It's strange to think that it's a week since the show already. Wow!

I'm not really sure when - if ever - I'll have the right words to describe that night. But, in case you didn't catch that bit, it was great! Everybody was in great shape, everybody played great, the audience was great (and large). We were told that we were all smiles while we were on stage, and I can testify that some good, old fans were on the verge of tears after the show. It was certainly also great to see some of the younger  fans - who have more or less grown up with our records, but were too young to see us live back then - jumping and screaming in the front row.

Here are some of the best pictures I have from the show. Nothing professional about these of course, but I thought you'd like to see them anyway:


Me preparing to go on stage with the Basement Brats for the first time in 11 years. RC Rasken in the background.


Tempo and Rasken tuning up. Bratman checks whether his sticks are all in one piece.


Egil adjusts his mike stand...


...and off we go! "Can't Get You Back"? Well, we thought so, but it seems nothing is impossible, is it!?























As I've mentioned previously, we also had the pleasure of performing with the other bands we're presently active in (except Mads Bratman, who has a couple of bands back in Gothenburg that are not quite "made in Halden"). I thought you might like to catch glimpse of those as well:


Deluxe 66 - Jon Terje Vaglen, Magnum, Sindre Rye and Martin Eriksen. Our second guitarist, Petter Andersen, was unfortunately unable to come.


Guitar heroes Nils Tempo and Petter Jensen playing with Howlin' Mama just prior to the Brats gig. The rest of the band are Robert Eriksen and Thomas Martinsen, on bass and drums, respectively.


Dieseldyra finishing off a perfect evening. Jon Terje Vaglen, Michael Heltorp and RC Rasken can be seen. On drums are Jens Tore "Fisken" Standerholen, and our own Brat Egil Pinås plays guitar off the picture on the right (incidentally replacing founding member and other Brat Nils Tempo).

And finally - the first group photo since an airport in Bruxelles in 1996! I took this (by self timer) for my private collection on Saturday 3 March 2007 after our second rehearsal. It's not "press photo" quality by any standards, but I thought you might get a kick out of it anyway. :-)



Hope to see you soon!

Magnum

I was waiting - pretty excitedly - for the press coverage of last weekend's "Made in Halden" festival. The festival was great all over - not just because of us or the other bands we play in, of course. There was great music of all kinds on both floors, the audience was fairly large, and all the arrangements were quite flawless. Everything about it was really pretty impressive, so I was looking forward to reading about it afterwards.

The national press has of course largely ignored the whole thing (not surprisingly. If the festival was called "Made in Oslo", it might have gotten a bit more exposure). It was mentioned a couple of places, usually in connection with the Basement Brats reunion. But the Basement Brats - although we realise we were, and are, loved passionately by some throughout the whole world - were never big. And we were probably bigger in some countries we never even visited than we were in Norway. So although the reunion actually was a big sensation, we couldn't expect it to generate a lot of press coverage anyway.

We did get some local coverage before the week, but we basically had to ask for it (nothing seems to have changed over the past ten years in that respect...).

Nothing ever arrived on the web, so finally I went out to buy an extra copy of the paper. There were two pages. Mostly pictures. The Basement Brats - or for that matter, any of our other bands - were not among those pictured. Largely because of the following sentence (translated from the newspaper):

"Because of photo troubles, we have no pictures to offer from Friday (...)"

Oh well... We haven't been pictured in ten years anyway, so I guess that wasn't such a big deal? ;-)

The text, then? Well, here it is:

"On Friday we caught the well deserved audience success The Basement Brats."

Actually, to be fair: with a couple of exceptions, all other acts got even less than that, a mere mention in list form in the majority of the cases. This blog entry is already longer than all mentions of music in the article put together.

Am I dissapointed? I guess, a little. I shouldn't be surprised, and I should learn to rise above it, but I had probably expected at least a short paragraph and a small picture. And a bit more text about the other music as well, since this was a unique festival in Oslo featuring heaps of very varied music from Halden.

On the other hand, like I said, it is certainly not publicity that has ever made our music loved. It's not publicity that got some people on the verge of tears when we played on Friday. And despite prime-time TV exposure, a lot of publicity and "people working for them", a certain other band only attracted about 25-30 people anyway. So I guess publicity really isn't that important, is it? ;-)

Magnum

P.S. In the next blog entry, you guys will at least be getting some unique pictures of - and more reflections on - last weekend's event! :-)

Just back at the hotel after the gig.

Wow! What can I say? It's hard to find words right now, actually. Perhaps they'll come to me in a couple of days, with a bit of distance (at which point I'll also be posting some pics from the show).

But for now, suffice it to say that it was a magical night! It was a unique experience to "be a brat" again after eleven years. And I think, in all modesty, that we did well. And the audience seemed to agree. Some guys I talked to after the show almost cried. And I don't know if it was an exaggeration or not, but I was told that people were standing in line far up the stairs to the floor above while we were playing. The audience was certainly loud, that's for sure!

It was great fun. It was wonderful. And I was told (again) that we were all smiles while we were playing. I believe it!

Thanks to the promoters - Siv and Raymond, in particular - for making this happen. And most of all, huge thanks to all my great bandmates of this great band - Nils Tempo, RC Rasken, Bratman and Egil.

More later. Now I'll be getting some sleep. Tomorrow is another gig... :-)

(Tomorrow's gig - at the same place, same festival - is with my other band, Deluxe 66. The other bands with brats in them, Howlin' Mama and Dieseldyra played tonight, and played absolutely fantastically as well! Take a few minutes to check all of these bands out through out friends list. :-)

Magnum

So, the big day is here at last! I'm just finishing up here and getting ready to go to Oslo in less than an hour (hopefully). I'm both excited and stressed... ;-)

Anyway, we're looking forward to seeing you again at last, folks! Be a brat!

Magnum

I'm happy to report that we've managed to organise one final run-through of our set on Thursday evening. I'm confident we'd have managed to pull it off well anyway, even after two weeks of no rehearsals before the show (after all, we seemed to just need a warm-up after ten years!), but in any case, it's nice to know that we'll be freshly rehearsed and hungry when we hit the stage this Friday.

I'm sure it will feel weird to enter that stage, hit the first chord and be a Brat again for the first time in 11 years (for me). But I have a distinct feeling it will be a great experience! It's certainly an experience I didn't really think I'd have again. But, as I wrote last time, the time seemed to be right. :-)

Hope to see some of you there on Friday night!

Magnum

Last weekend was the second (and last) of our two rehearsal weekends before the concert, and my voice still hasn't fully recovered (it was Sunday's second rehearsal, with my other band, that finally killed it, I think). But it will be fine in time, don't worry! :-)

Yes, as most of you will know by now, the Basement Brats are back! It's been close to 10 years since the last time, and 11 years since the "classic" five-piece line-up last played together. We will be playing at the "Made in Halden" festival in Oslo, Norway on Friday the 13th (of April) - together with lots of other bands and artists from our hometown of Halden. There will surely be lots of good music of different kinds during that weekend, but naturally we are selfish enough to hope that quite a few people will come to watch us. Because it is quite a scoop, actually!

As long-time followers will know, the five-piece band broke up following the "Bratbeat" tour eleven years ago. The other four (except me) carried on for some year and a half before calling it quits themselves. Certainly, it was hard times. But wounds have healed long ago by now - we can't keep fighting over old shit forever. We're grown-ups now. :-)

Still, there were definitely doubts and some reluctance when we were asked to reunite for this event. We have been asked to reunite many times over the years, but have always said no. Though we're proud of our past in the Basement Brats, we have considered it a finished part of our lives. We have moved on to other bands, started families and had other things to do (and in Mads' case, even moved to another country). So why did we, after all, accept to give it a try this time? Perhaps it was just the right time for it.

Se we did decide to give it a try, then, but we didn't want to confirm until we'd actually tried playing together. Like I mentioned, it's been almost ten years since the band last played, just as long since Mads last played the drums, and eleven years since I sang with the band, so frankly, we were quite prepared that it might suck. We might simply not be able to play like we did in the Brats anymore, or it might lack the necessary punch and energy. If it did, we'd probably go out and get drunk together, have a laugh or two about the old days and go our separate ways again.

However, as soon as we started playing, it was all there! It felt and sounded like it was just a month or so since we last played together, rather than a decade. After the second rehearsal we had the setlist ready. The day after, this MySpace profile was set up.

So now we've basically finished rehearsing for the show (though we hope to get the chance to do a final run-through before the gig), and it just remains to be seen and heard if it's as good onstage as it's been in the rehearsal room. To tell you the truth, I have little doubt!

Will there be more than this one gig? Well, no one can know what the future might bring, but this is all we have been planning for so far. If you want to be sure to see the Basement Brats one last time, meet up at the "Made in Halden" festival at Amplifier, Oslo, Norway on Friday the 13th.

The Curse of the Brats continues... ;-)

Magnum

P.S. Check out our other present bands - Howlin' Mama, Deluxe 66 and Dieseldyra - listed among the "top friends" on our profile. (We'll keep you posted if Mads' present band gets a profile up). You can also find an additional taste of the Basement Brats on the "Made in Halden" profile.