Author Archives: Dominika

Simple Plan auction off soundcheck/pizza party experience in support of musicians in need

AUTHOR: Dominika | 15. August 2016 | no comments

It has just been announced that Simple Plan decided to support the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, by auctioning off 2 spots at their soundchecks or after-show meet and greet (pizza party). So if you’re in a mood to do some good and donate some money to a good cause while also meeting the band in the process go ahead and bid on this special experience here. According to the details on the website, the experience is only valid for the October concert dates – that means only shows in the U.S.

The Sweet Relief Musicians Fund is a charity that helps provide financial assistance to all types of career musicians who are struggling to make ends meet while facing illness, disability, or age-related problems. You can find out more about this charity here.

VIDEO: Seb and Pierre give a tour of their tourbus

AUTHOR: Dominika | 15. August 2016 | no comments

If you’ve been around on the European tour, chances are you spotted the green tourbus that Simple Plan once again rented for the European run. PitCam.TV recently posted a new video, in which Pierre and Sebastien show you around their tourbus – where they sleep, eat, shower and once again recall what the most important rules of being on a tourbus are.

Check out the video below:

Jeff attends taping of Patrick Langlois’ radio show

AUTHOR: Dominika | 14. August 2016 | no comments

As promised when Patrick Langlois got a new position at the ÉNERGIE 94.3 Montreal radio as a weekend host, his plan, besides playing music, was to also invite various guests to his radio segment – including his friends from Simple Plan, that he used to tour with in the beginnings of their career. And finally today, Jeff Stinco came to the ÉNERGIE 94.3 Montreal studios to chat to his old friend Patrick on air.

Check out some pictures of Jeff and Pat from today in the gallery:

Also, below you can find a short video the two filmed in the studio earlier today (Sab helped us with a translation of this French Q&A, which you can now find under the video):

Pat: We just spent one hour with Jeff Stinco on Energie 94.3 and since there are some questions left, you agreed to stay for a Facebook live.
Jeff: You tricked me, you didn’t tell me so, but I’m happy to be here…
Pat: I told you you’d stay in the studio until 12, then you could leave… You must be used to this kind of technology because when Simple Plan started back in 1999 there was no Snapchat, no Twitter, no Facebook and no Facebook live. Is something you get used to easily, as a band ?
Jeff: It’s a lot better now. I don’t know if you remember, but we all had our email address on the website, and we had to take one hour every night to reply to everyone. Now we have 140 characters, we press send, we film it, we don’t even have to know how to write anymore. It only takes a story to tell to a camera.
Pat: It is more work, isn’t it ?
Jeff: No, I think it is easier now, it’s more convenient.
Pat: Yet there is a disadvantage, I mean, you always have been a band who is really close to their fans, since the beginning you’ve always been there before and after the show to sign stuff, you replied to the emails you got. Now it seems every bands have to do that, get closer to the fans, does it take back the edge you had then ?
Jeff: I think it proves some bands are not particularly that kind. I think there is always a moment when people’s true personality surfaces. I like to think we are accessible, nice. We, Quebec people, are well-mannered…
Pat: As a band, you’re not that bad…
Jeff: As a band, we’re not that bad… individually…
Pat: Individually we can see the flaws… You’ve done a lot of stuff in your career, other than being a guitarist. You opened restaurants, you made a cameo in the movie Nitro. Maybe we could see you acting sometime ?
Jeff: I have to study the offers, you know, I get so many… Just kidding. It was the only offer I had but it was fun, it was a good experience.
Pat: It seems that during the last 15 years you’ve been working really hard, you had a lot of ambitions, I think you took every opportunity you had. Do you think you gained maturity and now you need to slow down and take your time?
Jeff: Absolutely. I think the big fear is « Is Simple Plan going to last in time ? ». You never know. Some people say a band has a lifetime of 3 years. We are beyond that and I’m pretty confident about it. But yeah, I listen to my music, I enjoy life, and as we know, everything goes too fast, so yeah, I slow down a little bit. I wanna travel, other than when I am touring. Being a tourist, going to the beach, rock climbing, go to the top of Mount Everest… No I’m kidding. There’s no way I could do that! But I’m going to Machu Picchu in December. That is that kind of stuff I wanna do.
Pat: Which city you’ve been during a tour that you’d like to go back to, as a tourist ?
Jeff: We went to Hawaii, in Waikiki, but really quickly, and I think there are other places in Hawaii that I’d like to visit. In a few we are going to Bali, but I think we are going to stay one day before and one day after and that’s it. I wish we could stay longer.
Pat: You had a lot of collabs in the last albums, such as Nelly, Sean Paul, K’Naan, Marie Mai, Natasha Bedingfield. Tell me the collab of you dreams…
Jeff: Pink! Her talent is unbelievable, she has so much energy. I think we might have some similarities. She’s a little bit of rock, it might be interesting.
Pat: And the girl can sing!
Jeff: She can! But we’d have to keep David away from her…
Pat: We won’t say more…
Thank you Jeff for this Facebook Live, thank you for spending one hour with me.

SimplePlan.cz celebrates 9 years online!

AUTHOR: Dominika | 13. August 2016 | 2 comments

Today marks 9 years since that nice sunny day on August 13th 2007, when I decided to turn my previous blog about Simple Plan into SimplePlan.cz. 9 years of existence has made SimplePlan.cz the longest continuously running website about Simple Plan on the Internet – no breaks, no hiatuses, just a constant feed of all things Simple Plan.

And I can credit this continuity mostly to all of you, my dear visitors, who have supported this website since day one and still do so after so many years. On the recent Taking One For The Team tour I had the pleasure of meeting so many of you – and what struck me the most was how many of you have actually been visiting the website almost since the beginning. I can’t even thank you enough for all this amazing support. A week doesn’t go by that I don’t receive news, pictures or messages from you, informing me about some new Simple Plan occurence, which help me keep the website up-to-date, and sometimes be even quicker than the band itself [sorry, boys..]. Thank you so much for everything. All your help is incredibly appreciated, not only by me, but I’m sure that by other fans as well.

In the past 365 days, SimplePlan.cz has brought you 572 articles, thousands of new photographs and the website has also gained many new fans on its social media sites! SimplePlan.cz’s Twitter is now being followed by over 7300 fans, the website also has over 6900 fans on its Facebook page and its Instagram profile, started only last year, is quickly receiving more and more fans – just a couple weeks ago we reached 2000 followers.

This whole past year has been absolutely incredible. Since the last anniversary, SimplePlan.cz had the opportunity to interview the members of Simple Plan again – this time in Antwerp, Belgium (2015) and just a couple months later I caught up with the band on camera once again before the show in Prague, Czech Republic. Speaking of Prague – I’d like to once again express my eternal gratitude to all the fans who made that concert what it was. The amount of people – from so many different countries – who took part in the Czech Out The Rest Of Us project, where we held up signs with the lyrics from “The Rest Of Us” during the live version of the song, was absolutely astounding. It once again proved what scale of amazingness can be achieved when people unite.

I’d like to take this moment to say thanks to some particular people as well. Very big thanks goes to Michael Šimon (Charm Music / promoter) and Libor Lisý (Warner Music CZ) for believing in my word that Simple Plan truly do have quite a few fans in the Czech Republic and finally successfully bringing them back to Prague. I’d also like to send my thanks all the way to Canada – to the whole management at Coalition Music for all the help and support when it came to interviews, contests or other stuff and also to Fred Jerome for always being very kind and supportive. And speaking of thanking people overseas, big thanks also goes to Bruno Calmon from SPB.com – thanks for everything, mate!

I also can’t forget to thank the whole Simple Plan crew for putting together the latest tour, which has been amazing so far (and which will surely continue to be so in the following months) – Chady, Sean, Frank etc. – you guys rock. Special thanks to Sim for always being extremely kind and helpful and for being so ready to shoot all the SP.cz sign surprises in Prague without me even having to ask him – thanks for always reading up on everything.

There’s five guys without whom this site would be nothing, though. Five guys, who every day keep giving me more and more reasons to continue doing what I’ve been doing for the past nine years. Jeff, Pierre, David, Sebastien and Chuck, you know what you mean to me. “Thank you” will never express my gratitude to you enough. Very special thanks goes to Chuck in particular for basically keeping this whole SP thing going since day one. Thanks, Chuck, for all the trust and everything you do for the fans. It’s mostly appreciated.

There we go, another year behind us, another year ahead of us. And I’m sure it will be a great one, cause we’re kicking it off with a big party and switching online to offline for once. To celebrate SimplePlan.cz’s 9th anniversary, we’re hosting another Simple Plan fans’ meet-up today in Prague, which should give many fans an opportunity to meet other fans, make friends and share stories and memories of their favorite band. So far it looks like his year’s attendance could be the biggest yet, so it should be fun! Make sure to follow SimplePlan.cz’s Instagram stories today for some behind the scenes photos/videos from the meet-up!

Kicking off year 10 now – should be a good one!

Thanks for reading,

Dominika
SimplePlan.cz

PHOTOS: Simple Plan back in Canada – live at Saskatoon Ex

AUTHOR: Dominika | 12. August 2016 | no comments

After their short “acoustic” stay in the U.S., Pierre, David, Seb and Jeff were reunited with Chuck in Saskatoon, Canada, where the band hit the Saskatoon Ex festival for another great performance, as can be said from the overwhelming responses to the show on social media.

Check out some of the first pictures of the band playing Saskatoon Ex:

Below, you can also check out a short video the two filmed in the studio: