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21. Dec.
Long time, no update. Firstly, you'll be glad to hear of some new gigs. We'll be playing Crony's on New Years Eve and The Shysters will play as a quartet on January 4th in Intro for Kide Festival. Both gigs are in Kuopio, we've yet to make it out of town. Damn, that's too many damn links for a little paragraph. Ah, well. :)
Unfortunately Huotari can't make it to the New Years Bash but we are very glad to announce that the fabulous Jani Kivelä will be joining us for the occasion.
The Kide -show will be a quartet with Aapo, Antti, Jani and Jussi, so come check that shit out! We will be having both an Irish bouzouki and a cittern in the band at the same time, and Jussi has been a new playing style to simulate the bodhrán on the bass, so that should be an interesting show. Please, come join us. You have to be 18 to get in for both gigs, but admission is free.
Secondly, after the recording of our gig for The Irish Festival turned out having failed miserably we realized that we need to make a studio quality promotional release. After much shilly-shallying we resolved to self-release our debut single. We've made a couple of trips to Huotari's Hym Hym Records' studio and laid down some pretty cool tracks, if we do say so ourselves. We've a couple more trips to make before the thing is finished, and the holidays aren't helping any, and besides, we are having some health issues that are also putting some barriers on our progress, but rest assured — with it's original title track "The Girl From the North", the three song CD will be released in January, both in physical and electronic formats. Watch for updates on this site (sic) for info on where and how to get your hands on it. Certainly parts — if not all — of it will be up for listening, here and on myspace but not at full quality. To get the full, unthwarted experience you'll need to spring for the cash. For which we will owe you the deepest gratitude. TIA, guys. The single will definitely be available directly from us, via this site or otherwise, and we are looking into other possibilities for downloading — for your convenience. After all, if you're gonna give us your hard earned money, we certainly wouldn't want you to have a hard time of it! :P
Thirdly, we've pretty much decided to fabricate T-shirts for our trusty fans (well, who do you think?!) to wear. We're thinking two options, black and green, with white line-art of our logo on the front and the phrase "Who's your paddy?!" on the back. How does that sound? Please, let us know.
Fourthly, we want to come up with the perfect drink/coctail/shot to bear the name "Shyster". The idea is that the drink will be sold at the bars where we are playing, the owner will make some extra cash and will ask us to play there again.
Well, that's not exactly true. Of course they will want us to come back, but we're hoping that the increased sales will encourage them to pay us better!
We're thinking it's gonna be a dark beer with a dash of whiskey added, or alternatively, cask strength whiskey diluted with a light vodka. If you have a better idea or just disagree go ahead and let us hear about it.
Lastly, I can't decide whether we should start a separate blog or let this page act as one. There's a couple of entries on our blog on myspace about our recording trips, but myspace is such a PITA to handle, and facebook ain't no better. I think we'll just mostly stick with our own site. Certainly there's not so much changes happening to the site that this page need be devoted to those alone.
Anyway, we ought to put up a guestbook somewhere. Got any suggestions for a good, free guestbook service? Or any suggestions on what we should do for Saint Patricks Day?
Oh, bollocks. It's 5.32 AM. Thanks for reading, and Happy Christmas, your arse! Keep in touch!
11. Sept.
A couple of gigs for The Shysters on short notice.
4. Sept.
Oh shit, I guess we do announce gigs, after all .
23. Aug.
Some gigs are being planned as we write. Details forthcoming in the next weeks. A couple of live songs up on ourspace.
14. Aug.
Today's was our first rehearsal with Huotari. A most excellent dude and player. The feeling seemed mutual. We're very happy to have him on board.
On a heavier note, Mellu missed her last rehearsal today. We are certainly very sorry to see her go, but realize that we couldn't carry on as we did up till now. Thanks, Mellu! It was indeed quite a ride. Sláinte! Here's hoping you get your shit together!
Luckily, Katja Koskinen was standing by ready to jump into the fray. Gladly we welcome Katja to the line-up!
Early August
Folks are returning from their respective summer pastures. Things are starting to get moving again.
June-July
Shysters all over the place. Unfortunately not many of them in the same place at the same time. Aapo and Antti warm up their duo act. Anssi Salminen is moving to Helsinki to study at the folk department of Sibelius Academy, but he will be staying on with the band, though his appearances at rehearsals will no doubt be kind of limited.
April
Negotiations with several booking agencys. Unfortunately we didn't find a suitable ally this time. We'll be handling our own bookings for the time being. Anyways, being there's eight of us we won't likely be getting a good enough price for gigs anytime soon to make the band feel like a job. Keeping gigs scarce seems to sit well with everyone for now.
March
Anssi Huotari from Varkaus will be replacing Pekka and taking over accordion for the band. We welcome Anssi into the band.
February
Pekka Kurki will be moving to the far side of the country, and will be leaving us come spring. We'd like to thank Pekka for his services and wish him the best of luck in all future endeavours.
Jan-Feb
Resumed rehearsals. It's proving diffucult to get everyone together. We're often playing with just Aapo, Antti, Jussi and Sami present. The others make appearances when the schedules match. Mixed a promo-medley from K-klubi live recording. Planning gigs for the summer.
7.-12. Jan.
Jussi in rehab. Nothing happens.