This piece doesn’t really go anywhere but we just got back from Norway with some photos that I wanted to post. It’s just a bit of a background story to why the fuck we were in Oslo and Trondheim this weekend (JB);

I just got back from a couple of days in Norway where my pal Danny and I went in search of some new rock’n’roll. On Friday we flew to Oslo where we acclimatised in bars before taking a band – three very cool young girls – out for dinner before their show. These situations can often be difficult. Basically, you have gone out to another country to see and meet a new band that have made a few tracks that you have heard and liked. They are looking for a record deal and you’re looking for the second coming. You have to believe that you got just one shot to impress. Don’t fuck it up. Now our label has a few years behind it, a few hits too, but outside of the UK (and US) we haven’t had a ton of success (actually, Scandinavia has been good to the Magic Numbers, Saint Etienne and Ed Harcourt, so we haven’t done too bad there) but these girls are only just out of their teens, they don’t really know who we are. They are hip. They like beats. They are actually so ‘now’ it’s exciting and it makes me laugh and remember back to when… So we got some explaining to do and that is in English, to Finns, whilst in Norway. I’m the same age as their Mom & Dad and I’ve had a few beers already….
But it’s fine. They seem to be listening and I’m not talking total shit and the food is good. Later I see them play for the first time and I like them a lot. In honesty it wasn’t the greatest but circumstances weren’t helping (rubbish pa etc) but I can see they’ve got it. They were down about it so we left them drinking wine and said that we would see them the following night in Trondheim.
And that was ace. Brilliant actually. And we all got on. It was my first Saturday night out in years and we had a laugh. One of the girls played great records after the show and thankfully I didn’t dance. We might just have a chance…..

These pics were taken by Danny or myself from the train to Trondheim. Six and a half hours on a pilgrim trail, up and over the mountains. They were taken yesterday between 8am and 2pm. As you can see its fucking beautiful and Trondheim was cool too. Mad, but cool.