Bryan Ferry played the big stage at the Øya festival last night, and he is still the stylish guy, even at almost 69. His voice is the same, smooth and inviting, and the songs are good as always. Bryan Ferry is a pop history legend with his background from Roxy Music, and a big and happy crowd enjoyed his concert yesterday.
If you want to see only one of today’s soul artists, you should start with Janelle Monae. Yes, there are others, they sell buckets of records, but they don’t have the natural charm and musicality of Janelle Monae. And their stage shows are bigger, costlier and much more cynically predictable. Yesterday Janelle Monae scored a new victory at the Øya festival in Oslo.
The last time I saw Queens Of The Stone Age, or QOTSA for short, was at the Norwegian Wood festival in Oslo in 2008. That time Josh Homme was sick with food poisoning, but they still delivered a very good concert. Yesterday QOTSA headlined the opening day at the Øya festival in Oslo, and the band showed that they are still the kings of stoner rock.
When Gregg Allman had to cancel his concert at the Notodden Blues Festival this year, Delbert McClinton stepped in on short notice. The concert was held together with Royal Southern Brotherhood, and the concert at Brygga on Saturday, the big outdoor venue at Notodden, was an artistic success. The 4000 people in the audience certainly had a good time. (Picture above: Delbert McClinton and Heidi Solheim)
Hugh Laurie should be a well known name for many who watch TV, and who doesn’t? He is Dr. House, one of the best paid actors in the TV world. But many of us remember him from the Black Adder series, where he played the airhead who was manipulated by the evil Rowan Atkinson, aka The Black Adder. What many didn’t know, is that Hugh Laurie is an accomplished blues musician and singer, and on Friday he played at Brygga, the outdoor venue at the Notodden Blues Festival.
The Notodden Blues Festival is starting next week. This will be the 27th festival, and it has established itself as the largest blues festival in Scandinavia, and also one of the largest ones in Europe. In 2012 Notodden was named a part of the Mississippi Blues Trail as the only place outside of the USA. Here are some thoughts about the artists, plus some pictures of the highlights from last year. (Picture above: Vidar Busk and His True Believers)
Tons of Rock was held June 19-21., but I have been too busy afterwards to manage to post anything from the festival. This was the first time the festival was held, but it is an easy bet that we will get a new festival next year. Everyone there enjoyed themselves, and the line up was very good with Slayer, Anthrax, Sepulture, TNT, Volbeat, Turbonegro and many others filling three stages for three days.
The second day of the Steinkjer Festival had Timbuktu & Damn as headliner on the big stage, and Highasakite and Black Debbath at the tent stage. But before them many good artists and band played. I had special pleasure hearing Maria Mena, Skambankt, The South and Highasakite again. (Picture above: Timbuktu)
One of my routines every summer, is to start my short summer vacation at the Steinkjer Festival. It is a local festival in Steinkjer which is a town in the middle of Norway. The festival is run by Svein Bjoerge, the same man who is behind the new Norwegian heavy rock festival Tons of Rock, which was a big success last weekend. The Steinkjer festival has grown to be a semi-big festival, with lots of good bands and a very nice atmosphere. Here are pictures of some of the bands from Friday. (Picture above: Oslo Ess)
Sunday started just as beautiful as Saturday, except for some more wind and a few scattered clouds. The festival schedule started later than the day before, with fewer bands and artists, and the schedule was also more condensed, with less time in between. That was the good news. The better news is that there were many good concerts by Monica Heldal, Tom Odell, James Vincent McMorrow and Bow To Each Other, with John Mayer as the musical climax. (Picture above: John Mayer)
Artist Pictures Blog 