I realized this last week, when i saw that SLOTIX withdraw the announcement of Rolling Stones packages for Tokyio. Quite sad.
This was one of the reasons and due to my very limited knowledge of Japanese we deciced to make a tour downunder.
To bad for the ones who want to go. I hope they will be other Solutions than only secondary markets. Best luck to all who wanna travel to Japan

Good to hear, Bjornulf, glad you are taking care of yourself and have made a space for the tour, and training!


If you ever need help from afar, about, say, something here, please let us know.

~"Love is Strong"~

There is no Visa needed for Macau, only for Shanghai.

Four weeks until tour start. It is all sorted out. Most projects handed over to collegues and family. All visa, medicals and other stuff ok. Just as I though I was all set I hear there have been talks about Jakarta Indonesia as an alternative to Singapore. It might be a long shot from someone who lost out on the bid, or a real one last minute, like Washington. That is the fun bit, you need to be aware of everything at all times, nothing is sealed until the band is on stage. Working to fix my ring tone on the phone. It must be fixed before the tour. A tough one. And tomorrow I will be here...



Bjornulf

Nice backyard Bjornulf

-------------------
Keep On Rolling

What a joke. I moved to SE Asia after the Stones gig at the O2 in 2012 - now flying back home to Europe on March 13th, just days before the planned Singapore or Jakarta gigs

From now on it is exactly DAYS 25, HOURS 2 ,MINS 19 ,SEC 30


Rolling Stones 14 on Fire event countdown:

[www.thinkflash.ae]

Quote
bv
Today it is 37 days until the official tour start in Abu Dhabi. Five weeks and two days. I am ready! Organized the following today:

- Flight tickets (38,000 miles, 75 hours net flying, several 6-12 h flights)
- China VISA

And I am back on track to get fit for the tour, biking in zone red 10 minutes x 3 these past three days. I tend to overdo it, but weeks of rest are giving a great energy boost. Dangerous. The plan was 2+2 hours walking per day, to and from work, for the next four weeks, but then we got snow last week, so now I am between no-snow and real snow activities. It is paying off great to be fit for a tour. Standing, walking, waiting, moving around, for hours, before, during and after shows, changing city every 3-4 days, then it is great to have lots of energy left when the encore is on at 11pm or so show day.

Singapore and Shanghai? They will sell out in 1-2 hours, so no worries about these. Just have to count on the fact that they are on the schedule, but tour logistics may change them ot halt the announcement for still a whiole. You just need a VISA permit handy, it is too late to apply when you are on tour.

Usually we have snow in November, and it stays. By January we have 2-3 feet. Now we get an inch or two every day, so I hope I can start cross country skiing Saturday or Sunday. Then it is just in time for the tour. Three weeks of skiing is much more fun than biking in a fitness room with other maniacs!

Family, friends and customers have been prepared for the fact that I will be away for two months. THey all say have a nice trip. I am relaxed. And ready. This will be a great tour. Lots of travel, but every show will be unique, and I hope to be able to write some reports from the far east and down under...

Singapore and Shanghai? They will sell out in 1-2 hours, so no worries about these.

Just about right...

Quote
frenki09

Quote
bv
Today it is 37 days until the official tour start in Abu Dhabi. Five weeks and two days. I am ready! Organized the following today:

- Flight tickets (38,000 miles, 75 hours net flying, several 6-12 h flights)
- China VISA

And I am back on track to get fit for the tour, biking in zone red 10 minutes x 3 these past three days. I tend to overdo it, but weeks of rest are giving a great energy boost. Dangerous. The plan was 2+2 hours walking per day, to and from work, for the next four weeks, but then we got snow last week, so now I am between no-snow and real snow activities. It is paying off great to be fit for a tour. Standing, walking, waiting, moving around, for hours, before, during and after shows, changing city every 3-4 days, then it is great to have lots of energy left when the encore is on at 11pm or so show day.

Singapore and Shanghai? They will sell out in 1-2 hours, so no worries about these. Just have to count on the fact that they are on the schedule, but tour logistics may change them ot halt the announcement for still a whiole. You just need a VISA permit handy, it is too late to apply when you are on tour.

Usually we have snow in November, and it stays. By January we have 2-3 feet. Now we get an inch or two every day, so I hope I can start cross country skiing Saturday or Sunday. Then it is just in time for the tour. Three weeks of skiing is much more fun than biking in a fitness room with other maniacs!

Family, friends and customers have been prepared for the fact that I will be away for two months. THey all say have a nice trip. I am relaxed. And ready. This will be a great tour. Lots of travel, but every show will be unique, and I hope to be able to write some reports from the far east and down under...

Singapore and Shanghai? They will sell out in 1-2 hours, so no worries about these.

Just about right...

Shanghai sell out in 1-2 hours ? Yeah RIGHT !! 1-2 decades more like, unless they readjust their insane ticket prices. I suspect the Stones will be playing to about 6 people in the pit and otherwise - a bunch of other people in the cheapest seats at the opposite end of the arena. Don't know what they're going to do with the middle bit, maybe have a basketball game running concurrently ?

[ I want to shout, but I can hardly speak ]

I would not worry too much about sell-out or not. When San Francisco 2 shows sold slowly they added Metallica as warmup and it was win-win. I don't know about the exact Shanghai sales, but I am sure they will sort it out. Or it will be moved to a club of 600 people. Either way no worries.

Bjornulf

Quote
paulywaul

Quote
frenki09

Quote
bv
Today it is 37 days until the official tour start in Abu Dhabi. Five weeks and two days. I am ready! Organized the following today:

- Flight tickets (38,000 miles, 75 hours net flying, several 6-12 h flights)
- China VISA

And I am back on track to get fit for the tour, biking in zone red 10 minutes x 3 these past three days. I tend to overdo it, but weeks of rest are giving a great energy boost. Dangerous. The plan was 2+2 hours walking per day, to and from work, for the next four weeks, but then we got snow last week, so now I am between no-snow and real snow activities. It is paying off great to be fit for a tour. Standing, walking, waiting, moving around, for hours, before, during and after shows, changing city every 3-4 days, then it is great to have lots of energy left when the encore is on at 11pm or so show day.

Singapore and Shanghai? They will sell out in 1-2 hours, so no worries about these. Just have to count on the fact that they are on the schedule, but tour logistics may change them ot halt the announcement for still a whiole. You just need a VISA permit handy, it is too late to apply when you are on tour.

Usually we have snow in November, and it stays. By January we have 2-3 feet. Now we get an inch or two every day, so I hope I can start cross country skiing Saturday or Sunday. Then it is just in time for the tour. Three weeks of skiing is much more fun than biking in a fitness room with other maniacs!

Family, friends and customers have been prepared for the fact that I will be away for two months. THey all say have a nice trip. I am relaxed. And ready. This will be a great tour. Lots of travel, but every show will be unique, and I hope to be able to write some reports from the far east and down under...

Singapore and Shanghai? They will sell out in 1-2 hours, so no worries about these.

Just about right...

Shanghai sell out in 1-2 hours ? Yeah RIGHT !! 1-2 decades more like, unless they readjust their insane ticket prices. I suspect the Stones will be playing to about 6 people in the pit and otherwise - a bunch of other people in the cheapest seats at the opposite end of the arena. Don't know what they're going to do with the middle bit, maybe have a basketball game running concurrently ?

they "sell out" because the scalpers buy them all up and think they can sell them off for ridiculous prices !
a "sell out" does not mean every seat is taken !
but you're right...Shanghai would normally take 1-2 decades for Stones fans in that city to buy those tickets and actually attend the show.

Quote
bv
I would not worry too much about sell-out or not. When San Francisco 2 shows sold slowly they added Metallica as warmup and it was win-win. I don't know about the exact Shanghai sales, but I am sure they will sort it out. Or it will be moved to a club of 600 people. Either way no worries.

Worried I'm not, rather more mildly amused (or should I say bemused actually) .... and as you say, maybe it'll all end with a nice cozy cuddly show for just 600 people or so in a club ? What will be will be ......... have ticket, have flight, have hotel, have visa, the rest is up to them !

[ I want to shout, but I can hardly speak ]

Getting into tour mode again ~ packing! See you out there #stonesonfire

- Ronnie Wood, 3:02 AM - 30 Jan 2014, Twitter

[twitter.com]

Seems that there'll be some activities soon...

There has been some long days in Paris. The Rolling Stones were expected late January but they did not show up until today Monday Feb. 3. As of today it is exactly eighteen - 18 - days until the tour start in Abu Dhabi. I have been on tour mode for more than a weeek now, and it is great to see the band with big smiles and such a great mood. Also to say hello to old French friends from the previous Paris travels. Eighteen days - they will fly fast!

Bjornulf

The countdown for this tour was over for me by Monday January 27. I was on a plane to Paris and I was prepared to follow the rehearsals for 3-4 weeks. May be 1-2 days home in-between, then I would go to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the rest of the tour for two months.

The first week we did not see the Stones, but we did see the preparations. By the next Monday they were rehearsing for the first time, and then we had two weeeks of great rehearsals. The weather was not the best, with rain and wind, +3 C usually, felt like -10 C for me. I brought my thick white winter jacket on my last trip back home, it helped a bit on the rain and cold. Half an hour walk to a nearby hotel, working from my PC, 8 hours per day with walking and rehearsals, then work and sleeping. It was an easy life but also lonely, except it was great to meet up with all the French fans while theey were rehearsing.

I knew the overlap between the end of the rehearals and the trip down to the tour start would be difficult. With two short week-end trips back home from Paris, I have been stretching it is long as I could. I have an unwritten agreement that tour is tour, I will be gone then, as long as it takes, but rehearsals are bonus, if I can do them. So I had decided Friday Feb 14 was my return to home date, regardless of what happened. That was the only way I could have three small days at home before I head south east to the Emirates just over the weeek-end.

While I was on my flight back home to Norway, they handed out the access number to the final rehearsals gig to 27 numbered fans. I would have been number 5 or so if I had stayed, as I was always one of the first out there, but I had decided not to worry about anything that happened on the last day. No regrets. I am so glad many of the friends I met in Paris made it into the rehersals gig, but I am also sad because many came just minutes to late. It has always been hard to be a Stones fan when these special events happpen.

Now I enjoy normal life back home with family, 10-20 cm of snow per day and just relaxing, finishing the rehearsals lists and so on, and then, just over the week-end, it is Dubai and then Abu Dhabi next...

Bjornulf

Have a good and safe journey Bjornulf, and enjoy your time with wife and family.
Looking forward to your reviews and stories on the road.

Jeroen

So excited!!!

bv, you did and still do great work and I really hope you enjoy the shows in Far East, Europe and wherever they go later this year.

Inspired from atsu's Japan Tour Page, I've made a Schedule for the Asia-Pacific Tour:



To calculate your local time when the concert starts, you can use the Time Zone Converter. Example for the Tour start in Abu Dhabi:

Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates - Abu Dhabi) Friday, 21 February 2014, 20:30:00 GST UTC+4 hours
London (United Kingdom - England) Friday, 21 February 2014, 16:30:00 GMT UTC
New York (U.S.A. - New York) Friday, 21 February 2014, 11:30:00 EST UTC-5 hours
Los Angeles (U.S.A. - California) Friday, 21 February 2014, 08:30:00 PST UTC-8 hours



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2015-04-16 12:10 by Irix.

Five weeks on the road. I prepared for everything but the jetlag. Going East is really a nightmare. Tonight was the first night I have slept normal in fact nine hours at NIGHT. It was a miracle and I am now fully adjusted to Japanese time. But it took almost two weeks.

First three weeks in Paris. I do really miss all the friends I made in Paris. And I miss the little hotel room and the next door Buffalo Grill where I got my 10 euro meal after every rehearsal. And a 1664 beer.

Then tree short days back home, priceless and these three days keep me going when I miss the family. To wake up with a bunch of grandchildren rushing into your bed at 7am - nothing is beating it really.

Then Frankfurt - Dubai - Abu Dhabi - the temperature so different, finally we get to see and hear the band and the show. Meeting up with a bunch of friends flying in from all over into Abu Dhabi. Great.

Then next day flying into Bangkok 5+ hours, stopover one day, how weired I get to choose a hotel right in the middle of all the protests. I was virtually the only guest as the area was blocked with barriers. I asked the reception what was going on, he said they had been sleeping in the streets and protesting for three months. Well it was +34 C sunshine weather and Singha beer and I even got one and a half hour of thai massage for my body which has been on overdrive lately, so I left Bangkok with muscles in better shape than before I arrived.

Then 5+ more hours flight into Tokyo. To save money I stay in Narita. It is less than half price vs the big city, and it is countryside. I walk with rivers and bamboo forests and orange trees. I wake up in a hotel room in the morning, I think I am in France, because that is where I spent most of my time lately, then I realize people speak Japanese and not French, so I am in Japan of course. It happens on every tour. You change cities faster than your mind adapt and you wake up in travel land a.k.a. Stonesland.

I spend my 8 hours on the PC every day trying to handle my customers with my real business work but the jetlag going east has simply beeen killing me. I try to sort out the European Tour schedule but again the jetlag is killing me. I keep away from the bed because I do know I simply have to kill this jetlag and one day I will sleep all night.

Wednesday Feb 26 going into Tokyo and what a show. Getting to meet Ken whom I met first time on my way to Zeltweg Austria in 1995, then we were tour pals during 1995. After that we lost contact but 19 years later we are meeting up in his own town. That is rock'n roll. Also meeting up with many other Japanese friends in Tokyo. The show? Best in many years. Thank you Mick. Thank you Keith. Thank you Tokyo. You are the best.

Back to Narita. I had a "bad" hotel bed one night in Tokyo after show day but I was so high on the show I had to go back to my Narita hotel and write about the show and sort out my photos right away. Show finish by 9:06pm I thought there would be trains or something. But no... It cost me a fortune by taxi but it was all worth it. I stayed up until 4am writing my report, checking my photos, emptying the minibar of Asahi, and whatever I could eat. I was fine on my "home ground". And I am still here.

The rest of the week. Fighting off the jetlag. Running the threadmill. Biking 4x4 red zone and walking 4 hours to the Shinshoji Temple and back and all over the area. Countryside Narita. I like it. And the Japanese food. And the local "joint" I just found out was a nice little restaurant and not one of the 59 car parks in the area. I love the place and I just hate it when I know I have to move into the big city next week.

Some pictures from Narita, what I eat, where I go, and of course the favorite joint...









Bjornulf

Thank you for posting (and letting some of us live vicariously through) your words and pictures.

Thanks for your update, and all the news. Keep enjoying Life, and thanks for the European Tour news.
Jeroen

TOKYO-1 souvenirs. I travel light.



Bjornulf

My last update here was 20 days ago. I planned to do updates every week or so, but the tour did just absorbe me into a mix of shows, travel and meeting up with friends. This is in retro the short version. I will try to add a few pictures later, as I have many, also off-stage.

TOKYO:
We moved into the city for the Tokyo-2 and Tokyo-3 shows. Walking by outside Tokyo Dome to listen to the soundcheck early afternoon, hanging around, meeting friends, having sushi, Sapporo beer on draft at our favorite 5th floor special place, then the shows, such a great crowd, and such great shows. Three full houses in Tokyo. But then it was time to move on. Macau China was next.

MACAU:
Flew into Hong Kong, ferry to Macau, crazy city a la Las Vegas but the show was great and the crowd was great. The reports are telling all the stories. By now I am getting behind on the workload. One day travel and two days in each city, every 3rd day, eating up any spare time. The Macau reports will be uploaded soon...

SHANGHAI:
Big city, great venue, but I had mixed feelings because my last Shanghai visit with the Stones in the spring of 2006 was a strange experience. But then it turned out that the three days in Shanghai was the three best days of the entire tour for me. I just loved Shanghai, and the show and the crowd in Shanghai is still my favorite of the 7 shows of the tour.

SINGAPORE:
Again a day of travel i.e. 5 hours in and out of airports and 5 hours flying, great weather and unique place they will be performing at. Last time they performed in Singapore it was SARS and the circumstances were bad. Now it was all very relaxed. Another great show, a small and nice ballroom, nothing like Shanghai but a great place still.

PERTH:

Arriving at 1am Monday morning, looking forward to a full night of sleep soon, as all the travel takes too much energy. Sleeping well Monday morning and having such a great day in Perth, hired a bike and did a long nice ride that day.

Tuesday morning March 18, I have slept the full night, nine hours, unbelievable, heading for breakfast at 9am, just checking for messages. My mobile is family only, never any messages there, but this morning there are three. Alarming. The first one from my wife, then two more. I read them and I freeze. It is about L'Wren Scott and I just don't understand. Breakfast must wait. I read my e-mail and there is many, many. The situation is staring to get into me. I feel bad, real bad. I must make a statement and I must sort out all posts and duplicates. In-between there are messages about shows in Europe. many rumours, I neeed to clean up all the wrong messages. Late breakfast.

I go over to the Stones hotel, where I have friends living. We just talk and we are all sad. Then back to my hotel and the PC for updates. I do tree trips over to the hotel, the last one past midnight. It is good to meet friends because you feel so lonely and sad when these things happen. I feel so sad and I am worried about Mick. The show tomorrow in Perth is not important anymore, it is postponed but that is not important. Mick and the band is important now.

Waking up Wednesday morning. Tour postponed. Changing flights. I must go home, the tour is over. I get a flight out of Perth in the afternoon. It will take me to Auckland. Then I am connecting to my original ticket just changing dates, off to San Francisco, Copenhagen and Oslo. It is 7 + 12 + 12 + 1 hours flying over 2 1/2 days, just arriving at home Friday afternoon. The flights are a mix of sleeping, being sad and watching movies. I try to think about those 7 great shows we got on the tour, but the whole sad situation is there all the time.

Thanks to everyone I met during the 14 ON FIRE travels, and sorry to all those I wanted to meet but did not make it because of the work schedule and the cancellations. Mick be strong. I see a lot of energy on stage. Positive energy. I hope this energy is there now.

Bjornulf

Thank you for your latest update bv. Thanks for maintaining the site, even under these difficult times. Very much appreciated!

thanks for all, nothing to add....

Wow, what a great story. Love what you do, bv!
It is a sad situation to all of us stones fans now.
Hope Mick can recover from this shock until May 26.

I'd like to add my thanks at this point as well BV.

Two memories from the last show in Singapore:

Mick Jagger with Mick Taylor on Midnight Rambler



Mick Jagger at the very end of Tumbling Dice



I hope - and I do feel strongly - that these images are not the last ones with Mick on stage. Next time I hope Mick will be on stage at Telenor Arena in my home town Oslo, on May 26. I will be there and supply my share of the enegry needed for the show and for the band and for Mick.

Bjornulf



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-03-22 13:49 by bv.

Thanks for the update and pictures, and yeah, let's hope they're just the latest pics of Mick on stage...Knowing your dedication to the band it must have hit you especially hard, have a good rest and hope to see you soon in Paris! Take care, G.

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