DAYS ELEVEN AND TWELVE - OSLO

My setup in Oslo could not have been sweeter. Im staying at a pretty nice hotel in the centre of the city, a few minutes walk from wherever I need to be. I have my guitar and laptop and have been demoing some new songs, Its the first time I've ever really did that while on tour and its quite rewarding, breaks up the monotony of the day and keeps me off the Crack, just about. 

My first show in Oslo was at a great venue called Revolver, the crowd were really great, the manager and staff of the venue were really nice too. Id recommend any band to try play there and any punter or tourist that ever visits Oslo to have a drink there because its a really top gaf. On that night i opened with a version of Wire's 'I Am The Fly' for no other reason than i seen a poster for a Wire show on a wall in the jax just before i went on. It set the scene for a fun set where i threw in another handful of covers like TVP's 'Part-Time punks', 'Stop And Think It Over' by Compulsive Gamblers and two that have become standards in the acoustic set 'Its cold Outside' and 'You Cant Put Your Arms Around A Memory'. Dan the manager of the Venue delivered a couple of shots [the name of the drink escapes me] before and during the show and i have to say it was the strongest, and strongest-tasting non-bootleg liquor i have ever tasted. It tasted strongly of ginger and it nearly blew my brains out. I think its german. The germans know how to make liquor thats for sure, Jagermeister is by far my favourite shot drink...anyhow, enough talk about drink its making me feel ill. I stayed around and had a good laugh at Revolver, listening to some decent indie music and some ironic 90's shit like C&C Music Factory, which incidentally i really love but i really liked where Ed the DJ was going with it until he was told to stop because the punters heads were getting wrecked!!! hehe. 

Sunday was a day off and i spent a lot of time actually doing some singing and songwriting in the hotel, interlaced with a couple of strolls around the peaceful city of Oz!! I met with Dan from Revolver in the evening at a club called Bla, which was packed and everyone was rocking out the a 10 piece house band called Frank Znort, really really fun music and a load of guest vocalists got up with them and did cover versions. Good craic, Nick from the Mighty Atomics [excellent Dublin surf-garage band] actually recommended i go check these guys out too. I was glad i did. After bla we went to another small bar, the name of which escapes me but it was nice, and then back to Revolver for a couple more Drinks before heading home to bed.

Tonight will be my third and last show in Norway, im looking forward to it.  Im also looking forward to coming back here.  Norwegians are very friendly and its a joy to sit and sing a few tunes for them.