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Nightwish Biography Source: http://www.nightwish.com The idea of Nightwish was "born" in July 1996 at midnight when Tuomaswas spending a night with his friends around a campfire. The firstthree songs, which were acoustic mood music, were recorded betweenOctober and December 1996. At that time, the band had three members:Tuomas, Tarja and Emppu. The band wanted to see what the music would sound like if drums wereadded (Jukka joined the band). Also at this time, the acoustic guitarwas replaced with an electric. After a couple of weeks of training, theband went to the studio this was in April 1997. At that time sevensongs were recorded. These songs can be found on the limited edition ofthe album Angels Fall First. In May 1997, Nightwish signed a recording contract with Spinefarm fortwo records. That August, the band went to the studio and recorded fournew songs. Before the release of Angels Fall First, a single called TheCarpenter was released, and made it to number eight on the officialsingles chart in Finland. Angels Fall First was released in earlyNovember and went number 31 on the official album chart in Finland.Nightwish played their first gig in Kitee on the 31st December 1997.After that Nightwish played only seven gigs in the following winterbecause Jukka and Emppu were in the army and Tarja was busy with herstudies. Nightwish and at this time, Spinefarm extended the contract toinclude three records instead of two. In April 1998, they started filming the first video, The Carpenter. Itwas ready in early May and was first played on Jyrki. In late May,Tuomas and Tarja interviewed on that show. In the following summer, thebassist Sami Vänskä joined the band. During the summer, songs for the new record were rehearsed and the bandwent to the studio in early August; the recordings were finished inlate October. On November 13th, Nightwish played a gig in Kitee duringwhich, a video for Sacrament of Wilderness was filmed. That song'ssingle was released on November 26th and the new record calledOceanborn was released on December 7th. Everybody was surprised by the success of Oceanborn. It went up tofifth place on the official Finnish album chart and the singleSacrament of Wilderness was the number one on the singles chart forweeks. In winter 1999, Nightwish played a lot of gigs all around the countryfor three months which included a gig on the Lista chart show program.In spring Oceanborn was first released outside of Finland. In May, theband started to play gigs again and toured the country for two and ahalf months, playing in almost all of the big rock festivals. At thesame time the single Sleeping Sun was recorded, which was written forthe eclipse in Germany. In August, the single was released in Germanyand it also included the songs Walking in the Air, Swanheart, andAngels Fall First. In Germany alone the single sold 15,000 copies injust one month. In August, Nightwish learned that Oceanborn andSacrament of Wilderness had sold gold. At the same time it wasconfirmed that Nightwish would be touring Europe for 26 gigs with theGerman band Rage. In early 2000 the band entered the studio again for the recording oftheir third album. A welcome interruption came to the repetitive studiowork when they took part in the Finnish qualification for theEurovision Song Contest with the song Sleepwalker. Nightwish clearedthe first round of the qualification, but the final position was seconddespite an overwhelming win in the public televoting. The new album, Wishmaster, was released in May and the Wishmaster Tourstarted from Kitee, the home town of the band. After the show, the bandreceived gold discs for the album Oceanborn and the singles Sacramentof Wilderness, Walking in the Air, and Sleeping Sun. Wishmaster wentstraight to number 1 on the Finnish album charts and stayed in thatposition for three weeks, during that time, it also reached the golddisc mark. Wishmaster was approved by both the fans and the media andit was named the album of the month by the German magazine Rock Hard intheir issue 6/2000, past the long-awaited new releases by Bon Jovi andIron Maiden. Wishmaster also debuted in the National German Charts at No. 21 and No.66 in France! The "Wishmaster World Tour", which started from Kitee,continued first to the big festivals in Finland and then to SouthAmerica in July 2000. The three-week tour in Brazil, Chile, Argentina,Panama and Mexico turned out to be one of the band's greatestexperiences so far. This was followed by successful shows at WackenOpen Air, Biebop Metal Fest and the first headliner European tour withSinergy and Eternal Tears Of Sorrow. In November, Nightwish also playedtwo shows in Montreal, Canada. The next project of Nightwish included the making of a full-lengthconcert DVD & VHS with a limited live album (only for Finland). Theconcert was performed in Tampere on the 29th of December 2000. Thematerial was released in April 2001 in Finland and worldwide during thesummer of 2001. At the end of the show, Nightwish were given platinumdiscs for "Wishmaster" and gold discs for the single "Deep SilentComplete". In March 2001 Nightwish entered the studio again to record theirversion of Gary Moore's classic Over The Hills And Far Away, with 2 newsongs and a remake of Angels Fall First's "Astral Romance". The Finnishrelease for this EP was in June 2001. The German version of "Over TheHills And Far Away" (released by Drakkar) includes 6 live tracks inaddition to the 4 unreleased songs. Nightwish has also extended therecord deal with Spinefarm Records with one full-length album, whichwas set to be released in Summer 2002. The video for the track "Over the Hills and Far Away", which hadrapidly sold platinum in Finland as a mini-CD, was shot in August 2001in Finland. The tour in Finland the same year ended in Nivala, and theband was close to disbanding. Tuomas went hiking and gathering histhoughts in Lappland; some changes had to be done in order forNightwish to be able to continue. According to his own words, Tuomaswanted to end the band due to prolonged disagreements within the band.Luckily, that didn't happen. But something happened, a lot in fact.Sami Vänskä, who had been with them since Oceanborn, had to leave.Marco Hietala, known from Tarot and Sinergy, promised to step in as areplacement for the next album and tour. King Foo Entertainment becametheir new booking agency, and long-time friend and colleague, EwoRytkönen, was to become their manager. To celebrate the "newbeginning", the first official shop for fan-products, Nightwish-Shop,was opened on the band's homepage on November 24th 2001, a month beforeChristmas. The recording of the next album Century Child started inJanuary 2002. The beginning of 2002 brought Nightwish good news, in comparison toprevious rough times. As a band and as individual musicians they werevoted to the top on many domestic and foreign magazines reader's polls.The fans had not abandoned them after the changes, on the contrary.Ever Dream, the first single from the forthcoming album, went gold inFinland within 2 days. At the same time Nightwish announced they wouldtake a break as soon as the "Century Child World Tour 2002" would beover, Tarja would finish her educations in Germany during the break.That announcement brought up all kinds of speculations among fans. Samileaving the previous Fall, now a break that would last a year... Century Child came out in May 2002 and made a sales record, sellinggold in Finland within 2 hours! Within two weeks it sold platinum(30,000 copies) and continued selling rapidly. At the same timeNightwish held the top-position in both singles-and album charts, fortheir first time ever. Foreign countries responded, too: in Germany,Century Child went straight to number 5 and in Austria, number 15,those two being the band's highest positions abroad so far. In July,Nightwish toured successfully in South America, where nearly all gigssold out. In Brazil, the first edition of Century Child was sold out inone day, and the successful European tour that year didn't go unnoticedby booking agencies. Many European gigs were broadcasted live on theinternet, needless to say the connections were often jammed. At itsmost, nearly 10,000 fans were trying to follow the live feed. Havingsold an astonishing 59,000 copies in Finland, Century Child was thecountry's 2nd best selling album in 2002. The first visit to Swedentook place on 16th November 2002, in Fryshuset, Stockholm. The breakstarted in late 2002, and sure enough there was no rest for the guys.Jukka played with Sethian and Bitch Driven, Tuomas with Sethian, For MyPain..., and Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus, Emppu played withAltaria, and Marco with Tarot. All in all the break wasn't to lastnearly a year, back on the road... The beginning of 2003 saw more good results in reader's polls ofvarious magazines, and a studio was booked in order to start recordingthe next album, planned to be released the next year. Happenings alsoat the home-front: Jukka and his girlfriend Satu had a daughter, Luna,on March 11, 2003. Nightwish received their first double-platinum awardfor Century Child, having sold 60,000. The band performed mostly abroadin 2003, the only gig in Finland was at RMJ 2003 on June 20th. Thesecond visit to Sweden took place at the sold out "Gates ofMetal"-festival in Hultsfred. During 2003, the forthcomingDVD-documentary End of Innocence was being put together, and it'srelease was postponed a few times due to huge amount of material. In May 2003, Tarja Turunen announced that she had secretly gottenmarried a few months earlier, and would be moving back to Finland. TheDVD "End of Innocence" was finally released on October 6th 2003, and atthat point, Nightwish had already started recording the next album.Their fifth album "Once" would be the most important release in thehistory of Nightwish. Meanwhile, Finland's President, Tarja Halonen,had also taken note of Nightwish's achievements and invited TarjaTurunen and her husband Marcelo Cabuli to the annual independence-dayparty held at the presidential residence. Tarja's dress was voted asthe most beautiful dress that evening. Before the Christmas of 2003 Nightwish auctioned their "Century ChildWorld Tour"-backdrop, and donated all the money to charity. The outcomewas 1,750 EUR, and was given to Parikanniemi's Children's home inRistiina on December 2003. The funds were handed out by Tarja Turunen,Michael "Big Tini" Leipold from Germany became the new proud owner ofthe backdrop. The year 2004 was eagerly expected by both the fans and the band.Exhausting studio-sessions took their toll both physically andmentally. The actual recording took place at the Phoenix-studios inLondon, the same studio and with the same orchestra (The Academy of St.Martins in the Field) that Howard Shore used for writing the score for"The Lord of the Rings"-trilogy. Orchestral-and choral arrangementswere written by Pip Williams, who has produced "Status Quo"and "riahHeep" Big time, great expectations! Nemo was the first single released off the forthcoming album, and abig-budget video was made. The director was Antti Jokinen, who hadpreviously worked with Shania Twain and Eminem. With the new album, Nightwish had some changes with the recordingcontract, and the new material was released by Nuclear Blast. Good oldSpinefarm Records would still handle the distribution in Finland.Nuclear Blast spent a considerable amount of money marketing Once,especially in Germany. Pictures of Nightwish and Once were splatteredall over the television-channels, subways, buses and streets, and thepress wasn't forgotten either. Every German will know Nightwish by now. Once went gold in Finland on its day of release, as did the single"Nemo". Nightwish started a world Tour of 150 concerts in allcontinents, the tour lasted until the end of 2005. This tour was be thebiggest in the history of Nightwish so far. The album "Once" sold goldin Finland immediately on its release day, as did the single "Nemo". InMay 2004, Nightwish started the Once World Tour. The Once World Tourlasted until the end of October 2005. There were about 130 gigs allover the world, including new countries such as Japan, Australia,Colombia, Ecuador, Poland, Slovenia, Portugal, Denmark, and Greece. Thetour was the biggest in Nightwish's history. From month to month thevenues grew bigger and the news told about success. The second single, Wish I Had An Angel, was released in Autumn 2004.The song's video was directed by Uwe Boll, director of the movie "AloneIn The Dark", in which the song was also played. The second single wasagain a great success and boosted the sales of the Once album. In August, Nightwish finally made it to the USA! The tour was verysuccessful and they planned to come back for a bigger tour in 2005.After the tours in Europe and South America in the Autumn of 2004, andsome separate gigs in December, the band had some time off in January2005. In February 2005, Nightwish won five awards in Emma-Gala (FinnishGrammy). Among the others they won awards for "The Band of the Year"and "The Best Selling Album of the Year". Tuomas and Marco flew fromEuropean tour to Helsinki to receive the awards. The last show in theEuropean tour was so far the biggest gig of their own, in Stuttgartthere were 10,001 people watching the show! In March, Nightwish performed the first time in Japan and Australia; inApril and May, they had to have a break because of Tarja's otherinterests, but at the end of May the band started the tour again byplaying with Iron Maiden in Poland and with Mötley Crüe in Norway. In July, the 3rd single, a new version of Sleeping Sun, was releasedsince the record label had decided to use it to promote the forthcomingcollection Highest Hopes. The new version of the video for "SleepingSun" was directed by Joern Heitmann and shot in August 2005 in Prague.During the Autumn 2005, Nightwish played several shows and performed inthe legendary Hammersmith Apollo Venue for sold out seats. After ashort festival tour in South America (in October), the Once World Tourwas coming to an end. The final concert was played on 21 October for11,500 people in Hartwall-Arena in Helsinki. The concert was alsorecorded to be released as an End of an Era live DVD. After the last concert, Tuomas, Emppu, Marco and Jukka fired TarjaTurunen, and her manager Marcelo Cabuli. The reason for this wasbecause during the Once Tour their attitude and actions had turned outto be against almost all that Nightwish represents. As one may guess,the news of the firing was followed by an incredible sensation andhullabaloo. Once the nearly ridiculous fuss was finally starting tocalm down in the end of 2005, Nightwish was able to look to the futureand wait for an adequate singer to be found. By the end of 2005, "Once" has sold approx. 1,000 000 copies worldwideas well, it has sold triple platinum in Finland, platinum in Germany,and gold in Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Greece, and Austria. The"Highest Hopes" collection has sold double platinum in Finland and goldin Norway by the end of the year 2005. Thanks to Kerry Edkins for submitting the biography. |
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