Fugazi

That's what his wife told him to say... 😋

A video from the Circus Life DVD included in the Best Of album:

Great interview, many burning questions that have never been asked before as far as I know! 🤘 You mentioned some of them elsewhere, but I wanted to comment on a few more: "We've been listening to the songs with the whole band in hotel rooms, me singing the lyrics for them to get the idea of the structure of the songs. And everybody sincerely seems to be super excited about the themes and the songs so that was a massive rock off my heart." -- Wait what? Tuomas singing to the band, I want to hear it! 😁 "When we started to put together the setlist, I had an idea of using "Ad Astra" as an outro but Troy said "Wait. What if she sings it live and we would be standing next to her in a line?" And when we tried it at the rehearsal, it just felt right, like "Wow, what a way to end!" " -- Yay for Troy! 🤘 "I'd love to play "Procession". It's one of my favorite songs from the new album. But for some reason, it was just left out. We haven't even rehearsed it. But I'd love to bring that at some point. It's a very underrated song. We all like it in the band." -- Well it's a downer thematically and musically, but I'd love to hear it live at least once. Nicolas: "About that, last time we met in Paris, you told us you were thinking of asking Tarja to join you on stage for the last concert of the Decades tour but it didn't or couldn't happen. Is this still something you're considering? -- Everything is always possible. I don't say no to anything anymore. But it is not something that we have planned in a concrete way." -- This is the first time I hear of it. 👀

Well judging by the videos and photos from that leg of the 2013 tour, the band immensely enjoyed their time in OZ-NZ so I'm sure a return is in the cards. Floor even mentioned Australia in January 2023 at some point last year before it was nixed, so it was probably being seriously considered. Now she booked some solo shows so I don't know what time is left for Australasian dates but who knows?

Hi Richard, be most welcome, and thanks for introducing yourself! Were I in a band with any measure of international fame, I would make sure every tour included NZ and Australia! I know it's probably expensive to fly a band and crew and gear from Europe, but what a beautiful country! I have only been to South Island, but I'd like to return one day and visit the North too. I guess it's a life lesson learnt the hard way, but haven't we all missed so many great shows because we weren't that much into that band or had other priorities or worries at the time. I mean, Nightwish played in my home city mere months before I discovered the band. But I was quite mad when I realised it years later! 😁 Anyway, feel free to explore the forum and join the discussions, the more the merrier!

Tuomas Holopainen reveals “major surprises” on next Nightwish album, admits he thought the band “were finished” when bassist Marko Hietala left Nightwish’s next album will be the final part in a trilogy, according to keyboard player Tuomas Holopainen By Metal Hammer 2022-12-07 https://www.loudersound.com/news/nightwish-new-album-tuomas-holopainen-surprises Nightwish’s Tuomas Holopainen has revealed that the band’s next album will contain some “major suprises”. Speaking exclusively to Metal Hammer, the keyboard player says that the follow-up to 2020’s Human. :II: Nature would complete a trilogy that began with 2015’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful. “I immediately knew after getting that album [Endless Forms Most Beautiful] done that, ‘Okay, we have to do more songs about this, because there's so much more to explore and tell the world. We're not done with this’,” he says. “And the same thing happened after Human. :II: Nature, we’re still not done. So let's do one more. At least one more. “In a way, [the next album] is the third part of a trilogy, which started with Endless Forms… and then Human. :II: Nature There are some major surprises there again, but it feels like a natural continuation to Human. :II: Nature.” While Holopainen remains cagey as what these “surprises” would involve, he revealed that the band have already demoed the new album. “The wonderful thing is that we have had the demo done since last spring. So it's been done for six months now. We really have all the time in the world to go through it all, and we have had a such great time with the band, just listening to the demo in our hotel rooms – me singing the lyrics and the melodies to Floor [Jansen, singer], she's recording them and then she's seeing them and throwing ideas to each other.” He also added that he thought Nightwish was finished when bassist Marko Hietala left the band in January 2021, citing depression and disillusionment with the music industry. “That was devastating,” says Holopainen. “We knew about his problems, but it still was a huge shock to us all. For about 48 hours I was convinced that that was the end of the band. I remember calling Emppu [Vuorinen, guitar] like, ‘Can you believe what happened again?’ We laughed: ‘You think this is the end? Yeah.’ “Then some time passed, our management called me, saying 'think about it again, you have had 26 years of…quite the ride, you want it to end like that?' And I was like ‘That’s a really good point. If we go out, let’s go out and stylishly’. I mean, we have survived bad things in the past as well. So maybe we can survive this as well. “Then a few weeks later, things started to look a bit more bright. I felt, ‘Yeah, let's try it once more’, then Jukka [Koskinen, bass] came along. The stars have been out of line so many times, it's nice to have them aligned now." Nightwish singer Floor Jansen recently revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She subsequently underwent surgery and has since said she is now “cancer-free”.

Just a heads up, the release date for Floor's upcoming solo album 'Paragon' will be announced and the pre-orders will begin on December 12th. 👀

Full Milano show recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv9OuV1Ihb0

And here's the official video:

No changes to the setlist tonight in Italy, except that Sahara was played later during the show, after How's The Heart. Milano 2022-12-06: Noise Storytime Tribal Élan 7 Days to the Wolves Dark Chest of Wonders Harvest I Want My Tears Back Nemo How's the Heart? (acoustic) Sahara Shoemaker Last Ride of the Day Ghost Love Score The Greatest Show on Earth Ad Astra Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaX-JP-lohRXp-9mFE__mYl43qi6dRP_D Next up is Frankfurt in 3 days.

I don't know how these guys already have the audio, but there you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyAZi5hlT_8 🤘

Exciting news, Sahara is back in the setlist, replacing Sleeping Sun! Ok I know it's not Pan that some of us wished for, but still a song I like a lot and any variety is more than welcome! So we now have a second song from Dark Passion Play returning to the setlist (along with 7 Days To The Wolves), and with the departure of Sleeping Sun the oldest songs in the setlist now are from the Once album (!) -- unless She Is My Sin, Bless The Child or Ever Dream make a comeback. There are also rumours of 'Our Decades In The Sun' eventually being played live, which wouldn't be such a stretch since Floor sang it solo a lot, so let's see what happens next! Munich 2022-12-05: Noise Storytime Tribal Élan Sahara https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLePdiMd1Ak 7 Days to the Wolves Dark Chest of Wonders Harvest I Want My Tears Back Nemo How's the Heart? (acoustic) Shoemaker Last Ride of the Day Ghost Love Score The Greatest Show on Earth Ad Astra Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaX-JP-lohRUWP2FP7I5ladav9IE6hR1P Tomorrow Milano, then back to Germany! 😵 Who planned this tour anyway? 😆 It's not clear to me from the band's statement if the Asian shows are postponed to later in 2023, or to the next tour altogether? Also, will this also compromise Nightwish's presence at 70000 Tons Of Metal, at the end of January?

Show is over, same setlist. Vienna 2022-12-04: Noise Storytime Tribal Élan Sleeping Sun 7 Days to the Wolves Dark Chest of Wonders Harvest I Want My Tears Back Nemo How's the Heart? (acoustic) Shoemaker Last Ride of the Day Ghost Love Score The Greatest Show on Earth Ad Astra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeF70P-E_EA Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaX-JP-lohRV5-lWOU0eraO_-N5VmW8bO Tomorrow, back to Germany for a show in Munich.

That would be different, off the top of my head I can't remember of a live album featuring two bands? 🤔

I'm sure it's going to be great, by then there will be an album full of new songs instead of so many cover songs. But I'm sure she'll sing some old + Nightwish stuff as well. 👍

Another nice commentary: ShawkaReacts - GLS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0VVhpnZlT8

This is probably a good place to post this. Nightwish Reserve? 👀 An interview with Finnish metal band Nightwish, WLT’s newest Ambassadors 02/12/2022 https://www.worldlandtrust.org/news/2022/12/nightwish-interview-wlt-ambassadors/ We are delighted to announce that Nightwish are now official World Land Trust Ambassadors, joining fellow high-profile supporters like conservationist Lee Durrell, zoologist Mark Carwardine, and Emmy-nominated composer and singer-songwriter Sarah Class. Our relationship with Nightwish began in 2019, when we first talked about collaborating and lead singer Floor auctioned a personal portrait from artist Lucas van de Wakker to raise money for WLT. The Nightwish-WLT partnership became official in 2020, when their generous donation allowed WLT partner Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda (GESG) to establish a new protected area in Mexico’s Sierra Gorda region. This area, now officially known as the Nightwish Reserve, protects an important tract of temperate cloud forest home to threatened tree species like the Mexican White Cedar. The weasel-like Tayra is found here, as well as three wild cat species (Puma, Jaguar and Ocelot) and the Crested Guan (a Near Threatened bird). GESG hopes the Big-footed Salamander will one day become the reserve’s flagship species; this amphibian, once classified as Possibly Extinct, was rediscovered nearby in 2017. Nightwish announced their support for WLT and GESG with the music video for Ad Astra, the final track on their latest album, HUMAN. :||: NATURE. Described by Nightwish as a “love letter to planet Earth”, the album follows on from Endless Forms Most Beautiful, the band’s eighth release, which drew inspiration from evolution, science, and the works of Charles Darwin. Two years on from the release of HUMAN. :||: NATURE. and the creation of the Nightwish Reserve, WLT CEO Catherine Barnard met up with band members Tuomas Holopainen, Troy Donockley and Floor Jansen on the UK leg of their ongoing world tour. In the following conversation with Catherine, our new Ambassadors speak about why they support WLT, the influence of nature on their work, and how music can inspire us to protect the natural world. Why did you choose to support WLT? Tuomas: We found you initially through the work of [WLT Patron] David Attenborough. There’s a video of him talking about WLT, and immediately I felt that this is our thing – this is something we want to get into. Troy: We talked about it with the whole band and we were absolutely unanimous. Tuomas: There was also something special about this – I’ve been involved with charitable organisations for years and haven’t made my support public, but somehow this felt completely different. Floor: We want to raise awareness. We don’t need a medal for this – the reason we communicate our support is to inspire others and show that there are ways to make a difference. What I really like about WLT is the different approach: we’re not just going to “save the elephants”, we’re going to save their entire habitat, and also try to make sure the people living there are part of the project. Tuomas: We also see the results immediately, in a concrete way. We can see where the money goes and how it’s used to save habitats. Troy: Exactly. One of the major attractions about WLT is that it actually gets things done. Everything seems beautifully transparent to us. It really motivated us to get involved. How does your music play a role in making people care about the environment? Tuomas: Everybody is talking about saving the planet, but it’s really important to remind people why it is worth saving: the beauty and the love, and everything on this Planet Earth. When you think about it, us as artists, musicians, singers, we have the tools to bring that message, and especially with our last two albums, people have heard it. When they listen to a song like The Greatest Show on Earth, hopefully they will start to think that this is a pretty awesome place where we live, and what a privilege it is to be alive as a human being. Realise the beauty and do your part in making the world a better place, because there is hope for the future. Things are not as bad as they may seem, and there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic. How did your fans respond to The Greatest Show on Earth, a 24-minute track on Endless Forms Most Beautiful? Troy: I think they’d be disappointed if we didn’t address the theme at the scale that it needs. You couldn’t go from 3.7 billion years to the end of the solar system in three minutes, you really couldn’t. It’s a big subject but I think we managed to encapsulate it in those 24 minutes. Floor: For some people that was perhaps a whole new experience, while for others it was right up their alley. We’ve met so many people working in the natural world or the scientific world, who have had their minds blown by the lyrics, and how things came together. For others that perhaps are not as familiar with all this, it’s an opportunity for them to open their minds: they feel like a new world has opened, a new awareness, a love for the things we see every day and the wonders of the real world – not the fake world that we are trying to create all the time, whether that is in a fantasy or digital. We get reactions from all ages and nationalities. It has definitely inspired. Troy: It’s extraordinary the cultural barriers that have been crossed with this music. We get the most wonderful life-enhancing messages from fans telling us about the effect that the work has had on them. This is a huge privilege for us, because we aren’t preaching, we’re telling it like it is, the way we see it. In that respect, we’ve introduced the sciences to an audience that may not have been interested before. Tuomas: This happens all the time. Whenever we have signing sessions there are often young people there with copies of books like The Origin of Species that they want us to sign. We had Richard Dawkins appear on stage with us in 2015, and we told him we’ve probably signed more copies of his books than he has! How did you approach talking about science in your music? Tuomas: I truly think that if everyone understood the core of evolution, how it works, the world would become a much better place, because it’s such a beautiful process. This is what we’re trying to convey. Imagine that we all had a mother, who had a mother, who had a mother… all the way back through an unbroken chain of billions of years. For us to exist, that’s the only way it can possibly be. So just let that thought sink in and you will smile. What role does nature play in your songwriting and composing? Tuomas: It’s hard for me to think of an artist that doesn’t get inspired by nature. It’s the most inspiring thing there is. Floor: It’s not like you go for a walk in the woods, take a deep breath, and a melody comes to you. It’s everywhere all the time. If you are open to it, it soaks back into you. We are part of nature after all, even when we put ourselves in concrete cities and deprive ourselves of the joys of the wilderness. Nature is still there, it finds its way, even in cities where there will be a tiny seed that manages to grow. If you open yourself to it, it is a constant source of inspiration and also happiness, which feeds into the creativity. Is there anything you’d like to say to your supporters that may inspire them to leave a legacy for the Earth? Tuomas: Education is everything. Troy: Absolutely. Read, read and read. Read as much as you possibly can. Get outside as much as you can. Turn off your screens, look at the night sky, wander around in a forest, just do all the lovely things that can take you out of the darkness that a lot of people live in, battered by social conditioning. There’s so much beauty in the world, so much power, so much to be grateful for. Floor: The pandemic maybe brought new perspectives and slowed people down, forcing them to live at a slower tempo, which actually gives you more time to become creative again. Boredom can lead to creativity because there is new space in your head. Nature provides that too – to slow down in nature is a great way to reset yourself. Get outside, slow down and allow things to be, and refocus on the things that actually matter.

First time I notice the on-screen special FX on Floor during 7 Days... She looks like she's on fire! 🔥 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzbkGDobb5I

Setlist is up: Esch-sur-Alzette 2022-12-02: Noise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcHfnE-ypWc Storytime Tribal Élan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83Wu1i1ZU2I Sleeping Sun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsJM8m7S83w 7 Days to the Wolves Dark Chest of Wonders Harvest I Want My Tears Back Nemo How's the Heart? (acoustic) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52BSGGiyazI Shoemaker Last Ride of the Day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YUxIZ1xtRk Ghost Love Score The Greatest Show on Earth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPJzNIxi_uw (partial) Ad Astra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG5FerenckQ Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaX-JP-lohRUHd3QdZK0tg1PJc6cSK_jH No videos from Luxembourg on YouTube as yet. Next stop Vienna after a day rest.

Marko posted for the first time in almost 2 years on his Facebook page, along with photos with his dog. It's actually his first post since the NW resignation letter. https://www.facebook.com/markohietalaofficial/posts/pfbid0t3Jq2grUaPNigv4sYYsMbR2wL4Rf5JsHYbvjJfwrH7LtEQvThSV6WouYiKdqpvUjl

Two recent interviews with Tarja, promoting the best-of release. Paltrocast - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-0rtZsVmaA&t=10s Chaoszine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o49r2Nyba3o She does mention a possible US tour next year.

Royal Park Live confirmed, July 6th, Anneke van Giersbergen supporting.

I voted! ✅ I'm not sure what they will think of an email address ending in .ca though! 😁

By the looks of it, Düsseldorf got the same setlist as Paris. The German lessons from Sing Meinen Song didn't go to waste! Düsseldorf 2022-12-01: Noise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLPbtFF4msg Storytime https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Nujp5LztkI Tribal Élan Sleeping Sun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaO1Ds8zaLE 7 Days to the Wolves https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzbkGDobb5I Dark Chest of Wonders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USjLFPNWOxk Harvest I Want My Tears Back Nemo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrHDcA-LQgk How's the Heart? (acoustic) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntNCcYYWBfk Shoemaker Last Ride of the Day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fqvT3Tyy1Q Ghost Love Score https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMBJTQQlxZk The Greatest Show on Earth Ad Astra Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaX-JP-lohRVTPY3w2C-K4BM5BVIi63IF No time to rest, tomorrow night Luxembourg!

It will probably be something boring like "Human Nature - Live in Amsterdam"... 🙄😋 But I have more ideas: "Another Evening With Nightwish, Live Show from the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam 2022" (going for a longer title than "Virtual Live Show From The Islanders Arms 2021") "Windmilling in Amsterdam" "Wooden Shoemaker Live" "While Your Tu-Lips Are Still Red" "Live with The Flying Dutchwoman (and her band)" "Made in Amsterdam (and no other place)" I'm showing myself out now.