NEW KEN STRINGFELLOW RECORD! THE SELLOUT COVERS EP! READ ON
HERE.
I couldn't sleep. I woke up at 5; eyes not shutting again, fully alert. So, I was able to take my time as I prepared to depart. By the time I headed down to my taxi, Aden and Dom were still asleep. I was at the airport early, which ended up being useful--not just in the sense I wasn't in a hurry, but I needed room to maneuver--when they sent me to put my bag on the odd size belt, there was no one there to receive it. I waited. I went to the 'Paul' just a few yards away and had my croissant and cafe. I waited some more. Finally, I went back to the Norwegian air check in, and told then to send somebody. In the 5 minutes my guitar was abandoned at the odd size belt, it was surrounded by soldiers, on the possibility it was a suspicious device with reason to arouse it. When I jogged back with the attendant from Norwegian, the soldiers were laughing. But, another 5 minutes and it would have been shitcanned.
I hit the ground running in Oslo--straight up to Tiger of Sweden to get some shoes, and then to the Disciplines' studio to do a guitar overdub with Bjorn. And, then, a photo shoot in our studio. It was relentless, and I was hungry. What good fortune had I, as at about 7.15 that evening, I was picked up by a taxi and taken to the home of Jens, the chef from the very fine Arakataka restaurant in Oslo; this where my friend Matthias is sommelier. Jens had offered to cook for us at his flat, and it was wonderful. He seared some king crab, among many other delicacies. And, naturally, wine was paired with every bite. And, naturally, after a full on day of work, having been up since 5, I fell asleep right after the cheese. A happy man, however. Jens let me watch over his shoulder, and it was fantastic to see how simple the actions were, but they were guided by experience, so his timing was perfect.
OSLO, 4/8
I was hurting a bit--having mixed red, white, sparkling and sweet wines over the course of the dinner. Fair enough--a worthy cause! Jon & I spent the morning doing TV and newspaper interviews. I had a meeting with the Disciplines' label, and with the folks at Tiger of Sweden. PLUS we had a show. And what a show it was--oh, except, also, I had an instore performance at the record store, Big Dipper, that occupies part of the same building as John Dee, the venue we were playing that night. At first, when I walked in the door, it looked like a tumbleweed racetrack. But, people filed in and I played, well, covers--it was promotion for my covers EP after all!
John Dee was full of friends that night--my booking agents, UK and Norway; some of my Revolver Bar crew; some of my flatmates from the recording period in December/January. There were a lot of people at this show, actually, and they were heavily into it; it was inspiring! I think we were held up for at least a couple of encores...and lots of merch sales afterwards!
TRONDHEIM, 4/9
Early train--that hurt, and for some reason, the train didn't seem as luxurious as when we did the same trip in 2005. It was more crowded, more threadbare...it seemed to stop every 2 minutes along the way. We arrived in Trondheim, day two of the tour, already a bit tired. And, we suffered only from the best hospitality--the promoter here gave us a table at the excellent
Credo restaurant (which also has shows in its upstairs bar--Jon has played here). Once again, the wine and delicious food, prepared with great care and skill, was applied and took its customary toll. We weren't drunk per se when we played, but we were a bit slow on the uptake...anyway, the point of this show was that we had switched venues not long before, having been booked originally at a club that was *already* booked. So, in the resulting confusion, not as many people made it to our show as might normally. No harm done. We played just fine, but, Oslo was, technically, better.
TROMSO, 4/10
A beautiful flight. Flawless skies gave us an uninterrupted view of the whimsical meringue that is the landscape of extreme northwestern Norway. On the way up, the plane stopped in Bodo (blogger doesn't recognize non-American letters like the 'o' with a slash thru it that occurs frequently in Norwegian, e.g.) to drop off and take on passengers. Bodo was established originally as an airbase in the Second World War, and is still one today. On this day, Norwegian jets were on maneuver, circling the airfield--a free show for us.
We arrived to Tromso, and had some down time--I went book shopping, and took in some sun (despite the temperature around 0 deg. C.).
We walked, taking care not to slip on the still-frozen streets, to Driv, which is an old fish processing house in the harbor. Remarkably, this old wooden barn of certainly more than a century in age doesn't smell like fish in the least! It's just a nice sounding, rattly old music hall, with several levels and stages, but all built from huge and ancient wooden beams. Our show here was great--turnout was decent, boosted by an enormous article in the local press. There was the requisite really drunk guy, who, when I was saying goodnight, suddenly tackled and dove on one of his friends. haha! I got the hell out.
The big revelation of the day was that we received word from
Richard Kern that we could use his photo...unwittingly placed on the Disciplines' album cover by our designer. There's the photo of a horse that was clipped from an issue of Vice, and we all loved it as part of the cover collage. So, when we found it was Richard Kern's, we all congratulated ourselves on our good taste, and then the task fell to me to investigate it. Luckily, we have a mutual friend in Lydia Lunch, and he liked the music.
I mean, the *other* big revelation. It seems the Disciplines will be supporting R.E.M. for their stadium shows in Scandinavia in September!
Read on.
BERGEN, 4/11
We flew on to Bergen, and were soon at soundcheck in familiar surroundings--I've played at the Garage on 3 previous visits. There's Trygve, the Posies' promoter in Norway, and Dennis, the manager of the venue, who is a kind of RiffRaff biker guy, really funny and enthusiastic. So, it was old home week. And Bjorn from the Disciplines is a Bergen-ite, so he was at soundcheck as well. After s.c., Bjorn and I joined the Lerche family at their favorite table, at a nice eatery off the beaten path in Bergen (Ok, the whole town is off the beaten path, technically. We did experience our first Bergen traffic jam in on the way from the airport, so I guess the place is growing). Sondre Lerche and his clan of brothers and sisters--Jon & I know his sister Bianca--were dining, and Bjorn and I joined them and two more friends. One of the friends, fully Norwegian, related a story about being on a date in New York with an American female, and trying to say a toast, along the lines of 'Bottoms Up'...but he ended up saying 'Up yours' instead...and immediately knew that couldn't be right. No need to say, 'Up yours' became the theme of the night!
The Bergen show was quite busy, and tons of people were singing along with almost every song...no complaints from me! Some girls that kind of looked like Lita Ford hogged the front row, but, what the hey. They were into it, so, I can't really criticize.
STAVANGER, 4/12
Jon & I dragged our carcasses down to the harbor and got on what I can only described as the 'Greyhound of the Norwegian coast', a small ferry boat heading in the general direction of Stavanger. Turns out we had to change at about the half way point, so, we had to be on our toes even if we desperately wanted to sleep more. Nobody seemed interested in my E-ticket receipt. I kept trying to show it at every embark-/disembark -ation, and no one was interested.
We changed boats, on to a bigger, catamaran ferry for the final leg. Again, my offer to show the ticket were brushed off. So, as we came into the harbor, I tossed the ticket receipt, thinking the journey was basically over. And, basically, it was. Except, on the way off, they were checking tickets all of a sudden. No problem--I went to retrieve the receipt from the wastebasket near where I had been stretched out on a banquette. Uh, the wastebaskets had been emptied already. Well, surely they'd understand--but, as it turns out, they didn't. The ferry employee told me I would simply have to locate the ticket. How? Well, there were two huge, black garbage bags by the door. I said...'you know what this means, right?' and he wouldn't relent, so I dumped the contents of the bags on the deck. And began to look for the ticket. I was told the boat wasn't leaving for two hours, so I had plenty of time. Why, thanks! I found *another* ticket, but not ours. And then, the guy actually found the info I threw away--but in another part of the ship! So, we were free to go--and then he told us he could have looked up the res. online. Hmm....so you *wanted** to humiliate us. Thanks!
At least the show was fantastic! Quite a bit better turnout than the last Posies show in Stavanger...people were into it too. We actually did a *second* encore, here, I felt like it was the least I could do. Jon & I copped a buzz from the Burgundy provided backstage, and headed back to enjoy the high speed net and the big bed in each of our rooms. These things matter...
Love
KS
Stavanger, NORWAY
