LIVE: July 1st 2006, Miljoona Rock, Tuuri, Finland
This week’s throwback gallery is a smaller and a bit different kind of one. On July 1st 2006 Lordi played at Miljoona Rock, Tuuri. This was a big rock festival in a small town in the middle of nowhere, organized by Vesa Keskinen, the merchant of Veljekset Keskinen, the biggest department store in Finland. Billy Idol and Dio also played at the festival that night for about 15 000 people. I was supposed to sell merchandise, but when we got there, turned out the event had their own vendors so I just had to tell them what to sell and the prices. So I kinda had a night off and was able to take it easy, have a few beers and enjoy the good company and the gigs.
One of my all time favorite memories happened here too and I’m just gonna share it here. Lordi was the opening act on the main stage and after the show, we met Ronnie James Dio and talked with him a long time about, well, pretty much everything. After a while he said he was sorry he had to go and play his gig. We were all just astounded how nice and honest of a little big man he was. But that’s not all… After his show, he came right back and said “Ok guys, where were we?“ and we continued our chat. I wanted to thank him and give something to remember us by. So I went to the merch booth and took one Lordi T-shirt, gave it to him and went in for a handshake but he took a step back, looked at me and said “Come here you fucker!“ and grabbed and hugged me really good. I could barely stand and say another word after that. I’m so lucky I have this very personal memory of one of the biggest heavy metal legends of all time.
Here’s a few photos from from that night. They’re kinda like vacation-crew-behind-the-scenes photos from my home album. But next week, oh boy, it’s gonna be another big and exclusive one…
(12 PHOTOS)
