Kent - The Final Tour - Malmö - 11/11/2016

And the winner is ... "Sydney!".

This year I attended a number of large concerts across Europe and I can categorically say the Europeans do not run major events anywhere near as well as Australians. So it doesn't surprise me that when Sydney held the Olympics in 2000 it was announced as the greatest games ever. The anticipation of visiting European cities to attend a major event does not compensate for the fact that the events themselves are often poorly run, held in old stadiums long overdue for upgrades, understaffed and the movement of people inefficient.

Kent - The best lighting I've ever experienced at a concert.

Many times I was drenched in rain getting to and from events, often running around old stadiums unable to find my seat, or anyone who spoke English to help. On top of this there are very few attendants to help you find seats, the stadiums are confusing, areas and zones poorly marked and seating uncomfortable. I'm thinking in English when the stand directions are all abbreviated in the local language. If you do find someone you might be told, "See that big fat guy with glasses, you're over there." Once when leaving a concert I was once forced to go through a hole in a fence to avoid crowds, such was the limited numbers of exits. I then walked 4 kilometers in the rain with thousands of others as there was no PT available. A result of a city decision to halt all traffic around the stadium for an hour after the event meaning no bus could leave or enter the zone - go figure! On other occasions after leaving concerts I was squashed like a sardine on a train I prayed was going in my direction. There were simply no station attendants to direct traffic and questions to. And then there are the queues, everywhere, big and long.

Kent Set List: 2.5 Hours
As I believe Kent are a modern reincarnation of Queen I have transliterated their music into the most similar Queen song so you can get a feel for their grandeur.

	Swedish	English	Queen Equivalent
1.	Gigi	Gigi	Procession/ Now I'm here
2.	999	999	Spread your Wings
3.	Stoppa mig juni (Lilla ego)	Stop me June (Little Ego)	Heaven for Everyone
4.	Romeo återvänder ensam	Romeo returns alone	Hammer to Fall
5.	Var är vi nu?	Where are you now?	The Miracle
6.	Hjärta	Heart	'39
7.	Andromeda	Andromeda	Star fleet (Brian May Solo Single)
8.	Egoist	Egoist	Breakthru
9.	Den döda vinkeln	The Blind Spot	Dead on Time
10.	Vi är för alltid	We are forever	Who wants to live Forever
11.	Innan allting tar slut	Before it all ends	Don't try so Hard
12.	Den vänstra stranden	The left bank	Life is Real (Song for Lennon)
13.	La belle époque	The good times	These are the days of our lives
14.	Ingenting	Nothing	Sheer Heart Attack
15.	Kärleken väntar	Love waits/Love awaits	I was born to love you
16.	Jag ser dig	I see you	You don't fool me
17.	Musik Non Stop	Music non stop	Radio Ga Ga
18.	Utan dina andetag	Without your breath	Love of My Life
19.	Sverige	Sweden	Is this the World We Created ...?
20.	747	747	Brighton Rock
	Encore 1
21.	Förlåtelsen	Forgiveness	Innuendo
22.	Dom andra	The Others	Under Pressure
23.	Mannen i den vita hatten (16 år senare) (*)	The man in the white hat (16 years later)	Bohemian Rhapsody
	Encore 2:
24.	Den sista sången	The Last Song	The Show must go on

Highlights: Musik non Stop, Jag ser dig, Den sista sången, Egoist, Kärleken väntar, Gigi, Innan allting tar slut, Hjärta.
Omissions: Socker, Det Finns Inga Ord, En Timme En Minute, Ismael, Tennsoldater, Vinternoll2, M
* Literal Translation - I would translate this 'We are all going to die' as that is the signature line of the song.

Who are Kent? Well they've been the biggest group in Sweden for over 20 years and earlier this year announced their intentions to retire from music on December 17th, releasing a chilling music video whereby all their album artwork came to life, marching through the streets of Stockholm. Its been the best planned breakup in music history with details of all final releases, singles, album, a best of album, final tour, being released at the same time. I stayed up to 3am one Saturday night in March when tickets were released randomly clicking on Swedish cities I'd never heard of, quickly looking things up in my Swedish dictionary, in the hope of snatching something. In the end I got Malmö, a city I'd actually heard of. 

Musik Non Stop - Song of the night with excellent staging.

Kent loved English music so much they named themselves after a county. Their influences include Joy Division, New Order, the Cure, Depeche Mode and this gives their music a dark chilling edginess when combined with Scandinavian dark and melancholy. Their music is complex, with layered guitar tracks, swirling harmonies and songs that build to a crescendo, in difficult minor keys, they sound very much like Queen. Hailing from working class Sweden, their English was never particularly good, and with half the band originating from Norway they were soon popular in both countries. Their early music is a post grunge, indie/alternative sound with layered guitar tracks and sounds a little like Radiohead. This soon gave way to a more progressive futuristic sound containing elements of Space Rock and resulted in their breakthrough album 'Isola'.  So popular it was in Sweden they were encouraged to make it big in the English speaking world and soon had the album translated into English. They toured extensively, in the US supporting the Cardigans, and also the UK. A follow up album soon came but it was a more traditional rock sound and didn't result in any radio friendly songs for English speakers. It was during this phase that I discovered them, their albums being briefly promoted in JB Hifi. Its still the best $35 I've ever spent on a mystery CD.

The band gave up on the idea of making it big in the English world in uncompromising fashion and their music evolved naturally without the pressure from big multinational American companies. This gave them the freedom to do whatever they wanted as Sweden loved them. They soon crafted a radio friendly Swedish sound, releasing Vapen & ammunition, which is their best selling album to date, giving them numerous Swedish hits, selling a million copies in Scandinavia alone. With the confidence of a loyal fan base they went dark, dressing in black, experimenting with Space Rock and Sci Fi themes. Their songs start slowly, teasing you a bit, bringing you down and often finishing with long and loud instrumental sequences. The release of Jag & du döden (Me and you death), the musical highlight of their career and the best album of the 21st century. The follow up Hjärta & Smärta EP added a Swedish choir into the mix which when combined with Space rock gave their music a new dimension.

Utan Dina Andetag - Without your breath. One of the world's
most beautiful love songs. Fire representing a burning love.

Kent are led by the charismatic Joachim Berg (Jocke), lead singer, sole songwriter & guitarist, he constantly changed the musical direction of the band, their sound morphing into electronic rock, putting done an electronic beat and then adding layers of guitars. Once bored with that they moved onto some beautiful electro-pop which led to synth pop and they finished their career with rock/pop and a dash of disco. A modern day Freddie Mercury without purple nail polish, tidily dressed as Swedes must be, he runs around the stage gesticulating the audience to get involved, starting off hand claps, carefully constructing a set-list and spectacle fitting for their music.

I attended the 1st of a triple header weekend in Malmö  which began the final leg of their 3 month tour. The venue was the Globe arena, scene of the 2013 Euro-vision song contest with a capacity of 15000 - 20000 people. Nestled on the edge of the city, it is the first station on the metro line when coming from Copenhagen but I'm glad I stayed in Malmö as security between the 2 countries results in a 20 minute journey taking an hour. 
The band put an alert on the website that the gig was due to start at 7:30pm and that was when they planned to be on stage. No band in the history of music has ever done this but if I figured if there was a first it would be these guys. I rushed down to the stadium, catching the local metro along with everyone else in town. It was a beautiful barmy night of 2 degrees, still, no wind, and everyone was rugged up for a night on the town. Malmö being packed full of tourists for the weekend from all parts of Scandinavia. Apparently they come here for the barmy weather and Skåne accents. I arrived at the stadium and queued, cleared security, found a bathroom (to avoid future queuing), bought some popcorn (they only had onion chips) and a drink without a lid because it is illegal to sell drinks with lids in Sweden. The cashier telling me this is in case I decide to use my bottle as a projectile for that is why they have to remove the lid. I wouldn't have thought to do so until he put the idea into my head.

I wandered through the stadium alone, up some dark stairwells not passing security or attendants and found my seat on the top tier. Far below were these 3 massive screens and in a large font a countdown appeared showing the time until the band took the stage: 21:09. The concert will start at exactly 7:30pm as promised. Eventually the crowd made its way to their seats and at exactly 7:30 the concert began. A pre-recorded track playing the drums and harmonies blasted through the stadium whilst a holographic projection of an alien walked onto stage getting increasingly bigger. Then the band walked on-stage, one by one, the crowd cheering. The harmonies began, Sami Sivrio blasted his Brian May-esque power chords and we were treated to a couple of versus of Gigi before the electric piano breaks in and we move onto the ultra commercial 999 where we are asked to choose between Coke Cola and Micheal Bolton. The Swedes are not known for being animated and instead the band instruct the crowd to clap their hands to a particular beat for each song, usually its clapping above your heads, sometimes down at your waist, and sometimes at shoulder height. A perfect way to get involved when you don't understand the lyrics. 

The first part of the concert wasn't particularly great. Stadium rock is hard to do, the mix was a bit off, in particular the guitar was off. It wasn't grungy enough but was too funky. Maybe it was my position in the arena. However I admire the band for reworking all their songs live to give them all a funky feel. It didn't work for many of the songs in the first half, the guitar driven Romeo återvänder ensam and Den döda vinkeln seemed hollow which was a shame as I love those songs. They played too many songs from their latest albums, and all weaker tracks, many hits but lacking the guitar edginess from their early career. I was at times bored. The stadium's excellent free wi-fi coming in handy.

Vi är för alltid - An average song enhanced by lighting.

With 3 guitarists on stage they were always swapping instruments, changing guitars, acoustic to electric and vice versa, and the large video screen always changing images, big flashing lights forever changing colour. The early highlights included Hjarta (heart), a beautiful acoustic number with some pacey synth's giving effects and horses running around in the background. Egoist, one of their latest singles, is a poppy song with a repetitive chorus which worked really well live, the crowd clapping their hands and singing along, most un Swede like to be animated. Ingenting (Nothing) one of their best songs with a killer guitar riff just wasn't loud enough, the guitar had no kick and I was disappointed. 

The concert picked up after this with Kärleken väntar, one of their most popular songs. A beautiful haunting song, the harmonies worked well live, the guitar not so prominent in the studio version, meaning the shortfalls of the mix were overlooked. There was an App distributed for the concert and the audience was meant to display their phones in the air but I couldn't figure out how to get it to work. The crowd singing along, the lights changing for each part of the song made this song work well. This was followed by Jag ser dig, an okay song on the album but a concert favourite and it totally rocked. In English it means I See you and the camera panned the audience displaying random images on the screen behind whilst they sang, I see you, I see you, I see you, with catchy, funky, repetitive guitar progressively getting faster. The crowd got really involved, the song very catchy when played live, the audience clapping their hands and singing, it worked well. 

This led to my highlight of the evening, Music non Stop, funky on the album, they nailed it live, the 3 guitars building up to a crescendo at the end with large faces appearing on the screen behind, it was musical heaven. As there is an English version of this song I felt more connected to the Swedish version. This led to their most famous song in all of Sweden, Utan dina andetag. Every Swede plays this at their wedding, making it the most popular wedding song in the country. I want to marry a Swedish girl just so I can play it. The songs translates as Without your Breath and is a love song about a guy who says all the things he loves about his partner whilst she is sleeping because he can't express his feelings to her when he is awake. So Swedish! He sings the most beautiful things to her, barring that line about transparent grey. However its not your typical love song, it has grungy guitar, is kinda of heavy with layered guitars and was initially a B-Side but the people found it and a concert isn't complete without it. They used to play the song with the sequencing from Det Finns Inga Ord and spent 3 minutes building up a guitar intro but here they went funky, the guitar's not quite working, adding extra harmonies and displaying an image of fire. It was the song I was most looking forward, I spent all afternoon leaning the Swedish lyrics to but didn't quite work for me. The crowd also didn't sing along as much as I expected.

Followed by Sverige (Sweden), the unofficial national anthem of Sweden, a time for the audience to stand and be patriotic. An acoustic number and not being able to sing the effect was lost on me but I've never been a fan of the song. They finished off the set with 747, a song which goes for exactly 7 minutes and 47 seconds. It has a long instrumental on the album and it was a concert closer for 8 years but in this version they added harmonies and instead of outplaying to a long instrumental they sang these over and over and it worked okay, just not what I was expecting. 

The band then left the stage and a thunderstorm scene appeared with thunder and lightning effects. Grandiose and impressive, the beautiful synth from Förlåtelsen played which is arguably their finest 6 minutes of synth-pop. Jocke's voice didn't quite nail the lyrics, the grungy guitars overshadowing the synth's in the mix and the harmonies just not as good as the album. Dom andra is one of their most popular songs, I call it the whistle song because that's what I hear and as such I compare it to Under Pressure with the hand claps and fingers clicking, The crowd loved it but its really just a tease for the best song they have ever done Mannen i den vita hatten. This is where Stairway to Heaven meets Bohemian Rhapsody, at 6.5 minutes it starts slowly with acoustic guitar and builds and builds, steadily getting heavier and louder. The chorus translates as We are all going to die and Swede's play this song at their funerals. The band belted out the tune, the crowd clapping along as fast as they could as the song picks up pace. When they finish the song singing 'We are all going to die', it seems like the end until, they play the last section again, this time even faster, blasting paper rose petals into the audience, the lights going crazy the music is so fast, bordering on heavy metal but Jocke's voice is so smooth it couldn't be. It only went for 10 minutes.

It would be the perfect place to end a concert, and for 10 years it was how they finished until they released a song on their last album called 'The Last Song', which was the last song. The band leaving stage, returning a few minutes later dressed in white to play Den sista sången. Its beautiful on the album and they nailed it live, with the aliens coming down on the big screen behind them, they look on and watch whilst the Swedish choir runs away with the chorus. The crowd standing, swaying from side to side, clapping their hands, knowing this will never happen again. It was the last song they recorded and a perfect way to finish.

Sverige (Sweden) - The unofficial national anthem.

I left feeling satisfied I'd seen them before they split up. Its not the best concert I've seen, maybe if I was Swedish I'd think otherwise. There were many other heavier songs I wish they'd played and the songs I liked best weren't what I was expecting. As I queued at the ticket machine for 30 minutes to make the return journey to my hotel I heard a group of people singing, "La la la la, la la la la, la la la la la" the chorus from Socker, one of my favourites. They were lamenting its exclusion from the set which would have made the concert so much better and was my biggest criticism of the setlist. It was a grandiose affair with the most amazing lights and video screens, on par with Eurovision which probably had a more diverse lighting array. Enjoyable in places but not all the time. The audience similar in age to myself, maybe a little younger for those on the floor.

And so my year of concerts in Europe is complete. It was an experience and I learned a lot about cultural etiquette in other countries. I didn't expect to be hugged and kissed by a strange woman in one concert or to meet my dream girl at another only to lose her on the way out. Rendezvous 101 - always get the girls number. Stadium rock is overrated, its hard to do, sitting outside in the cold and rain is not fun and there is no way to control integrity of the mix throughout the whole venue. It was however thoroughly enjoyable and with so many of my favourite bands nearing the end of their careers and/or past the point of releasing decent material I'm glad I got to say my final farewell.

Radiohead - Live at the Paris Zenith, 24th March, 2016

Setlist

Burn the Witch

(Extended Intro)

Daydreaming

Decks Dark

Desert Island Disk

Ful Stop

Airbag

Talk Show Host

Climbing Up the Walls

Morning Mr. Magpie

Nude

Identikit

The Numbers

Lotus Flower

The National Anthem

Reckoner

Idioteque

Everything in Its Right Place

Encore 1

Give Up the Ghost

Bloom

Present Tense

2 + 2 = 5

There There

Encore 2

Bodysnatchers

Karma Police

(Thom ending solo on guitar with crowd singing)

Highlights: 2  + 2 = 5, Bodysnatchers, Climbing up the Walls, The National Anthem, Idioteque, Everything in its Right Place, Karma Police

Notable Omissions: Creep (although Thom Yorke hates it so un-surprisingly), the lack of anything from the Bends (not that it mattered)

In short the Radiohead concert was even more amazing then I hoped it would be. I can’t actually say it was the best concert ever, as I’m doing my farewell tour of music this year and seeing as many of my favourite bands as possible before they split up, retire or become a shadow of their former selves so there is still a way to go. However if it doesn’t make the top 3 I would be very surprised.

A number of events conspired to make this concert so good. Firstly, Radiohead don’t care what people think. They just get up and play their songs, there is no banter with the audience, they don’t waste time crapping on between tracks, there is little audience participation factor to their music so all the songs interleave together as one creating a musical journey through their catalogue. Matthew Bellamy of Muse take note – the swearing and crapola between tracks you do detracts from the show – you are not Freddie Mercury so don’t try to be. Radiohead are who they are and don’t care if you want to hear Creep, they’re sick of it and hate it so don’t play it.  It’s their music, they know it best, and know how to best present it and for this reason you’re never really sure what you’re going to get, more so then any other band I might like, where I would reasonably be able to predict 85% of the songs played live. With Radiohead don’t even try, they’re even doing distinct set lists for each night on this tour, that’s how dedicated they are to creating a show unique to each audience.

It’s important to note I didn’t come to Paris for 1 night to see Radiohead. I had merely planned a stopover to breakup my trip to Germany so I didn’t spend all day on a train. I was even thinking of getting tickets to the French Open. However a couple of months back Radiohead announced their European tour dates and blow and behold the dates matched. I stayed up 1 Saturday night trying unsuccessfully to get tickets, stuffing up the dates and time zone, but also dividing my loyalties whilst trying to obtain Kent tickets at the same time, the Nordic Radiohead. I kept my eye on ticket resale prices and they hovered around $800 for a ticket but the day before there was 1 considerably less than that so I took a punt, was put in touch with some guy, told to meet at some place and had to figure out how to get into the Paris Zenith, fortuitously happening to be on the same metro line which ran past my hotel. The world had aligned. 

As people descended on the venue and the usual desperate fans with signs looking for tickets roamed around looking depressed, I initially had trouble finding my contact, thinking I might have have been scammed, but we found each other in the end. Radiohead are very aware tickets for their concerts sell out quickly as people who aren’t fans buy up big and put them on resale sites for huge margins. They hate this and for this tour each person’s name was printed on the ticket and the name had to match ID to get into the venue. I thought I was to be escorted into the venue but the guy told me, your name is Martin. You need to get through the ID check somehow. Pretend you forget your ID – it’s the only way.

As I joined the long queue for the security checks, which is like going through airport security as a result of the Paris terror attacks last year, I started formulating Martin’s back story. Basically Martin was going to be a stupid foreigner without any ID who didn’t speak French. When the entry people quizzed me about my ID I told them I didn’t understand them, could you please speak English. They found me someone and I went on to tell them I left my passport at the hotel, which is true, I never carry it with me, and they spoke French to each other basically saying, “What do we do with him?” whilst I looked as confused and innocent as possible, considering the possibility of tears if required. The guard who spoke English told me to go to ticket box#1 and whilst en-route I somehow managed to make a wrong turn that got me into a queue with a guard who simply did not bother to check my ID. I felt like OB1 Konebe in Star Wars when he said, “You don’t need to see our papers.”

The Zenith theatre seats about 6000 people and is quite an intimate and small venue, you don’t feel 

far from the stage, and the entire audience is seated in front of the band. My seat was directly in front of the stage, it was very good, not far from the sound and lighting desk so I could keep an eye on those guys. The experience was heightened by having the pleasure of sitting next to a super cute, sweet scented, friendly, French girl who had loved Radiohead for 18 years, had all their albums, had seen them live 10 times and loved all the same music as me, as well as hating Coldplay, a band designed for MOR lovers. She wasn’t obsessive at all. As we talked and gave each other suggestions on what other European bands to listen to, she explained the Zenith is the best venue to see bands in Paris because of the acoustics. She was totally old school, refusing to download their albums, instead waiting for the actual physical copies to turn up.

The show used different colour/video schemes for each song. They used strobe lighting in some places. The mix was perfect, the band had 2 drummers, 3 guitarists at times, and a bunch of people on keys/piano/electronics, the band changing instruments between songs. Radiohead’s music is defined by 2 distinct eras, the 90’s more post grunge, post progressive rock blend of electric/acoustic guitars with futuristic sounds which morphed into their post 2000 career of more electronic, ambient, moody, mellowed music that was edgy in very different ways and evolved with each album. The bass maybe slightly louder in the mix, and even though there is less guitar, it is still present.

The interesting thing is that their songs live sound largely the same as on the albums, they’re just adding all these little subtle bits to them in places, mixing it perfectly and increasing the intensity at various points to intoxicate you into the musical journey. Radiohead is not a band you sing along to, nor does their music have a high audience participation factor, yet the French crowd found a way of getting involved, and as the show continued the audience got more and more involved in the music, clapping and cheering between songs, stamping their feet. It was a trance like experience, 1 girl even fainted. By the end of the 1^st set the crowd was delirious as they finished with Everything in its right place, they’re usual concert finisher. As is usual for European crowds they break off into these little sets of hand claps which get faster and faster, then stop, then begin again, getting more intense. This is something I used to hear a lot of on my old Queen bootlegs. I’ve not seen it in Australia. The band went off-stage and there was unbelievable noise with everyone on their feet, clapping and cheering for them to come back for the 1^st of 2 encores. It was the encores which stole the show.

The build-up of each song was significant, the band teasing the audience with slightly longer intro’s to build anticipation, picking a few slower numbers Give Up the Ghost and Bloom, before moving into the slightly faster Present Tense of their latest album. Everything peaked in 2 + 2 = 5 as they kept tinkering on the verge of the loud guitar section before they launched into it and deafened the audience for several minutes, teasing us with heavy distorted guitar. This continued into There There, off the same album, where they really rocked out. The band left the stage but the crowd wouldn’t let them go and they returned for another encore, with a large piano being wheeled on stage.

The final encore rocked even more with Bodysnatchers featuring all out guitar, to incite the crowd even further, at this point the noise was overwhelming loud and the band finished with Karma police, the 1 song of the night the audience could genuinely sing along to and we were encouraged to do so, settling us down. Thom Yorke finishing the show with just himself and an acoustic guitar with an audience singalong as they were saying their farewells. There were some “merci beaucoup” between tracks, the band ensuring that all pre-recorded audio/visual pieces which preceded some tracks were in French such was their attention to detail. There were so many 1% they did to improve the quality of the show. They didn’t resort to exuberant lighting tricks, stage theatrics, they let the music do the talking, and had just the right energy appropriate for each song, and most importantly for me, the bass was always at the right level – that is the 1 thing I notice above all in a mix. If you had have told me prior to the show there was nothing from the Bends I probably would’ve been disappointed but when you see them play the best of their post 2000 period music you see how they evolved and how they were trying to challenge and improve themselves rather than getting stuck into a familiar sound.

Many people critized Radiohead after the releases of Kid A / Amenesic when they went more electronic. People leaving them, saying if they wanted electronic they’d just choose something else. However the band were finding a way forwards so they wouldn’t get stuck in a stagnate sound like the Foo Fighters and so many others. The concert featured 24 songs in 2 hours, was worth every cent, and everyone left feeling well pleased. The only real downside for me was as I was leaving, walking and talking with the French girl I’d just met, I realized I’d left my man bag behind in the rush to leave. This never happens – not now! Not wanting to cause an international incident, visions of bomb squad coming in to check the contents of my bag I rushed back to my seat to retrieve it. Sadly I couldn’t catch the girl I’d just met as I tried to push my way through the crowd to get back to her, she was waiting for me, but it turns out the French don’t like it when you push through them, I got so many dirty looks despite my "Pardon" and "Excusez-moi". In the end it was the 1 thing I like so much about French women – their dark brown hair - that was the thing that lost me – everyone looked the same from behind and in a crowd of thousands and I lost her before exchanging details. With limited resources and ways to get her details nothing turned up so this puts her onto the POD list of missed opportunities …

Eurovision 2016 - The Complete Picture

The final results using the previous method.

Australia experienced in the most intimate of ways the true nature of the Eurovision song contest this year. Eurovision is more than just a song contest. It is a competition that transcends the geo political boundaries of Europe. When you allow a group of nations to vote for a song, you also have large communities of people who have migrated into countries across Europe and this affects the distribution of votes. Some countries will always vote for their neighbours, whilst others will never vote due to historical hatred and past atrocities which will never be forgiven. This then affects the integrity of the results as every few years we find the best song doesn’t always win the contest. Throw in a new method for counting votes and you have exposed the entire contest to even greater variables of fluctuation to which Australia was a victim.

The Stage - Amazing lights - Watch out for the camera above

Earlier this year the European song contest changed the rules of the competition such that Jury votes would be counted separately from the public. This meant that effectively each country was giving 1 – 12 points twice, doubling the pool of votes and opening up the results to greater variance. I had concerns on a mathematical and historic level, you can’t really ask trivia questions about vote tally records anymore. Within an hour of the competition someone had crunched the numbers before I could get to them and determined Australia would have won easily under the previous method. This new method creates more fluctuation, more tension, less predictability and is used by Melodifestivalen. Effectively people were sick of a country getting ahead after round#8 with unassailable leads condemning the vote count. Australia became caught in a political war between Ukraine and Russia, with allegations of jury bias, the jury voted down Russia’s song and gave extra points to the Ukraine. The public voted Russia the best song as did POD. The song was controversial prior to the competition beginning with Russia complaining about the material in the song but it was allowed. In the end Australia lost it leads at the last hurrah and many Australians complained it was unfair and we were the big loser in all this, but were we?

Amazing staging and lighting.

I don’t like song contests but I love Eurovision. I never watched young talent time as a kid except to annoy my sisters and make annoying comments. I never watched the X Factor, Idol and all those other singing shows because the artists are all local. Eurovision is more than a contest however. It brings together an entire continent. There is an infectious enthusiasm and energy present throughout the entire competition. The voting reads like a strategy board game, the vote distribution is basic stats, and the results are revealed like a Brownlow medal count. Add extravagant costumes, effects, and the grandiose nature of the occasion and logistics of what they’re trying to achieve and it is better than any of those aforementioned shows. It has it all. As for the music, its European, it can’t go wrong because that’s what I love, but it does go wrong, often, and I love that too.

The streets of Stockholm were alive.

Sweden loves Eurovision and Stockholm being the largest city in these Scandinavian lands makes it the best place to see it. I learned last time I went to Eurovision that the host city as well as venue makes a huge difference as it is dependent on the enthusiasm of the locals. The entire city was geared up for this event, signs in the streets, a Eurovision village with stage, activities, bad acts and tacky souvenirs is a fanatics dream. Indeed the acts were so bad I saw one song start and within 30 seconds they had to stop cos the guitarist missed a chord and the singer cracked it. People came from all over Europe to watch the event in the largest stadium in this part of the world. The Globe Arena, also the world’s largest spherical building. There are records for everything if you look hard enough. Every hotel was full and charging triple price. The streets were overflowing with people, queues for toilets were 20 – 30 minutes meaning my spiritual gift of finding public toilets needed to be at peak performance. I found toilets with 10 minute queues which was a win. Scandinavia is efficient in every possible way, planes board from both front and back within 20 minutes, public transport runs to time, all cafés have counter service and operate the same way but they fail with toilets.  There are toilets everywhere, the problem is that there aren’t enough of them and most of them are unisex meaning where guys could be processed more efficiently they now compete for the same set of toilets, often just a small number. The event also so popular they had to book the venue next door, fill it up with 10000 people and show it on a big screen.

These pretzels are making me thirsty.

People come from all over the world to support their country. Many came from Australia. I saw South Korean flags supporting Dami, a Canadian flag and many more. I thought for a minute the guy sitting next to me might have come from Vietnam after I asked him but it was noisy and he was saying Finland. Strange moment of confusion for me – is Vietnam even in the contest? There is a buzz and a vibe being here. The venue is centrally located meaning its right in the heart of the action. People eat and drink in the surrounding areas before it starts. People from each country are passionate about their acts. Believe it or not people from the UK loved their entry and were singing it everywhere. Same was true for people from every country – Macedonia, Bulgaria, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, etc... And what’s important for people to understand is that the event lasts longer in Europe. The first semi-final is Tuesday night, 2^nd semi-final Thursday night and grand final Saturday night. In between there are jury shows, dress rehearsals, matinees, which allow acts to rehearse the exact same set in front of a packed audience. Songs gather momentum here throughout this time. They are played on the radio, social media comments on each rehearsal and this affects the betting odds. The extra time gives songs momentum and acts time to improve, which many did. And most importantly Australian ears are tuned differently to European ears, a by-product of excessive exposure to American music and forced exposure to Australian music as well as music sung only in English. What might be pleasing to Australian audience’s ears means nothing when it comes to Eurovision. And whilst my ears have European tuning it’s still difficult to predict what might unfold at the end of the event.

Its all about the act.

The rehearsals and semi-finals give times for acts to improve and gather momentum and for me Bulgaria was the big improver each time I saw her act. She sung really well and had the moves. In many ways being an automatic qualifier like France, Spain, UK, Italy, Germany and Sweden can work against you because people don’t see your Act live until the final. I saw the 2^nd semi-final live and was in the nose bled seat, as far back as you could possibly get. The sound was fantastic, maybe not as good as when I went in Oslo a few years back but the lighting, staging and effects were far superior. The entire backdrop is a computer screen as well as the floor. Vast lighting rigs hang from the roof and there are mechanical cameras placed all around the room, which move in vast, fast and swift motion to give you the pictures you see at home. Is the event better live then on TV – without a doubt yes.

Austria - Adorable!

The stage manager gets up about half an hour prior to the event and explains what’s going to happen. Each audience member receives an electronic band which hangs around their necks. This changes colour automatically depending on the act, usually the arena lighting up in the colour of a countries flag. Each device was placed individually on each seat – what a fun job that would’ve been. We were advised this device would keep changing colours in the days to come. Mine kept me awake at night as it lit up my hotel room – red, blue, yellow, white, it was like living across the road from Kenny Rogers chicken, so I had to hide it in the bathroom. He then explains the emergency exits, warns us to keep an eye out for these mechanical cameras as they move quickly and could potentially hit you if you were to suddenly jump up. He then jeers us up and gets us excited in the minutes prior to Eurovision starting so we can all be cheering when the coverage starts.

Each act must be a maximum of 3 minutes with 30 seconds to clear the stage between them. This is a result of a previous Eurovision debacle when Italy’s coverage lasted 4 hours, 45 mins and the 3 min limit/song was imposed soon after. The stage manager is on stage the entire 30 seconds between acts, directing traffic and carrying a blue clipboard. It’s possible I’m the only person in the world who noticed. It’s a bit old, and paper often flapped as he moved. In fact the arena is full of clipboard enabled staff. It’s a paper based system, no iPads, I was impressed. When an act finishes 10 people come on stage with brooms and sweep the stage clean. Digital stage directions appear so the current acts know where to head and people come and grab them and direct them off stage. A separate team of people clean the stage of props and immediately another team of people bring in props for the next act. Finally a separate team of people bring the next act out. This all takes 25 seconds. The last touch is my favourite. In the 5 seconds before the act is live the stage manager goes up to singer, says a few words and then gently hands him/her the microphone just as the countries postcard is finishing. He then walks off making hand gestures to jeer up the crowd. He isn’t worried about being caught on camera because he knows the cameras are positioned in such a way that he won’t.

At least 1 Australian got to hold the trophy!

You really get to experience the audience reactions much better live then on TV. On TV, the coverage jumps to a postcard as soon as an act finishes which introduces the next act. You have this on the screen when watching live but you don’t really pay attention to it. Usually you’re cheering the previous act if they were any good. This is really the best indicator of how popular an act is with the public and really helps me form an opinion of the audience favourite. So from this perspective Russia, Australia, Sweden, Bulgaria, Austria, Belgium, France, Ukraine and Malta got the best reactions with Russia and Australia on another level. I always knew Ukraine was a favourite but I hated her song, her act and completely tuned out when she was on. I knew it was a possible winner I just hoped Europe would know better and it wouldn’t become political. It’s Eurovision, there are always politics.

Watching Eurovision in a Dutch pub.

It was great being there live but it’s not the best place to watch the grand final. You’d have to sit there for 4 hours, leave the auditorium with 50000 other people around 1am, battle it out on the metro, whilst dealing with 5 degree temperatures should you be forced to wait. Not to mention the mandatory 20 minute toilet queues. The rehearsals however are great because they finish earlier and there are less people about. Justin Timberlake added another dimension to it and from my vantage point, I could see him making a point of telling Frans from Sweden he really liked his song. A girl from the Armenian contingent went up and asked for a selfie with him. He agreed, and when he walked away, she nearly fainted for she had just met JT. With the masses of people getting into the venue security was fast and efficient. However with all the logistical problems of being there live for the actual final, not to mention the cost, I found a Dutch Pub to watch the final live. It was named after their Eurovision entrant this year, Douwe Bob and was filled with crazy Dutch people wearing Orange. My friend Camden was able to join me to watch his very first Eurovision. I prepared him as well as I could. 4 hours is a long time for the untrained. One reason why the SBS coverage is so good is they edit the time down.

Love seeing how the audience react to certain songs.

Making our way into a downstairs room, the screen wasn’t super big but it was adequate. The coverage was streamed from Dutch TV because the audience was 90% Dutch, speaking Dutch, drinking beer and singing along. Unfortunately the Netherlands was the 3^rd act of the night so the atmosphere died a bit after that but it was pretty easy to tell the room liked Belgium, France, Austria, the Netherlands (of course) and really got into Russia, Australia, Bulgaria, Lithuania and surprisingly Poland. As the votes continued and Australia stormed into the lead I worried about this new voting procedure. There is a huge discrepancy between the jury and general populous for many countries. Poland received 7 jury points, Austria 30, yet Poland was 4^th most popular with the people, Austria 8^th. This concerns me. As countries were eliminated at the end, I’m doing the math’s in my head as to what the next highest vote could be I realised that Australia were going to lose the #1 to the Ukraine unless Russia got over 400 points which they didn’t. Russia would always be the most popular song with the public. The betting odds suggested this. So when the Ukraine was declared winner the room emptied pretty quickly. I don’t think the song was particularly popular with the Dutch. Nobody wanted to hear it again.

The winning song isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but when you think about it I don’t like Dami’s song much better. Her act was really good and she could sing really well live but in years to come the only song’s from this Eurovision which will be on my playlist will be Sweden, Bulgaria, Austria, Lithuania, Malta, Latvia and Israel. Russia’s strength is in the act which I’m not watching when listening to it. I think Australia have done really well in Eurovision this year finishing 2^nd but we were always going to do well, taking the competition more seriously than some other nations. Eurovision should only ever contain countries from Europe. The integrity of the competition should never be compromised and in many ways I think Eurovision became so popular in Australia because we weren’t in it and this makes us fascinated. I’d be quite happy to kick Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan out of Eurovision. With Asiavision starting up it makes me wonder if countries who aren’t sure if they’re in Europe can jump between Eurovision and Asiavision. And can New Zealand participate in Asia vision – after all they’re in Oceania. It’s going to be interesting.

ABBA Hologram - Sing Live

I’m glad I went. Seeing such events live gives me so much inspiration for running major events myself and it’s good to see how it’s done. There are many tourists there, Europeans using it as an excuse for a getaway as well as to support their countries. Stockholm is a beautiful vibrant city, full of cafes, harbour views and a great metro. The ABBA museum was my favourite part. It’s a compact space but the displays are fantastic. You can perform live with an ABBA hologram, there are booths allowing you to record a song and an excellent history of before and after ABBA. The displays on Swedish music are also outstanding and feature Roxette, Ace of Base, Europe, Kent, Veronica Maggio and many more.

Kent - Summed up Perfectly

As for my predictions, I got 4 of the top 5 right (Australia, Russia, Bulgaria, Sweden) so was only out by 1. The betting odds also got 4 out of the top 5 right (Ukraine, Australia, Russia, and Sweden) and missed Bulgaria. I’d highly recommend seeing it live but only in the right countries.

The best thing that happened though was being randomly selected after the event to complete a feedback survey. I love those Swedes!

A-Ha - Final Final Final Concert @ Oslo Spectrum (01/05/2016)

The Crowd of 10000 waits for the band to come on-stage.

Setlist

I've been losing you
Cry Wolf
Move to Memphis
Stay on these Roads
The Swing of Things
Cast in Steel
Crying in the Rain
Mother Nature goes to heaven
We're looking for the whales
Velvet
Lifelines
Here I stand and face the rain

The show was recorded for yet another final concert DVD.

Scoundrel days
Sycamore leaves
She's humming a tune
Foot of the Mountain
Hunting High and Low

Encore#1
The Sun Always Shines on TV
Under the Makeup
The Living Daylights

Encore#2
Take on Me




Highlights: Hunting High and Low, The Sun Always Shines on TV, Lifelines, Sycamore Leaves, Scoundrel Days, Take on Me
Notable Omissions: Seemingly non stop July, Memorial Beach, Butterfly Butterfly, Nothing is keeping me here, I wish I cared, White Dwarf

I saw A-Ha live not because I am the biggest fan, indeed the band would struggle to break into my top 20, but because I was looking for things to do in the area prior to Eurovision and had been stalking my favourite bands as they toured Europe and settled on A-Ha. I have all their albums and love many of their songs and Morten Harket also has one of my favourite voices in the history of music, only really beaten by Freddie Mercury and Jockim Berg (that other Scandinavian legend), both musical geniuses who write much more complex and denser material than A-Ha could manage.

A-Ha are far more successful then most Australians realise, with a huge following in Europe and South American they've sold over 100 million albums and are Norway's biggest selling band. They burst onto the scene in the mid 1980's with Take On Me, a huge worldwide hit, made popular by an awesome music video, which also gave me my favourite countdown memory when Molly Meldrum introduced them for the 1st time saying they were the next big thing. Their follow up hits The Sun Always Shines on TV and Hunting High and Low were also massive and they are still the only non US/UK act to write a theme for a Bond film, The Living Daylights.

There was a a lot of interesting animation on screen.

A-Ha's music is quite diverse within the realm of synth-pop. Their 80's albums suffer from poor production, weak tracks which dated poorly and are very erratic and incomplete. Indeed I struggle to listen to most 80's albums as once you take the singles out the quality degenerates quickly, so they are not alone there. Their popularity dwindled as the 90's came around and they went to America to record some of their darkest and best material. Out went the synth's and they recorded dark, moody, melancholic music with acoustic guitars, minor keys and that Scandinavian angst I love. They soon split up, unable to have a hit outside of Norway where they are revered. Morten Harket is also quite a strong Christian, having to choose between a singing career and entering ministry he choose music. He used the time to find himself, recording some very personal music about his Christian journey. I'm sure I would find meaning in it if I could understand Norwegian. His first solo effort Wild Seed is in English and filled with personal songs. Fortunately after his Norwegian efforts he stuck to English which is a better language for singing.

Cry Wolf - Images of wolves appear on the sreen

The band reformed in 2000 with one of the best comeback releases by an 80s band in Minor Earth, Major Sky. It spawned hits across Europe and they started touring again. The modern reworking of their music is best described as Radiohead without the cool, a more adult contemporary feel. They mix acoustic guitars, electric piano, effects, harmonies and Scandinavian minor keys to give it an edge and the mixes are very pure, with a very polished, perfected Scandinavian feel. As the 2000's wore on the quality of their releases started to fluctuate culminating with their best album Foot of the Mountain, where they nailed synth pop for the last time. They saw the writing on the wall, and Morten Harket went on to continue his solo career, writing music which was better then most A-Ha albums. However for some reason they reformed in 2015, released a sub par album which was followed by a another tour. There was no need, but fans didn't complain. The last time apparently.

I had low expectations going into the concert as I believe all live music is destined to be crap unless it features heavy electric guitar. The early highlight was the sound guy plugging his phone into the main mix, and then the phone rang. He couldn't turn it off straight away, I think he was figuring out how to do it without getting that whooshing sound you hear. We were then treated to this weird support act. They were a cross between The Cure and The Cranberries. Kind of a Norwegian folk / pop act with a dark Gothic twist. They had 2 violinists, a keyboardist, acoustic guitar but no drummer, just some girl doing harmonies and randomly hitting a bass drum. I wish I knew what they were called. All their songs were about someone coming to get me, or something coming to an end. They all sounded the same but were strangely haunting. They sung in English but spoke Norwegian between tracks. I think her Mum was in the audience as she screamed hi.

A-Ha eventually came on to thunderous applause and they were pretty much as I expected, a bit, bland and boring at first. This is really due to their set list as it mostly focuses on their 80's material which people want to hear but their post 2000 music is considerably better. The lights were great, and the video sequences behind them were also engaging. The early songs left no room for audience participation though and Morten was struggling to hit the high notes early on some of the better songs like Stay on these Roads. There was a lot of banter with the audience, most of it in Norwegian, and occasionally he'd break into English, telling us we should learn Norwegian for it is a beautiful language, much better than Danish as it sounds right. Girls would randomly call out to Morten, "Marry me", apparently he was quite the hunk in his younger days and was desired by all Norwegian women.

Lifelines - The crowd turn the torch on their phones on.

After the early numbers were over, the concert moved into their post 2000 material and slowly improved. In lifelines, the audience turned the lights on their phones on and shone them into the air, and as a result we felt more engaged with the song and the crowd sang along. Scoundrel days sounded surprisingly fresh live with the electric piano and edgy guitar working well in a live setting. Sycamore leaves featured edgy guitar and busy percussion and was another up tempo number which kept things moving. Foot of the Mountain is one of their best songs with a killer synth riff but the synth's weren't loud enough in the mix and it just wasn't possible to reproduce the studio sound live which was a pity as it was one of the songs I was most looking forward to.

It was at about this time that a curious thing happened to me. The woman next to me had bought along her disabled mother and was preparing to leave (or so it seemed). As she setup her wheelchair and helped her mother into it, I noticed she left her sweater behind. It looked nice so instinctively I ran after them to give them the sweater. The woman grabbed me, gave me a hug and a kiss and then said something to me in Norwegian I didn't understand at the time. It left me wondering if this was another Norwegian cultural custom I wasn't aware of - returning lost property results in a hug and kiss. Last time I came to Oslo I had been chatting to 2 Norwegian girls in a pub for a while only for them to announce after an hour or so that they were going to leave to have dinner with their parents. Who has dinner with their parents on a Saturday night? Australian girls just say they're tired or busy if they don't want to see / talk to you. Turns out Norwegians do have dinner with their family on Saturday night as I saw them. As for the women sitting next to me it turned out they were just going to the bathroom.  So I really have no idea why I got the hug. Maybe I looked hug deprived.

Here I Stand and Face the Rain - This song features Christian
imagery and sounds (a choir) hence the church windows.

The encores were easily the highlight of the concert. Hunting High and Low resulted in an audience sing a long with audience participation sections getting us to repeat large sections of the song. They returned for the Sun Always Shines on TV which they totally nailed, hitting all the right notes and again getting the audience to sing along and was my highlight of the night. Under the makeup was a slower number from their latest album which was really just a filler to bring the mood down before hitting us with The Living Daylights, their contribution to the Bond film franchise and again showcased the bands ability to get the audience singing along to sections of the song. And just as they bought the mood up again they went off-stage and the chanting and clapping started again for them to return and play their biggest hit Take on Me. These guys aren't stupid, they're Scandinavian, and know you should always play your biggest hits at the end of a concert. The cameraman got close up shots of the keyboardist when he played the riff. The song was quite good live with everyone singing along but not quite up to the standard of the original release.

So I'm glad I'm saw them, I certainly wouldn't recommend going across the world for the sole purpose of seeing them, it was only because I was in the area that I dropped in to do so. The venue was great, easy to get to, efficiently run, security was tight, you just can't buy bottled water there and there were plenty of tourists in town because of this concert and Adele playing in town the same night.

I'll be seeing some other concerts later on in my trip.