The Working Class Hero Festival is coming up

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Per Ole Hagen

Drammen is a town outside of Oslo, and they have made a great effort in using culture actively to make the town a better place to live and visit. One of the things they have done is to revive and old industry area to make – among other things – a very good concert hall, plus an adjoining hotel. Another thing is the festival Working Class Hero. This coming weekend it will be arranged for the 13th time. Here are some pictures of the artists from the 2009 and 2012 festival while we are waiting for this year’s festival to begin. (Picture above: Donkeyboy from 2009)

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Bjørn Eidsvåg og Vestlandsfanden i Sauda

Posted on May 26, 2013 by Per Ole Hagen

This blogpost will be in Norwegian because it is mostly for the Norwegian audience. Sauda is the place where Bjørn Eidsvåg and Reidar Brendeland, the leader of the band Vestlandsfanden grew up. It is also the town where I spent ten years from 1961 to 1971, and where I started playing music. On Friday May 24th Vestlandsfanden, Bjørn Eidsvåg and many other artists from Sauda played a concert there together during the yearly local festival Saudadagane.

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John Fogerty Wrote A Song For Everyone

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Per Ole Hagen

On May 28th is John Fogerty turns 68 and he also releases his new CD, Wrote A Song For Everyone, with 14 songs, 2 new ones. The CD is recorded with many of Fogerty’s musical friends. I saw his concert in March at the SXSW in Austin, and I was impressed.

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Lucinda Williams in Oslo

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Per Ole Hagen

Lucinda WIlliams is one of the best songwriters in the Americana – country landscape for the last 20 years. She has won three Grammys and has been nominated for 12 more. Her commercial break through came as late as 1998 with Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. From that CD she has been up there as one of the leading female artists in the the landscape between country, rock and Americana.

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Happy Birthday Josh Homme!

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Per Ole Hagen

Josh Homme is 40 years old today, May 17th. He is one of the leading musical artists on the newer hard rock and stoner rock scene, with present and former membership in bands like Kyuss, Eagles Of Death Metal, Queens Of The Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures. Here are some pictures of Josh Homme from different live concerts.

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Time Of The Season for The Zombies at the SXSW

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Per Ole Hagen

One of the concerts I enjoyed the best at SXSW this year, was with The Zombies. The band started out 51 years ago, but hasn’t been together for many years. But the last twenty years they have played together off and on, and this year they delighted a packed venue at SXSW with their songs.

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Spot 2013 – The Danish Showcase Festival

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Per Ole Hagen

Denmark have had their own showcase festival, Spot, for some years now, just like Norway have by:Larm and the US have SXSW. The festival was held in its home town Aarhus this wekend, and many talented bands performed. The idea about festivals like this is to attract both the best talent and also the music business, to see if there might be any possibilities for both parties to luck out. This means that the festivals have a seminar program at daytime and many concerts at night. All the bands play 40 minutes shows, enough to get a feel of their repertoire and for them to show what they are worth. (Picture above: Kristine Stubbe Teglbjaerg)