Lordi meet press and PM - welcome-home concert for fans on Friday evening

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Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen was among those who went to meet Finland's new Eurovision heroes Lordi on their return to the glare of the Finnish press on Monday.
      The latest episode in the saga of the Hard Rock Hallelujah band in the lizard-king and splatter-movie monster outfits was predictably mobbed by journalists, but Vanhanen had a few moments alone with the five band-members to congratulate them on their achievement.
      Vanhanen also noted that the win had come at a perfect time, in the wake of efforts on behalf of Finnish music exports and the international success of other local acts, and said that he was sure the band's example would be a model for many others to come.
     
Lordi are certainly making hay while the sun shines. New record deals for the band's albums have been signed with 18 countries, and the intention is to get the CDs into the shops as quickly as possible.
      Similarly Lordi's management are firming up festival dates and other gigs for the summer and autumn. Lordi will be on the bill, for instance, at Ruisrock in Turku on July 7th.
     
Monday's press conference was a fairly relaxed affair, despite the record company's strict stipulation that no TV cameras would be allowed in to film the band-members as they answered questions.
      The move is a part of the Lordi members' efforts to preserve their privacy and the mystique of the horror-movie masks, and at least front-man Mr.Lordi Tomi Putaansuu is worried lest Finns would simply laugh at "the goofiness" of a scaly monster who is speaking in a broad Lappish accent straight to camera.
     
Aside from details of Friday's welcome-home concert in Helsinki's Market Square, which will feature the band and other acts and will be televised live in part, the most serious bits of information to come out of the gathering were the band's own considered remarks about the staging of the annual Eurovision event.
      Some in Rovaniemi have already urged that the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest should be held in Lapland, as a mark of respect to the winners' roots.
      Tomi Putaansuu said he would naturally like nothing better, but having witnessed the enormity of the arrangements and staging and press facilities and everything else in Athens, he noted that even the Hartwall Arena and Trade Fair Centre in Helsinki - the current bookmakers' favourite as a prospective venue - would have trouble coping with the task.
      It is not simply the job of finding a venue that can hold 10,000-14,000 people: there were around 2,000 accredited press personnel in Athens and the event sprawled out across the city in hotels, restaurants, and elsewhere. It is a vast spectacle, requiring staging on a massive scale, and only after having been there and having been through it is it possible to explain to others just what is involved.
     
Even as the press briefing was going on, staff at the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) were putting their heads together over how the project of arranging next year's Eurovision Song Contest should be approached.
      It is not merely the venue that is a question-mark: discussion has already begun on whom would be most suitable - and most unsuitable - as the master of ceremonies pairing, and on what kind of programme it would be best to present.
      Still raw in the memory are the opening ceremonies to the 2005 Athletics World Championships, which seriously underwhelmed many Finnish and foreign viewers. Finns have in the past tended to have a rather down-to-earth "we don't want to show off, now do we?" approach to such matters, which is of course rather at odds with the completely camp and larger-than-life nature of the Eurovision circus.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Lordi and Hard Rock Hallelujah bring it home after more than 40 years (22.5.2006)

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