I remember when Grace Jones started her career as a singer. Three of her albums in the period 1980-82 were recorded at the Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas. The same with Joe Cocker’s Sheffield Steel from 1982. What was common in these recordings were not only the studio, but the drums and bass, played by Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, aka Sly & Robbie. Yesterday the duo played in Oslo.
Garbage played in Oslo tonight. The band started up in 1993 and have been off and on in periods since then. This year they have been on a long tour, which ends in Peru just before Christmas. Here are photos from the Oslo concert.
Order is a new Norwegian black metal band, but playing old school metal. The band started out in 2013, but the members have a long history from the Norwegian black metal scene. Earlier this year they played the Inferno Festival, and last night they played at Blå, one of the best clubs in Oslo. (Picture above: Messiah from Order)
Judith Owen is a singer songwriter from Wales, living in the USA. She started out in the 90’s, releasing her first album, in 1996. Since then she has released ten other albums, the latest, Somebody’s Child was released this year. Tonight she played in Oslo with her musicians. Continue reading
Norway have had an active Americana culture for years, with many excellent musicians and artists performing their own music in what loosely can be called Americana. In Oslo there are Americana sessions at the Buckley club, and this Saturday the Oslo Americana Festival was held at the Grefsenkollen restaurant for the first time. The venue has one of Oslo’s best views over the whole city of Oslo, which matches the festivals wide definition of the Americana style perfectly. (Photo above: Knut Reiersrud)
Two years ago, Eidsivablot was held at Eidsvold, the same place where Norway’s constitution was made 200 years before. It is also one of the places where the vikings held their blot, a pagan party with eating drinking, games, and worshipping of their gods. Borre, south west of Oslo is another place where the vikings held blot, and they have built a museum and a house in the style of the vikings. This weekend the second edition of Midgardsblot was held there.
Grace Jones was the headliner at the last day of the Øyafestivalen this year. I saw her last year at Bergen Fest, and much of the show was the same. But she had taken it to another level this time, and showed everyone who is the real star among all the wannabe pop divas. She also looks so good and is in such good shape that you forget that she is sixty eight years old.
Saturday at the Øyafestivalen is a long concert day with music from one o’clock until eleven at night. Luckily the weather was much better than the day before. Except for some slight rain early in the day, the rest of the day was sunny. Saturday was also a day for some really good music, starting with Midnight Choir and ending with Grace Jones. I missed Friday at the festival, but Saturday compensated well for this.
The second day of the Øya Festival was sunny, although it became quite chilly when the sun went down. The headliners this day was PJ Harvey who I saw, and Jamie XX, who played at the same time on two stages. Before them I saw a lot of good concerts both with artists I have seen before, and also some new ones. (Photo above: PJ Harvey)
The Øya Festival in Oslo is the biggest music festival in Oslo. It was originally held at and around the medieval ruins down by the seafront. Three years ago they had to move the festival to a park close to the Munch museum, which also meant the capacity increased. The park is ideal for a festival, with a natural amphi for three of the stages. The fourth one is a huge tent, located at the farthest distance from that main stage, so they can have bands playing at the same time with no over hearing. Here are the bands I saw on Wednesday. (Photo above: Aurora)
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