The EBB went back to Bergen last weekend. The town nestles between mountains. It has grown since I was last there but has retained its character and the familiar aspects are still present. It rained hard and cold most of the time we were there. The average annual rain fall in Bergen is always high.
The harbour is still an evocative place for me. I always think of all the many sailors who set sail from there down the centuries. The clipper in the photo is the one on the Bandages sleeve.
The harbour fish market is stunning and the fare is as good as you will find anywhere I have been.


While I was walking around with Steve we came across a pro Life demo. No one took any notice at all. There was no anti protest. No one shouted opposing views at them and I thought what a great strategy this might be in respect of that particular group of self declared guardians of morality. Ignore them.

The people look well and affluent. Norway is a very wealthy country and appears to have retained its individual character with out losing its connection with the rest of Europe. We flew out on the Friday evening and arrived at around 11 oclock. We settled in to our hotel rooms and stayed up quite late doing what the EBB does at such times. Later we walked down to The Garage to check things out. It was obviously a well appointed venue and the list of people having played there is quite a who’s who of contemporary stars.

You might have read about the truck crash and subsequent theft of some of my gear in the previous blog. While at the club our old friend Dennis showed me an old Marshall speaker cabinet ( pictured above on the left ) that I had lost in that crash. It had the legend Eb 1 on the back which Steve remembered painting. I must admit I felt a bit odd when next day, as we set up equipment, it was wheeled out as part of my back line. It did sound nice though. I have decided to appeal to The Garage to return it to me so we will have to wait to see what happens. Watch this space.
Poor Luke had problems with a supplied keyboard with a broken key. After sound checking with a stand in keyboard the main keyboard was quickly repaired and the last task on the pre gig list was completed. Luke was calm again and we settled in at the club for the long night. I was disappointed they had no V8 vegetable juice on the rider but I swallowed that or rather did not. We are not a picky band but we do like to have what we need and in every other respect the service and hospitality at the Garage was excellent.

Mills Caviar paste is one of my addictions

Dennis worked tirelessly all day dealing with every thing thrown at him by the band and local crew. The sound engineer Runne ( hope I spelt that right ) was very professional and achieved a good out front sound with out any fuss. Some of the onstage monitoring wasn’t to every ones liking but it was great for me.
After meeting lots of old friends and in some instances meeting their children for the first time, we walked out into the club and onstage at around 11-15. the show went very well. People sang the songs from the first verse of Evening Over Rooftops on to the end. The new songs went down very well and it seemed that the female members of the audience especially liked Six White Horses. Interestingly many people said we are better now than we were when they first saw us. I was very pleased about that.

My thanks to Vemund Grimstad for the three photos above taken during the show.

After the show a large contingent of fans and friends joined up with us in the dressing rooms for an impromptu party. Fifty people had come from a small town on the west coast to see us and it was very enjoyable to meet with them all. We might be doing a show in their town in August but nothing has been fixed. It does look certain that we will be returning to Norway at end of July / August for three or four shows including one in Oslo.
So after rehearsing for three days and travelling out with all the organisational tasks to be achieved we were all very satisfied with our return to Bergen which will always have a place in our hearts. Thank you Bergen for a very enjoyable weekend. Special thanks to Arne and Boogie who met us at the airport. It was great to see you. Thanks to all of the people who travelled to see us and to all of the crew and staff at The Garage.

above the cloud on the way back home

Peace

copyright e d g a r b r o u g h t o n 2008