St. Vincent, or Annie Clark, as is her real name, is an American artist who is difficult to fit into any traditional musical genre. Her music has elements of everything, and she molds it together to form a genuine and personal mix. Last night she played the Pstereo festival in Trondheim for an audience who shared the critiques’ excitement for her.
The Oya festival is over, and it is a whole year to next time. This year the festival was held in a new location, which proved successful for the audience and hopefully also for the artists. It worked just fine for us photographers too, with good conditions and possibilities for some good shots. Here are my personal favorites from the bands I photographed at the festival. (Picture above: Bryan Ferry’s drummer Cherisse Osei.)
Mayhem are Norway’s longest existing black metal band. It is also the band with the most controversy surrounding it. On Friday they celebrated their 30 year anniversary at the Oya festival with the stage full of carcasses and pigs’ heads and some good new and old school black metal. Here are pictures from the concert.
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)
Sweden have had many big pop acts during the last 40 years, starting with ABBA and so far ending with Avicii. They also have and have had some really great rock acts like Ebba Grøn, Thåström, the younger Lars Winnerbäck and Håkan Hellström. And then they have Ulf Lundell. He has been around since the mid 70’s and is still going strong. Yesterday night he played for an almost sold out Rockefeller in Oslo.
Artist Pictures Blog 