We arrived in a sunny Cardiff in Wales in mid afternoon. We had some time before soundcheck so me and David had a real walk around town to check it out. None of us had been in Cardiff before and i must say i was surprised. The first thing i saw when i jumped out of the van was a huge castle wall. I love castles so that made me happy right away. When we walked around the city we also looked at the beautiful church and surroundings. The architecture of Cardiff was very interesting i must say. Unfortunately most things were closed as it was sunday afternoon. Finally we sat down at Pizza Hut and had lunch and a Magners (i love the Irish Cider!)

 

The final show of this UK tour was great and we all had a good time. After a tough tour we now went to our "hotel" and slept a few hours until we had to jump in the van again at 06:30 this morning to go to Heathrow. During the flight back home to Sweden again i tried to make some general reflections of the UK trip but only had one thing in my head that kind of blocked everyting else preventing a general conclusion. Can someone please explain this UK-sink thing to me? One tap with icecold water and one tap with boiling hot water. Come on, it is 2013, i don't understand how to use this! This is useless to me! Please?

 

Now i am back home again, sitting i my sofa watching TV feeling great. I just washed my hands in our sink with only one tap, where you can actually chose any temperature you want, hahaha :-)

 

Anyway, thank you all UK Painheads for treating us so well during this tour! I am so happy that so many of you turned up and made our trip all worth it! 'cause i can promise it wasn't all easy! Thank you also for all your kind celebrations during my birthday.

 

 

Slow day, very slow day. Felt like the hours in the van from Glasgow to Derby would last forever... Finally we arrived, soundchecked, had some dinner and then had a good relax at the hotel before the show. The venue in Derby was also in a state where we decided to use our hotel room instead of the backstage, as the hotel was close enough to just have a walk there.

 

I read somewhere, i think it was at Facebbok, that we had people in the audience today that had flewn in to Derby from Dublin to see us. God dammit, that's what i call dedication! Thanks!

 

Today's travel goal is Cardiff. Tonight we have our last show on this UK tour and another 5 shows is history, and tomorrow we fly back home to Stockholm again.

 

 

So, my birthday went along fine. We had a log drive from Leeds to Glasgow and i was watching the beautiful Scottish landscapes on our way there. When we arrived in Glasgow me and David took a walk around downtown searching for any stores that would sell Whisky. I am a Whisky freak and especially the Single Malts from Islay. Being in Scotland i was sure i could buy some great Whiskys everywhere but after our long walk around the city we found exactly nothing! :-(

 

So we went back to the venue, did the soundcheck and then headed for the hotel. It was just one block away and we realized we had to use our hotel rooms as backstage areas as well, as the venue didn't have any. Well, compared to the Leeds backstage, it was a huge improvement! :-)

 

Before i went to the show i opened up my online app in my phone for Bandit Radio (the Swedish rock radio station) and listened when my daughter Kimmy celebrated my birthday live on the radio. She's just too nice :-)

 

Show went fine, and afterwards we went back to our hotel to change clothes again. Then we hit the streets of Glasgow to celebrate my birthday. We found this rock bar called "Cathouse" where we hang out partying until they threw us out at 4 am. Then we continued the party in the hotel, which the guards didn't like at all.

 

Today we have a long drive to Derby and it seems like most of us is slower than usual - i wonder why...

 

 

The trip from London to Leeds wasn't really what we expected. Some four hours drive was the plan but before we were really there it had passed over six hours. The whole evenings time schedule was fucked. Except from heavy traffic in the Leeds area the biggest issue was the major accident that had occurred in the highway between London and Leeds. What we had to see when we drove past this terrible accident made me feel really bad afterwards. I think this was the worst crash i have seen in real life and it kind of paralyzed my mind for some time afterwards, just staring out the window with an empty sight. I couldn't get the picture of that car off my mind. A Mercedes E-Class that is normally slightly under 5m long, was less than 1m long in this piece of wreck. Apparently it also had humans inside that pile of metal. Someone died there for sure and it was terrible to see. That someone ended his/her life on valentines day in the busy highway. It felt terrible. Life is not fair.

Anyway, the place we were originally planned to play in Leeds had closed down right after this tour was planned, so we had the choice of canceling the Leeds show and go straight to Glasgow, or play wherever they will welcome us in Leeds and do a punk show. If we're here we should play, right? So we did the punk show in the cellars of a hotel in Leeds. But it was sold out and packed.

Today we are driving from Leeds to Glasgow. We will start much earlier to make sure we don't end up two hours too late as we did yesterday. Today is also my birthday, and i never thought i would spend my birthday in Scotland :-)

Pain has been playing in UK a few times by now, but never as headline. I don't really know why this country has been left outside the rest of the european conquers where we have been doing that many times, but the requests from Painheads in UK surely demanded a try form our side. After the UK tour with Nightwish in November we announced a UK tour in February as headline act. You have asked us to come and we listened. So, this will be a very interesting trip to find out if you were right! :-)

 

I have found myself into very bad timing as usual. Having fever and a flu chasing me right now, so the early morning call to the airport in Stockholm was really tough this time as i hadn't really got that much sleep. After arriving in Heathrow we drove straight to the venue to start prepare for the show. After soundcheck we went to our hotel that was only 5 mins walk from the back entrance of  The Borderline, perfect distance (after being lost in the wrong streets a couple of times that is...). I could get some well needed rest and medication before going back to do the show.

 

When the show finally started it became pretty obvious straight away that we surely do have loads of Painheads around here in London. It was sold out and packed to the limit, great atmosphere and all good mood. Loud audience always drives the oveall energy in a show, and this was one of those shows for sure. Despite my rising fever and bad flu i got myself through the whole set without any major problems. Caughing and choking for air, feeling dizzy of course, but it all went fine. Thank you all Painheads of London!

 

After the show Jyrki 69 from the 69 Eyes visited us backstage for a while, then i took a walk back to the hotel, took two Nyquill and went straight to sleep. My fever was rising again and i needed to rest.

 

Now i am in our hotel waiting to get going. We have a 4 hour drive to Leeds today.

 

What? Really? I just checked my calendar and realized that our UK tour starts in less than a week. Hmm, i wonder what happened to time?

So, it is time to pick select what guitars to bring, take out the cases and bags from the storage in the basement, check the Eleven Rack and wireless system and get ready for UK. I wonder if UK is ready for us though? We have been in UK before, but only as support a few times and this is our first own headline tour. I am excited over the fact that we are finally doing this, and it feels a bit strange at the same time as we have been touring as headline many times in other regions. I really hope UK will be nice to us :-)

 

On wednesday we will all gather at Arlanda airport and start our journey to UK. We fly to London where we open up the tour, follwed by 4 other dates. I also realized i have to celebrate my birthday in Glasgow this year...

 

 

Good morning 2013. I started this year by opening up a Facebook account, the "Michael Bohlin official". This account is wide open to anyone and is the answer to your request of open communication. Loads of people have asked me to have an account like this for communication, and i agree it's a good idea especially as it's separated from my private stuff which is always in Swedish amongst my close friends and family.

 

When this year starts to get in shape i will update more on touring stuff, but for now, this is the only dates in the outllok for 2013:

 

2013-02-13 Borderlines – London – England  

2013-02-14 The well – Leeds – England

2013-02-15 The audio – Glasgow – Scotland

2013-02-16 Hairy dog – Derby – England

2013-02-17 Bogiez – Cardiff – Wales

2013-08-02/03 Rock out wild – Sorsele – Sweden 

 

Pictures below from the last show of 2012, in Karlstad Sweden (a sold out show), together with Sabaton and Raubtier yesterday.

 

I met a PAIN fan after the show who thanked me for doing this blog and told me that he had read every post and was a big fan. That made me very happy and felt like a good ending of 2012 when i jumped into the van with Andre and drove away from Karlstad.

 

I wish you all a merry christmas and a happy new year! See 'ya all next year. Now i need some rest.

 

//Michael

 

So it is over for now. I am back home again in my apartment in Stockholm and i must admit it feels fantastic. It has been a hell of a ride as always, and it is YOU, our dedicated Painheads that keeps me going.

 

We have a fantastic team that have been working together for a long time now, which makes the daily routines very smooth. Stage set is always built up correctly and in time, our instruments are always perfectly set up, we have our towels and drinks where we want it, picks on the mic stand, set-lists at the correct places we prefer and so on and so on. We can always rely on the team.

 

Macke ("Backline-Frasse") takes good care of my precious guitars (and wireless guitar systems) and makes sure they are always shiny with fresh strings, tuned for perfection. Macke has never worked with us without his hat at any show so far. I am starting to think it is stuck there on top of his head. Dee-doo, dee-doo!

 

Emanuel ("Junior") does the same for the drums, but also keeps all our wireless In-Ear systems tuned and programmed for each days environment, along with our backing track system. He is the youngest dude in the team, and i can make sure he gets to hear it very often… As a matter of fact, he could be our son…

 

Hede ("Lamp-Roffe" or "Kablage-Lars" depending on which day it is) is just the best light guy you can have, and i so want to see a Pain show some day, just to see and indulge what he is doing when he is giving a new dimension to the music with his visual creations. He is often way too loud, and have been teasing me for my big and/or ugly guitar cases for the last 5 years, but he sure knows what he's doing when it comes to the lighting design. Stick to that please!

 

I get to hear so often from people who comes up to me (or reads in reviews) and say that the sound was just amazing and that "we have never heard this good sound in this crappy venue before" and things like that. We get to hear that it is "so clean" and "powerful" and "you could hear everything" and so on. This is all down to Kimmo Ahola ("Finno Mustalainen"), the crazy Finnish dude who mixes 50/50 Whisky/Coke and can make almost any place sound good. I have no idea how he do it, but it is proven that he is really one of the very best! He is also working with Nightwish, which is a band that always sounds good live. Working with a real pro is always a privilege. He has this Finnish attitude and pretends he hates us all Swedes, but i think as a matter of fact he likes us, at least a little bit. 

 

So, overall i must say that i am happy to have such great team around me and that everyone works so well together to make every show, every night, to be as good as possible on a common goal. Most of the times they all go beyond that level, and i just wanna say that i love them all!

 

Some tour statistics:

21 Shows

22 Days

10 Countries

5 Flights

9000km on the road (approx)

2 Nightliners with 5 drivers

5 Bands

170 Personal Michael Bohlin-picks

0 alcohol for me!

 

It was not intentionally planned like this, but i went through this whole madness tour without drinking one single drop of alcohol, and i must say i am so god damn proud! I feel great and i had loads of fun even though i was sober all the way through. Is this the new way going forward? I don't know and that's not the point, but it was a great experience and i can honestly say: You don't need alcohol to have fun, just make sure to be amongst funny individuals! Or maybe i am getting old...

 

Someone had a party in Stuttgart and didn't go to bed until 8am, so having a soundcheck at 3pm in Bochum wasn't an option… So no soundcheck in Bochum… He eventually came crawling out of the bus at 8:15pm, two hours before showtime. No further comments needed.

 

Me, Johan and David wanted to go to downtown as we were in the suburbs of Bochum. So we took a walk to the train station and really tried to buy a ticket - fail! It was impossible as the machine only accepted Electron cards, not the Visa and Master Card that we had. So we had to walk back to the venue again, no train for us. We were just strucked by the usual Pain-luck again.

 

But we had better luck with the catering - the woman in the Matrix venue really knows how to cook! All food was great and she even did her own Tiramisu (i just LOVE Tiramisu) and it was perfect!

 

The show in Bochum was fantastic, the Matrix venue was packed to the limit and the feeling was at top level. Painheads were really loud and i think one of the best during the whole tour, on the same level as Vienna!

 

This morning i crawl out of my bed at 10:30, went downstairs and found someone still having a party there, completely alone. Why would you do such thing? After extensive persuasion i managed to get him to bed. The soundcheck today is at risk for sure… The sound in the bus at this time in the morning is interesting - most people are coughing and making sound like they all have the flu… in a small place like this with 18 people the contamination is impossible to avoid i suppose.

 

Today we are in Tilburg to do the very last show on this tour. It is always with mixed feelings you are coming to and end of an era, as we are a great team together and share loads of fun. But most of us miss home more than anything right now, so that feeling kind of takes over. But one more show, just one, and it is always special to start and to end a tour. I know we have Painheads in the crowd tonight that have seen more than one show during this tour, like Carine who has been commenting here on my blog. I know Painheads who travels hundreds of kilometers to see us and are freezing outside the venue before we even had soundcheck. I know Painheads who spends most of their money traveling, flying and buying tickets to see several shows on a tour, or like Océ from France did: 5 shows on this tour… To all of you i just wanna say thanks for being so dedicated, you have my full and utmost respect (even though i still don't understand it, it doesn't really get any better the second or third time around)!

 

After the show tonight we will drive to Düsseldorf and tomorrow we will say goodbye to the tourbus and fly back home to Stockholm again.

 

 

 

 

I am sorry that i got a bit carried away and lost tracking yesterday. I totally focused on the album release and forgot to make any report from the tour! But hey, it was a a big day for me!

 

In Stuttgart we had loads of friends joining us, especially from our record company Nuclear Blast, and from Metalmoments, but also our latest album and latest DVD cover designer! It was the first time he saw his creations on the stage design. I was so happy because i realized i was playing the same stage as Kim Wilde had played!!! :-)

 

The show went really great and we had no other choice than to do an extra song after the set - the Painheads in Stuttgart was awesome, thank you!

 

Both me and Peter are eating eucalyptus pills to ease the pain in our throats, as it feels a bit bad right now, thick and painful, typical flu-ish. Now it's very handy that we have the Ricola pills we got in the present bag from Sarah Ziegenhagen in Pratteln.

 

Tonight we are in Bochum to do show number 20 of 21. YES!!

 

(Today is my sisters birthday. Congratulations Lina!)

 

Today is a very big day for me and Johan as it is the official release day of the "Cosmogenesis" album with 8thSin! It has been a 6 year long journey that is now finally coming to an end. I feel very proud and happy that this day has finally come, and hope that you like the result as much as we do! For those of you who have no clue what i am talking about, 8thSin is a band that started about 12 years ago and released the first album in 2004, the second in 2005, and was supposed to release the third album in 2006. But both myself and Johan joined Pain and have been touring heavily ever since, and the production of the third album was put on hold. Now the album is finally ready and it feels like i can turn the page and leave that chapter behind me with pride. 8thSin was my creative side at its most, as i did all music and all recording and production. It is the total opposite to my work in Pain as in 8thSin i do almost everything, and in Pain i do almost nothing. Though it is a bit unusual that it takes 6 years to finish an album, i'd say it only made it better as it transformed during the years and ended up in a more mature way. Most of the tracks are actually recorded back in 2005-2006 but all mixed and edited in 2011-2012.

 

We also had loads of great guests who where kind enough to help us out on the album, this is the complete list of appearing guests (including my daughter!) except the band:

 

Joacim Thenander - the "Mobhead" remixes

Pontus Norgren - guitar solo on "Teonanacatl (flesh of the gods)"

PM Saari - guitar solo on "Walking in my shoes"

Anders Olsson - guitar solo on "Walking in my shoes"

Martin Boman - guitar solo on "Walking in my shoes"

Eric Rivers - guitar solo on "Walking in my shoes"

Magnus Lundkvist - additional backing vocals and guitar solo on "Walking in my shoes"

Joacim Cans - additional backing vocals on "Walking in my shoes"

Catherine Forsberg - additional backing vocals

Ira Keelyn - additional backing vocals and female words on "Presession of the equinoxe"

Alexandra Balogh - additional backing vocals

Kimmy Bohlin - co-lead vocals on "Safety exit"

Peter Tägtgren - co-lead vocals on "Black metal"

Joacim Lundberg - co-lead vocals on "Walking in my shoes"

 

Complete tracklist:

01. Teonanacatl (flesh of the gods)

02. Perfectly wrong

03. Precession of the equinoxes

04. ID Zero

05. Safety-exit

06. Plumed serpent rise

07. Ekpyrosis

08. Cosmogenesis

09. The eight sins, part III

 

Bonus tracks

10. Walking in my shoes

11. Black metal

12. Irreligious - Mobhead 12" Mix (unreleased bonus from "Angelseed & Demonmilk")

13. A sleepover at the feeling of death - Mobhead 12" Mix (unreleased bonus from "Angelseed & Demonmilk")

14. Irreligious - Rectifier Club mix 135 (unreleased bonus from "Angelseed & Demonmilk")

15. The 11th commandment (unreleased track from "Sinners Inc")

 

"Cosmogenesis" is released on Soulseller Records, and will also be released in the US in February 2013.

 

www.8thsin.biz

 

I had a look in my calendar and realized there's so many things you miss out on when you are traveling a lot like i do. And that's not only with Pain, but in general as i also travel a lot in my regular work. I wasn't home on fathers day, i will not be home when i release my own album, i will not be home on my daughters birthday in January and i will not be home on my own birthday in February. It's not the end of the world to miss things like that but it can mean different things to different individuals, and it made me think: am i traveling too much? 

 

Anyway, Hamburg show was great and we all had great fun fooling around with each other! I think the feeling that we are only a few shows away from coming back home is highly present with all of us now. I saw several familiar faces in the audience again and i have always liked the Markthalle stage. I don't know why but i think it has a cool look with the half-moon style lighting rig. Hamburg is also the place where Peter has made the silly mistake of referring to a different city when talking to the audience between songs, and he has done that twice here! Hamburg must be cursed, hehe. So this time our crew wanted to be sure he didn't say anything stupid and made several big notes that they taped on the floor right where he is standing, that said "Hamburg"…. 

 

I believe Johan is feeling better now, so now it might be my turn soon to get weak. When i woke up this morning i felt this familiar pain in my throat that i had felt so many times before, which is normally the first sign of a cold coming creeping up on you. Let's see if i can stay away from it.

 

Tonight we are in Saarbrücken, a place we haven't played since 2007.

 

We arrived in Hellraiser venue in Leipzig around 10am and i went out of the bus to get some air. Shit, it was freeeeeezing!!! And when they let us inside the venue it was exactly the same temperature as outside, in the catering, backstage, toilets, showers, everywhere! Welcome to another day in paradise.

We didn't soundcheck today either as "someone" didn't wake up until 6pm! No names, but this is the same "someone" that caused the "no soundcheck" yesterday as well. If we wouldn't have the In-Ear systems and digital console, this would not have been possible. Anyway, it was a long and cold day and it looked funny when people wear jackets, gloves and hats at dinner…

I think this was the third time i played this venue, at least. I remember we had a very good show here last year and this time was no exception. But i don't think we ever got this many people in this particular venue before! But today we have to do soundcheck. At least i hope we do. Well, i'm gonna soundcheck today, even if i have to do it alone!

Tonight we are in Hamburg, tomorrow in Saarbrücken, Friday in Stuttgart, Saturday in Bochum and Sunday in Tilburg. Then the tour is over and we go back home to Sweden to lick our wounds on Monday. Friday will be a big day for me.

 

We arrived in Berlin a bit too early so after parking up the buses and trailers we had to wait for a while until they would let us in to the venue. I saw a few Swedish trailers in the same parking outside the venue and was told it was The Hives that was in town at the same time as us. Anyway, right before 11am we were let inside anyway and could have breakfast and showers. Now if you remember what i wrote yesterday about someone had smashed every lamp in a hard party in the bus when i woke up, the very same person didn't wake up until 4:30pm so we actually didn't do any soundcheck in Berlin. It was too late as we are 5 bands and have a schedule we have to stick to, like doors that opens at 6pm. This is just how it is sometimes with this band… (Reminder to self: stop trying to follow the schedules, even if we are in Germany)

 

The show was good and we had great fun on stage. I had a great laugh about the guy who was sitting by the stage and switched the automatic fuse switch every 2-3 mins. Apparently something was wrong with the electrics and this was the solution for the evening, hehe. Johan was still not well, but i'd say he was much better than the day before anyway. After the show it didn't take long before our entire dressing room was filled with various unknown random people (to me anyway) which i felt a bit disrespectful when you haven't even got dressed yet! But anyway, i am sure they didn't invite themselves there but someone told them to come in, so i couldn't really blame them. Instead i got dressed and packed up my things and left. Johan joined me. I really appreciate when we have some time alone to calm down after a show, change clothes etc, but sometimes it doesn't go like that. This was just one of those nights.

 

Me and Johan went to the bus and straight to bed instead, and heard after short while how the whole party including all those people moved in to the bus to continue the party all night long (as we were not leaving early this night, with such short drive to the next city). It doesn't bother me as i sleep like a rock anyway.

 

Tonight we are in Leipzig. 15 down, 6 to go, hey ho.