been cool. Lazy weeks and shows on the weekend. Seeing Queens of the Stoneage w/Dave Grohl on Hurricane festival was one of the highpoints for me so far. A killer show. Another fun night was last weekend's nightly swimming extravaganza w/Amulet in Flekkefjord, Norway. Some deranged woman was screaming at us that she was gonna call the front desk of the hotel we were staying at, while a naked Torgny Amulet was diving head first into the water from the hotel terrace. Naturally, the woman's threat left us pretty unfazed.

Right now we are planning for the fall, and it looks like we'll be doing a string of shows in Norway in September, with a weekend in Finland thrown in somewhere. All dates will be posted on the tour page as soon as they are confirmed. We will play with some might fine bands in Norway, I dare say that some of the shows will feature a double bill of historic proportions.
October takes us to Sweden and Germany plus some shows in Be-Ne-Lux and Switzerland. There's also talk about more UK shows. Again check the tour page frequently for show info

On the personal side, our bassplayer Stu is getting married later this year. If you wanna send some words use the guestbook. That's all for now, I am off to the mountains for some freshwater crayfish and offroad cycling, while the rest of the guys are going to the festival.

Yeah Yeah Yeah
Biffster



4. June 2002 June 4th, Dublin, Ireland
Frequent updates, oh yeah... That was rich wasn't it. Well I'm here now, aint I. Tour is coming to an end. We have had a killer time. Lots of fun, lots of good shows, and of course the occasional stupid night. Right now we are in Dublin, where we are playing at Whelan's tonight. Had some good days in London. Danny got frogmarched out of Alan Mc Gee's club at the Metro after "dancing" with his pants down at 1 30 in the morning. Hilarioius... A big hi to everybody we met on the tour, see you all soon.

Check tours page for updated summer show list. We are gonna play a lot this summer.

The strict uncle Biff

22. April 2002 Gluebase, Oslo, Norway
Hi folks

Virgin entry in this diary. Will try to make frequent updates here. Just home from four shows in Norway. Thanks to everybody that showed up. We had a great time everynight. Now we're home again, preparing our minds and slightly out of tune bodies for the upcoming euro tour. We are looking forward to it. We'll bring tons of cool merch, including a kick-ass Gluecifer jacket. Break into those saving accounts now!

Raldo just bought a new car, it is an Opel Manta. It goes very well with his new moustache. The captain is expecting delivery of his 74 BMW 3,0 CSi any day. Seems like we're turning into a vintage car band.

We're getting a lot of mail and pictures from people, thank you thank you. Keep sending stuff in.

See you later

Biff