more news...

Issue 4 of the Finnish GuitarFan magazine has an interview + gear special with me. Altogether 8 pages !

Ben

Hello again,

Well, it's been awhile since my last blog...sorry!
I caught the flu staight after the tour and still had tons of things to do...

Anyway, the tour went well and I'd like to thank Miri, John, Mattes, Ralf, Britta and Saxon for making it easy and smooth.The last show at Charly's was recorded and I thought it was a really good show so we'll probably release some of it in some form sooner or later.

On a very sad note I would like to send my condolenses to Rosi Papes family and friends.
Rosi was supposed to do the merch on this tour but on the same day we started she was taken to hospital and when we got home I got the sad news that she had passed away after a long fight with cancer. Rosi was a kind , funny and always smiling person who has helped BGB out in many ways. Rest in Peace Rosi! You will be missed!

We do have some good news too. BGB will be back in Germany in early february and then at the end of February we'll go to Dubai for the Dubai Jazz festival theme week! That'll be great!

I will also be part of the GTR Tour 2008 in Finland (march-april). This tour features 3 guitar players with a house band. This year it's Jartse Tuominen (also the organiser), Pepe Ahlqvist and me.

Things to do ;
All BGB and GTR dates will be up on the gig page asap.
The TV documentary will be aired on TV2 FST early january, I should get the exact date soon.
I have tons of pictures that I need to put up once I figure out how to do it :-)

We've got 5 gigs in Finland before we take a short break AND we have some T-shirts left. Tour shirts, Ringer shirts and Girlie shirts ONLY 15 euros!.
On the Rocks the 7th of december will once again feature Kasper Mårtenson on keyboards and possibly 1 or 2 guest singers.

Take care and all the best,

Ben

Greetings from Saltzburg!

Great show last night and a very nice venue too! The last time I was here was 10 years ago with the Guitar Slingers :-) ... memories, memories ha,ha
We've had some very nice shows but unforunately also some bad luck with a couple of shows...snowy wheater and the no smoking ban seem to affect some clubs very hard with loosing half their clientel. I guess it will take some time to ge the people back in to the clubs, I just hope they don' t have to close before that... it's a tough business!
On www.youtube.com you can find some new live clips taken by our good friend Reinhard.

John is fitting in (on?) like a tight glove and we're having a great time.
being on the road is great but sometimes the journeys really take their toll (1800 km in the last 3 days!!).

Random stuff that's happening ....,

John was in high spirits when he found out that one of the venues (Village in Habach) was the set for a legendery German XXX movie that he's got on VHS.... he's now looking for the dvd version with bonus material :-)

We have a chance to record the last show on this tour for (yet) another live album. I think that unless we're dead tired we'll do it for historys sake.

I've had a bit of time in the hotel rooms and can happily say that I have 8 song ideas ready for the next album... It's great when inspiration flows ha,ha!

Still many dates left , come and join us!

all the best,

Ben

Tour going well!

4 gigs on the German tour behind and we're on a roll! Execpt for Neustadt the nubers have been very good with Föhr being one hell of a party! check out this link for pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/photomanufactury/sets/72157602439150265/

I'm at home writing this while Miri and John are enjoying the 3 off days in Hamburg.
Tomorrow I'm flying out to continue with 10 dates in row, see ya all out there!

Cheers,

Ben

Gringos Locos

Well, ahemm.... check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OfOAMQWiAA
Judge for your self bu it was fun to see:-) Tht's me with the black guitar and Miri behind the drums.

Ben

Great gigs!

We had some really good gigs last weekend! Kokkola and Seinäjoki were especially good! The band is ON!
I realize I posted the wrong date for the Liberte´gig here below earlier.It is the 27.9 and due to Miris prior commitments we'll start 21.30! Spread the word and get your pals up and out from that couch! Fot those who goes to work the next day, you'll be in bed by 23.30 latest so come on out!

Cheers,

Ben

My Space

Forgot to say that www.myspace.com/bengranfeltband has a couple of soundclips from the new album and I'll try to update the blog there as well...now that I remember the pass word.

Ben

Yahoooo....

The gigs so far have been great! John is fitting in very well and I couldn't be happier :-) Many new faces in the audience! Thanks for coming!
Please note that Club Liberte´ (gig the 26.9) has done what a lot of clubs should do!!! Showtime 21.00 !!!!

Also the 17.10 has a new venue, it's is called Painthouse in Dortmund.

We're rocking!

Ben

PS. It seems to be incredible hard to get any media interest in BGB so if anyone knows someone in the press please help out! Or use the internet by posting on music forums etc. contact radio stations to request BGB songs, interviews .

Gettin' ready...

Well, the Granfelt / Nikku guitar Fest. gigs are done now and AGAIN I must say, What a band!
Tipe guesting on vocals did a great jobb as did Tommi Rautianen who subbed on 2 gigs. We're talking about recording and more gigs in january so stay tuned!

BGB is getting ready for action! Check out TV2 Betina S the 3rd of september, we'll play 2-3 songs live and I'll tell some stories about the new album etc.
AND you'll also see and hear the new bass player !!!
We've rehearsed 3 times already and I am VERY pleased so far, a few new arrangements and 3 new songs in the set. We'll be doing a "rehearsal" gig at Boothill in Helsinki the 7.9 before we start the tour.

Can't wait to get out there again!

Ben

Here we go again...

Alright, back after a relaxing week in the hot zone of Tunis and ready to rock...
Todays Lahti Jazz Tori is the last gig with Anssi Växby on bass and I'd like to thank him for being there, playing well and sampling some whiskeys with me :-)
Tomorrow for the Bakers show Ako Kiski will jump in for a one of before we start rehearsing with our new bass player next week... You'll get his name in september before the tour starts here in Finland. We are scheduled to appear on TV2 in the program Betina S. the 3rd of September and the album will be out the 5th.

I have also today updated the gigs page with the German tourdates + 1 more gig in Helsinki the 15.9 at the Boot Hill Pub.
We now have a total of 4 gigs in Helsinki during sept-oct. Why? you may ask. Well, I think taht all these gigs are in different parts of Helsinki and it's about time I put my name back on the map (of Helsinki that is!). In december we'll play On the Rocks again which of course is the big gig for us here.

Be well, and C U out there!

Ben

Youtube video clips

I just got a message from our friend Reinhard in Germany that he has put up some video clips from the march 2007 tour on Youtube.com type in ben granfelt band and they should show up.

Tomorrow we'll be back in Germany for 3 more festival dates and then I'm off on a holiday to Tunis with my family, Yeah Baby!

C U

Ben

Gig change and other news

Hi everyone,

The 4th of august has a new venue and town due to a wedding booking...
The new venue is,
Kulturbahnhof
Bahnhofstr.14
53947 Nettersheim/Eifel

I received the master for "Notes from the Road" today and it sounds good. I will inform you about the exact release date soon.

The gigs at Burg Hertzberg and Live Earth Music HAll went really well and we had a great time...can't wait to get back to Germany in august :-)
Tomorrow we're in Tampere and then Helsinki with Granfelt / Nikku Guitar Festival. Don't miss these gigs if you're in town ... we're on fire :-)

C U

Ben

I'm back!

Hi Guys and Gals,

The new album is finnished and has been sent to Germany for mastering, artwork etc.
The title will be "Notes from the Road", complete track listing is as follows,
1. Going Home 2007
2. Notruf Theme (instr.)
3. Can't wait another day
4. Cocaine
5. The long road home (instr.)
6. Intro Jam (live)
7. Check up from the neck up (live)
8. Falling of a drunken Horse (live)
9. Bridge of dreams (live)
10. All I want to be (live)
11. Giong Home (live)

It will be released in Germany and Finland early September.
I've put up new tour dates for Finland so check them out and come along with your friends for a good time. I will also announce the new bass player in time for the release. During the summer Anssi Vexby and Ako Kiiski will help out on bass duties.
The German tour dates in October-November will be up later.

Yesterday the Granfelt / Nikku guitar fest. played at Swengi in Järvenpää for the Puisto Blues festival. I apologize for not informing about this gig! I simply forgot! The house was packed and we had a good time. There are more gigs to come, check the gigs page!

For the US fans who write to me I'd like to say Thanks for the kind words but unfortunately at the moment there are no gigs planned. HOWEVER "The Sum of Memories" will be out on Grooveyard Records over there. http://www.grooveyardrecords.com/ has a lot of interesting guitars stuff so check it out.

Also at some point in the future my 3 first albums will be rereleased with a few bonus tracks. We just have to find the right time to do it.It would be nice to make a double cd with new artwork and booklet...

That's it for now, enjoy the summer and C U out there!

Ben

Studio report

Hello,

Miri and I just finnished mixing 6 live tracks from the 2006 Ashcon show for the upcoming album. The tracks are Intro Jam, Check up from the neck up, Falling off a drunken Horse, Bridge of dreams, All I want to be and Going Home.
Next we're going to record 5 studio tracks and if everything goes well then the release will be in september for Finland and Europe just in time for the next tours in Finland and Germany.

I also added a few gigs again to the gigs page, check them out!

Ben

Quick update!

Hi all,

Tonight I'm playing with Coverfreaks at On the Rocks! I forgot to mention this earlier Sorry! It'll be a good night of rock'n'roll!
Also updated the Gig page today + ther'll be more shows coming so stay tuned and get ready.

Ben

Hello again

Hello again...long time no text! Sorry!

The last weeks have been quite hectic! We (my family) moved into a new appartment and as you all know packing, moving and unpacking is very stressfull. On top of this we had the funeral of my favourite Aunt who passed away very suddenly. On a positive side Jims doing great and I can't believe that he already 1 year old! He's walking around in our new home trying to hide my cds and chew up the TV remote, what a little prince :-)

Harri has decided to step down from the bassplayer role due to too much work with other acts. We're friends and I totally understand him + he already did a gig with us after leaving :-). This gig was the Silja Rock cruise and as Miri couldn't do this gig we had Anssi Nykänen on drums... a lot of fun was had and the gig was great!

On the subject of bassplayers, Ako Kiiski will do the gigs in Rovaniemi at the end of May and Anssi Vexby will do all the summer dates.
I'm hoping to get Anssi, Ako and Harri to play on the forth coming album since they are all great players... We're going to do 5 studiotracks and then mix 6 live tracks from ASHCON 2006.
The release is sometime in September.
I will have a serious chat with Miri regarding a new bassplayer...or maybe we should call ourselves Ben Granfelt Duo + bass player he,he
If anyone is interested or has any suggestions re. bass players drop me a mail at sprucefield@bengranfelt.com


We had a meeting with Jarmo Nikku and I will book some gigs for the summer with the Granfelt/Nikku Guitar Fest.This will be a cool summer... I mean a warm cool summer with nice gigs!
I will update some more BGB gigs also during this week so check the gigpage later on.

Cheers,

Ben

Hello again!

Well, we're back from Germany in one piece and happy with a nice tour!
Janne Rajala proved to be a very good bass player and great singer...he probably knew some of the songs better than I did in the beginning :-)
We met a lot of new friends and a lot of old ones too and I would very much like to thank all the hardcore fans who came to several shows!
I think Miri probably enjoyed this tour the most 'cos he was having some weiswein schorle both before and after the gigs ...chatted to all the young girls (not many around our gigs he,he) and generally was smiling all the time!

Here's a small diary of the tour...

Winterbach was the first gig and probably the wildest and biggest crowd who took us completly by suprise! We we're a bit like cows out in the fields for the first time during spring :-) Great venue and atmosphere! I was so taken by the response of the crowd that i forgot to ask for more level on my monitors and ended up straining my voice a bit.
Munich, I was warned that Germany was playing football in an impotrant game and there for the crowd was quite small but they loved it anyway and so did we. Strange venue since the stage was in the middle of the room !? Horst Langer from ENGL came to meet me and we checked and talked amps for a long time.He is the man behind the sound! It was really nice to meet after a long time.
Bad Saulgau, a small Pubish venue nicely packed with a good crowd and we jammed more than earlier. I had a few drinks after the show...

Herford. We've played here before and the stage is very good sounding but I was having problems with my voice again. Very good catering! But too much food :-)
Frankfurt. This was a hectic day because I was playing at the ENGL stand at the Music Fair during the day and then hurrying up to soundcheck,dinner etc. Benny Törnroos+crew came from Finland to film for the upcoming TV documentary. We had a nice Thai dinner before the show VERY HOT! Janne was on fire!
I think we played a very good gig and the visiting Finns showed Germany how to drink beer!
Hamburg. This is my favourite city to play and the gig was really one of the best I've done in a long time. Superb crowd, superb sound... Benny was still around to film and I think they got some nice stuff here.
Schwerin. Very nice venue but problems with the PA and I was really pushing it with the vocals... close to loosing my voice completly. Thank God for Harry who brought some ginger which I eat and drank for 2-4 days to survive! Can't fault the crowd 'cos they loved it!
Uslar. back to the railwaystation :-) A very good venue with nice lights and PA / Stage. I was a bit tired but enjoyed playing a lot.
Unna, what a nice suprise! It was the promoter Franks birthday and his venue was superb! A good crowd and many new fans! We'll be back here for sure! I really enjoed this one.
Reinheim. When I walked in I thought ...oh no! We had a shitty sound check and though it would be a bad gig BUT never say never! A nice gig came out of nowhere and gone were all the bad vibes! Miri and Janne managed to drink themselves quite drunk with the bartender (who was female of course!) a lot of laughs and a good time at the end.
Wetter. We spent a day off here first and then the gig the next day. Actually we stayd in the next small town which was about as dead as a town can get during easterfriday... thank God Bernd Aufferman came to visit us and brought a sixpack + some vine! He told us interesting stories about his touring days in 69' in a submarine ???
The actual gig in Wetter was very nice and again I must thank the hardcore fans who follow us a round! Also met Christian Tolle who wrote a nice article about me in Guitar & Bass magazine. I might buy his guitar...if he sells it !?
Bad Ennbach. A town in the middle of ? With a great club? Yes sir! What a nice way to end the tour! Friends around, a good stage ...what more do you need? I though we were suberb :-)

Miri, Janne, Ralf Neumann, Hypertensions Irene and Christian, Rosie, Mattis...
Thanks my friends for making this tour possible!

We got some more festival dates in germany Coming up so stay tuned and check in every now and then.

Ben

New Forum!

Hi again,
we're going fast now! We've created a new forum (on another server) - which hopefully won't be infested with spammers ;)

To ensure that there will be nothing bad transfered, I am sorry to say the old accounts and posts will be unusable (atleast for the time being). So please, signup for the new forum and let's make a new spam-free start!


-Micke

ps. the forum-link is in the upper right corner, if you didn't know....

Forum & Spam

Hi guys & gals,
due to excessive spamming and miss use of our forum here at bengranfelt.com - I have taken the decision to pull down the whole thing. As we couldn't stop the whole spam thing and make everything as secure as it should be - I feel this is the only choice we have.

But do not worry - we will be back soon (hopefully still before easter) with another solution to the forum (possibly outsourced protection)!


-Micke, your webmaster

Shameless self promotion...

Hi guys,

Please feel free to vote:
http://guitarfanclub.fi/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=63

Thanks,
Ben

Howdy Folks!

So, today we had the first rehearsals for the German tour...and this time bass duties will be handled by Janne Rajala since Harri is busy with prior commitments (what a great band name by the way!). Janne played thru all the songs making only 3-4 mistakes so I'm happy to say that it'll be a pleasure to play with him. As he also sings everything will go very smoothly. And we'll have 2-3 songs which we haven't played in Germany before in the set.

Last weekend I went to see Hanoi Rocks for the first time and I must say it was a fun evening. Andy McCoy and I share the same "local" bar and he's a character for sure! Thanks for the backstage pass! Later in the evening I met Kride Meurman who is in Finland's Idols finals. We've known each other for some years and he says he's a fan...well, the way he sings I'm a fan!Kride is very talented and I hope he'll win. It would be nice to have a decent ...sorry! Great rock singer who isn't a child/newbie win this time! Good luck Kride!

Today Muddy Manninen came buy to check out some of my amps for the Wishbone Ash recording session at Miris studio starting next week. Andy Powell got my Guild acoustic for the songwriting sessions so it's kinda cool to be able to help the guys.

I've again added a gig in Germany and there'll be a few gigs in Finland for the summer as well.
I also hope we'll have 3-4 gigs with the Granfelt / Nikku Guitar fest.
Stay tuned!

Ben

Granfelt / Nikku Guitar Fest.

What a great suprise! I wasn't sure what the reaction would be at the gig but never did I expect this! We would like to thank everyone who came and were so into it!
WE WERE INTO IT TOO!! So much that we're going to try and record a cd during the summer..and do more gigs too!

BGB is getting ready to face arctic hell! The gigs we have coming up in Rovaniemi and Oulu are the first up there in 5-6 years! We're rehearsing some stuff we haven't played in a long time so it'll be interesting for sure.

more later....

PS.The German gigs will be up on the Gigis page soon!

Gigs updated etc. !

I updated the gigs page with the upcoming gigs here in Finland and hopefully next week I'll put up most of the upcoming German dates as well.

Yesterday I met up with producer Benny Tornroos who is going to make a 55min documentary about me for FST Television. Most filming will be done in feb-march. More about it later.

I will also get the protools tracks from the BGB performance at Ashcon in Chesterfield. We will choose 5-7 tracks for a release hopefully later this year.

DON'T FORGET THE GRANFELT / NIKKU GUITAR FEST. DATES!!

Over and out, goodnight,

Ben

Last blog 2006

Hiya!

Back again....Christmas is behind and all the food is eaten etc. I hope you all had a peacful vacation.
The gig at Semifinal went really well and it was great to have Bryn and Tipe singing songs that I've done with them before but never with Miri and Harri. Kasper was great on the keys and will definitely play with us again in the future.
If I remember correctly the set list went like this,
1.Check up from the neck up
2.Falling off a drunken horse
3.Confession time
4.P.P.R
5.The Hunter (Bryn)
6.Cortez the Killer (Bryn)
7.Shapes of things (Bryn)
8.Home
9.We play the game
10.P.O.P
11.Riding Free
12. Wishing well (Tipe)
13. Fly like an eagle (Tipe)
14. Voyager (Tipe)
15. Rock'n roll hoochie coo (Tipe)
16. All I want to be
17. Chechered flag
18. Hush
Encore Highway star (Tipe)

With the jams and everything we played for a total of two hours.I have some video footage that will be posted soon as well.

Now I'll sit down and relax until January 18th, when I go on tour with Jarmo Nikku, Miri Miettinen, Jari Heino and Igi Kosanowitc. We're touring as Granfelt / Nikku Guitar Fest. I hope it will be as much fun as Semifinal was! Mostly covers like Allman Brothers, Dereck Trucks Band, Gov'tMule etc. :-)
The tour dates for Granfelt / Nikku Guitar Fest. are (January)
18th Jazzbar (Jyväskylä)
19th London Pub (Mikkeli)
20th Old Cock (Lappeenranta)
25th Henry's Pub (Tampere)
26th On the Rock's (Helsinki)
27th No:1 (Tammisaari)

BGB will do some gigs in Northern Finland mid February and another German tour at the end of March. Dates will be posted soon.

I'd like to thank Miri, Harri, Pete and new recruit Jukka "Beavis" Oja for a great year. I think we took a serious step forward and 2007 can only be better!
Thanks also to Micke Kanervo, Ralf & Co at KBN, Pasi Kuusjarvi at Dex Viihde, Christian & Irene at Hypertension Music, Anne & Marjut at Bonnier Amigo.
Most of all thanks to YOU! for coming to the shows and supporting us. All your great comments and emails mean a lot to us.

I wish you all a great beginning to the new year!
C U out there!

Ben

Well, tonights the last gig of 2006!

We've rehearsed 2 days with Kasper M?rtenson (keyboards). Bryn jones and Tipe Johnson came in and did their songs once so we sort of know what we're doing :-)
I feel that this will be a very special gig since it was very interesting to have keyboards on so many songs...I like it sooo much!
I don't need to tell anyone how much I like Bryns and Tipes singing...they're both about as good as you can get as a singer, honest!

I'll be back hopefully tomorrow with a gig report!

Cheers,

Ben

Calling all browsers!

Hi to all from behind the code...
... we are testing a guestbook now as an addition for the forum. So please, when and if you have the time, go over to http://www.bengranfelt.com/guestbook and leave a message - and let's see how it holds up!


-Micke

Back home!

After a week of playing with my son, sorting out business stuff and getting used to being home I'm back at the blog.

We had a good tour and the future looks good too! We'll be back in Germany in March so stay tuned for new dates soon.
We met a lot of nice people and played at new venues, thanks to everyone especially the new promotors!

Here's a link to some funky pschycedelic pictures from Bretten http://www.altes-rathaus-bretten.de/20.0.html
More pictures will be up soon and I will also put up reviews etc soon.

A BIG thank you to Miri and Harri who in my opinion played better than ever before! It is very enjoyable to see and hear their solo spots develop to something special everynight. As a band I think we are in top form now so I can't wait to do the next gigs here in Finland soon.

C U all,

Ben

PS. thanks also for all the mails, keep them coming because they mean a lot to us!

Germany part II

Guten Morgen,

So, the last 5 gigs are coming up now and we are still alive!
So far it's been a pleasure and we've meet many new friends.
Hamburg was great as was Föhr and Melle Buer. The TV filming of the Hamburg gig will be aired in january/february and I will inform you about the date later on.

We are also getting the first record reviews now and they are all GREAT!! I will try to put them up here when I get home. Also Guitar magazine here in Germany has a 2 page feature. I did an equipment special with my friend Christian Tolle for Guitar & Bass Magazine which will be out in january I think.

That's it for now, we're heading out to Wezlar and one of our favourite clubs Francis now.

Later....

Ben

FINALLY!

The forum has been updated, pruned, scrubbed, cleaned and wiped!
Unfortunately some of you, dear users, may have been affected by this and have to register again - but by doing this massive cleanout I hope we have now acheived a higher security on our board. We will be monitoring the board extra closely fora few weeks to see if we are safe (well, as safe as you can be on the web) from spammers - so here I ask of your help, if you see some suspect behaviour please email me directly at micke[a]bengranfelt.com and I'll look into it a.s.a.p!

Also - to ensure each and everyone's own security, I would recomend you to update your profile and change atleast your password!


br, Micke

Live from Germany

Hi to all,

Here we are in rainy Hamburg after 4 gigs here in Germany. We have 2 off days now and then we'll play here at the Down Town Blues cafe which is a very nice venue.This show will also be filmed by HH1 and we will get the material for our own use (a DVD with different concerts at some point !)
So far we've had a good time and the attendence has been doubled at the 2 "old" venues that we did last year so things are looking good.
Ralf "Papa" Neumann is taking care of us and whatching that drinking is kept to a minimum...he,he he doesn't know that he is dealing with proffessionals!

Ok, I'm getting ready for my Jiu-jitsu training here in Hamburg... I'll be back with more tour stuff and pics later this week.

C U

Ben