| HIM at Arena Musika Festival, Bulgaria 07.07.2002 (by Klio) 9-7-2002 I have just returned from Bulgaria where I enjoyed HIM at Arena Musika Festival (7-7-2002) in Sofia�I have been about 30 hours on the road, so if I make any mistakes in my spelling please forgive me! ;) My poor brother Miltos, to whom I owe a BIG THANK YOU cause he was the one who brought �Join Me� at home, showed me how wonderful HIM are and created his site with all those HIM bootlegs, couldn�t come with me because Greek soldiers are not allowed to leave Greece during their service at the army. :((((((((( So I took a friend and we went to Sofia by train�do not try it. It�s 19 hours from Athens; better take the bus next time. :PPPPPPPP We decided to compensate ourselves with a super luxurious room at Hilton. What a luxurious hotel�I loved it! Not even HIM stayed in such a 5-star hotel. They stayed in a 4-star hotel! :PPPPPPP BEFORE THE GIG First of all I would like to say a huge THANK you to Mr Seppo Vesterinen who is the politest and cutest manager I have ever met. He is the best! I called him when I arrived in Sofia in order to arrange a meeting to give him the bootlegs he had asked me. Indeed he suggested that I should drop by their hotel, meet him and also attend the HIM press conference that was taking place there�I�m pretty sure I�m on Bulgarian television� NOOOOO!!!! I arrived at the hotel with my friend and the large parcel with the cds I was carrying (the cds were about 5 kilos!!!!) and called Seppo again to let him know that I was waiting at the reception of their hotel. There were a lot of people there. Reporters, cameramen, press people and fans�most of them crazy �I love you, Ville Valo� girls (which I hate!). He came immediately at the reception and we greeted each other. He took the parcel and he promised to come back in 5 min for the press conference, he also proposed to have coffee with him. A few minutes later HIM appeared at the reception�Girls were running all over them�God, I felt a little bit sorry� I sat down at a couch and a few minutes later Seppo and the band came towards us. He told me to come with them. We went downstairs and left all of the crazy fans upstairs�The security men were so polite as soon as Seppo told them that we were with them. ;) To tell you the truth I hadn�t even noticed Ville�s short hair (I had all my attention to Burton who was walking in front of me!!! Yes I�m a fan of Burton�s!!!) before my friend pushed me and told me �look at his hair!!!!�. Surprise Number 1�Ville with short hair! He looked so much younger and cute. :) Surprise Number 2�Gas has lost a lot of weight�he is much thinner. :) As we were all walking towards the press conference I could feel the cameras on to us and everyone clapping�God it felt really great�who would ever imagine that I would walk with the guys and everyone will greet us? The press conference started�A few boring questions. Ville was making fun all the time and so was Mige. Then someone asked about side projects and Burton said he has taken part in a porno movie for �someone from the band said 50 euro per second for every scene and he said NO�rather 50 Euro for the whole movie�of course he was joking�but if he is not, I would die to get my hands on that tape!!! :DDDDD The press conference ended and Seppo told me that he would get us in few min for a coffee. A few girls were shouting �Seppo Seppo Seppo� and followed him around�Then, he came and we went along with him. He opened the door for us (he is soooo polite) and as I stepped outside in a terrace�in one of the tables was BURTON (!!!!) and Linde and Gas. Ville and Mige stayed for interviews. Seppo and I were talking about lots of stuff for an hour�He confirmed that HER will be the name of HIM in USA and told me the whole story about the other band that are called �HIM� in USA and that they are pretty aggressive about the name and that there wasn�t anything they could do about it. He asked me about my brother and Rockwave Festival 2002 in Greece that was cancelled so suddenly and several other stuff. Then he noticed my �666 ways to love� EP that I had with me for Ville to sign.. �What is this???� he asked me�Surprise!!! �Well, it�s the first digipack I answered� He told me in surprise that even he does not have a copy at home and took it to show it to Burton Gas and Linde. By the way Linde has one!. Well, in general it was a funny conversation. Then, he suggested to take us with them when they went for the sound check� :) ;) :) He told me that I would see Ville and Mig� alone cause they had their interviews. Then, he left and Gas and Linde went with him�Burton was left alone�.all alone. :P Sometimes I blame myself for being so shy and timid�.But Burton was very nice to me especially when I took out 3 huuuuuge photos of him and signed them for me. Then I took 2 photos with him�(hopefully one will be good!!!!) and left him alone to enjoy the rain. My friend and I went inside the hotel and then Seppo came and took me to the press conference area and there he was�. Ville and Mige. �Look Ville this the girl that brought all the cds for us�, �Oh, cool!� Ville answered and we greeted� I must say that something is definitely wrong with me cause I did it again as I did in Thessalonica, where I have met Ville and Burton in a bar for the first time when they were in Greece last year �I dumped Ville to sign all the albums and Elvis cards I gave him and went to Mige and started to talk with him� Ville signed a 40-year post card of Elvis for my mother and he took another one for the stage. And I didn�t see what he had written to my mother until I was back at the hotel late that night after the gig� �Take good care of your sweet daughter, with love Ville Hermani Valo� and �sweet� was underlined. I�m a horrible fan I must say�. Then Seppo and the entire band except Ville went to a van and left for the gig area�yes, I was in the car with them with my friend�Not many fans can say they traveled with their favorite band to the gig area. AT THE GIG My friend and I passed from backstage to frontline (no tickets �Seppo refused to let us buy our tickets. Thank you!). We preferred to go at Mige�s side�Not so much pushing and it has a great view all over the band�especially Burton! :) 5 groups played before HIM�.the 3d and the 4th were horrible�.the 5th was good. Then at 10.00 o�clock�lights went down�and people started screaming HIM HIM HIM and clapping etc�The gig was FANTASTIC �.. TERRIFIC!!!!!!!!!!! It reminded me of the first HIM gig I had attended in 2000 when HIM came to Greece for the first time�.Great gig! Ville was on great shape with his voice, he was smiling a lot �in general the whole band was on good mood. The set list was 1) Stigmata Diaboli 2) Heartache Every Moment 3) Your Sweet 666 4) Poison Girl 5) In Joy and Sorrow 6) Lose You Tonight 7) RHIMA 8) For You (!!!!!!!!!) 9) Solitary Man 10) It�s all tears 11) Bury Me Deep Inside Your Heart 12) Join Me (after Join me Ville was impossible to continue for a few minutes cause of the screaming and the clapping and the enthusiasm and he seemed to enjoy it, cause he started to bow to all directions laughing!) 13) Please Don�t Let It Go 14) Pretending 15) Wicked Game (everyone left the stage and came few min after �screaming was so loud I had to cover my ears!) 16) Gone with the Sin 17) Black Sabbath- Hand of Doom (they rocked the whole place with that song!!!) Ville thanked us for the great gig, we greeted, clapping all the band members, Burton threw his towel but of course I didn�t get it and they left the stage, leaving me with a feeling of excitement and happiness in my heart but also a feeling of emptiness. Now it will be more than a year till the next time I manage to see then again�so till then�. THE END |