2nd concert this weekend - Terese Fredenwall in Halle

I just returned from Today's concert of Terese Fredenwall, Simon Petrén and Tobias Jonasson at "The Irish Fiddler" in Halle and I'm pretty exhausted. I guess so are the others that were actually working but they are currently on the road again to get to Jüterbog while Anja is already asleep and I'm sitting in the strange bed of the even stranger youth hostel and check the internet and apparently write this posting.

Before we left Leipzig we made some sight seeing until lunch time. The weather was beautiful like the whole weekend already and we made like hundreds of pictures of the very old buildings, were in the Thomaschurch where they were rehearsing for monday's concert. 

After that we went to Halle, which is pretty nice also, but the streets suck I can tell. We did even the sightseeing here today, a lot of other very old buildings followed.

In the evening Terese was playing. She did 3 sets of songs and the place was so crowded that you couldn't move. Anja and I had some exclusive seats and took again hundreds of pictures. Terese played almost all our favorites and a lot more. Also some great cover versions of well known songs.

In the breaks between the sets Anja and I sold her CDs and had a lot of fun promoting her. 

Pictures will come later. But I'm off for bed now, because it's soooo early already ;)

hugs

Terese Fredenwall in Leipzig and a day off

This week was pretty full of dates, monday I was at Roxette's concert in Berlin, which was pretty awesome, Tuesday I was so tired but worked long, Wednesday school and yesterday it was NRW time from 4:25 in the morning to 23:00 in the night. The good thing is that I was off today and will be off on monday as well. 

We went to Leipzig today in the afternoon. Even though I was off from work today it wasn't really my day. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong today, talking about how to get winter tires on my car and not having the right screws, being late almost the whole day (I hadn't even packed my suitcase 2 hours before the trip and was recharging cameras in a hurry), being in the never ending traffic jam that is happening in Berlin every day but especially on Fridays when the whole city is getting somewhere else. So we had a big delay of almost 1 hour when we arrived in Leipzig. The last I had eaten were 2 toast around lunch time so we were starving (I don't even know what Anja had for lunch). We arrived at the hostel 6:15 pm and the concert was to start in about 1:45 hour. We just got changed, prepared the room and off we went. We thought that we would find something to eat on the way there.... but nope. So we went around in Leipzig trying to find something to eat with the HUGE bag packs we have. But nothing. I wasn't able to carry on going or to think. 

So we went to that English Room Terese would play at. When we stepped in the lady at the counter told us in ENGLISH that we could leave our coats in another room and pay afterwords. I was looking at her and thought she thought we must be from abroad having so much stuff with us, while Terese is still pretty unknown here in Germany. So I told her that we do understand German and she was giving me a not understanding look. SO did Anja. When we went into the room where we would leave our jackets she told me if I wouldn't think that there is a connection between the ENGLISH ROOM and English speaking people. I was looking at Anja then, thinking about what she said. In the same moment we started laughing soooooo bad. This coincidence became the running gag of today's evening. 

The concert was cool and so was the location. It was like sitting in someone else's living room. Very familiar and intimate. 

We got to chat with someone from Australia, who was funny and interesting and had some good laughs  with Terese, Simon, Bengt and Tobias. 

Pictures are going to be uploaded very soon I guess. Tomorrow we will have some sight seeing and then we are going to Halle in the afternoon. Tomorrow is the second concert - this time in an Irish Pub - but now I'm prepared, no more German if another nationality is involved in the name of the location ;)

Sleep tight;)

Concert Terese Fredenwall in Oehna (Flugplatz)

Yesterday was the second concert of our little concert weekend. The gig took place in Oehna, in the middle of nowhere in Brandenburg. It was so hidden that even our GPS didn't find it.


When we arrived the band was already rehearsing and we were starving. The original plan was to get something to eat before the arrival. McDonald's was the word, which we didn't find in the nowhere we were :) So the little snackshop next to the hangars was ok, we would have eaten whatever actually.
When we had finished our french fries we didn't have to wait that long before we could enter the location. It was beautiful with all those small airplanes and hangars. I have never been so close to aircrafts on a field lol. Bengt and Simon arrived at the same time as we and Bengt showed us his plane and we talked about it and that it was pretty old. The engine is from the 50's and he is able to fix everything on his own. We looked into his plane and as much as I trust Bengt, I don't think I would ever get into this aircraft...


The concert was supposed to start at 4 p.m. but when only 5 people arrived 3:50 pm I was a bit worried that maybe no one would come to see the concert and this beautiful location. Even a small pre-act was there so I was hoping they would pull some people there since they seemed to be from the surrounding.
But then people came. It were about 50, which was unexpected. The concert started and was as nice as the day before but totally different with this unique location. Terese had asked me the night before if I would do the translation for the audience, so I did it. I rather sucked since I was standing between her and the speaker and didn't hear part of the things she said. I tried lipreading which worked well at the end :)) Anyway I had fun.


When the concert was over we learned that the group was going to Regensburg the same evening. What a ride. We took some pictures from the whole bunch in front of the WOP airplane. While they were still packing their stuff we had to leave to head home.


Thanks again to Terese Fredenwall, Simon Petrén, Elin Sydhage, Emil Sydhage, Marcus Johansson and Tobias Jonasson for those incredible memories and the great music. We already made plans to visit their next concerts in Leipzig and Halle at the end of October. Looking forward.

Concert Terese Fredenwall in Oranienburg

Friday I was going to a concert of my Swedish friend Terese Fredenwall, who was playing live in Oranienburg, north of Berlin. I did my apprentice in Oranienburg and was quite sure that I wouldn't go back to that town... if it wasn't for Terese and her Project "Wings of Protection".



Wings of Protection is a project founded by Swedish priest Bengt Fiske years ago and Terese Fredenwall who joined this project 1,5 year ago. Together they are raising money for children that don't have a save home or are living on the streets. Bengt was working many years with kids on the streets of Berlin and also Regensburg and also with prostitudes. They both have my full respect for what they are doing for those forgotten people.


Anja came from Hamburg and brought 2 of her friends and we had an incredible evening there. The concert was great. There are no words for how much I admire those people for what they are doing and how long they go just to play a concert for those people and to speak about Jesus and God and how everyone can make lonely people feel comfortable.

Anyway even if it was a serious pupose I had so much fun. Especially in the end when Anja, Simon and I started a photography war.


Oh and to make some advertisement for this great project I can recommend Terese's albums "Colours From My Heart" and "Not About The Songs".

day 7 - Sunday - time for more music in Tranemo & a Deja Vu

Sunday was relaxing again ... can't remember when I was relaxing so much the last time. We went to Tranemo this day since Terese Fredenwall and Simon Petrén were playing there. Again we had to drive through Borås and reached Tranemo after a 1,5 hours drive.

We did a walk through the city, which is rather small. The first service started at 3 p.m. so we went to that Church in the middle of nowhere. The Church was really pretty inside with a lot of sculptures and colours. Very beautiful.

Anja and I were sitting on a bench when Terese and Simon arrived. Now that was a surprise for them as Terese told me immediately. They went inside the Church and so did we. The Service started short after.

Terese started her program with one of my favorite songs from her album "Närmare Mig" called Daniels sång. She told that this was about a boy who didn't have a father since his first father didn't want to see him and his second father didn't want to adopt him. At the end he realized that he had a father in God. You could see that Terese was still touched by this memory when she told the audience about it.

When the service was over we went to the big Church in the centre of Tranemo since there was another service with them at 5 p.m. When we had taken our seats, Terese and Simon were already rehearsing, a woman walked up to me and asked me if I was singing too. I told her I wasn't ... did wonder a bit what that was all about but it wasn't the first time I got that question in Sweden, so I didn't really think about that anymore.

Also this service was very nice with a lot of good music. They even sang a song which I sang years ago in Church and had totally forgotten about. Isn't it always strange when I hear a certain song and although you have forgotten about it you can still remember the lyrics and the melody? That's music, you just gotta love that ;)

After the service we packed our mini studios together. People were going to Terese and Simon to wish them well, another women walked up to me, looking at me, saying. "Is it you that is Jenny?" I must have looked like a cow when the thunderstorm comes - as we say in German lol - I was like: "No, I'm Jessica."

"Oh, she said I thought you were Jenny, but you are a part of the Petrén family?" - I told her being a friend...

Now that was weird. Anja was just laughing saying, now you know why they wanted you to sing.

Anyway we gathered with Terese and Simon and had some nice chat before we were heading home again...

It's been a while...

again :) I know I had so many ambitions to keep this blog alive, but I just have not enough time. A lot has happened that would be worth writing about, but time just seems to get by faster and faster every day. I for example passed my driving test, which means I'm able to finally drive cars. Now that's good news, huh? lol still I'm not able to drive rented cars for another year, so Anja is still on her own driving through Sweden with me, which is actually where we are now.

We went to Stockholm yesterday for a concert of Jenny Berggren... again. It was great. Well you didn't really expect me to write something different, did you? Anyway, she was doing a performance with Terese Fredenwall and Simon Petrén at Enebykyrkan, somewhere in the outskirts of Stockholm. This place must be brand new, since our GPS didn't find it. So we ended up driving around for a long time again to find the church. But in the end we arrived. We had just hung our coats when we saw Jenny waiting outside in the cold, since the door was locked. We let her in and she wasn't really surprised seeing us being there long before time. We went in with her talked about how we had been, received a warm hug from her and Terese. Then they had to prepare themselves and do the soundcheck, so we also found a seat in the front row and got our equipment prepared.

The concert/lecture started at 7 p.m. and was simply great as usual. Perfect to just sit there and forget about your everyday life which is waiting for us back in Germany filled with stress and huge amounts of work. The setlist was as follows:

Moonshadow

Let My People Go

No More Nights

Give Me The Faith

Ravine

Encore by Terese:

To You

I will continue the list as soon I can think of more.

The people were very eager to listen to the presentation of the book and didn't really want her to stop talking :)

When everything was over, Jenny and Terese sold her albums and the new paperback book, while we ran around, taking pictures and also having a snack which they offered. We accompanied Louiza and her friend who were there as well. Short after that Jenny joined us sitting around the table. She asked us about the great news that she is going to Denmark to perform at the ESC election there and we agreed that this was great news. So we chatted a bit about that and also about the upcoming concert in Russia next week. We agreed that the competition in Denmark would be a great boost for her album and even book but that she has to see how it works.

Even though she said in the beginning that she had to leave very soon we spent quite a long time with her and even Terese. We went home 10:30 p.m. after a long exciting day :)

emotions all the way ...

What a day .... woke up this morning and nothing really seemed better than yesterday ... then I remembered that I should check Jenny Berggren's website ... it's finally up :) When my Macbook said it's usual "pling" even Sara woke up and grabbed her computer ... Anja needed more sleep. so there we were, checking the new website, listening to the song clips. If you haven't visited the site, you should definitely do it www.jennyberggren.com :)

When Anja was awake we started to get ready. We should show up at Expressen's office around 12:45 to see Jenny and her staff perform. As typical Germans we were there around 12:30. I told the guard that we were there to meet Jenny and first she thought she was working there. I was rather confused ... she didn't know who Jenny Berggren is lol. She told us to go upstairs so I was heading the elevator and didn't even realize that the girls didn't follow me. Somehow the door was blocked. Anja was making strange moves to show me that I should go to the door again so that it moves. Then some other people came and told us that the girls should ask the guard once again to open the door. Then it finally worked. We jumped into the elevator and went up to Expressen's offices. A guy called Christian was waiting for us at the door and asked us to follow him.

While we were going after him he asked if we were the girls to do the backing vocals. As always when somebody is asking me directly I didn't even think one second and told him we were there to watch the recordings. Sara was saying while we were still being led through those uncountable corridors that I should have said we were the choir lol. To late I told her. Christian asked us where we came from and while I was answering Germany and the US I thought maybe he asked which paper we are from since we had all our equipment with us, which could easily be mixed up with a portable TV set :)

He asked us to take a seat, told us that Jenny was still on the way so there we sat. Simon came out and said hello. He told us that Jenny was somewhere. We found out later that she probably was getting Terese and Elin.

Then they arrived. While Jenny was storming into the studio where the recording should take place Terese was hugging us and said hello, presented her friend Elin who was also singing with them. She told us that Elin is gonna sing on Terese's upcoming album and that they are gonna perform "Give Me The Faith" and "Gotta Go". Then it was time to go into that room to do the rehearsals. So we were sitting there waiting to be called to see something ... waiting ... people were passing by ... more people .... people getting coffee ... people talking on the phone etc. I was surprised how calm this huge filled with people office was. Thinking of the office i work in with 6 people including me. Sometimes you can't hear yourself thinking ...

We listened to the rehearsals of Gotta Go ... Give Me The Faith, Gotta Go Again, Give Me The Faith ... part of Gotta Go .. some Give Me The Faith again. I remember taking a look at Sara's watch. It was 1:10 by then ... but the read light wasn't on ... we were wondering what is going on. Then we heard Gotta Go again .... this time no one came out of that room or got in and by that time we realized that this must be the recording ... but we weren't sure. Then it was calm again ... and then we heard Give The Faith again. After that some more silence. Suddenly the door was opened and Simon, Staffan and Elin came out waving at us and storming into another direction. We were still sitting there waiting what is going to happen next.

Jenny seemed to be doing another small interview then she came out and asked us if we have had a chance to see it, we told her no. She seemed confused and told us that she has to do some more interviews and that is why she has to leave now. She said we should get in contact with the others to get the information about the interview. We were just looking at Jenny, while she was going along the corridor and suddenly she was turning around and said or do you want to come with me? Sure we wanted, so we grabbed our stuff and ran after her, since she was in a hurry.

The guy that had met us in the beginning was leading us out again. We tried to squeeze ourselves into the elevator but nothing happened. I found out that we had forgotten to hit the button... but I took the wrong one... It was like a comedy when we jumped out of the elevator found out that it was the wrong level and jumped in again. The elevator stopped on another level and we just said "full" lol

When we came outside a cab was already waiting for Jenny. I was just thinking about the car we had and that I just had paid a parking ticket until 3 ... it was around 2 by then. But anyway. Jenny said "jump in" and so we did...