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April 22nd 2004
It was a 7-hour drive to Hamar. It was a beautiful,
clear day and during this drive we were able to see just how incredible
this country looks. The mountains, rivers and lakes are breathtaking
and the video cameras were rolling for most of the journey. The
roads are narrow and slow as they wind through the mountains and
at one point we were way above the tree line which is 900 metres!
Isolated villages and, in some cases, very isolated cabins dot the
landscape here and it is fascinating to wonder how people live.
This road was built by Adolf Hitler using Russian slave labour and,
though it has been improved a lot since then, it is still pretty
primitive by most western standards. The Peer Gynt suite is memorialised
here too as we passed the site where Grieg wrote the "Hall
of the Mountain King". Amazing stuff which reminds me of how
lucky we are to be able to see this, even if it is from a cramped
seat in a crowded mini-van!!
Once more, Petter got us to town on time and Geir and Terje were
there to help with load-in. Richard had a bit of a difficult time
as the PA was not quite right and the crew and the venue were obviously
not used to this kind of show. I am being kind here! It felt like
the kind of place where they would have a wedding party but we were
here to play and we pressed on.
After dinner we rested a while and prepared for the gig which was
okay. We had a lot of technical problems but the crowd enjoyed it
and that's what mattered here… that and the fact that we, as
a band, learned a lot from it! You have to accept that things won't
always be perfect and that when things go wrong you can learn from
it and grow. Take the negatives and turn them into positives…
that's the way to make them actually work FOR you and not against
you. It is in moments like this that I am very thankful for the
experience of the years.
Next day...
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