Since I started the recording of FuturePast, I'm afraid I belong to the above mentioned cathegory myself. Usually I have no problem to estimate time. I'm never late, I never miss a train, a buss or a flight. As I just said, I have no problem to estimate how much time I need for this or that (at least that's what I think myself, with FuturePast as the exception from the rule). Anyway, what's the reason for this? Was I born like this? Was I brought up and taught to be like this? I really don't know and I really don't know if I should write about this either but Roine is a cool guy so I bet he can take it, in fact extremely cool. I've never seen the guy stressed. A "time optimist" is a woman or a man that believes it takes for instance 10 minutes to do a certain thing, while it actually takes 25 minutes to do it. If it happens once in 3 years, I don't consider that person to be a time optimist. If it happens all the time, maybe even so much that it's a part of your personality, you definitely belong to the "time optimists". Roine started to work as a "full time" musician even before he finished school and as far as I know, he's never had a "regular" job. I guess you can say he's been his own boss for all his life. He's very well organized and he has good control of everything except for one tiny little detail, time (and maybe distances). I honestly believe and I'm pretty sure Roine does too, that after a 4 hour! soundcheck, in Roines world the actual time might be something like 90 minutes. During TFK rehearsals, I always catch up Tomas on my way to the studio. If we're supposed to start at 10 o clock in the morning, we're always there just before the clock strikes 10, even though we have by far the longest way to drive. Normally Roine (who has the key) and sometimes even the rest of the guys shows up maybe 10-30 minutes later. Once again, I truly believe he thinks he's on time and he probably wonders why we're all so early?
I just mentioned Tomas. If Roine is a "time optimist" then Tomas has to be the perfect "time pessimist". He's the total opposite, he always thinks that he will be late or miss all the fun. He's always the first to board the plane, the first to notice if there's no towels backstage and very often he wants to start the gig before gig time as well. Maybe it has something to do with the name, since Thomas Thomsson is just like Tomas Bodin. It's very important for him to be on time, so you can say that he lives his whole life 10 minutes pre-real time, since he always shows up 10 minutes before we decided to meet. If there's such a thing as the king of the "time pessimists", my good friend Göran is definitely the guy. He's so afraid of being late, that he has set his clock 10 minutes before the actual time. That's not easy to beat!?
Now that we have the king of the "time pessimists", you may wonder who has the crown of the "time optimists? After some thinking, I decided to declare the former guitar/keyboard player in the swedish coverband "Highway Stars" Janne Hellman (yes, the name is for real and it's a bloody cool !), to be the king of the kings. I think it was in 1990, we did 3 to 4 gigs every week during the winter, in the summer I guess we did 4 to maybe 6 gigs almost every week. Thinking back at it now, maybe Janne was sick or something, I don't know? I guess he slept for 15-18 hours everyday, while we were on the road. During the hours he was awake, he was very energetic and funny. His biggest moment, or his moment of glory that actually made him win this prize, took place in Borås, a city approximately 60 km:s east of Gothenburgh. We played at the Plaza Hotel, a pretty big and nice hotel with a nightclub on the ground floor. The conditions couldn't be better. The hotel rooms and the food was great. The stage, the sound and the lights were killer and that was not all. On the top floor they had a spectacular looking spa, with different types of saunas and in the middle of the room on an "etage" (placed higher), they had a giant jacuzzi with big panorama windows all around, with the view of the city centre. After the dinner we booked the spa between 21.30 - 24.00, when the show started. Before we went there we decided we should meet in the dressing room 10 minutes pre-show with the "stage gear" on, dressed and ready to rock! I guess we spent around 2 hours at the spa just like God created us, preparing for the gig with some Gin and Tonics, sauna, jacuzzi and lots of laughs. Everyone was there except for Janne, as he felt a little bit tired. 10 minutes before we were supposed to enter the stage, everyone was in the dressing room except for you know who? The nightclub was full and we were ready to go but still no Janne. 3 minutes before the show should start, I said to the guys I'm gonna go and get him. As this was before the cell phone era, I took the elevator met some "ordinary" people along the way who watched me with big eyes, as I was running with my high heeled shoes, my red headed wig and my green and golden costume and my "mantel" on. After I've been knocking at his hotel room door for maybe 2-3 minutes, he finally opened. His eyes were hardly open and he almost looked like a pillow himself. You better hurry up now gentleman, we're supposed to hit the stage in about 1 minute. I guess 5 minutes later we stood on stage. At least Janne had his costume on but he had no shoes, no underwear and his wig was put on the wrong way around. Yet another successful gig was in the making at the same time as the king of the "time optimists" was born!
I just mentioned Tomas. If Roine is a "time optimist" then Tomas has to be the perfect "time pessimist". He's the total opposite, he always thinks that he will be late or miss all the fun. He's always the first to board the plane, the first to notice if there's no towels backstage and very often he wants to start the gig before gig time as well. Maybe it has something to do with the name, since Thomas Thomsson is just like Tomas Bodin. It's very important for him to be on time, so you can say that he lives his whole life 10 minutes pre-real time, since he always shows up 10 minutes before we decided to meet. If there's such a thing as the king of the "time pessimists", my good friend Göran is definitely the guy. He's so afraid of being late, that he has set his clock 10 minutes before the actual time. That's not easy to beat!?
Now that we have the king of the "time pessimists", you may wonder who has the crown of the "time optimists? After some thinking, I decided to declare the former guitar/keyboard player in the swedish coverband "Highway Stars" Janne Hellman (yes, the name is for real and it's a bloody cool !), to be the king of the kings. I think it was in 1990, we did 3 to 4 gigs every week during the winter, in the summer I guess we did 4 to maybe 6 gigs almost every week. Thinking back at it now, maybe Janne was sick or something, I don't know? I guess he slept for 15-18 hours everyday, while we were on the road. During the hours he was awake, he was very energetic and funny. His biggest moment, or his moment of glory that actually made him win this prize, took place in Borås, a city approximately 60 km:s east of Gothenburgh. We played at the Plaza Hotel, a pretty big and nice hotel with a nightclub on the ground floor. The conditions couldn't be better. The hotel rooms and the food was great. The stage, the sound and the lights were killer and that was not all. On the top floor they had a spectacular looking spa, with different types of saunas and in the middle of the room on an "etage" (placed higher), they had a giant jacuzzi with big panorama windows all around, with the view of the city centre. After the dinner we booked the spa between 21.30 - 24.00, when the show started. Before we went there we decided we should meet in the dressing room 10 minutes pre-show with the "stage gear" on, dressed and ready to rock! I guess we spent around 2 hours at the spa just like God created us, preparing for the gig with some Gin and Tonics, sauna, jacuzzi and lots of laughs. Everyone was there except for Janne, as he felt a little bit tired. 10 minutes before we were supposed to enter the stage, everyone was in the dressing room except for you know who? The nightclub was full and we were ready to go but still no Janne. 3 minutes before the show should start, I said to the guys I'm gonna go and get him. As this was before the cell phone era, I took the elevator met some "ordinary" people along the way who watched me with big eyes, as I was running with my high heeled shoes, my red headed wig and my green and golden costume and my "mantel" on. After I've been knocking at his hotel room door for maybe 2-3 minutes, he finally opened. His eyes were hardly open and he almost looked like a pillow himself. You better hurry up now gentleman, we're supposed to hit the stage in about 1 minute. I guess 5 minutes later we stood on stage. At least Janne had his costume on but he had no shoes, no underwear and his wig was put on the wrong way around. Yet another successful gig was in the making at the same time as the king of the "time optimists" was born!