Ung Pike Forsvunnet at Kafé Vanguard

Ung Pike Forsvunnet is a Norwegian band that was active in Norway in the 80’s. Their musical style was hard and funky, and all their lyrics were in Norwegian, a somewhat unusual phenomenon at that time. Thirty years later they started to play again, if not as actively as before, and last night they held a concert, this year’s first.

In 1982 I was a freelance producer at the NRK, doing most of the studio and some live productions of bands for NRK’s only radio show with rock music, Ungdommens Radioavis. This year they arranged a band challenge, and Ung Pike Forsvunnet (Loosely translated as Young Girl Disappeared) won with their song Denna byen er vår (This town is ours). Shortly after they got a record deal, and recorded their self-titled debut LP.

They released another LP, Uppercut, in 1985, but the band disbanded the year after. At the beginning their music was inspired by new wave, but at the end of their career, they had horns and backup singers, and their music turned more towards funk and American pop. After 1986 the members of the band played in different other bands until 2012 when they celebrated their 30 year anniversary with a concert in Oslo. Since then they have played a handful of concerts and also released two new songs.

Last night Ung Pike Forsvunnet played for an audience that has aged with the band. Their fans are faithful and supportive. The played for almost 90 minutes, and presented their best songs from the 80’s plus the new ones. The band is impressively tight, with good arrangements and most of the original lineup from the last year they played together.

Ung Pike Forsvunnet from a TV show in 1983.

The band’s song are mostly written by keybord player Ole Hedemann, and his playing is an important part of their sound. Singer Anne Danielsen has a deep and warm, but at the same time hard and rhythmically precise voice, and together with guitarist Tellef Ogrim and funky bass man Oivind Nordal, they were in the original lineup in 1982. Drummer Nils Harkestad is new since 2012. The horn players were Dag Einar Eilertsen, Morten Brenne and Morten Halle and Berit Lohne and Anne S. Hoseth were the backup singers.

I truly enjoyed hearing the band again , and they played even tighter than the last time I saw them two years ago. Many of their old songs still sound fresh, and their new ones fit nicely in, too. Hopefully they will continue playing and I’ll be there the next time they hold a concert. And I won’t be surprised if I will see most of the same people from yesterday night there.