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1997-98 Angels Fall First Tour


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1997-98 Angels Fall First Tour*

Details on Wikipedia

*Apparently this first tour was really unnamed, and it is unknown where or when the title "First Tour Of The Angels" found on Wikipedia and elsewhere actually originated.

 

Setlist (from Wiki; specific setlists at setlist.fm)

Quote

A typical setlist would consist of:

  • "Elvenpath"
  • "The Carpenter"
  • "Tutankhamen"
  • "Angels Fall First"
  • "Know Why the Nightingale Sings"
  • "Astral Romance"
  • "Beauty and the Beast"

 

Shows

(with links to recordings available on YouTube - 🎤🎤🎤 sound quality - 🎞️🎞️🎞️ image quality - pro recording)

 

Finland-Kitee-Huvikeskus-December 31, 1997

Finland-Helsinki-Lepakko-January 9, 1998 (opening for Babylon Whores)

Finland-Helsinki-Tavastia-February 13, 1998

Finland-Pori-Jungle Jane-February 14, 1998

Finland-Joensuu-Kellari-February 25, 1998 (opening for Children of Bodom)

Finland-Jyväskylä-Lutakko-February 27, 1998

Finland-Siilinjärvi-Huvikumpu-March 6, 1998 (opening for Tarot)

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

Tomorrow is the (23rd) anniversary of the first ever NW gig, at a New Years's Eve party in Kitee, before an audience of 400. There is a description of the show in the NW biography, according to which the band was terrified on this first live performance.

They were playing with Samppa Hirvonen, their live bassist for the tour, and Marianna Pellinen, the backing vocalist. There should be recordings of the event but none of them appear to be publicly available. A good audio recording of the third show is however available on YouTube.

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  • 5 months later...

Here's a rare photo from one of those early shows, with Tarja, Emppu and Samppa Hirvonen.

10405352_704714702959204_7834458599658836390_n.jpg.5115992df6d90dae6565d95e2e44fc7b.jpg

 

Found on Facebook, author unknown.

https://www.facebook.com/nightwishpl/photos/a.313062348791110/704714702959204/

Edit: I actually found the source, it's a fragment from a picture published in the NW biography. Unfortunately the book provides neither credits nor details about the date or location of the performance.

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  • 2 months later...

The Wikipedia page for the band's first tour has been redirected to the band's main article. Was pretty much told that there were no other reliable secondary sources in support of the tour article, even if I did add more detail from the Once Upon a Nightwish biography. 😔

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That's unfortunate, because the information was useful even though some may not consider it an official tour. The original article had a list of gigs, and a typical setlist that are now absent from the "Angels Fall First" article. The latest version I can find is this one. Maybe I can add the info to this page here?

The only debatable detail in the original article IMO was the "First Tour of the Angels" name, which was debunked in a note in the Nightwish Story exhibition. The tour didn't have a name as such, so I'm not sure how and when this name came about.

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  • 1 month later...

Yeah actually I know! They're two totally different places and venues. I checked that link out and now I am confused. According to the Jelmu's website, they are cooperating with each other (and with Musta Kynnys, it's a bar and a tiny concert venue). I think that Nightwish's show happened at Lutakko. I don't know was there some information about this on the Nightwish biography...? 🤔

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The biography appendix lists the show as happening at Lutakko, and there's even a mention of the band not getting proper rooms and being offered "mouldy couches downstairs at the Lutakko club". Mind you, it doesn't say they actually played at Lutakko but there's no mention of Ilokivi anywhere.

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Well the Ilokivi thing was for only a few weeks in February 1998, perhaps there had been a problem at Lutakko and a few shows had to be moved at the last minute? 🤔

Appropriately enough, the Ilokivi site mentions that "many nationally and internationally renowned performing artists have started their careers on the stage of Ilokivi." 😁

https://www.ilokivi.fi/en/about-us/

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  • 2 months later...

I don't know if there will be any mention of Nightwish in this documentary, but it may be of interest. Nightwish played one of their first shows at Tavastia and it's the only availble recording from their first tour.

 

DOCPOINT TAKES THE AUDIENCE TO THE LEGENDARY ROCK CLUB – TAVASTIA CLUB DOCUMENTARY WILL PREMIERE AT TAVASTIA

DocPoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival will premiere a film about the history of Tavastia Club in cooperation with Tavastia. The premiere will be held at Tavastia Club on the 2nd February 2022.

https://docpointfestival.fi/en/docpoint-takes-the-audience-to-the-legendary-rock-club-tavastia-club-documentary-will-premiere-at-tavastia/

Finland’s largest documentary film festival DocPoint will premiere a film by Antti Kuivalainen, THEN THE TIMES, THEY CHANGED, in cooperation with the legendary Finnish rock club Tavastia. The film tells the story of the premier rock establishment in Helsinki since 1970.

Along the decades, Tavastia Club has been frowned upon, admired, and iconised. The film follows the the 50 years of rock at Tavastia. Stories straight from the infamous backstage are shared by musicians Jussi Raittinen, Ursus Factory, Aija Puurtinen (Honey B and the T-Bones), Ville Valo (HIM), and many others.

The premiere of Then the Times, They Changed will be held at Tavastia Club on the 2nd February 2022. After the screening, the director Antti Kuivalainen will tell about the making of the film and answer the questions presented by the audience. The admission is 20 euros. More details and the ticket sales can be found on the website of Tiketti.

DocPoint will be held in Helsinki from 31st January to 6th February 2022. The Festival Programme is published and the ticket sales for individual screenings begin on 10th January. A selection of festival screenings will be available online. The ticket sales for serial cards has started at DocPoint website.

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It's only 20 seconds, but this is the first video snippet I have ever seen of the very first Nightwish show on December 31, 1997 in Kitee! I don't know if the audio (Elvenpath) is from the same performance, because it sounds a lot like the studio track. Surely there must be more of this somewhere?

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  • 1 month later...

Hey there!

You probably do of course already know this, but just in case, that Kiteen Huvikeskus snippet is just taken from the End of Innocence documentary, and as far as I know, the full show has never been shared to the public, unfortunately! And yep, the audio that they used there is definitely the studio version of Elvenpath.

(Oh, and that earlier photo was taken by Toni Härkönen, and it's from their 13.2 Tavastia Club performance.)

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5 hours ago, Taikatalvi said:

Hey there!

You probably do of course already know this, but just in case, that Kiteen Huvikeskus snippet is just taken from the End of Innocence documentary, and as far as I know, the full show has never been shared to the public, unfortunately! And yep, the audio that they used there is definitely the studio version of Elvenpath.

(Oh, and that earlier photo was taken by Toni Härkönen, and it's from their 13.2 Tavastia Club performance.)

Hey thank you! 🤘 Wow I haven't watched End Of Innocence in a long while, and I completely missed that it had this segment of live material. 😮 It's unfortunate that no more is available, but I suspect the audio is pretty bad if they chose not to use the original sound recording.

Thanks also for the photo ID, I saw it associated with the Tavastia bootleg but didn't want to assume it was taken during the same show. Toni Härkönen seems to have been a very active photographer on the Finnish metal scene back then.

And by the way, are you Taikatalvi from the Taikatalvi fan site? 😀

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Yep, I'd assume that the audio quality of the original recording must be quite awful, which is super unfortunate, as that means that it's even more unlikely that the band would ever actually officially release that full show to the public.. But oh well, one can still dream, right? It would definitely be so wondeful to one day be able to see some proper video footage from those first few shows!

Oh, and I indeed am the very same person! I'm actually a bit surprised that anyone has even somehow managed to stumble across my little site, as I never really meant it to be a proper "site" per se, and more so just a place where I collect and dump all my Nightwish stuff from the golden olden days haha! (And there is actually a "hidden" AFF page there as well, which is accessible by pressing the Elvenpath gif, where I have tried to collect all the known pictures/articles from the AFF era!)

 

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Yes, I guess the band right now isn't very interested in the early years, especially with most of the original band members gone. But I find that period very charming, even if they have come a long way today in terms of musicianship and lyricism. But who knows, maybe eventually someone will have access to some of that material for a new documentary and we'll be treated to remastered footage of one of those shows! 😁

So it's really you, be welcome and it's great to have you here! Yes I've found your site some time ago while looking for footage or setlists from those early years, and I have probably linked to a number of your translated interviews here in the forums. There's really lots of stuff on your site that can't be found anywhere else, and I have probably only read 10% so far.

Wow I had no clue about that hidden AFF page, now I know what I'll be reading tonight! 😄

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