Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
Today we took the train to Uppsala to meet Niklas, who saw his first concert at the Globe arena, June 17th 1992. The weather was lovely, spring is in the air and the sun was warm.
Niklas told us about the adrenaline kick when the gates open and you rush to get a good spot as close to the stage as possible. "I want to be in the front row to feel the fellowship of the other fans. Those in front are the most dedicated, those who have spent a lot of time in line to get there. I want to share my experience of the concert with the same people I've been talking to outside the arena. Of course it's fun to get eye contact with Bruce or the band, but being there with other fans is more important to me."
Niklas is the man behind the swedish fanforum Springsteen.se that started in June 2003. Niklas was lucky to register the domain and then he started developing the site. He knew he wanted to make a site where people could talk about Springsteen. Prior to Springsteen.se there had only been a few mailinglists in swedish and Niklas wanted to make an alternative to the english fanforums.
Today the site have about 600 members aged from 12 years up to almost 70. "First we got a lot of people from the mailinglist Born to Run, but now we have a lot of young people who register. Those who are most active are in their twenties or early thirties", Niklas said.
There are a lot of work with the site, but Niklas has help from a couple of moderators. And he is planning on developing the site so people could add more to their personal profiles. Even though the discussions are not so intense when Bruce is not on tour, Niklas think the forum will live on. And as soon Springsteen and the E Streeters will go on tour again he thinks that will add new members to the forum.
We thank Niklas for the interview. We will now take a break until April 24th when we will go to Jönköping to film the performance of Hungry Heart - a tribute to the music of Bruce Springsteen. We will join a lot of fans from Springsteen.se for a night with good music. Then we will go back to Stockholm for the last interviews before we start the editing of our documentary.
First we aim to produce a 10-minute showtrailer that will help us promote our idea for SVT, the swedish national television, and we hope they will buy our film.
Niklas told us about the adrenaline kick when the gates open and you rush to get a good spot as close to the stage as possible. "I want to be in the front row to feel the fellowship of the other fans. Those in front are the most dedicated, those who have spent a lot of time in line to get there. I want to share my experience of the concert with the same people I've been talking to outside the arena. Of course it's fun to get eye contact with Bruce or the band, but being there with other fans is more important to me."
Niklas is the man behind the swedish fanforum Springsteen.se that started in June 2003. Niklas was lucky to register the domain and then he started developing the site. He knew he wanted to make a site where people could talk about Springsteen. Prior to Springsteen.se there had only been a few mailinglists in swedish and Niklas wanted to make an alternative to the english fanforums.
Today the site have about 600 members aged from 12 years up to almost 70. "First we got a lot of people from the mailinglist Born to Run, but now we have a lot of young people who register. Those who are most active are in their twenties or early thirties", Niklas said.
There are a lot of work with the site, but Niklas has help from a couple of moderators. And he is planning on developing the site so people could add more to their personal profiles. Even though the discussions are not so intense when Bruce is not on tour, Niklas think the forum will live on. And as soon Springsteen and the E Streeters will go on tour again he thinks that will add new members to the forum.
We thank Niklas for the interview. We will now take a break until April 24th when we will go to Jönköping to film the performance of Hungry Heart - a tribute to the music of Bruce Springsteen. We will join a lot of fans from Springsteen.se for a night with good music. Then we will go back to Stockholm for the last interviews before we start the editing of our documentary.
First we aim to produce a 10-minute showtrailer that will help us promote our idea for SVT, the swedish national television, and we hope they will buy our film.
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
A good man is (not so) hard to find
Today we have met Daniel and Staffan who saw their first Springsteen concert at Konserthuset, Stockholm, November 21st 1975.
They had both listened to Springsteen's first albums, but still the show was a complete shock to them. "It was great to hear the songs live, but we never expected the band to be so tight. They could start with those partysongs, then Bruce came out for a solo piano performance and then suddenly they could play covers like the Detroit medley. We'd never seen anything like it before", Staffan said.
Konserthuset, Stockholm.
Daniel has a special memory of the concert. He didn't get a ticket to the show, and buying one from the scalpers was too expensive. But he managed to sneak in, thanks to a friend standing in the door. As Daniel was waiting for the show to begin he got to hear the soundcheck and he saw Bruce walking around checking that all was OK. But nobody in the band saw him where he was sitting.
"My expectations were huge before the show, and seeing the soundcheck without being noticed just enhanced them", he said.
Staffan and Daniel also saw the show at Hovet in 1981. Their experience was that much of the spontaneity, the intimacy and the power of Bruce's monologues were lost because of the bigger arena. "It was more of a staged performance, you knew that the monologues were rehearsed. In '75 we still had the feeling that it all happened spontaniously", Staffan said.
"It was difficult to go home after the show in '75. At first the audience had been a bit quiet, sitting down and listening. By the end of the show everyone was standing and cheering, filled with euphoria. Afterwards we were telling eachother how good it had been and then we just drifted off home", Daniel remembered.
Daniel who is a celloplayer with the philaharmonic and work at Konserthuset, was very impressed by Bruce's ability to lead the band. "It was fascinating to see how everything went through him, everybody else in the band was always looking at him to see what would happen next. He's controlling everything, almost like a conductor."
Staffan also told us about a private meeting with Bruce. "I shook hands with him during the dinner at Grand Hotel in 1997 when he got the Polar Prize. We didn't talk much but it was great to hear him perform some acoustic songs that night." Springsteen shared the prize with famous choire conductor Eric Ericson, Staffans father.
We thank Staffan and Daniel for sharing their great stories with us in the beautiful setting of Konserthuset. Our next interview is tomorrow.
They had both listened to Springsteen's first albums, but still the show was a complete shock to them. "It was great to hear the songs live, but we never expected the band to be so tight. They could start with those partysongs, then Bruce came out for a solo piano performance and then suddenly they could play covers like the Detroit medley. We'd never seen anything like it before", Staffan said.
Konserthuset, Stockholm.
Daniel has a special memory of the concert. He didn't get a ticket to the show, and buying one from the scalpers was too expensive. But he managed to sneak in, thanks to a friend standing in the door. As Daniel was waiting for the show to begin he got to hear the soundcheck and he saw Bruce walking around checking that all was OK. But nobody in the band saw him where he was sitting.
"My expectations were huge before the show, and seeing the soundcheck without being noticed just enhanced them", he said.
Staffan and Daniel also saw the show at Hovet in 1981. Their experience was that much of the spontaneity, the intimacy and the power of Bruce's monologues were lost because of the bigger arena. "It was more of a staged performance, you knew that the monologues were rehearsed. In '75 we still had the feeling that it all happened spontaniously", Staffan said.
"It was difficult to go home after the show in '75. At first the audience had been a bit quiet, sitting down and listening. By the end of the show everyone was standing and cheering, filled with euphoria. Afterwards we were telling eachother how good it had been and then we just drifted off home", Daniel remembered.
Daniel who is a celloplayer with the philaharmonic and work at Konserthuset, was very impressed by Bruce's ability to lead the band. "It was fascinating to see how everything went through him, everybody else in the band was always looking at him to see what would happen next. He's controlling everything, almost like a conductor."
Staffan also told us about a private meeting with Bruce. "I shook hands with him during the dinner at Grand Hotel in 1997 when he got the Polar Prize. We didn't talk much but it was great to hear him perform some acoustic songs that night." Springsteen shared the prize with famous choire conductor Eric Ericson, Staffans father.
We thank Staffan and Daniel for sharing their great stories with us in the beautiful setting of Konserthuset. Our next interview is tomorrow.
