Summer - sunshine, holiday, icecreams and... Crowded House!
On June 26th, 1991, "Woodface" was released in Sweden, and it was definitely the album I played the most in the summer of 1991.
On June 26th, 1992, I went with the night train to Oslo to see Crowded House live at the Isle of Calves Festival, an event which was the best thing that happened in the summer of 1992.
I first heard of Crowded House's plans to come to Europe this summer in the winter of 1992. There were no mention of any gig in Sweden, but Crowded House would play on the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. My mate Niclas and I decided to go there to see Crowded House, and we planned to drive down there by car.
A few months later we heard that they would also play in Oslo - they were to play at the Roskilde Festival on 27th June and on the Isle of Calves Festival on 28th June (according to the fan club newsletter). Partly influenced by our parents, who really were against the idea of us going to the Roskilde Festival. The reason for that was that Roskilde has undeservedly got a very bad reputation in parents' eyes and this is media's fault. You see, media... [bashing of Swedish media deleted]. Anyway, we decided to go to Oslo instead.
I contacted my cousin Karin, who is also a Crowded House/Tim Finn/Split Enz fan (in fact, she became a fan at least partly because of me. When my family visited her family in the summer of '86, I got her to listen to a few tracks from "Living Enz" in my freestyle and mentioned the band was called Split Enz. On our next visit, a year later, she had bought four or five Enz LPs!), and asked her if she was interested in joining us to Oslo. She was.
We decided to go with the night train, departing around 11.30 p.m., on 26th June. There were two major reasons for choosing this particular train: one was that the final game in the European Soccer Championship (which was hosted by Sweden) would be played on 26th June and we all wanted to see it (even though I'm not a sports freak normally); and also because we wanted to have a day in Oslo checking out the place as tourists before Crowded House's performance on the 28th June. (Later in the story you'll find how lucky we were to go with this train, but more on that later).
26th June arrived, and The European Soccer Championship's final was won by Denmark, who beat reigning World Champions Germany. It was a total surprise, this outcome, particularly as Denmark were originally *not* even qualified for the Championship - they only made it in when Yugoslavia's entry was withdrawn for political reasons. And then they [Denmark] go ahead and win the whole thing, beating the reigning World Champions! This sensational outcome was the major topic in our compartment, when Niclas and I boarded the train a few minutes before 11 p.m. My cousin lives in another town (not far from the Norwegian border) and would board the train sometime during the night, and we would meet up with here on the platform in Oslo.
The train arrived in Oslo around 7.30 p.m. on 27th June and we met up with Karin as planned. Tomorrow we would see Crowded House! The very thought of that filled us with excitement.
The first thing we did was to go to the bank on the train station in order to exchange our money to Norwegian money. Also we got a Isle of Calves festival programme from the Tourist Information counter. Much to our surprise, it said in this programme that Crowded House would play today, the 27th June! Could that really be true? It had, after all, said in the fan club newsletter that it was Roskilde on 27th June and Isle of Calves on 28th June. We decided to check out the matter. But first we had to find accomodation for the night. Niclas went and phoned Oslo's youth hostel. While he was gone, a 25-year-old guy came up to Karin and me offering us accomodation in a private room (people offering such accomodation are quite common on train stations around Europe, and most of them are OK. When I travelled around Europe by train along with two mates in the summer of '91, we met several such persons.). We discussed the matter with this Norwegian guy but when Niclas returned and said the youth hostel had no spare room, our choices of accomodation were decidedly limited, so we accepeted this guy's offer.
On the bus to the area where we were to stay, we asked the Norwegian guy if he knew how we would go to get to the Isle of Calves (a small island outside Oslo) and such things.
We arrived to the house where we were to stay. It was quite a big white house with a great garden. Apart from us, there were also a couple from New Zealand and four people our age from England staying there. Our room was upstairs, and the view from our window was lovely.
Across the street from this house we had seen a poster for the Isle of Calves Festival, and it too had claimed that Crowded House would perform this very day. We decided to go out to the Isle of Calves to further investigate the matter. Before departing, we changed to more suitable, summer clothes. Niclas decided to wear a Crowded House t-shirt from their New Zealand tour in April 1992 and shorts; I chose to wear a t-shirt from Crowded House's "Then There Were Three" tour in Australia in March 1992 (sent to me by a friend in Australia), my usual "True Colours" knitted sweater (the one I wore at CH's gigs in 1986 and 1991) and my "tropical" shorts. And, of course, sunglasses! No jackets were needed as it was already obvious that this would be one hot summer's day.
To get to the Isle of Calves, one first had to go by bus to the central part of Oslo (just outside the train station) and from there go with another bus to the Isle of Calves. On the bus to the Isle of Calves there were about 100 people, mainly people who were heading to the festival site but also one old woman who looked terrified about being surrounded by so many young persons (Her look suggested she was thinking "Oh no, I'm surrounded by a hundred hooligans who will probably rob me of all my money in order to get money to their drugs"). She was probably relieved when all the potential hooligans got off the bus at the Isle of Calves and started walking towards the festival site. In order to get to the festival site you had to pass the camping area and the parking area. We noticed a couple of guys trying to sell "black" tickets. They had done it quite cleverly: first you saw a guy with a sign saying "Tickets wanted", giving everyone a feeling that the tickets had all sold out; then 200 metres later, you saw his buddy, who had a sign saying "Tickets for sale".
Also I noticed several persons wearing very hip festival t-shirts, and I thought that if there are no Crowded House tickets for sale, then I'll buy one of these t-shirts.
We came up to the tent where tickets were sold and they confirmed that Crowded House would play this very day - at 2.30 p.m. It was now about 11.45 a.m. What an incredible luck that we had gone with the night train on the 26th - the next train, the morning train on the 27th, would have arrived to Oslo around 3.30 p.m.! And we would have gone a long way without getting to see Crowded House! We were really counting our blessings that we had gone with the night train. The other artists that were to play this day were Bryan Adams, Extreme, Little Village and Marius M ller's Fun House. All three of us like Bryan Adams (although I can't stand "Everything I Do I Do It For You" and "Please Forgive Me", I prefer his stuff from the early '80s), and Niclas also likes Extreme, so we looked forward to a great day at the festival.
After having bought tickets, security guards made sure we hadn't brought anything nasty, such as a camera or a tape recorder, with us. We had, at the poster near "our" house, noticed that cameras were prohibited at the festival, so we had left them in our room.
(The festival was a 2-day affair, and one could buy tickets for either day, or both for a reduced price. The second day, 28th June, the bands that were to play were Nirvana, Teenage Fan Club, Violent Femmes, Bel Canto and Blues Brothers Band, none of which really attract us, so we just bought a one-day ticket.)
Full of expectations we walked across the bridge and came to the festival site on the island. To get to the stage area you had to walk up a hill which was filled with hot dog stands, merchandise stands and some other bits and pieces. Halfway up the hill were a t-shirt stand with Crowded House t-shirts. I had been hoping that Peter Green would be there (my Australian penpal had mentioned that Peter was travelling with CH on this European tour, selling merchandise), but without ever having met him, I realised it wasn't him: it was a young Norwegian woman in a bikini! There were two t-shirts available: one black with the "Woodface" cover on the front and a band photo on the back, and one black t-shirt with a guitar playing "Woodface" (the character from the album cover, though with a complete body and a guitar) with tour dates on the back. I bought no less than five copies of the latter one (I already owned the former) - for me, for my two Australian penpals, for my friend Susanne (who went along to the Crowded House gig in Stockholm in October 1991, but now was out travelling with her boyfriend/my friend Alexander) and one more, which I actually haven't got rid of as yet (a long story...). Niclas and Karin also bought one of these guitar playing Woodface t-shirts, and Karin also bought a Bryan Adams t-shirt.
We walked up to the stage area and sat down in the grass, surrounded by thousands of others. It was a perfect summer's day - hot, cloudless sky, fresh air and Crowded House about to perform before our eyes before too long. The festival had about 40 000 visitors this day. I spotted a few people wearing Crowded House t-shirts, but the most popular band seemed to be Extreme.
I decided to check out the festival site a bit more, going for a nice walk in the sunshine and thinking very happy thoughts about life in general. If you walked a bit further after the stage area, with more stands selling more t-shirts, badges and CDs. They had nothing unusual with Crowded House (only the "Temple Of Low Men" and "Woodface" CDs), but I did notice one stand selling Bryan Adams bootlegs. I wonder what they had done had Mr. Adams discovered that...
I returned to the stage area, and sat down waiting for the first band, Marius M ller's Fun House, which is a Norwegian blues group. A guy who would introduce all the groups entered the stage and announced that due to the time schedule there would be *no encores* by any of the performing groups.
Marius M ller's Fun House started their performance at 1 p.m., and judging from the audience reaction they are very popular indeed in Norway(I had never heard of them before). I think they were decent, alright for the moment, but nothing that I would buy on CD myself. During their performance I realised it would be impossible to wear my knitted "True Colours" sweater. It was about 120 degrees Fahrenheit! So I took it off, happily displaying my Crowded House t-shirt instead.
Now finally it was time for Crowded House.
They opened their set with "It's Only Natural", and Neil and Paul's vocal harmonies sounded really excellent. Crowded House were obviously in great form! The stage setting was definitely a Nick Seymour design, I don't know any other way to describe it. During this song, Mark Hart played guitar. He was dressed entirely in black and wore black sunglasses. Nick was wearing a sleeveless shirt and kilt-like shorts, Neil was dressed in a white shirt and dark trousers and Paul wore some football t-shirt and shorts.
The next song was "Tall Trees" which sounded particularly brilliant on this day. The audience were very enthusiastic during the entire performance by CH. In fact, there was a great mood of the festival all day - no one got sick, no fightings, great weather and enthusiastic cheering for all the acts.
Crowded House continued with "Four Seasons In One Day" and "When You Come". During one of these songs, someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around and spotted a young girl (I also noticed the HUGE audience). "Are you from New Zealand?" she asked. I denied that, and she asked how I had got hold of my t-shirt (which was from the *Australian* tour). She then asked me if I could take a photo of Crowded House for her (as I was taller than her). Hmmm, weren't cameras prohibited. Anyway, I took the photo for her.
Neil switched to keyboards for the 5th song, "Chocolate Cake", which as usual sounded brilliant live. Neil also added one line in the lyrics after "Andy Warhol must be laughing is his grave": "He's just an asshole". The audience were invited for some singalong in this one.
After "Chocolate Cake" came "Fall At Your Feet" which sounded better than ever, possibly the best version I have heard of the song. Neil's singing in particular contributed to this impression. During their entire performance, Crowded House seemed to be in great spirits and were really enjoying themselves. After one track, Neil walked off stage to get some sun lotion. The audience cheered for this thing as well, so Neil decided to spray some sun lotion down into the crowd. Someone got sun lotion on his tongue and Neil commented, "You won't get a sunburnt tongue now mate".
"Fall At Your Feet" was followed by "World Where You Live" and "There Goes God", both of which sounded excellent. In "Weather With You" there was some great singing along from the 40 000 crowd, and once more Neil and Paul's harmonies knocked the audience right off their feet.
Then came the classic "Mean To Me", which really is made to be played live. Perhaps the highlight of the entire gig. Crowded House closed their set with "Don't Dream It's Over", another huge favourite with the audience. The title proved prophecic. Even though it had been announced earlier that no group would be allowed to do any encores, the crowd *demanded* to hear more of Crowded House! So the group returned to the stage, Neil grabbing his guitar and starting to play the intro of "Sister Madly", while Paul chased Nick around the stage (it looked really fun). After a few laps around the stage, Paul ran up to his drumkit and Nick ran up to - nothing. His bass wasn't there, so he had to run offstage and get it while Neil and Paul continued to play the (now rather long) intro. Nick returned and Crowded House played a terrific version of "Sister Madly". Superb! After this song, Crowded House left the stage again, but Neil returned with a devilish smile on his face and sprayed out some more sun lotion into the audience, much to the audience's enthusiasm.
Crowded House had done a really fantastic gig - even by their own high measures - with a great song choice. It had been a classic gig. The audience had given them a very enthusiastic reception and no doubt the band got several new fans after this gig. It was definitely the best gig I had ever been to. Niclas and Karin were as excited as me.
It had been a terrific day, but even if Neil had sung "Don't Dream It's Over" it was indeed over now and time to go "home". When the crowd (including us) walked across the bridge back to the camping area/bus stop the bridge even began rocking quite a bit...
Niclas, Karin and I returned to the white house a few minutes after 11 p.m. that evening. It was hard to believe that it was less than 24 hours since we had arrived to Oslo. We had booked train tickets to return home on Monday morning, but now that wehad seen Crowded House and our wallets were decidely getting rather empty, we decided to try and go home the next day, Sunday.
Around 10 a.m. the next day (28th June), we departed the white house, and Niclas and I took down a festival poster each from across the street.
At the train station, we were told that the train departing to Stockholm at 3.30 p.m. was completely full-booked, but the man in the ticket counter said we could go along with it if we didn't mind standing the whole way. We decided to go with this train.
Following this, we hit the Oslo streets again, to find a place where we could have breakfast. All three of us wore a Crowded House t-shirt and we passed another person with a CH t-shirt and us four cultivated persons smiled at each other.
Since it was Sunday, nothing was open and we returned to the train station and bought some food in the (extremely expensive) food store at the train station. We ate the food on the steps of the train station, in the sunshine. We had about four hours to go before our train would depart, and spent some time writing postcards(which was all we could afford to buy at this stage...). It took an extra long time because we had 10 postcards to write but only one pen...
Our train came into the station at 2.30 p.m. As we had been told it would be full, we decided to try our luck in the children's carriage. In my experience, few non-parent/non-child persons enjoy these carriages, i.e. it would be our best chance to get seats. We immediately found three seats which we were able to keep for the entire journey. Niclas read a music mag, Karin listened to music in her freestyle and I wrote. Karin mentioned to me how she would like to join Crowded House's fan club now, so I provided her with information as how to do that. Karin left the train around 6 p.m., and about an hour later Niclas and I decided it was time for dinner. Our total amount of cash at this stage was $8 which was just enough to buy two cheese sandwiches. I don't know what is standard price, but $4 for a cheese sandwich seem awfully expensive... A while later, the speakers advertised their restaurant car, mentioning its "cheap and reasonable prices"...
Niclas and I returned to Stockholm around 10.30 p.m., with lots of great memories and happy that we had seen Crowded House again.