Thursday morning, waking up at silly o'clock, preparing for our travel to Denmark. Everyone was excited, we were about to play together again! The rehearsal days made us hungry to bring it all on stage again, rawk together!

The weather in Holland thought different though. It was one big mess on the dutch highways; rain which caused flooded highways, wind tore the trees out of the ground, Embrace The Storm became an actual fact ;)

We barely made it to the airport on time and Naomi (our tourmanager) had to go through a lot of troubles to get us on the plane after all. But she succeeded. SoP vs The Storm: 1-0. But the wind got heavier and heavier so we couldn't depart from Schiphol. Almost 2 hours we were sitting in a shaking plane on the departure track before we finally got the green light for departure. 2-0, SoP on the run!

And with that 2-0 headstart and being in the air, we knew we were gonna make it. There was nothing or no one who was gonna interfere again on our first tourdate this year…

When we got in the venue, the SoP feeling which we had during all the gigs last year came back to me immediately. Hearing Pieter (our sound engineer) checking the PA with Rammstein made everyone wanting to go on stage again very badly. The venue was really cool, pre-sales were ok and the clock was ticking towards our playing time.

Thanks to everyone we got the show rolling again at 22:30. Waiting behind the stage while Pieter kicks the intro in felt so good, we wanted to rawk! And I think we did ;) Our first time in Scandinavia was really worth all the troubles we had that day. The audience was great, the feeling was there. It was really cool to see people from Denmark who came to the gig, but also people from Spain, Holland, England, Germany and even some from the Faroer Islands came to Denmark, pinkie respect!

Also a big thanks to our newest crew member Hans (guitar tech/ask him anything!), you rawk! Next gig: Helsinki on Friday. Bring it on!

Stream on!
Johan

Pictures by
atimoc

Hi everyone,

This time I am the chosen one to give you some inside information on the gig in Helsinki. The support act for this night was Silentium. I didn't really have the chance to talk to them before the show, because the schedule was quite tight. Afterwards I had a little chat with their female vocalist and it was nice to meet some of the other band members as well. During their performance I took a peek to see how they were doing. I think the audiences opinion might have been a bit divided. Some people looked like they were just waiting for S.o.P. to start and others were really going crazy.

I saw a girl in the front row and it seemed like she was having a good time. I thought I recognized her face immediately, but I couldn't figure out were I could have seen her before. Did I see her picture on the messageboard ? Is she a model ? Well anyway, I still don't know the answer ;-)

After that it was our turn to rock the stage and I was getting really excited. It was the first time to play in Finland and we couldn't have had a warmer welcome. Most of you probably knew that we were expecting a special guest that night. I know that many people expected it to be Timo Kotipelto, but that was already confirmed to be wrong. In the venue one guy complained at our merchandiser that it wasn't going to be Timo, but luckily the rest of the audience was very pleased to find out that our special guest was Robert Soeterbroek. Of course the perfect song for him was High Moon, so that's when he got on stage and he received the warm welcome that he deserved.

During the show I noticed that a guy passed out and got carried away by a few other guys around him. First of all it kind of scared me, because I didn't know what was wrong. But I also thought it was pretty cool that he didn't even have the chance of hitting the floor, because the people around him took good care of him. In the end I heard that the guy was okay again, so that was good to hear.

The show went pretty well. I enjoyed every minute of it. The crowd was very excited and they showed us their great appreciation. I think the rest of the band would agree if I say that this was one of the best (most impressive) audiences that we've ever had. The plans for the encores had been rescheduled, but at the end of the show we all just wanted to keep playing and we couldn't just ignore the wild crowd, so we decided to play a few more.

At the meet and greet I met several drummers, which is always nice to see. It was cool to see that there were so many people in different styles and of many different ages.

All in all I had an amazing time in Finland !!!
Davy

Pictures by
Maxxive Media

After a traveling/resting day coming back from Finland we were getting ready to travel to Belgium for our next show. In the afternoon we were picked up by the mighty driver Muddy in the orange Loudnoise bus (which you may have spotted in previous tour diaries!); Muddy is a very fun guy, it was very nice to see him again!

And an hour later we were standing outside the Biebob. It felt very nice to be actually going back to a venue we had visited in our first tour, almost a year ago; the Biebob is nice and cozy, and they serve this killer chicken and fries for dinner!

Since the venue is small the sound on stage was a bit hard to control (yes, we're LOUD). But as usual we tend to forget every little obstacle when the intro comes out of the speakers; we got on stage, went totally crazy and had a blast! I almost smashed my head in the ground once, because the floor was really slippery and my new boots don't have very good traction hehe; I could stop my forehead from hitting the floor with my hands, reducing the movement to a very deep inner thight stretch. So for those of you in the message board asking for embarassing moments on stage, that was definitely one of my highlights.

We saw a lot of familiar faces, killer self-made banana t-shirts with detailed instructions on how to perform the banana dance (that was so kick ass btw), friends and family. It's really sweet to perform and see all of you frequent SoPers there in the cround, it gives us a lot of confidence and energy to give our best!

We would like to send a big hello and a huge hug to the family of Zoef Maars, big fan of Arjen's music from way back and who unexpectedly passed away about 10 weeks ago. We hope you enjoyed the show, and that you can find peace and comfort during these difficult times. Our warmest wishes!

So now we have a few days off before the next show, it'll be awesome to play in Holland again! But for now we'll rest, eat healthy and gather to watch the latest Rammstein DVD together =D

See you soon!
Marcela

Pictures by
Ice Motion

Hello Lucky & Co... long time no see ;-)

Last year we played a gig in this venue on February 17, where we recorded our live DVD. We had SO much fun then, so we did this time as well. Now you can imagine how cool and great was to play here again.

They gave us a really nice traditional dutch dinner. I specially liked the "Zuurkool Stamp", which I had already tried before at Davy's place. BTW, I don't know why you dutch people always complain about your typical food. I do like it very much =)

Another cool thing about that gig was the opening act Elister. I was impressed by their music and I already told them personally that I liked it, but I think it's definitely worth mentioning here as well. Keep up the great job guys!!

Amongst other funny things that happened that day, Marcela was wearing a black glove that she got from a fan. At the end of the concert she threw it really hard to the audience, but it only flew a few meters from the stage and it slaped a girl standing in the front right in her face (hehe oops!). During the meet and greet I saw that girl wearing the glove and I just couln't resist to ask her about it haha. She confirmed Marcela's story but she was laughing about it, so I guess she was fine hehehe.

In general, this tour has been really great for me. And I think the band has reached a point where everything starts to feel very natural and nice; hearing the first notes of "Where ever you are", feeling the tight wall of sound in the main riff of "Into the black hole", the first drum patterns in "Spellbound", the unavoidable nervousness before going on stage and then the adrenaline dose when the whole band kicks in... and the list just keeps going. It all feels like home and that's a place where I like to be at =)

So... we are having so much rocking fun on stage! ;-)

Cheers!
Alejandro

Pictures by
Josssh

It happened before once, a sold out gig. It was in Zoetermeer during our first tour. We were up for a second sold out gig now, Bibelot in Dordrecht. It's a really cool venue, it's actually an old church which we noticed during the soundcheck hehe! It was quite hard to get all monitors sounding as we are used to, but knowing that the whole venue would be filled with people comforted us a lot to be honest. It was also our last day with Muddy as our driver (thanks a lot again Muddy! Can we stop on the way back? Some people have weak bladders ;) and also our last gig working with Hans. He's been with us for 5 gigs and from the first moment was one of our SoP "commune". Together with Leon (gracias!) he managed to put up all the stuff and get the stage ready for us, much appreciated!

After our soundcheck the support of that night, Morning, arrived so they could soundcheck as well. We weren't able to see much of their show, but what we've seen was pretty cool! So check them out on the net!

After enjoying our dinner (they know how to prepare meat in Bibelot!) it was 1,5 hour of waiting before the gig… at least, for me it was supposed to be waiting until I discovered I left my gig shirt at home…. Equals: panic! Fortunately Yvette and Naomi took care of that within a few minutes, how lucky we are as a band with such great people joining us!

The gig itself was great I think. To come up on stage and see a packed venue gives you goosebumps all over and takes away all pre-gig nerves immediately. We changed a few songs on the setlist and that worked out pretty well regarding the audience.

During the gig I had some major problems with my amp which got me a little out of the enjoying mood for a second, but when I looked back in the venue and seeing all those people, those problems disappear at once.

The meet and greet was really crowded, but it's always so much fun to talk to all of you after a gig, so we really know what's going on, if you liked it or not that is ;). It's always good to see familiar faces again, loyal fans who show up no matter where we are, muchas gracias!

My personal thanks to Taz for the bottle of whiskey is the ending of this tourdiary. Some people at the entrance got scared when Taz gave me the bottle and I tried to be funny by saying: "good, now I can play again, now that I have my whiskey". Let's call that pre-gig nerves and the bottle is still closed so don't you worry ;)

Unfortunately we've only got 2 more shows to go, I already know I'm gonna miss everyone so much again, it's so great to be together as a group. Therefor I bought a bunny to comfort myself hahaha! His name is Pablo, feel free to visit him haha!

Take care and stream on!
Johan

Pictures by

Ice Motion
and
invisiblekid

Hello again,
Last sunday there was a fan meeting in Zeist, and we thought it did deserve a place in the tour diary too.

It started for Alejandro and myself as yet another trip in which we got lost, which seems to become a trademark to our style of travelling. Some people call it stupid, we call it adventurous ;-)

So it took us a while to get to the venue. Even when we got there, we had to find a parking spot. I already read on the messageboard that 'invisiblekid' saw a little van pass by a few times. That was us.

For me as a bandmember it was cool to see a lot of familiar faces from the shows and the messageboard. As I talked to some of the visitors it was quite clear that everybody had that same feeling. It's cool to see that fans get together and have a good time. Especially when some of them came al the way from Germany and England (respect!). Most of the music that was played by the DJ was in some way S.o.P. related, so we could all get in the right mood.

The first thing on the program was the unofficial backstage video footage. I've spent some time editting that damn dvd, so I was quite annoid by the fact that I kind of screwed up the main menu. Luckily there was enough for people to watch and I didn't expect everyone to watch it with such concentration. Everybody was quiet and all their attention went to the screen. Unfortunately my father couldn't make it to this fan meeting, so it was really nice to see that people started laughing and clapping when he was featured in a short film together with Alejandro, both playing 'Out in the Real World' on a noseflute.

After the footage and a little chat, Joop (JCroy) asked me if I would like to announce the Tribute Band's (Team of Passion) performance. Normally I would get nervous and start thinking of what the hell I should say. But in this case the atmosphere was so relaxed, calm and to me it kind of felt like one big family, so I didn't prepair anything. I just got on stage, announced them, got off stage and enjoyed a wonderful performance of T.o.P.

At first it was really weird to see and hear other people play those songs. It gets even stranger when it actually sounds really good. There were several moments where I was covered in goosebumps. Especially caused by the two incredible female singers (LadyLau & Elister). One thing that I found very typical for our fans was that the mood was so right that those few screw ups by the band were completely embraced by the audience. Nobody cared about those mistakes and it actually caused to band to get even more contact and interaction with the audience. It felt like one big loving family having a shit load of fun.

Last but not least we gave away some exlusives. I was glad to see that everybody was so happy with their prizes. After that we had a few more drinks and some really cool conversations and then it was time to leave again. It was clear to see that some people didn't feel like ending the party already and as I've heard, several people went to a restaurant or a bar afterwards. We actually did the same ;-)

Joop and I worked hard to get this whole Fan Meeting to work and the Tribute Band rehearsed their asses off to be able to do thier performance. It was all worth it ! It's really heartwarming to see so many happy faces in the venue that day and to read so many cool reactions on the messageboard afterwards.

Thank you all !!!

Grtz,
Davy