...and with eyes wide open!

"Eyes wide open" is in a way litterarily speaking. Cause my friends ; I used the oportunity of my last visit to Iceland to get a laser-operation. After the cancer treatment 2001/2002 my eyes slowly but surely got worse. A sly tongue though, might try to claim that this also had something to do with my age ( say what ? ), but hey - this eye thing side-effect caused by heavily medication is a known fact, so we´ll stick to that excuse. .Anyway,- in the end I no longer could see phone-messages. And what was worse,- I couldn´t see printed lyrics either. In some of my performances I am dealing with a number of songs never sung before and there is simply not always time enough to learn all the lyrics 100% and therefore the use of a note-stand is neccesary. And standing on stage with glasses never really was a tempting option. But right here and now I am writing a blog without the use of glasses for the first time in years. It is a big change but still... it will take 2-3 months before I can truly state that the operation fully was a success. Now my left eye takes care of long distances while my right eye masters the reading part. The brain has to calculate this new situation and reschedule all information - to "teach" my eyes to focus separately but still in harmony. I hope things will work out perfectly and if not, I may have to take a second fine-finish to have it right on spot. Amazing - isn´t it ?

Speaking of Iceland : Been there three times now lately. The first visit in early November found me doing two concerts with the Icelandic band "Dúndurfréttir" ( Smashing News ). It´s a five-piece band specifying in the music of bands like Floyd-Zeppelin & Heep. So I join in their set-list as well as they have rehearsed some of my old hits from ancient past. They do fantastic 3-piece harmonies and it is a joy beyond - to front them with my lead vocals. These were not our first gigs together and most certainly not the last either. The last week of November I was back home, this time doing "A Tribute to Freddy Mercury" thing in "Harpa" Reykjavík. Harpa is the new Music Hall in Reykjavík with 4 venues of various capacity. "Freddy" took place in "Silfurberg" with 550 seats. It is always both a challange and pure pleasure to sing from the fantastic Queen/Freddy catalog. All shows ( two double nights ) were sold out and it was pure orgasm really ( pardon my French ). I had to bail out back to Norway for one weekend because of long-time booked private performances, but straight back that following Monday to prepare for Scandinavia´s biggest Christmas concert "Frostrósir". Again it was "Harpa" and this time in the biggest venue "Eldborg" holding 1800 seats. A fantastic atmosphere and we did 7 sold-out shows.

Yeah, you may ask yourselves - how is this possible in a country that has gone through such serious economic crisis and only has the mere population of 330.000 people. To tell you the truth - I have no answer. The economic situation is still very much critical and many families have lost everything they had. But as it seems - the fighting spirit just cannot be crushed and hard work is accepted as the only way to work yourself out of this black hole . Yeah... you got me alright - I am pretty proud of my people - and so I should be! Comming Friday and Saturday I have concerts in Sarpsborg. Should really be preparing myself for that, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. Tonight I am going to Oslo with some friends to see and listen to "Deep Purple with Symphony Orchester" at Spectrum Venue - and I can hardly wait. Imagine me myself taking the initiativ to by tickets and gather some friends for a great concert, a few beers, a laugh´n a half.....No - would never have happened if not for my good friend Tor Anders, who bought the tickets and ordered me politely but firmly to "lock-out" this evening for a "party". LET´S PARTY !!!