from the bands...

martin wallace, lead singer, the boyfriends
we've had a great year but playing at suedefest was definitely one of the highlights. the amount of time we spent traveling easily outweighed the amount of time we spent in helsinki, but it was very much worth it. our hostesses, sirje and elina, looked after us very well and managed to do a very good job of promoting the event. it was the boyfriends' first sold out show and, as david (barnett) pointed out, equivalent to selling out the astoria in london if you consider that the population of finland is roughly a tenth of that of the uk. that there were about fifty people outside unable to get in was very exciting. the atmosphere inside was great and we got a good reception. it was nice to get a chance to speak to members of the audience afterwards, one or two of whom were actually from london and, after seeing us at suedefest, have been regular faces at our shows in the uk. after the show sirje, elina and a few other friendly locals took us to a russian orthodox cathedral to drink pimms and watch the sun come up. at four o'clock in the morning david jumped into a canal and bloodied his leg, but not even that could have put a dampener of what had been a fantastic day. we are looking forward to a return visit immensely.  

paddy pulzer, drummer, the boyfriends
previously, i was in a group with richard (the guitarist in the boyfriends) called jack and we supported suede on two legs of their uk coming up tour. brett and richard (oakes) were both very keen to have us come on tour with them and when it turned out that we were too poor to even feed ourselves (anthony, the singer in jack, was caught stealing doritos out of brett's dressing room) brett made sure we had enough food and beer. nice chap. i think brett and richard's favourite jack song was “f.u”.

anyway, fast forward to 2004 and i am in a group with suede biographer david barnett, who has been invited to the suedefest in helsinki. he rather cheekily offers to bring the boyfriends with him, to play at the festival and amazingly, his offer is accepted.

we flew from stanstead airport and my first view of finland was of trees, lots of trees...and lakes, lots of lakes and then suddenly the city appeared. we were met at the airport by sirje and elina and a chap whose name, i'm afraid, i have forgotten. they bundled us into the back of a van and took us to the hotel, which was very nice with showers and beds and everything, but we were only going to be in helsinki for a few hours and didn't plan to do too much sleeping. from there we walked to semifinal for our soundcheck, and there was plenty of beer in the dressing room, splendid!

after soundcheck we went for a bit of a wander around helsinki, lots of nice art deco buildings. i was particularly taken with the train station. we headed back to the venue for the evenings entertainment. when we arrived at semifinal, there was such a big queue that we had some trouble getting in ourselves. but once we were in and had found the bar, the first act came on. they were a very good acoustic duo who played a short set of suede songs. then came the main act: a suede tribute group from denmark who were really, really good (i saw suede about twenty times and the danish group really impressed me). and then, of course, we had to go on stage. i think that the audience were expecting us to play suede songs, so there were a few blank looks when we started, but things soon warmed up and everyone had a good time (particularly during our version of "metal mickey", which was much too fast (my fault i'm afraid)).

once the gig was over we started drinking in earnest.

as the evening wore on, we found ourselves at the home of a music journalist and his fiancé (i am ashamed to say i can't remember their names), who entertained us with pimms and a staggeringly large record collection (he even had some jack, splendid fellow!). we were taken for a liquid picnic under the walls of the russian orthodox cathedral to watch the sunrise, which is where richard got birched and david went headfirst into the canal.

in short suedefest was a great success, many, many thanks to all of elina and sirje's hard work which made it possible.

thomas sand, bassist, love and poison
playing for all you suedeheads at the semifinal club was an experience that no one in the band will ever forget. there was real magic in the air that night, and the energy concentrated in the room was really intense. we had a fantastic time in finland and are grateful that we got to celebrate the music of suede with you. hoping for a repeat sometime soon.

from the fans...

bos-tik and streatham trash
did anyone else see those performing cats in the park? as animal lovers we were briefly appalled, then devoured a slab of reindeer and headed off for some disgusting upcider at the rock bar, where the barman kindly played “filmstar” and “animal nitrate” for us. heading up to semifinal, we queued ready for our evening among the obsessed. inside, the sleaze-ball of a bar was heaving. love and poison (hi to thomas) belted out the hits like the real thing and we shook our meat to the beat, laughed at the melodrama of the boyfriends feat. a stage-hogging adam ant on bass, scrawled something in a book, got smashed in the bar and shouted what passed for conversation at some strangely familiar faces. oh and backslash got a box of tampons, i got some badges - the best deal in history. big kiitos for everything sirje and elina, stars of the show and magnificent djs.

ditte holm
”what are you doing for your summer holiday?” was a question i, as well as anyone else, got asked this summer. “going to helsinki, among other things” was my answer - so far a pretty regular conversation. when, however, i answered the question “and what will you be doing there?” by saying i was meeting up with suede fans from all over the world to go to a party where the band would not play as they had split up – well, that resulted in some slightly strange looks. all i can say to that is: those people sure don’t know what they are missing!

an annoyingly long trip (4 hours by train, 1.5 by plane) proved itself more than worth it. there was the party itself of course, nice and cosy venue, the amazing love & poison who made us practically forget that it was not suede themselves on stage, the boyfriends who did a fabulous job too, lots of suede played….and not least the presence of suede people. really, the only criticism that can be made is that it was all over way too fast!

however, the party itself was not all. from monday to friday there were cool suede people to hang out and have fun with…and we did have fun, in several ways: hanging out at elina’s place. picnics in a park and later on the beautiful island suomenlinna with sunshine, alcohol and great friends. and of course drinking in various bars, one even with suede on the jukebox! 

danielle bekkar
it’s safe to say i’d been looking forward to this event, the closest thing to anything mildly suede-related in months! having traveled here and there to hear this fantastic band, i was embarking on yet another concert adventure. almost. the only thing missing this time was the band. but actually katja and i were looking as much forward to this as we had to many of the gigs we had traveled to. it’s all about the people! the wonderful suedeheads we have met over the last couple of years, we come from different walks of life, but we have this bond that unites us across borders and, as brett might say, classes. so to us, suedefest was a celebration of this fantastic band that brought us all together and filled our lives with unforgettable moments this was to be yet another one of them!

when we arrived in sunny helsinki, we were quite tipsy, due to a few in-flight drinks, and couldn’t wait to meet up with everybody. elina and sirje found us sitting in the square in front of the train station, enjoying yet another beer.  in the middle of the busy traffic, we were screaming and hugging each other like there was no tomorrow! needless to say, the hugging scene repeated itself when we soon found all the old suedeheads sitting on the grass in the park. we met the lovely boys of love and poison, maureen, alex, satu, david, tracey, ditte and bettina. as we engaged in deep conversation and drinks, the last hours of day quickly faded and we ended the night at the lost and found bar.

the big event was coming up! when we arrived at semifinal at 7 o’clock sharp the next evening, there was a line forming outside the club, so we got really excited hoping that this would mean the club would get packed! we entered the small and cosy venue. it was appropriately decorated with suede posters and some easy recognisable music was already on! as the observant reader might have guessed, the first mission was getting a drink and waving frantically at elina and sirje to announce our arrival. from the get go the atmosphere was awesome, it made me think of the excellent pre-astoria party at the ghetto last year in london! it was just such a great feeling listening to all those memory-packed songs along with the best fans in the world, suede fans! can’t beat the feeling!

it was soon time for the live performances. first up was the finnish duo karo and antti who did beautiful acoustic versions of “picnic by the motorway” and “by the sea”. next was the danish band love and poison. they completely took over the place with their very convincing and powerful versions of suede classics, even playing some b-sides. the entire club was bouncing and clapping like the good old times. standing there in the middle of it all, one couldn’t help being a little misty-eyed. the boyfriends were the last act of the evening, and they picked up where love and poison left off with good rock and roll to keep the masses happy! and so we were...

time just flew by and before we knew it suedefest had come to an end! the music stopped, and we stumbled into the streets, not being able to let that suede feeling go! we desperately needed an afterparty. apparently, that feeling was shared by most of the suedeheads, so soon we were all heading for lost and found again! we found a table at the back and gathered as many chairs as we could. the lovely boys of love and poison had joined us and let me take this opportunity to thank them for some real good company!

by the end of the night or the early hours of the morning, we found ourselves in someone’s apartment, drinking vodka and coke, and listening to old suede stuff.. nobody really remembered why or how we got there. when elina and sirje came to pick up the boys from love and poison, we figured that maybe we should head on home. we crawled outside only to find a new morning! the damn hangover started before we had even slept. we managed to get back to elina's and fell a sleep instantly.

we woke up fairly early to attend the planned hangover picnic. this was a perfect way to come down from the cloud we had been on the previous day and also a chance to say goodbye, as it was getting closer to departure time. the ferry ride to the suomenlinna island was quite uneventful, as we were all extremely tired and hung over! we found a lovely spot in the sun in the middle of the wonderful nature of this little island. i think i remember drinking a soda, but it didn’t take long for david to convince the rest of us that the beers still tasted good! so as usual one beer followed the other, and we enjoyed each other’s company once again.

spirits were once again high and we went to the legendary bob’s bar in order to grasp the last few drops of alcohol in the dying hours of our stay in helsinki. we occupied a whole section at the bar and when we realised that the jukebox contained singles, we listened to “attitude” and “the beautiful ones” over and over again. if my memory serves me correctly, we ended up in a gay club, where sirje, david and katja completely took over the dance floor, which was fairly easy as we were the only ones in the nightclub.

another night bites the dust and the suedefest days are over as quickly as they started! kinda hard to believe, you always start feeling you just wanna feel like this and have this much fun every day for the rest of your life! i for one can’t think of any other people that i would rather party with than all my wonderful suede friends from every corner of the world, i seriously love you guys!

thanks to elina and  sirje for another great moment in suede history, hopefully there will plenty more to come, whether there is a band or not!

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