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August 2008
"These Are The Good Old Days" Fredrikstad is a fairly small Norwegian town but I really like being here. I enjoy the people, the river life and the general sense of well-being that is easy to feel. It is 8am now and the town is still sleeeping but I am awake after arriving quite late last night from Spain. Looking out of the window of my hotel room and in spite of the grey "English" sky, I remember what a good time we had here last year and I wonder what´s in store this weekend…. Today is show day and there is a lot to do. Apart from anything else, we have added "Wonderworld" and "Sweet Freedom" to the show and this afternoon I get to try my Hammond for the first time since Tom Erik spent 2 months re-building it and I am excited about that! This is the 5th anniversary of the Summer Party in Gresvik and there is a special atmosphere this year and people are here from as far away as San Francisco and Helsinki. Now that's dedication!! Weather reports have been a bit dodgy but I tend not to worry about things like that because it's really out of our control isn't it? After a quick lunch in one of the lovely riverside cafés we left for sound check…. in a boat! Just like last year when we went to a local football game by boat, we climbed aboard a lovingly restored, 1950's era fishing boat and cruised slowly up the river for a while and then turned down-river towards Gresvik (photo here). By now the sun was shining and it was actually quite warm so this was a very relaxed way to go to work! When we got to the venue/car park, everything was pretty much ready and I was soooo happy to get my hands on my Hammond. Tom Erik is a Hammond specialist in Oslo and he actually owns about 50 of them and he had been working on my road rig for a while. It needed a lot of work but he knew exactly what to do and more importantly he had the parts necessary to fix it. As soon as I started to play it, I felt and heard a huge difference and I was really happy. I won't bore you with all the details but it wasn't only a matter of technical differences because it sounded so good and played so much better than before that it really helped me from a creative standpoint. I hope you get to hear it some time soon! Anyway, sound check went well until it started raining at which point we had to stop while they covered everything as best they could. The weather guys in Norway actually know what's going to happen and they told us that this would last about an hour and then the sun would come back so, while we waited for the sun, we had dinner and a chance to discuss all of the shows coming up in October, November and December. We wanted to do something a little different this year so we worked on the set list a bit until it came out like this….
Intro You all know how much I love playing with the guys in Live Fire and one reason for that is that they know all the biggest Heep songs and love playing them so, when it came to doing "Wonderworld" and "Sweet Freedom", I was the one who had to do the most homework!! We ran through them in sound check and they fit into our show really well so we all felt that, apart from the uncertain weather, we were ready. But first, more food!! "Unbelievable Hon, he's on about eating again"! "You gotta be kidding Rufus… this guys gonna get obtuse if he ain't careful!" "That´s obese Hon… you should know that word!" "Oh, yeah, you're right!"
After dinner we went our separate ways to prepare for the show and got back to the venue about 45 minutes before stage call. The "venue" was already packed… people were definitely ready to help us celebrate the 5th year of our little party! The dressing room was quite busy as usual. (It's actually Tor Ander's apartment, that he converts for us every year and, by the way, this year he prepared an absolutely delicious salmon meal for us!). We have never treated this gig in a formal way so people came into the dressing room fairly freely after being checked out at the pub entrance down below. This gig started 5 years ago as a party, "A Lark In The Car Park", and we are determined to keep the basis of it intact… A few autographs here, a quick interview there and it was show time…. The show was completely sold out and the crowd was even louder than last year. The sound on stage had actually improved a lot since sound check and we pounded through the 105 minutes with maximum energy. There was a lot of smiling on and off stage and I saw a lot of younger faces in the crowd this year and all of them singing along with a lot of the songs! And then…. It was over for another year and time to celebrate. Lots of nice words and good vibes in the dressing room so we made a plan to go to a nice bar on the riverwalk called "Oscar". We left in separate cars and, when my group arrived, it quickly became obvious that about 5000 other people had the same idea. The entire riverside area was full to overflowing with really young people who come down for the (fake) beach party. Their general condition had us really scared. Not of them or for them but in case they had drunk all the beer in town! It certainly looked like it. We boldly found the bar and were equally boldly told they had stopped serving on the outside terrace and somebody went inside to look for Erik and only found a sea of people so, we sat, had a fag and a think and….. left! A glass of wine in the lobby seemed the sanest way to finish the evening but we didn't get to have our big celebration unfortunately. Next time! Sunday came slowly. A day off and time to chill a bit and catch up on some "office work". But, first breakfast….
"Well, we can't see him from here Rufus, but I'll bet this trailer that he's obtuse already." "That's OBESE Hon and don't you be bettin' this trailer on nothin', ya hear?" Ate some nice crunchy scrambled eggs and chatted with Sid and his family, Helge and Ken before they left for Oslo and then hit the laptop for a few hours before David and I strolled through the rain to the café by the river for a burger and a beer.
"I'm
tellin you Rufus, it's all over for this guy!" "Ah Hon,
you know the old saying…. It ain't over til the…." After five years of our Summer Party in this relatively small community I have gotten to know a lot of people and become a face familiar enough for people to feel comfortable saying "Hi" or taking a picture or just chatting and that's how it was with a group of people sitting a couple of tables away from us. Some of them were at the show last night and so we got into a nice friendly conversation and it turned out they were finishing their vacation here and had parked their boats on the river close to the restaurant strip. When I say boats, I should respectfully refer to them as motor yachts and man, these things were huge! We had to leave for Gresvik but they invited us back later so we said goodbye and drove with Jack to Odins Kro, the bar that is the backbone of the Summer Party and the social centre of Gresvik. We didn't do much, just had a nice relaxing beer, made the deal to go for five more years of the Summer Party and watched a little football. Everyone seemed to be happy with the event again this year so the ambience was pleasant, happy and friendly! Eventually it was time to head back to Fredrikstad and visit our friends on the "boat" which was called Black Eagle. Their other boat (a smaller version of this one) was parked in front and it was called Grey Squirrel. (Editor's note: You don't "park" a boat! You "dock" it and then "moor" it!). Sorry about that…. Anyway Black Eagle was about 15 metres long (that's about 50 feet for those of you in Loma Linda), looked like it was brand new and I was told it cost around 3 million dollars! I told you these Norwegian people were rich! We had an enjoyable time but it was soon time for me to go to bed. I get to go home tomorrow and start a 17-day vacation for which I am really thankful! Rygge is a new airport serving a different part of Oslo and it's much closer to Fredrikstad but it only has flights to Alicante four days a week, which is why I didn't go home yesterday. It's still growing and it lacks a lot of facilities but Norwegian (which is a pretty decent airline by the way) flies direct to Alicante from there so all I needed was a window seat so I could sleep. I actually got a whole row to myself and slept for about 2 hours. Home safe and almost sound I was welcomed by Monica and the dogs and I was so happy to be home. I really miss Monica, our home and our animal family, in fact I had written a little poem about it while I was away…. "I have ordered coffee for two, though I sit here completely alone, It's just one of those ridiculous things that I do when my heart really wants to be home" It was a quick trip but a really enjoyable one. I am already looking forward to next year. Live Fire is becoming scary good and I am really happy in this band. All in all, these really are the good old days!
God bless, |
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Copyright © 1996-2008 Ken Hensley |