...Welcome 2007!

I won't make any promises for the new year. If I should make any it'd be something I know I can keep; like "I promise tobe as annoying as I can be" or "I promise not to take up smoking"... I just don't think anyone actually need more demands on themselves. Specially demands that are meant to destroy yourself. So, I promise to eat icecream when I want to and feel like it and I promise to go to the gym as long as it's fun...

2007 seems like a good year, looking at it from a distance of 27 hours or so. I will go to New York - New York for the first time in my 34 year old life and that's only the 2nd time in US. First time being San Fransisco that I loved from first second, and I knew I would too - why wouldn't I? But it wasn't the United States Of America that I've seen on tv. To be honest, it was fa from it. People were nice an the sandwiches normal sizes, people weren't fat to an extreme, but normal - Swedish standard. I guess it was USA the easy way. New York City will be an entirely different thing. This IS America. I guess USA the outrageous was would be Texas (everything huge and overdimensioned) or Florida -but NYC that's America. This is where the immigrants landed, this is where Kiss and Anthrax began. This is where Sex & The City takes place and this is where the United Nation lies with it's Raoul Wallenberg monument. This is where John Lennon lived, and died.

Then of course it's Sweden Rock Festival in June - 4 days of hard rock, 91 bands... And I get to work with them all :-)

Goodbye 2006...

This has been a fantastic year with 2 mayor happenings I never really thought would happen to me, 3 actuallt thinking of it.

1) I've seen Journey LIVE. Right there infront of me, or actually next to me, as I was on stage when it happen. Sweden Rock Festival 2006 - the best festival ever if you ask me. Nothing will ever be the same again. Journey. Steve Perry abscent but Stee Augeri present. No complaints from me. I have the set-list on my ofice wall and the itinary for the day before where it says "contact for Sweden Rock: Ozzie" and my phonenumber's there. One of the guys I work with told me I would grow tired of it and toss it away soon, but how could I... It's fantastic. It's huge. Journey in SWEDEN. In EUROPE! Nah, I'd never get used to that. I welcome mr Jeff Scott Soto to the band, but I'm not forcing myself to UK to see them live, if you know what I mean. Thanx Steve Augeri for doing the European summer-leg :-) And to everyone else on the tour! Thank you for doing the signing-session as well!!!

You were the best!!

2) I got my drivers license. First time, in September, I was speeding and didn't get it, but 2nd time, in October it was ALL MINE!! I've even bought a car, a beautiful silver SMART 2003. I'm in love with a car and I now have a licence!! Almost as unbelieveable as seeing Journey live. Almost!!

3 This is the weird 3rd one. nothing to be happy about but I never once believed JOHN WAITE would CANCEL a date in Copenhagen. The day before my birthday. Now, it'd be on the top of the list if he'd played - but cancelling too?? It's a mixed feeling regarding this. Thank good I got the tumbs down early, so that I didn't get too excited - but of course I was way more disapointed than I wanted to be... I had imagined seeing John up on stage playing all my favorite songs, acoustic or with a full band... I'd hoped to see him live before that too, in UK, and the plan was to actually speak a few words to him in Copenhagen... The rumour has it John Waite will come in the spring instead... We'll se...

Wake up to the real world...

... that is indeed the title of the latest and newest and most
awesome album of Pretty Maids. I love it too bits even though they
don't need Deep Purple's "Perfect Strangers" to stay on top, actually
that's the only track I don't like. Don't misunderstand me now, I
love Deep Purple and I love that song among allt he others, but it's
perfect the way it is and if you're doing a cover you shouldn't copy
the song but make it your own... and now I've trashed Pretty Maids
exactly the opposite from what I intended.

I am in love with Pretty Maids, I didn't quite understand this until
the 90s. When they released "Sin-Decade" with "Please Don't Leave Me"
on it. That was the song that made them immortal to me. Not because
it was a hit but because they knew of the song, that made them Thin
Lizzy-fans, just like me and that made them worthy and lovable and
adorable and they deserve every bit of respect there is to give.

The thing is, I am a huge fan. I've seen all the shows in
Copenhagen/Sweden since 1990 (but one that I missed in 2001 I think,
becuase I didn't know about it AND I lived in Stockholm at the time).
I consider myself their greatest fan and I do it solemny because I've
been there, at the shows, I bought their CDs and I've mentioned them
every time possible. It all was proved in Stockholm 2004 when they
played at Draken on my Birthday. It was me and this other guy that I
only knew by looks not by name. We were their biggest fans and Ronnie
Atlins dedicated "Please Don't Leave Me" to my for my birthday. I
loved it so much. It was the best night ever, the party went on until
4 in the morning and I considered myself extremly happy and extremly
celebrated. Now, that only happens once. I got to hear "Please Don't
Leave Me" and get a personal dedication, oh if I only had it on
tape...

Yesterday I saw them live again, in Copenhagen. A Christmas gig no
less adding both "In Santas Claws" and "A Merry Jingle" to the
set-list. It was amazingly good and a briilliant audience. One young
man kept pushing me and had desperate needs to stand on my feets - I
took him for drunken bastard until I saw he was wearing a Pretty
Maids hat and on his cellphone he had a Pretty Maids loga. The boy
was nothing but a huge fan wanting to stand in the front so I let him
have the spot. I remember those days... I used to have a site called
Savage Heart where I put photos from the Pretty Maids concerts I'd
been to...

Anyway, this is my tribute to the band. The day after the oncert of the year.
I am the fan, others are the friend and the journalist but I will be
forever truly yours devoted fan.

Dime RIP

I remember waking up 2 years ago. My fiancé was shaking me softly. He'd already gone to work but came back home for some reason. I didn't want to wake up. He told me I had to as he had to tell me something. Something sad. I said something like "who died?" and I wasn't awake enough to see how serious he was. I sat up and somehow J told me there'd been an accident, a shooting. He spoke of Damageplan. I wasn't fully awake yet, I didn't know what he was talking about. He looked me in my eyes and said "Dime's been shot". I didn't feel anything but my tears started to fall. He said ""Dime's dead". My eyes flooded. I know he said something about the others in the band, "Vinnie?" He didn't know. With the time differences it'd just happened there but was morning here. I don't remember when I got angry instead of sad. I remember wanting to talk to anyone from that era of my life. I remember was angry at myself for not supporting Damageplan, for not buying the album, for being a stubborn Pantera-fan waiting for them (Phil) to get cleaned up and get back together. Pantera's been on my wish-list for Sweden Rock since ever. I didn't see them after the last gig in Stockholm. I was supposed to have seen them later on the Far Beyond Driven-tour but shows were cancelled and I never went. Knowing what I know today I would have gone on every show, even if the shows were cancelled I should have gone just to hang out with them... I would have tagged along, I wouldn't have let them forget me, I wouldn't... Shouldn't... I always thought they'd come back. It never once occured to me that I'd had my chances and that the party was over and all the fun would just be a very distant memory. Sometimes the memories are more vivid, a McFish is always Dime's food even though, in Stockholm, someone else ate it and the guy who did begged us not to tell on him... I remember in Copenhagen at Pumpehuset 1992 (or maybe it was 1993) when I looked around I realised I was probably the oldest in there (19 yrs old) and the only female not dragged there by a boyfriend. Afterwards they stayed and hung out with us, the fans. Signing autographs, posing (not really) for photos. Or when they supported Megadeth and we were guests for Megadeth and I (stubborn as I am) was sulking for all the party was with Pantera and I was stuck in the non-alcohol camp of Megadeth... I was relieved when I wasn't on their 2nd homevideo, they'd filmed me showing off one of the glam-Pentera albums that they'd just signed for me. Dime was impressed by my nails and because of them I was introduced to the camera as "new Swedish pornstar" which of course they had much fun at seeing me get bloodred about. An hour later we were playing cusion-football and me and my cousin where just one of the guys (only lausy at the game). Today I would have loved having myself on the homevideo, proving I was a part of it all. The madness, the fun. I guess one of the things I liked about Pantera was that they saw I was a fan and treated me like one, never once did they suggest I'd be a groupie. My love for Pantera goes deep even though I still feel it very hard to listen to them it's far worse to see them on video. The video Black Label Society did for The River is, by far, the most emotional video I ever seen. I cry a river every time. Whenever I see a Dean guitar my heart make moves that hurts me. I try to be happy and remember the good things and cheerish the memories, but it's far mor difficult than I ever imagined. Dime, wherever you are, your music will live on forever, it's eternal...