PAGE 3: MY RAMONIAC TRIP WITH MARKY RAMONE & TARAKANY IN SWEDEN IN JANUARY, 2005

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(Photos: Right photo: Marky Ramone wearing T-shirt where is a drawing of him by Hellacopters singer Nicke Royale. I asked from Nicke if he wants to make drawings of four Ramones members to my second book Rock In Peace: Dee Dee And Joey Ramone. I was so happy when he wanted, so drawing of Marky is in this T-shirt. I am wearing T-shirt where is drawing by Darren Merinuk of Dee Dee Ramone, Joey Ramone and me. Left photo: Marky Ramone and cool minituare drum set which was gift for him from Lynne Cameron from Scotland.).

Shelley had to go back to Switzerland on January 25, 2005, and Tarakany and Ilia and Helena had to visit German embassy in Stockholm. I was talking longer with Andrea and then with Marky and Tank, like with Marky of his coming festival shows with Ramones Mania in Germany. It was nice to surprise to hear also what songs he was going to play with Joey Ramone's brother Mickey Leigh in South-America and Mexico after Tarakany tour ended, songs like Something To Believe In, Questioningly and Danny Says.

Sadly videocamera I was ordered didn't arrive in time from Germany for this tour, but I got chance to loan videocamera Ilia had with him. I bought from him videotape also, sadly it was only 80 minutes long. Juki was taping in Västerås part of my long interview with Marky, then I was taping backstage happenings before and after the show, part of Tarakany set and then 30 minutes of Marky & Tarakany set and then Juki when I sang with them. We were decided that I sang at Prisma Blitzkrieg Bop and Pinhead. It was big honour that Marky introduced me to stage, he told of my homepage and books etc. Marky was asked during this night if I would look from Internet if I would find airplane tickets to Berlin. They had day-off after Västerås, and he wouldn't need to sit then 1 000 kilometers in a bus. It was hard to find places to airplanes anymore, but we found some expensive ones, and Marky decided to take then one of them. Marky also was asked if I would stay with him next day in Västerås. It was OK to me of course and also Juki was staying. We just had to find place to sleep.


(Photos: Upper photo: From left to right: Helena Schmid (tour manager), Ilia Ostrovskiy (manager of Tarakany), Dmitry Vatoff (guitarist of Tarakany), Alexey Soloviev (bassist of Tarakany), Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone, Tank (Marky's assistant), Dima (Dmitry Spirin, singer of Tarakany), Marky Ramone, Juki (Ramones fan), Sergey Prokoviev (drummer of Tarakany) and Iggy (Ramones fan).
Lower photo: Dregen (guitarist-singer of Backyard Babies), Marky Ramone, Nick Borg (singer-guitarist of BB), Johan Blomquist (bassist of BB) and Peder Carlsson (drummer of BB). I been fan of the Backyard Babies since they published Supershow split single with The 69 Eyes in 1996.

We took after my wish group pics of us all, expect Shelley was left already. It was hard to say goodbye's to Tarakany, Ilia, Helena, Tank and Andrea. All of them had been so ultra-ultra-friendly and cool people.

It was really nice to sleep in a hotel and go to sauna in a morning. Sauna was in 25th floor and from sauna was view to the city! We called to Marky at 1PM and 1:30PM we met. Juki translated for him article that was done to Västerås newspaper in previous day. Then we went to find place to eat for Marky. While Marky was eating I went to find shop where I can transfer pictures from my book to T-shirts. Marky was said he would like to have T-shirt where is Nicke Royale's drawing of him. That drawing is in my second book, Rock In Peace: Dee Dee And Joey Ramone, as well Nicke's drawings of Dee Dee, Joey and Johnny. I found place and I also did to me T-shirt where is Darren Merinuk's drawing of Dee Dee, Joey and me. I put under drawing texts: Dee Dee Ramone, ? and Joey Ramone. Then we visited nice records shop, and not so nice, we were there only few minutes because Marky (and I and Juki) didn't liked that they played some hip-hop so loud. Some people recognized Marky and asked his autographs.

Backyard Babies was playing show that night at Prisma. I loved that band since they published Supershow split single with The 69 Eyes in 1996. I knew with gentlemen in advance. Björn was told to Backyard Babies that Marky is in a city and Backyard Babies wanted Marky to be their special guest. At first Marky didn't liked of the idea. He didn't knew much of Backyard Babies, but he changed his mind after he read Backyard Babies things from my book, like Dregen's interview and of Backyard Babies song Friends where also Joey Ramone sings. Backyard Babies were staying in a same hotel. We went to soundcheck. Then was problem that Backyard Babies drummer Peder is lefthanded, and drums are then different way than to righthanded... After some discussions we decided that Marky plays in second encore Pet Sematary. It was easy to see from faces of Backyard Babies members how much it meant to them even to meet Marky. We also took some group photos. Marky asked me to be next to him during his playing and everything went really well. Audience shouted loud when Marky was introduced. We had nice after party until Marky left and luckily Backyard Babies asked if I want to have some Jack Daniels shots...

(Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone)

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