Sonata Arctica - guitarist to miss live dates this Spring

[RycheMaiden]

I haven't seen this posted here yet:

http://www.bravewords.com/news/61558

I hope this doesn't affect the whole tour and their performance at ProgPower, that would really suck as they're the main band I want to see among others

The entire text is as follows:

SONATA ARCTICA - Guitarist To Miss Live Shows This Spring, Session Guitarist To Step In As Temporary Replacement

Posted on Sunday, March 04, 2007 at 04:50:37 EST


SONATA ARCTICA guitarist Jani Liimatainen has issued a statement in Finnish at the band's official website. The following is a translation from a very reliable BW&BK source:

"Hi All!

Unfortunately we're now in situation where I'm not able to attend to Sonata Arctica's live shows this spring. The reason behind this is a civic duty which I need to fulfil. Despite this the band will perform all agreed live shows with a session guitar player and I'm sure that all shows will meet the high standards set for Sonata Arctica shows. I hope that I can return to SA's live line-up as soon as possible because it's already been too long since the last live shows...and I already miss those sweaty nights on the stage and sweaty days in a tour bus. I want to wish the best of upcoming spring to all our fans and I hope to see you all very soon!"

Jani Liimatainen

(Thanks: Altti)

Just how many shows Liimatainen will miss is unclear. More details regarding the situation will be revealed soon.

Sonata Arctica's 2007 tour schedule is as follows:

April
27 - Teatria in Oulu, Finland
28 - Holiday Club Katinkulta (RockKatti 2007) in Vuokatti, Finland (with CHARON)
29 - Pakkahuone in Tampere, Finland
30 - Tavastia in Helsinki, Finland

June
9 - Sauna Open Air in Tampere, Finland
21 - Himos Festival in Jämsä, Finland

July
27 - Kuusamo Ruka Open Air in Kuusamo, Finland

September
12 - Ridglea Theater in Ft. Worth, TX
14 - Launch Pad in Albuquerque, NM
15 - Clubhouse in Tempe, AZ
16 - Key Club in Los Angeles, CA
17 - Galaxy Theater in Santa Ana, CA
19 - Bluebird Theater in Denver, CO
21 - The Metro in Chicago, IL
22 - Harpo's in Detroit, MI
23 - Peabody's Down Under in Cleveland, OH
24 - Opera House in Toronto, ON
26 - Salle Albert Rosseau in Quebec City, QC
27 - The Medley in Montréal, QC
28 - The Chance Theater in Poughkeepsie, NY
29 - The Palladium in Worcester, MA
30 - B.B. King's in New York, NY

October
2 - The Trocadero in Philadelphia, PA
3 - Jaxx in Springfield, VA
5 - ProgPower USA VIII in Atlanta, GA
6 - Culture Room in Ft. Lauderdale, FL
7 - The Haven in Winter Park, FL
9 - The Meridian in Houston, TX

Sonata Arctica will release their new album, Unia, on May 25th via Nuclear Blast Records.

I wonder what "civic duty" he needs to perform?
Deb

 

[Petethedrummer]

Oh that's a shame if he can't make it out here...I'm assuming by civic duty, maybe he's serving in the military? I forget how long they have to serve in Finland, I know it's not excessively long though.
He'll be back soon enough

 

[AMBR]

Oh that's a shame if he can't make it out here...I'm assuming by civic duty, maybe he's serving in the military? I forget how long they have to serve in Finland, I know it's not excessively long though.
He'll be back soon enough

I thought the military duty was usually done at a younger age, but maybe he missed it? Whatever the reason, the statement does say Spring, and they're due here in Sept. so I suspect he'll be back for the N.A. tour. Still, will be interesting to see who they use as a session guitarist.

 

[Yippee38]

I thought the military duty was usually done at a younger age, but maybe he missed it?

Heh. My first thought was "prison".

 

[AMBR]

Heh. My first thought was "prison".

ha ha ha, my second thought was, "community service in lieu of a sentence."

 

[adaher]

Could be jury duty. Maybe he got selected and the trial is likely to take awhile.

In any case, Sonata is soldiering on without him. They'll be fine, even if he can't be at PP.

 

[Jibrille]

I was thinking jury duty too. Not sure how it works over there. There is a type of jury duty in the US that occurs once a week for a few months. Think it's the grand jury. You are presented numerous cases a day and asked whether you think there's enough evidence to bring it to trial.

 

[St Enigma]

A jury consisting of fellow citizens is a typical for the Common Law system inheriting from the old England. It doesn't exist in the same form in the Continental or Scandinavian Civil Law system of ancient Roman inheritace like we have in Finland. Hence Jani won't be stuck sitting in a jury.

His 'civil duty' most obviously means postponed military/civil service to comply. He is 26 yrs, so he must have applied and granted postponement for legal reasons. Minimum service duty in military is only 6 months for the basic training, special or officer traing may take it up to 12 months. Wether he started last July or last January, he should be done by the upcoming July, as he said they only will need a session guitarist for the spring gigs. Fortunately there is no lack of skilled powermetal gt-players here.

 

[J-Dubya 777]

Heh. My first thought was "prison".

Imagine.....Sonata playing the theme from Oz......

J-Dubya

 

[adaher]

Will Finland make him get a buzz cut?

 

[Curufin]

Paging Aki to this thread!

 

[AMBR]

Will Finland make him get a buzz cut?

Don't know if it's a total buzz, but I know they make 'em cut it real short. I've seen some photos of other band members after their stint. :zombie:

 

[Jibrille]

There's some early pictures of Nightwish with both Empuu & Tuomas having short hair. It was shortly after they had finished their military service. I did some searching and nothing came up. New Nightwish site doesn't seem to have all the old images & google image search failed me attempting a few different terms.
Though I did find an awesome image of Tuomas that I had to use for a new icon.

 

[rockyracoon]

This doesn't seem to indicate any troubles for US dates, yet. I've got to imagine that Sonata has a lot riding on this upcoming tour in the US in regards to momentum and general audience appeal. I sure hope he's available come Sept./Oct. Though some might not view Jani as being as pivotal as Tony, I think those who caught them on their last tour will vouch for his energy in the live setting.

 

[Pellaz]

A jury consisting of fellow citizens is a typical for the Common Law system inheriting from the old England. It doesn't exist in the same form in the Continental or Scandinavian Civil Law system of ancient Roman inheritace like we have in Finland. Hence Jani won't be stuck sitting in a jury.

Umm, how do you do jury trials in Finland (or back in ancient Rome) if you don't have citizens sitting on the jury? (I'm not being contrary, I'm just kinda curious....)

 

[AMBR]

There's some early pictures of Nightwish with both Empuu & Tuomas having short hair. It was shortly after they had finished their military service. I did some searching and nothing came up. New Nightwish site doesn't seem to have all the old images & google image search failed me attempting a few different terms.
Though I did find an awesome image of Tuomas that I had to use for a new icon.

Maybe you're referring to this one? My how things change.

 

[Jibrille]

Maybe you're referring to this one? My how things change.

Yep, that's one of them. Though I had in mind one of them all sitting on a couch.

 

[St Enigma]

Umm, how do you do jury trials in Finland (or back in ancient Rome) if you don't have citizens sitting on the jury? (I'm not being contrary, I'm just kinda curious....)

Once you asked...

There are no jury trials in the Civil Law system like in the Common Law system. The judge(s) has/have an independend inquisitorial role in the process which is first about determining how and which law(s) have been violated and if so what will be the punishment according to the law.

At (severe) crime cases in Finland the court consist of the judge in office and three civil judges ( = common citizens chosen by the local politically elected community council for a four year period). The civil judges represent the common sense of citizens and have equal say about the case. They discuss and value the evidence together with the judge in office during the investigation process when the prosecutor and the defence are called to present their evidence. The aim is to find the truth, not trade evidence and/or confessions and make compromizes. Neither prosecutor nor defence can bargain the charges, plea for bail or trade with any evidence or confessions for lesser crime. Pleading guilty of a lesser charge doesn't give immunity against the original charge in the same case when the evidence is valued.
After the verdict about guilt, the judge in office will reference what the law command about the punisment for the crime in question and discuss it again with the civil judges before the final decision. The civil judges also have the power to vote down the decisions of the judge in office and claim for an alternative decision if the three mutually disagree with him/her.
If the defence or prosecutor have a say about the process and are able to point out a failure or mislead conduct in the process itself or the referenced laws and to preceeding cases, they may plea to the higher court for a second trial.


Wikipedia articles about the systems:
Common Law => Adversarial system (Anglo-Saxon inheritance)

The adversarial system of law is generally adopted in common law countries, that relies on the skill of the different advocates representing their party's positions and not on some neutral party, usually the judge, trying to ascertain the truth of the case.

Civil Law => Inquisitorial system (Roman inheritance)

An inquisitorial system is a legal system where the court or a part of the court is actively involved in determining the facts of the case, as opposed to an adversarial system where the role of the court is solely that of an impartial referee between parties.

 

[BlackRoseMetalHeart]

This doesn't seem to indicate any troubles for US dates, yet. I've got to imagine that Sonata has a lot riding on this upcoming tour in the US in regards to momentum and general audience appeal. I sure hope he's available come Sept./Oct. Though some might not view Jani as being as pivotal as Tony, I think those who caught them on their last tour will vouch for his energy in the live setting.

All the guys in Sonata are completely amazing on stage, but yes, I was in front of Jani at their last show at Jaxx and his energy was incredible. I really hope he won't miss the US leg of the tour, but it only says that he will be missing shows this spring, so hopefully we have nothing to worry about. I got some pictures with them the night they played at Jaxx and I really wanted to get the guys to sign them at PP. But more importantly, I want (and want everyone else who's going to PP) to see them in their full line-up, without substitutions.

 

[SeaStorm]

Enigma, excellent legal lesson. Most of America is unaware that there are two different legal systems.

A super-simplified version, if this helps anyone:

In the US (common law system), the judge acts likes a referee while the two lawyers are the questioners, ferreting out the truth (or, more accurately, the facts that help their side) for the jury to decide. However, you'd be surprised how many US court cases have no jury nowadays.

In continental Europe (civil law system), the judge is the questioner, ferreting out the truth (as opposed to the facts useful for one side). In the end the judge decides.