To make a long story short, backstage in Tavastia, Helsinki, John Bush told me to get in touch before the next show, so that the band could send me passes, and I wouldn’t have problems getting in again. Didn’t know how to get in touch with the band, so I thought I’d post this here, and maybe the guys see it and keep their word.
And now for the long story. It’s the coolest thing that has ever happened to me, and I must have told this story more than 100 times since it happened. Here goes: this happened last week of January 1996, when my 18th birthday was just 1 week away.
Me, my pal who is half a year younger than me, and my big brother who’s 3 years older than me had bought tickets to Anthrax’s show in a club called Tavastia in Helsinki. This was sort of a given since I was a huge Anthrax fan already in those days. I spent all my money on Anthrax stuff and had 99 different vinyls in my collection (color vinyls, picture discs, Japanese albums, 10” singles, promos…
. Now we knew that Tavastia usually has an age limit of 18, but thought this somehow would not apply tonight since Anthrax was playing… but boy were we wrong. We stood in line with the others getting closer to the doors, and when we reached them a big fat bouncer of course asked us for ID. We told him we were just there to see Anthrax and were just 17. The big fat bouncer told us you have to be 18 to get in to Tavastia and asked us to step aside. My big bro tried the classic of “if they don’t get inside, then I won’t come either”, but of course the bfb (big fat… just laughed and said “see if I care…” and told us to step aside again. So we did. My bro said he didn’t want to go without us (he wasn’t a real fan like us) and sold his ticket to some guy outside the club. He asked us what we were gonna do, and we said we didn’t know, but that we were gonna hang around for some time and then come back to his flat which was nearby. He said OK, and left.
It didn’t take long and we were the only ones outside and we could hear Galactic Cowboys start to play inside, and were just starting to feel it was crazy to just stand there in –10 degrees Celsius Finnish winter. But then it happened, or started. We saw a bunch of guys coming walking towards the club with real winter coats and woollen caps down over their ears, but we still recognized them: Anthrax! First it was kind of a shock to see them unexpected like that, but I still walked up to them before they went inside. I told them who I was, and told them we couldn’t get in, and asked them if they could help in any way. Tour Manager Mike said (and the whole band agreed) “No problem, you just come with us, of course you’re gonna see the show”. We said “cool, thanks” and we walked through the door together with them. But who do you think was there, lurking inside, the same bfb! Who said “These guys can’t come in, they’re not old enough”, to which the band replied “no problem, they’re with us”. Bfb said “I can’t let them in, they sell liquor here, and it’s illegal to let underage people inside”. But to this Anthrax said: “If they don’t get in – we won’t play!” Bfb was a little hesitant now, but said the only thing he could think of was calling the club’s owner there to solve the problem. So he called him, and we waited for around 10 minutes with the whole band and tour manager Mike talking about this and that and their tour and my Anthrax collection, but the coolest thing was that they were all there with us, and not a single word about “let’s go already” or anything like that! Well after a while the owner appeared and was briefed, and said that the only way to solve this legally, that he could think of, was to keep us in an isolated area where there is no alcohol available, and the only are like this he could think of was the 2 meter empty area between the iron fence and the stage. He asked the band if that was alright with them, and they said yeah, then he asked us if it was alright with us, and we said hell yeah 
!
So the bfb grabbed us and dragged us through the crowd and inside the fence, and we stood right by the stage when Galactic Cowboys finished their set. Like we did through the whole Anthrax Show! I got to shout “BRING THE NOISE!” in the mic, and when the show was ending John asked us if we were coming backstage after. We thought about it for a while…, or wait a minute… no we didn’t! We said OK! So we went backstage and watched Scott eat Spaghetti Bolognese, and asked them why they hadn’t played Soldiers of Metal and I got my Student Carfd signed by Scott so that you don’t see anything of the card anymore. And my friend who’s a drummer asked for Charlie’s sticks, and Charlie actually looked for sticks all over but the roadies had already taken them all away, so Charlie got the whole band to sign a big Anthrax sticker, and gave that to my pal instead. And at this point, when everything had been perfect we thought we’d call it a night. So we said thanks to them all, and that’s when John said “Just get in touch before our next show, and we’ll send you passes, so you’ll get inside alright”.
So, no idea if you guys (or John) are gonna keep your word or not, but if you are, get in touch! Anthrax plays Sonisphere in my new home town Pori in August, and I’m sure as hell gonna be there! See you soon! And THANK YOU for the greates night of my rock life!
And I hope all you fans out there enjoyed the story!
And now for the long story. It’s the coolest thing that has ever happened to me, and I must have told this story more than 100 times since it happened. Here goes: this happened last week of January 1996, when my 18th birthday was just 1 week away.
Me, my pal who is half a year younger than me, and my big brother who’s 3 years older than me had bought tickets to Anthrax’s show in a club called Tavastia in Helsinki. This was sort of a given since I was a huge Anthrax fan already in those days. I spent all my money on Anthrax stuff and had 99 different vinyls in my collection (color vinyls, picture discs, Japanese albums, 10” singles, promos…
. Now we knew that Tavastia usually has an age limit of 18, but thought this somehow would not apply tonight since Anthrax was playing… but boy were we wrong. We stood in line with the others getting closer to the doors, and when we reached them a big fat bouncer of course asked us for ID. We told him we were just there to see Anthrax and were just 17. The big fat bouncer told us you have to be 18 to get in to Tavastia and asked us to step aside. My big bro tried the classic of “if they don’t get inside, then I won’t come either”, but of course the bfb (big fat… just laughed and said “see if I care…” and told us to step aside again. So we did. My bro said he didn’t want to go without us (he wasn’t a real fan like us) and sold his ticket to some guy outside the club. He asked us what we were gonna do, and we said we didn’t know, but that we were gonna hang around for some time and then come back to his flat which was nearby. He said OK, and left.It didn’t take long and we were the only ones outside and we could hear Galactic Cowboys start to play inside, and were just starting to feel it was crazy to just stand there in –10 degrees Celsius Finnish winter. But then it happened, or started. We saw a bunch of guys coming walking towards the club with real winter coats and woollen caps down over their ears, but we still recognized them: Anthrax! First it was kind of a shock to see them unexpected like that, but I still walked up to them before they went inside. I told them who I was, and told them we couldn’t get in, and asked them if they could help in any way. Tour Manager Mike said (and the whole band agreed) “No problem, you just come with us, of course you’re gonna see the show”. We said “cool, thanks” and we walked through the door together with them. But who do you think was there, lurking inside, the same bfb! Who said “These guys can’t come in, they’re not old enough”, to which the band replied “no problem, they’re with us”. Bfb said “I can’t let them in, they sell liquor here, and it’s illegal to let underage people inside”. But to this Anthrax said: “If they don’t get in – we won’t play!” Bfb was a little hesitant now, but said the only thing he could think of was calling the club’s owner there to solve the problem. So he called him, and we waited for around 10 minutes with the whole band and tour manager Mike talking about this and that and their tour and my Anthrax collection, but the coolest thing was that they were all there with us, and not a single word about “let’s go already” or anything like that
! Well after a while the owner appeared and was briefed, and said that the only way to solve this legally, that he could think of, was to keep us in an isolated area where there is no alcohol available, and the only are like this he could think of was the 2 meter empty area between the iron fence and the stage. He asked the band if that was alright with them, and they said yeah, then he asked us if it was alright with us, and we said hell yeah !So the bfb grabbed us and dragged us through the crowd and inside the fence, and we stood right by the stage when Galactic Cowboys finished their set. Like we did through the whole Anthrax Show! I got to shout “BRING THE NOISE!” in the mic, and when the show was ending John asked us if we were coming backstage after. We thought about it for a while…, or wait a minute… no we didn’t! We said OK! So we went backstage and watched Scott eat Spaghetti Bolognese, and asked them why they hadn’t played Soldiers of Metal and I got my Student Carfd signed by Scott so that you don’t see anything of the card anymore. And my friend who’s a drummer asked for Charlie’s sticks, and Charlie actually looked for sticks all over but the roadies had already taken them all away, so Charlie got the whole band to sign a big Anthrax sticker, and gave that to my pal instead. And at this point, when everything had been perfect we thought we’d call it a night. So we said thanks to them all, and that’s when John said “Just get in touch before our next show, and we’ll send you passes, so you’ll get inside alright”.
So, no idea if you guys (or John) are gonna keep your word or not, but if you are, get in touch! Anthrax plays Sonisphere in my new home town Pori in August, and I’m sure as hell gonna be there! See you soon! And THANK YOU for the greates night of my rock life!
And I hope all you fans out there enjoyed the story!
