Oslo a go-go

Purveyors of Nordic Jazz Metal, Shining

I’m in Oslo for the annual by:Larm festival and conference. It’s kind of the South By SouthWest of Norway. Which is kind of a weird concept. I came over via Copenhagen and have been put up in a rather nice hotel right in the centre of Oslo – walking distance to all of the events.

I’m giving a presentation on Saturday, and I’m kind of listed in the programme as a VIP guest from abroad – but actually, it’s all a bit of a ruse. There’s a guy who’s setting up an online service about putting live music online, and he wants my help with it. I said I’d be happy to help out, as long as I could get there without having to worry about travel and accommodation.

He was already presenting twice at by:Larm – he forfeited one of those slots to me, and hey presto! Here I am. I’ve been hanging out with him and a friend since I got here, and we’ve had traditional Norwegian food and ‘introduction to the culture’ lessons.

But mostly, we’ve had beer and been to see bands.

So far I’ve seen some really great acts. LukeStar were kind of interesting. Live, they were like Muse, as led by a castrato. Have a listen to The Shade You Hide on their MySpace.

Then, seemingly on a whim, we stopped into what had once been a church (and still looked exactly like one, inside and out) but was now a venue – where singer songwriter Thom Hell was playing.

He was really great. Pleasant surprise. Piano and voice, followed by guitar and voice, and then back to the piano. Really lovely, intricate songs. He’s great live. Funny too, if you speak Norwegian.

And then there was Shining. Two members of Jaga Jazzist in a serious heavy metal band. Pompous, posturing and absurd. Completely over the top. Everything you could possibly think of about Scandanavian heavy metal with all of its potential Spinal Tap connotations and then some, with free jazz thrown into the mix – and an EWI (electronic wind instrument) the likes of which I hadn’t seen for over a decade, and even then only as a joke.

But they were great. Somehow, they were awesome.

Weekend in Fryslân

Groningen

I’m in the North of Holland this weekend, giving a presentation at something called Lopend Vuur. It’s a music industry thing, and I explain it a little bit on my New Music Strategies website.

It’s a part of the country I haven’t been to before. I’ve visited Amsterdam a number of times, and I’ve been to Hilversum and the Hague, but I haven’t ventured north to Friesland before.

After the usual shorter-than-my-bus-ride-to-work plane trip from Birmingham to Amsterdam, I took a train from Schiphol to Amersfoort, then another from Amersfoort to Groningen, where I met Lykle (pron. Lee’-kler) from Lopend Vuur. The event itself is in Leeuwarden, actually in Friesland (Fryslân) but I’m staying one city over in Groningen.

Lykle – looking a bit Dutch

Lykle’s instructions for finding him must have something to do with the Dutch sense of humour. He said he’d be the one in the black coat, with a black bicycle. Of course, so was everyone else.

We went straight to the local student television station (Groningen’s a university town), where I was interviewed about the pitch (like I knew anything…) and Ard who had set the whole thing up got a chance to explain the whole deal.

Ard explains Lopend Vuur

The student TV studio was also a bar (good way to get them to turn up, if you ask me) and so we hung out and enjoyed the acoustic set by one of the bands from this weekend’s event, AudioTransparent.

Two members of AudioTransparent, live on the sofa

Popped back to keyboardist/vocalist Gijs’s place to use his studio setup. I’d promised to do a voicejob for a friend back in New Zealand. So there I am saying ‘Welcome to XYZ Insurance company, please press 1 to be placed in a priority queue…’ and I’m in the living room of someone who could quite conceivably be the next big thing out of Europe on the world pop music stage.

And every now and then, I have to stop because a motorcycle went past on the street outside.

Then a few of us, Ritzo (AudioTransparent’s assigned expert mentor/coach for the Lopend Vuur project), Lykle, Gijs and I head out to get me into the hotel and get a bite to eat. It turns out we nearly lost the hotel booking because we should have checked in by 3 – but after a bit of to and fro, I dumped my stuff in the room (basic, but more than sufficient) and headed to the restaurant.

I ate rabbit for the first time in decades. It bit back. I managed to chip one of my two fake teeth on a bit of bone, and I’m a bit worried I’ve got a big dentistry bill coming up. It didn’t fall out, but it’s shredding my tongue, and I wouldn’t mind getting that sorted out soon. Serves me right for eating cute and furry creatures, rather than the big, ugly ones everyone else seems to prefer.

Ritzo & Lykle

We followed it up with a trip to the local Irish pub, on the grounds that they had good Scotch whisky (Lagavulin, in fact, so I was happy…). There was even a traditional Irish pub band playing – so we didn’t stay too long…

True to its name, the Friesland Hotel (to my ears, the ‘Freeze-land’) was cold. I hardly slept. Just as well, really — because the presentation I gave this morning needed some serious panelbeating to get it into shape.

People liking my presentation

And so I gave my presentation, and it seemed to go well. People said nice things about it and made the right noises at the right time.

I’ve picked up a large number of promo CDs and I’ve been interviewed by media outlets big and small and now it’s time for a drink.

Valentines gig

Valentines day seems to be my time to DJ. Must be the soppy jazz stuff. I seem to hardly ever play records out, but Valentines seems to be a sure bet.

This year, I ended up with two gigs: first at the Bulls Head in Moseley, then at the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath. Both gigs were attended by a select (ie small) crowd and people said nice and encouraging things. Some of them even said ‘Are you here every Thursday?’ ‘Why not?’

Probably because it’s usually real DJs, but they don’t work on Valentines. I suspect that most of them are young, unmarried, and hoping to make the most of the romantic occasion. Our romantic occasion was a couple of days ago, when Bobbie and I had our 14th wedding anniversary.

But the response was good, though the crowd was small. In fact, it seems I have another gig at the end of March at the residence and recording studio of a man named Bob, who I’m told produced the first UB40 album, and has a ‘mint pad’, which I’m assuming is a great home, rather than a toothpaste-flavoured jotter. He says I was a ‘breath of fresh air’, and must play records at his soiree.

Sounds like it could be fun.

I spent the morning with my first year students, and we set up four new record labels, as we do at this time each semester. That was followed by a succession of meetings, all of which generated extremely exciting new adventures, the detail of most of which I can’t yet divulge, but they included the usual things I get excited about: music, the internet, doing cool things with interesting people, and the faint promise of money one day perhaps.

In the morning, I’m off to Holland for the Lopend Vuur pitch, which I’ll explain in more detail over the next few days (once I understand it better myself). My flight’s at 9.45am, and it’s 2am now (I’ve just come home from the DJ-ing gig), so I’ll go have a short nap before packing, I think.