Kaizers Orchestra

Just a couple of weeks ago what many would consider Norway's pride and joy in terms of modern music played their final concert. The band of which I speak is Kaizers Orchestra from Stavanger and they are without doubt the biggest band in Norway or at least certainly among all the circles I have found myself in. I was first introduced to them by my girlfriend shortly after we met. While many would say they have gone a little more mainstream in recent years as a general description I would say they are indie rock band with big gypsy style influences. They have always sang in Norwegian which has naturally limited any international appeal but I believe they have done very well across many areas of Europe as well as of course Scandinavia. I have never listened to much non-English speaking music but these guys are without doubt very talented and I have always really enjoy there stuff.

After my first few visits to Norway it became quickly clear that the passion for this band was not limited to my girlfriend although she would call herself a very early adopter. The big "thing" with Kaizers Orchestra that everyone says is they are a band that should really be seen live. Several people I have spoken to have said that while they enjoyed their music they would not have called themselves fans. However once they had gone to see them live they were awed by there energy and stage presence. I have seen many good bands sink on stage and disappoint so to hear of a band with such a reputation is always a pleasure and I made it a mission to get to see them. I missed one great opportunity the summer before I moved to Norway as I had to start Uni but Marianne and many friends all went. I recall singing along in an empty house in England when they called me from the concert and this made me ever more keen to go.

I had not been living in Norway long when the opportunity finally looked like it had arrived when a huge new tour was announced. The defining characteristic of this tour that was pointed out later however was it would be their final one! We bought tickets immediately but the show itself was not for over a year and I constantly found myself forgetting about it and then getting excited again when I remembered.

Just a couple of weeks ago the day finally came, and in a massive field in Bergen I finally got to see an epic and long 3 hour set from Norway's best band. I have to say I was not disappointed. The atmosphere was great and the band put on a hell of a show. They also came out with a famous point which has been told to me literally dozens of times by people from Bergen. This is that Kaizers say that although they are all individual from Stavanger, they consider their band to be from Bergen. This is very simply because Bergen is where they first started to become popular and they have always had a particularly large and enthusiastic following here. That being said they did play their last concert in their real home town of Stavanger which was probably the way to go.

You may wonder why I would point out a band now whos most appealing aspect is there live presence and who have now stopped touring. While a good point I still think that their music is fantastic and people should give it a good listen, not to mention that almost everyone I've spoken to doesn't believe for one minute think that they are really done. But I guess we will have to wait and see on that one.

This was a performance they did at the Norwegian music awards. Great song, brilliant performance and it was no surprise they won several awards.

This is at the same concert I was at. It is not bad quality and gives some idea of the atmosphere.

This is from a couple of years ago in Oslo but this song is traditionally their final song which the crowd always continue to sing long after they have left the stage. Its a great tradition that Im pretty sure started in Bergen. I think for fear that people would never leave this was actually played second last and everyone only had around 5/10 minutes to carry on singing before they played their actual final song. A slight shame but probably a good call if truth be told.

What does the Fox say?

After a very serious politics post lets lighten this up and talk about the latest internet craze. "What does the Fox say" by Ylvis. These two jokers are from Bergen and they have been a very popular double act in Norway for many years. For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, lets show you what I'm talking about. (I advise full screen and decent resolution to really immerse yourself in the insanity.

Ok so now we all know what we're talking about, we can move on. These guys are brothers and hold a talk show on Norwegian TV but have always been heavy into sketches and skits etc, fortunately for me many of which are in English. The video has been very heavily compared to Gangnam style and other such internet crazes but in my opinion this one is a little different. Now I dont know much about what Psy was up to before his international fame but I know Ylvis have been paying the dues with some very clever comedy for several years and I know I thought they were great as soon as I was shown them. These guys deserve all the plaudits they get and I'm hoping the fame of this one song with get people to see lots of there other stuff online and see they are far from one trick ponies.

For the last week or so the video has been in Norwegian news a lot as they record the ever growing number of hits the video recieves as it goes viral all over the world. The hits on the song were making news at 6 million last week and have recently passed 30 million. my favourate song of theres "stonehenge" has gone from 600,000 to nearly 3 million in the same time. Not nearly as a news worthy but still impressive and I'm sure it will continue.

The one question I found asking myself though is why now? They have several others like this. Now many would say this was down to luck, or that this one was just so much better but given how much I studied social media marketing for my degree I was sure there was something else, and there is. Its no big secret infact its well publicised but its something I feel should be pointed out for those who haven't been told. That is that this video was produced by a very famous Norwegian production company who have previously produced stuff for many huge acts such as Rhianna etc.

It is arguable how important a factor this was, several of there other stuff seemed to have a relitvly high budget and are all visually clever so I would argue it was pretty instrumental in getting it off the ground as there other songs never had travelled outside of Scandinavia. Once something is off the ground though all the credit goes back to Ylvis for the simple comedy genius. The quote at the bottom from one of the brothers is a great example of how things can explode accidentally thanks to the wonders of the internet.

Something else I have to touch on is the pronunciation. I've heard Elvis and Ilvis, Ilvis is close but to be honest its almost impossible to describe the Norwegian Y through phonetic English. I'm going to make what is probably a terribly suggestion and say start with Ilvis but for instead of the first I consider the "ol" of "wool". Thats the best I can do I'm afraid.


"The song is made for a TV show and is supposed to entertain a few Norwegians for three minutes — and that's all. It was done just a few days ago and we recently had a screening in our office. About 10 people watched — nobody laughed."
—  Bård Ylvisåker talking about THE FOX

New government in Norway

Ok im pretty sure this is my first properly topical post, not usually my area is a tend to just list ideas and then write them when I get around to it. Last week though a new government was elected in Norway, I'll start by saying I am not very knowledgeable in regards to politics but I do try to keep myself up to date as I understand the importance of these things. Now the chances are there will not be any major or radical changes but the shift was an important one for me as an immigrant. I began by taking the whole thing a little personally and it took me a little while to really cool off a try and look at this more sensibly and objectively. This will not be terribly objective but I will to my best. This could get a little long as I try and touch base on all the key points, please do stay with me as I think its all very interesting, even if it is politics.

So firstly for a bit of background, for the last 8 years Arbeiderpartiet (Workers Party/Labour) have been in power in a coalition with a socialist style party. I believe the Labour party are a typical left wing labour party with policies such as equality, aid and that kind of thing. Generally things have gone very smoothly over this time from what I gather with the majority of people having very few complaints. Given the condition of the international economy I dont think the average Norwegian has any idea how fortunate they are but then again I probably don't either.

The big two concerns from what I could gather politically in Norway are immigration and healthcare. No surprise here as this is the case in many countries but the specifics of it I find quite interesting. Despite what some Norwegians seem to think, coming from England I would say that there relatively few immigrants in Norway.The problem is however there are notably large number of immigrant beggars in the large city centres so it pushes the problem into peoples minds. Norwegian health care is a whole subject in itself but the main cause of complaint is that it is slow and inefficient, much like the English NHS.

So what have Norway voted in now? Well, its another coalition, fronted by a right wing party named quite simply Høyre, meaning "right" but essentially they are a conservative party. They also in many ways follow the traditional conservative mould supporting privatisation, and independence although its wildly believed on an international spectrum, the Norwegian right wing parties arent very right wing, but that is all relative. As a business graduate I can completely relative to many right wing conservative ideals. I believe  the profit motive through privatisation can lead to more efficient operations in many industries. That said however I do not agree with large scale privatisation of schools and health care. I am not a complete socialist in this regard, I do believe private schools and healthcare should exist, anyone who as earnt enough money I think has the right to be able to seek out and pay for what they believe is a better service, but this should not be so wildly available that it is used as a mechanism to actively support the public systems. While public healthcare reforms are also planned, there is a large emphasis on increasing availability of private healthcare and private schools. I wont essay out the details but in my opinion these measures can only reduce the quality of the public system and create more inequality and class separation.

The real worry in many ways is who joins them in this coalition. That party translated as the "step forward party" are essentially characterised as an anti immigration party, and generally accepted to be kind of racist. For an English comparison I would say UKiP rather than going as far as BNP, but still its not good.

My concern is that Norway has become blinded by a few immigrant beggars and forgot what I consider to be Norway's almost defining characteristic, equality. It is a similar change that recently happened in England from labour to conservative, but the difference there was in England we were in crisis and therefore change is to be expected. Norway are not in crisis, not even teetering on the edge of a real struggle. They have been ticking along nicely with a generally sensible, sustainable and most importantly, fair welfare system. To me it feels a little like greed and short-sightedness. The most frustrating thing of all though is many people I've spoken to and many professional analysers are of  the opinion that people are just tired of the current system and essentially, just fancy a change. This is ridiculous in my view, this is not choosing what to have for dinner, its who is going to run the country, and there simply is no where near enough justification for change.

While it is not a strong shout, there is a general murmer from the Norwegian populous that seems to be, there are too many foreigners and we are all too nicey nicey. Well as one of those foreigners maybe its not surprise I've taken the whole thing a little to heart. I worry about what changes will be made to my rights here. Because I'm white educated European I think people don't categorise my being a foreigner in the same way as they do others. The fact is though I came to Norway with only a degree and struggled to get a job for several months and I was definitely not supporting the economy. My Doctor in Norway is an Iranian immigrant that studied in England, my Norwegian class is full of PhD students, doctors and professors from a range of countries including Napal, China, Iran, India etc. These are the researches that are supporting the oil trade and the Doctors that are treating the Norwegian people. The country is crying out for more engineers and doctors and yet they just heavily voted in favour of anti immigration. Once again I am talking about the educated immigrants where it is no doubt the uneducated ones that have a drain on the economy that this is really all aimed at, but its a hell of a challenge to draw lines in the right place on this kind of thing and many people will find themselves undeservingly on the wrong side.

At first the whole business did not overly concern me, I tried not to get to involved as I knew I could not vote but eventually I have been sucked in, and here we are. Interestingly actually I knew I may never be able to vote as to do so you must be a Norwegian citizen, and Norway do not allow duel citizenship. This means to vote I would have to completely cast off my British label, hand over my British passport and from then after be completely Norwegian. Forgive me Norway but have a day off, that is never happening. I know its only paper, but my heritage is important, I love this country and may live here for 50+ years but I will always be an Englishman. Duel citizenship would be an ideal goal for me but Norway remains one of the few countries that doesn't allow it. This rule was recently addressed as looks like it is being changed in Denmark and there was some belief it may be re-examined in Norway, but with the current government in there is simply no way that will happen.

Ok so I'm going to leave it all there before this becomes a full essay, to summarise I'm sure things will be fine and probably shouldn't worry too much and I definitely shouldn't take the whole thing so personally but I'm sure many would understand why.

The food in Spain, simply divine.

Ok so its beginning to feel a like it was a months ago I was in Spain but I still remember very well the plethora of food and wine we enjoyed there and I would be re-missed if I didn't talk about it. Its not secret to anyone that's read my blog before I love food, especially new and different foods so a chance to dig into some classic tapas and traditional paella was met with great glee.

Firstly though lets talk Breakfast, as it comes first and as we all know is the most important meal of the day. Now our hotel Barcelona charged around €15 each for a continental buffet breakfast, and this seems pretty common with very few hotels in Barcelona including Breakfast. We thought this was crazy overpriced and unnecessary so every morning we went for a walk around the streets and stopped at one of the dozens of little cafes. These places were always spot on, usually many locals would be there eating and the owner wouldn't speak English, which in my opinion are two things to look for on holiday for classic simple food. At these places we would just have a baguette of some kind of ham and/or cheese and a hot drink. In traditional Catalan style there was always a very thin layer of tomato juice/sauce (not ketchup) on the bread which was something I really liked. Typically this kind of breakfast for two would be around €10. Its cheap, its authentic, its convenient, gets you out of the hotel easier and all round is just so much better than the over priced hotel breakfasts.

On our first full day we walked around the Gothic quarter of Barcelona, there was some clearly very touristy places and some much more local restaurants. The one we ended up in was called "Mi Burrito y Yo" (my donkey and I) and was somewhere in between. Here I had my first proper authentic Paella, of course Ive had them in England several times but never in Spain and it was instantly obvious how much better this was than the average. It takes quite a while to prepare as its cooked to order and comes in two people portions served in large pan. It really really was immense and given Marianne doesn't like a lot of seafood I felt obligated to devour most it myself which I did with great joy.

We had tapas at several different places in Spain and I soon realised that I had misunderstood it as a general concept. I was under the impression that restaurants would offer huge collections of new and adventures combinations, each more imaginative than the last. However I quickly discovered this was not the case and actually pretty much everywhere offered the same 6-10 dishes. There were slight twists in places but most of the time it was just really good, fresh simple food and despite my initial disappointment, I loved it. Quality of course varied a lot but for the most part many places were very similar. There was one restaurant however which stood out a mile. Id read about it online and heard it always had massive queues because it was so fantastic so one lunchtime we thought we would give it a try. It was very busy and hectic but after only about 15 minutes we were seated and it was clear as day why this place was so popular. I will have to find the name somewhere so I can plug it but right now I cant remember Im afraid. It had a fantastic varied menu and all the food was very high quality. Interestingly the Spanish people that I saw in there typically stuck to the classics where the tourists were going for the variety.

 Very simple tapas selection. Chorizo in wine and garlic mushrooms. Back right is just bread with the thin layer of Tomato as explained, and of course a nice chunk of Spanish Omelette

 PAELLA, looks a mess with lots going on but it was exceptional

Typically Manchego is the cheese eaten 95% of the time and I love it dearly. But here is a fancy goats cheese with peppers from the best of the restaurants we visited.

Sadly the post got a little long to discuss drinks too, but here is the receipt from two mojitos we had one evening, the extra extra sexy was in fact watermelon, and not that great.