top of page

road diary - summer 2000

Entry No.1 
- June 11, 2000 
The band is on the move! The first two shows for this summer are over. The bands first performances as a five piece went judging by the audiences reaction very smoothly. Two new songs were played for the first time, and some old songs that the band haven´t played for many years were also added to the setlist. One more show to go in Sweden before going to America this Thursday. Watch this space for roadreports from the band. Meanwhile more dates has been added for this fall, and two more are expected to be cleared in a couple of weeks. 

Entry No.2 
- June 16, 2000 
Hi guys. We're on the road in The U.S.A. Just finished three mindbending days of doing TV, radio and also doing what we do best; playing shows. Three so far. We've visited Decorah, (we did not get arrested, although the city council had bouhght a decibel meter and given the police the authority to pull the plug on us if we played too loud. They saw the press kit, saying "these guys will blow your speakers in waltztime"....), Duluth and last night we played the Cedar Cultural Centre in Minneapolis. The home away from home for all the Scandinavian folk musicians who are on tour over here. It was a lot of fun as usual, and tonight we're doing an instore appearance at the Roadrunner record store in Minneapolis. Then some days off before we fly to San Fransisco to do a couple of shows. We're enjoying ourselves as usual over here, and a huge thanx goes out to the Northside crew for taking such good care of us and making us feel so at home. As usual. See U soon .

/ The Hovens 

Entry No.3 
- June 27, 2000 
Home for a short breather before continuing towards The Roskilde festival in Denmark this Sunday. Our visit to California was a lot of fun. (A huge thanx goes out to Barbara Osher and her staff at The Consulate Of Sweden.Let´s do it again !) We didn´t have so much time off in San Fransisco, but a short sightseeing trip across the Golden Gate bridge was made, and we had alot of fun hanging out with some new made friends. (Thanx for dinner Anders !) The band will sleep now for a couple of days, and then we´ll load up the van and go to Ånge on Thursday. By the way; the soundtrack for this summer is the new album from XTC, "Wasp Star". GO AND GET IT NOW !!

/ The Hovens 

Entry No.4 
- July 4, 2000 
The next part of the tour is over and done. The shows in Ånge and Svartnäs went well, but it whas during our drive down to The Roskilde Fetsival that we with great sorrow took part of the news of what had happened there the night before our arrival. Eight people had been killed, crushed to death in front of the stage during Pearl Jams performance on Friday. This, of cource, set the tone for the rest of the weekend, and our deepest condoleances goes out to the family and friends of the departed. Despite the tragedy the bands and the crowd on the festival hung in there, although many people left in protest because the festival didn´t cancel the rest of the program. We feel that we did the best of the situation, and we want to thank the 6.000 people that stayed with us during sunday nights show. We hope to meet you again under more happy circumstances. Next stop; Canada ! See you in Winnipeg this Saturday.

/ The Hovens 

Entry No.5 
- July 13, 2000 
On the road in Canada together with Triakel. After spending 4 muddy, mosquito filled days at the Winnipeg Folk Festival we are now in sunny Edmonton. Winnipeg was a lot of fun as usual.We got to play the main stage again, and did so in front of almost 10.000 pepole ! (and about 10 million mosquitos....) The day after we played a workshop that was hosted by Triakel, (so Kjell-Erik actually hosted himself), and Janne joined us for a couple of Hoven-songs. There was no Hammond around so he just used the Harmonium. Then Emma sang a version of "Moss och manniskor" with us, and Jens joined Triakel on "Innan Gryningen". Yesterday we played a three set show on this great place in Edmonton called The Side Track Cafe. Once again we used one set to share the stage between both bands. Bjorn played one song with Triakel, and Janne stayed for even more Hoven songs. We even rehearsed a duet between Emma and Pedro (!!!), but we didn't get to play it. Maybe it will happen in Yellowknife were we're going next. By the way, the show in Yellowknife is on the 16:th ! Not the 14;th as is sais on our website. In other news; Bjorn had his birthday and was celebrated with the usual amount of donuts, and Kjell finaly got his cowboy hat. Take care.

/ The Hovens and The Triakels 

Entry No.6 
- July 19, 2001 
Safely back home from Canada. It has been two great weeks, consisting of playing great shows, seeing others playing great shows, meeting great people, shopping and kicking back and enjoying the great weather. Emma parted ways with us in Yellowknife after the last Triakel show to join up with Garmarna for two shows in Boston before going back home. As for the Hovens, we will enjoy our 6 days off before we play The Tall Ships festival in Stockholm next Thursday. After that we´re getting ready to do too much driving around Europe for a couple of weeks. Some good news for our friends in Minneapolis; we are going back next April to play the Nordic Roots Festival ! Yepp, make sure to be at The Cedar Cultural Centre on April 20th, 2001.

Off to have a little lie down now.........

/The Hovens 

Entry No.7 
- August 2, 2000 
Vacation is over. When the weather finaly starts to get better here it´s time to go again. But it has been good to be home for a few days. We did play one show in Stockholm last Thursday. It was a festival called The Tall Ships Race, and you can see some pictures at this site. Other than that Jens has been planning his wedding (yes, he's getting married), Björn has been working with the big festival that takes place in Östersund every year the last wekend of July. Bo, Pedro and Kjell has been doing absolutely nothing at all, although Kjell is already in Germany playing with Triakel so he got a head start on us. He will hopefuly be in Belgium when we there on Saturday. See you there !

/The Hovens 

Entry No.8 
- August 8, 2000 
Hey ! We're in Amsterdam, enjoying a couple of days off before playing at The Milky Way later this week. After driving over 2000 km. it was a relief to finaly arrive in Belgium. The shows in Dranouter went well, for both Hoven Droven and Triakel. Hoven played a late night show in a giant beer tent, and with over 3000 of our closest Belgian friends in the audience. It was sweaty... We met Anbjorg Lien and her band, and had a chanse to see some cool shows with Robert Plant, The Chieftains among others.The show at the Milky Way is going to be interesting, because it is a quite famous place. It was legendary during the seventiees, and The Rolling Stones still drops by whenever they´re in need of an after show gig. Later this weekend we're playing a show at a festival in Eindhoven where we're gonna meet up with our collegues in Garmarna. The soundtrack for this summer is STILL XTC:s "Wasp Star".

/ The Hovens and The Triakels 


Entry No.10 
- August 13, 2000 
We know something you don't know about Hoven, they are all... ... ...well,never mind. Last night turned out an orgie in alcohol, nudity and shoeshine. Hoven's gig today was nice though, even if they smelled quite bad (alcohol,shoeshine and a hot tent is not the best combination...). Our gig though - Garmarna that is - lacked the hillarious spirit on display during the Hoven set, much due to the lack of alcohol, nudity and shoeshine last night.

/Rickard, Garmarna 

...........Thank you Rickard for that indepth report on folkbands on the road. (Yeah right....like THEY weren't at the party last night!!) Please don't ask about the shoeshine, it would be too hard to explain....But if you have to ask somebody; ask Pelle! We're all in Eindhoven, Netherlands, and we've just enjoyed two days at the Eindhoven Folk Festival. It's a new festival that deserves much attention in the future. The show at The Milky Way in Amsterdam went well, and we've had a lot of fun on this our first visit to The Netherlands. Tomorrow we part ways with Kjell-Erik, Janne and Emma who are off to do a Triakel show in France, while The Hovens are up for a two day drive to Sweden. Hope to see ya'll in Malmö next week!! Take care!

/ The Hovens 

Entry No.11 
- August 20, 2000 
We did it !! We made it through the last two shows of the summer, and then barely survived Jens wedding yesterday. The show in Malmö went well, although it was a close call. While the others did a quick soundcheck one hour before showtime, Kjell-Erik was still stuck in Copenhagen trying to get to Malmö after arriving from France. For some reason all the trains were cancelled, so he ended up taking a cab from Denmark to Sweden ! Not such a big deal since you can use the new bridge from Copenhagen directly to Malmö, and Kjell drove in behind stage 20 minutes before showtime! A lot of people turned up so the show was a lot of fun.The day after the band travelled back to Copenhagen to play the last show for the summer, (we'll be back on the road in two weeks, but who counts September as a summer months?), at Loppen in Christiania. It turned out to be a sweaty show before about 100 dedicated fans, and it was a suitable ending to two and a half months of hard work for the band. Actually the suitable ending came yesterday with the great party that Jens and Saras wedding was, and we will all enjoy a nice rest before facing the challenges of this fall. More touring, and even more exciting; start working on the new album! This will conclude the tour reports for the summer of 2000, (sorry about the last days of problems with this page. Server problems beyond our control...), but the regular news reports will continue as before. Thank you everybody, audience, co-workers, agents, promotors, Pelle and fellow musicians for a great summer !!! See you soon.

/ Hoven Droven 

bottom of page