Subject: Re: Zappa ja Suomi
From: Juhani Heinonen (juhani.heinonen@johtolanka.fi)
Date: Fri 04 May 2001 - 07:19:18 EEST
Hei Tero ja muut!
Tässä on kopio mailista, jonka lähetin Charles Ulrichille monta vuotta
sitten. Onkohan tässä paljonkin virheitä? Olisi kiva kerätä johonkin
keskitetysti tietoja Zappan Suomen seikkailuista. Vapaaehtoisia?
Terveisin
Juhani Heinonen
************************
Greetings from Finland!
At 16:30 25.09.1998 +0200, you wrote:
>Greetings from Canada. I'm compiling a list of Frank Zappa's concerts.
I'm sorry I have not answered your mail earlier, but I've been away and
busy, etc. Besides, I don't check the my mail in box juhna@jheinon.pp.fi
very often.
>The current version of my database (through 1979) is currently posted on
>affz. Or I can e-mail you a copy if you'd like.
If this offer still stands, I would be pleased to get a copy. I don't have
time to lurk in affz very often these days, so I haven't seen your list.
>Anyway, I was wondering if you could help with the details of FZ's Finnish
>shows.
Maybe you already got answers to your questions from others, but here is,
what I managed to find out:
73/08/23
The venue was "Finlandia talo" (=Finlandia house), which was the most
sophisticated concert house in Finland those days despite it's more
or less bad acoustics.
There was a warm-up band called Nektar, a prog rock group from UK.
There were two concerts that night. I was happy to attend the second one.
I read from a music paper later that the first concert had been very
funny with lots of jokes. The second one was virtuoso playing with lots
of solos from FZ, Ponty, Duke, Walt Fowler, Ian and Ruth Underwood.
Terrrrrrrrific music!
At least the following tunes were played on the second show:
Son of Mr Green Genes
Big Swifty
Don't You Ever Wash That Thing
74/09/17
There was no concert this day. FZ was in Helsinki, but it was all PR.
There was a press conference and several interviews for press, TV
and radio. In hotel Hesperia there was a cocktail party, where FZ met
many of Finland's foremost musicians and artists as well as people
from the local ministry of education.
It might be that he also met representatives of a local symphony
orchestra to arrange performances of his classical music. I remember
that I read somewhere that a symphony orchestra conductor commented
Zappa's scores to be so hard to play that they would need quite much
time for rehearsals. (On the other hand, this incident might have taken
place already on 1973 or on later visits, or maybe there were many
similar discussions.)
One incident worth mentioning is the supper in restaurant Saslik,
where he first slightly burned his fingers, when grabbing a meat
dish too greedily. Well, he survived that without burns in his fingers.
The rest of the evening was a lot happier...
(This part contains an interesting conceptual continuity clue.)
When Zappa's entourage was finishing their meal, a group of 8 young
ladies entered. They were having a "polterabend" party of one Eeva
Helkama, who was going to be married next Saturday. It is quite common
in Finland that not only the future husbands, but also the future wives
celebrate their last single days rather heavily. Eeva was dressed in very
old-fashioned grandma's lace underpants and a Black Jack (condom brand)
T-shirt. She offered an apple to every man in the restaurant. FZ got
two apples. The entourages got together and spent the rest of the opening
hours of the restaurant conversing and having fun. As a result of this
meeting, the whole FZ crew got an invitation to the wedding. Originally
they were supposed to arrive at Finland only on Sunday, the day of the first
concerts, but Frank decided to change the flight tickets and arrive already
on Saturday.
From Saslik the FZ party continued to the night-club in hotel Hesperia,
where a very high-spirited FZ jammed with an Indonesian dance band.
FZ flew to Oslo early next morning.
74/09/21
FZ arrived at Helsinki with Gail and the band. They attended
the wedding reception of Eva Helkama and Christian von Alftan
in hotel Hesperia. Their wedding present was an acapella performance
of tune Approximate, the lyrics consisted only words "Eeva and apple".
(Listen to the version of Approximate in YCDTOSA2.)
74/09/22
There were two concerts. If my memory serves, two concerts were
originally scheduled for this day, but the demand for tickets was
so great that FZ decided to arrange one extra concert for the following
monday (23rd). I did not find much evidence for this, but on the
other hand I've never forgotten anything (I think). ;-)
The venue of the concerts was "Kulttuuritalo" (=The House of Culture).
74/09/23
Scheduled meeting with Finland's Secretary of Education at 8am.
I'm not 100% sure whether this meeting took place, but I think
so. FZ was very highly respected in Finnish cultural circles
those days.
The venue of the concert was "Kulttuuritalo" again.
The only source I have seen to mention 23rd as the second date
of the 1994 concerts is a Finnish ZF book called "Zappa äänitteillä
- recorded Zappa" by Heikki Poroila & Heikki Karjalainen.
I do think that they are the ones who got it right! My other sources
more or less support this as well.
76/02/26
FZ and the band arrived at Helsinki on 25th and left on 28th.
The venue of the concert was "Messukeskus" (=exhibition centre).
This time, only one concert took place. I had the pleasure to
attend this concert, which I however did not enjoy as much as
the one in 1973. Maybe I was a bit disappointed of the small
band and the lack of obvious virtuoso players (except FZ of
course). The acoustics was terrible, at least, where I was
sitting (at the side of the stage). Outside, after the concert
I heard somebody play the just heard music from a cassette
recorder. So, I know that this concert was taped, but it has not
come up in the trading circles and nobody I know has heard
about the tape since.
At least the following tunes were played:
Stink foot
The Poodle lecture
Dirty love
Filthy habits
How could I be such a fool
I'm not satisfied
Advance romance
Do heart (Bozzio on vocal)
I don't remember this one at all, but it was
mentioned in a magazine, so it must be true ;-)
Eleanore's mud cap (=Illinois Enema Bandit)
Black Napkins
Encore: Dinah-Moe-Hum
After the concert the band went to a club called "Natsa" and
three members of the group (NMP, etc.) jammed there with
Finnish musicians. FZ was himself was reportedly jamming
somewhere with Pekka Pohjola. FZ specially liked to play
with Bassist Pohjola, whom he had met already during his
previous visits. He was planning to record something with
Pekka, but this plan was never realised. PP has recorded many
solo albums (jazzy rock), one symphony and played among others
with Mike Oldfield and Made in Sweden (George Wadenius).
One funny anecdote maybe deserves to be mentioned here:
When the FZ group members were having a day off on 27th, Roy
Estrada decided to go to a club called "Vanha ylioppilastalo"
(=old student house) to attend a concert of Jukka Tolonen
(Finland's foremost guitarist then). The club had an age limit
of 18 and there was a doorman, who the regulars called "the
gravedigger". He refused to let Roy in, because he had no
passport along to prove his age. The Finnish friends accompanying
Roy tried to convince the overzealous doorman by talking about
a famous American celebrity. His comment was "I am not interested
in celebrities!" So, Roy never heard the Tolonen group that night.
(BTW, Jimi Hendrix had a similar kind of experience in Helsinki
9 years earlier. For some reason, he never came back to Finland.)
77/01/23
The venue of these concerts was "Kulttuuritalo". There were two
shows. The sources I've seen, seem to claim that both concerts had
the same repertoire.
At least the following were played:
Peaches en Regalia
The Torture never stops
I'm the Slime
Titties and Beer
Illinois Enema Bandit
You're an Asshole
Black Napkins (the last piece)
Encores: Dinah-Moe-Hum, Willie The Pimp
88/04/29
Once more, I had the pleasure to attend a FZ concert. Wonderful show.
Extremely tight music and FZ seemed to bee in good mood. The special
surprise for me were the covers of Bolero, Stairway to Heaven (almost
dropped out of my seat, when it began) and I'm a Walrus. And Frank
of course remembered the 1974 incident and played Whipping Post. I felt
very tired and sort of depressed, when I went to the concert (too much
work), but I was smiling widely, when I came out. Music is a very
powerful drug!
>Jaeaehalli%%What is orthographic convention for ää?
I think that one is correct, though very often ä is just converted into a.
>... is there a standard way to write ää in lower ASCII characters?
Nope. Many 7-bit systems in Finland have ä in place of }(=ASCII 125).
Correspodingly ö = ASCII 124 and å = ASCII 123. Capital letters Å, Ä
and Ö in this system are ASCII 91, 93 and 92 respectively.
>Were there ever two shows on the same date?
>Are these the correct dates for the 1974 shows?
See above.
>Do you know of any other FZ shows in Finland?
No other FZ shows took place in Finland, unfortunately.
However, there were plans for FZ to visit a festival called
"Meeting of the Worlds" held in Joensuu at midsummer 1990.
Zappa's piece Perfect Stranger was played there by Avanti
orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. Salonen and Zappa
met in LA, where Salonen was the conductor of LA Philharmonics.
Zappa cancelled his appearance on the plea of personal reasons.
(Maybe he was already feeling ill?)
>Thanks for any help you can provide.
Don't mention it. If you have any further questions, I try to answer
them, too (in two or three months). ;-)
List of sources used:
My memory
Magazines "Musa" and "Soundi"
- Finnish music monthlies from the '70's
Weekly magazine "Apu" (nr. 39 09/29/1974)
- includes a cover story of FS's 1974 visit
Heikki Poroila & Heikki Karjalainen:
Zappa äänitteillä - Recorded Zappa
Terveisin
Juhani Heinonen
juhani.heinonen@johtolanka.fi
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