W.A.S.P. were some of the really bad bands in the 80s, with songs like Animal (Fuck Like a Beast), Helldorado, Chainsaw Charlie, Dirty Balls, plus live shows with blood and porn. They were banned in many countries, but now the scandals are gone, and Blackie Lawless has found God.
Ida Jenshus released her third CD Someone To Love a couple of weeks ago. Now she is on a club tour to promote the CD, and yesterday she played the Crossroad Club in Oslo. The concert was sold out, and the expectations were high.
In 1967 the two Danish brothers Thomas and Anders Koppel started a band with jazz drummer Alex Riel, guitarist Jens Rugstedt, Flemming Ostermann and Annisette Hansen. They called the band The Savage Rose, and 45 years later Annisette is the only one left. But her voice is such an important part of the band that you never doubt which band you are listening to. Thursday night The Savage Rose played at the Rockefeller Music Hall in Oslo.
When Ida Jenshus released her debut CD, Color Of The Sun in 2008, she got great reviews. Ida was 21 years old, and she won a well deserved Spellemannpris (the Norwegian Grammy) for the CD. The follow up CD, No Guarantees came two years later and won her another Spellemannpris. This week she releases her third CD, Someone To Love, and we may be looking forward to her third award in March next year.
Norway have many great artists, and every once and again a new one arrives who has that special thing that makes her or him stand out from the crowd. John Olav Nilsen is one of those, and he was immediately recognized, even before he released his debut CD in 2009. Since then he has played many concerts with his band, Gjengen, and their third CD, Den eneste veien ut (The Only Way Out) is out now.
Seigmen was one of Norway’s leading rock bands in the 90’s. They were supposed to follow up the heritage from the four big ones, Dum Dum Boys, De Lillos, Raga Rockers and Jokke og Valentinerne. But they disbanded in 1998 after a 9 year carreer. Luckily they have had many comebacks after that, and one of them was tonight.
Paal Angelskaar was the songwriter and singer in the Norwegian band Minor Majority. Ten years after they started out he releases his first solo CD, Follow Me. Wednesday he held the release concert at the Rockefeller Music hall in Norway.
Norway have many musical legends, both internationally and nationally known. Bugge Wesseltoft is one of our internationally best known musicians, while Geir Wentzel definitely should have been. Thursday night these two and a handful of Norway’s best musicians through the last 40 years plus one Swede played together in Oslo at the arrangement The Organ Club. (The picture: Bugge Wesseltoft and Sveinung Hovensjoe)
This year’s Blues In Hell is over, and it has been a great two days with good artists, good blues and friendly people from all over Norway. The festival is held some 20 miles east of Trondheim at a place called Hell, which means a shallow cave in old Norwegian. The headliners at the festival were The Original Blues Brothers, Johnny Hoy, Tommy Castro, Vidar Busk, Roy Rogers and Rory Block. (Above: Johnny Hoy and The Bluefish)
This weekend the Blues in Hell festival is happening at Hell, a place in Stjoerdal, close Trondheim in Norway. This is the fifth year for the festival, and in my opinion it is one of the best and most charming blues festivals in Norway. This year The Original Blues Brothers, Rory Block, Alvin Youngblood and Tommy Castro are some of the headliners. (The picture shows Big Jay from the 2009 festival)
Artist Pictures Blog 