DIY CONCERT AGENCY / 1993-2011
Bands we booked
My booking work started by pure chance in the winter of 1993, when a man from Vice Records in London called me about a band. It grew into tours for punk bands from four continents, all run as a hobby from my cellar in Os. One Ex-Cathedra tour I did in exchange for a crate of Newcastle Brown Ale. Here is the roster, as complete as my archives allow.
Norway and Europe 1993-2005
DIY Concert Agency and October Party Records booking were strictly speaking one and the same thing, meaning me. I lack exact dates on some of this because it all lived on A4 sheets and post-it notes, but the big picture holds.
The Guttersnipes
1993, 1996A call from Vice Records in London started all of this: the band of ex-Cock Sparrer guitarist Shug O'Neill, with Andy Kline on bass. I ran their Norway tour in April and May 1993, my first ever for a band that was not my own, and a second one in 1996.
Core
1994Friends of The Guttersnipes from London, over in late March 1994. They slid off the road up by Geilo on the way to their Garage show in Bergen, so we had to cancel it and send them home.
Tequila Girls
1994-2002The Swedes I worked with through the whole Punishment Park period, close to family by the end. I set up Norway runs for them from 1994 to 2002, and their first Oslo show, at a restaurant on Karl Johan, stands as my biggest booking blunder of all time.
King Konkubine
1995They lent Punishment Park their band van for two Europe tours, so as thanks I sent them around Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic in October and November 1995. Word is they would have called the tour a success if they simply got home in one piece, and it went far better than that.
Grimskunk
1997, 2007, 2013One of Canada's finest bands, and live they are in a class of their own. I toured them through Norway in May 1997, brought them back in 2007, and in 2013 they played Os Rockeklubb.
Ex-Cathedra
1997-2002The Glasgow punks became regulars, back on the Norwegian roads almost every year from 1997 to 2002. I fixed their tours in exchange for a crate of Newcastle Brown Ale, which you could not buy in Norway back then.
Post Regiment
1997Started in Warszawa in 1987 and already living punk legends in Europe when I helped them to Norway in the autumn of 1997. They ran the whole route, from Feelgood in Halden to Garage in Bergen.
MU330
1997, 1998One of the funniest bands I ever did anything for, ska punk with a horn section that blew anyone off their chair. I ran two Norway tours for them, in 1997 and 1998.
2227
1998Punk, funk, folk and metal mixed the Balkan way, from Ljubljana. I put together their Norway round in April 1998, and songs from those shows ended up on a live CD they released afterwards.
Bad Preachers
1998A trio from Brussels with an enormous amount of sound, noise and energy. They ran my usual milk route through Norway in 1998, maybe a bit too tough for a country still hung over on grunge.
Link 80
1998, 2001California skaters playing some of the rawest ska punk and hardcore I have ever seen; both times they played Bergen they nearly tore Det Akademiske Kvarter down. On the Norwegian ferries the whole band lay down in the luggage hold of the tour bus to save the fares.
Alians
1999Kasi, their singer, helped my bands with Polish concerts for years, so in September 1999 I returned the favour with dates in Halden, Trondheim, Oslo and Lillehammer. Today they are rock stars at home in Poland.
Derozer
1999When I booked them in May 1999 they were a new, up-and-coming band touring my milk route with Los Fastidios; later they grew into one of Italy's really big punk bands. They never forgot the favour and invited my band Jef down to Italy in return.
Los Fastidios
1999-2005I did more Norway tours for them than for almost anyone, from the first round with Derozer in 1999 to my last one for them in 2005. Today they count as living Italian punk legends, and they never gave up their vision of world domination.
No Rest
2000, 2004, 2006The Brazilians left everything they owned at home to chase punk around Europe, and they could never say no to a show. I set up Norway dates for them in 2000, 2004 and 2006, and on the last visit they recorded four songs at Os Rockeklubb.
NoMeansNo
2000One of the world's toughest punk bands of all time, and I was lucky enough to work with them in 2000. Punishment Park played its last concert of that year with them at Garage in Bergen on 30 September.
Spunge
2000, 2001A ska-pop-punk energy bomb from England with a big fanbase on the British Isles. They spread their happy ska message across the whole country in 2000 and again in 2001, all the way up to Alta and Tromsø.
Plan Nine
2000-2001Glam-punk-metal from Gothenburg; I helped them with a handful of Norwegian shows in 2000 and 2001, including warming up for Gluecifer at Hulen. Then they quit right as they were getting a foothold here.
Jason
2001Hardcore from Rio de Janeiro, friends of No Rest. I booked their Norwegian dates in May 2001, ending at Garage in Bergen together with Jef and Spunge.
UK Subs
2001, 2002A band I wore out on the turntable as a kid, and in 2001 I got to work with them. Jef opened for them at Garage in Bergen on 17 February 2001, and Charlie Harper and the band picked me up at my door in Os on the way to the show.
Dogshit Sandwich
2001Hard-hitting punk from Birmingham; I did their Norwegian shows in August 2001. Rich from the band was the man who later set me on the track toward China.
Blisterhead
2001-2002Swedes with attitude, appetite and good songs. I did a run for them in 2001 and another in 2002, and our roads have crossed over a beer a few times since.
P.A.I.N.
2001A reggae-ska-punk band from Birmingham that Punishment Park had played with in London in 1997; I toured them through Norway in September 2001. They drove off the England ferry in Bergen with their pockets full of hash because they had heard Norway was expensive, and nobody had told them it was illegal here.
Psycho-Path
2001They ruled clubs and festivals in southern Europe, and in August 2001 I was the first to lure them north to Viking country. They made their mark, though only parts of the route survive in my papers.
GBH
2002Their first three albums were central records of my childhood. I helped get them onto the Stavanger Punk Rock Festival in April 2002, and I still remember Colin coming over at Folken and asking if he could join our table for a beer.
Karuhsi
2002The band of Madness, the man who booked my own bands around Germany for years. For once he was on the stage and I was in the hall running the tour, and their one Norway visit in May 2002 went off with a bang.
The Lords Of The New Church
2003One of the most important bands of my youth, so nothing could stop me from taking this job even though Stiv Bators was gone and a new singer fronted the band. They played four Norwegian dates in May 2003, and it was big for more than just me to get that legendary ship to a harbour near you.
Paprika Korps
2004Like Alians, a Polish band I helped long before they got big at home, punk, rock, ska and reggae in one mix. I ran their Norway dates in April 2004, and the Os Rockeklubb night at Kaziers was better than good.
Sadie Hawkins Dance
2005One of England's sharpest indie punk bands of the day, fronted by Carol Hodge, who could take the breath away from any audience. They toured Norway with Bergen's Ribozym in the spring of 2005.
SMZB
2005, 2007To me, SMZB and SUBS are the two most important punk bands China has ever produced. I invited SMZB from Wuhan to Europe for a long tour in 2005, and it was that tour that set the whole China adventure in motion.
SUBS
2005, 2006, 2008Kang Mao's band found me while I was touring SMZB around Norway. They played Øyafestivalen in 2005, came back for a full Norway round I set up in 2006, and returned in 2008 when the film Rock Heart Beijing was launched in Bergen.
The China wave 2006-2011
Then China came at me like a whirlwind. From 2006 to 2011 we sent Norwegian bands on tour to the best rock clubs in a country everyone at home had decided was closed, and we released their albums over there while we were at it.
Jef
2006My own band opened the door: Jef toured China in April 2006, and we released the He Knows He Hears EP there in 3,000 copies, which our Chinese partners called the first official international punk release in the country. Jef played its very last concert in Beijing on that trip.
Haggis
2006The Stavanger crew went out shortly after Jef and played thirteen concerts, one of the longer China runs any Norwegian band has done. They came, they raged, they left, and they will be remembered.
Ninth
2007The second Bergen band we sent, in March 2007, with a CD out on the label and slots on the compilations. Television, newspapers and autographs the whole way through, one long climb from start to finish.
Good Time Charlie
2007Arle Hjelmeland and his blues rockers raced through China from 27 April to 5 May 2007, right behind their album on our Beijing label. They played for more than 2,500 people on the newcomer stage at the MIDI festival, which is funny for a band that had existed half a lifetime.
Blind Stereo
2007Sent out in July 2007 behind an album that was received very well, and their tour was a fairy tale like Ninth's. They could have taken all of China, but they never seized what lay waiting for them afterwards.
Team Blitzkrieg
2007They toured China with Heidi Marie Vestrheim in September 2007, and NRK's Ole Torp filmed their show at Mao Livehouse in Beijing for the evening news back home. Everyone who had worked to make it happen was proud that day.
Heidi Marie Vestrheim
2007She shared the September 2007 tour with Team Blitzkrieg, from 13 Club in Beijing down through Shanghai, Wuhan and Changsha, with her album Signs And Fiction out on the Beijing label the same year.
Flare
2007They flew in via Moscow with Aeroflot in August 2007, cheaper and with more free spirits on board, I assume. In some cities they met crowds close to Beatles hysteria.
Blitz Factory
2007The youngest Norwegian band ever to tour China, aged 17 to 20, with the world's coolest parents for letting them go. Their single ended up with around 20,000 people, the highest figure of any band that released through us over there.
Mindy Misty
2008A band the scene at home never quite managed to catch, so in September 2008 we sent them to China, where enthusiastic fans just wanted more. People over there were still naming them to me on my own later tours.
K-Jell
2007-2011My solo project that turned into a real band. The first single went out at the MIDI festival on 1 May 2007 and 15,000 copies vanished fast; three albums and three China tours followed before the Peace Prize closed the door.
Supermonkey
2009They travelled, played and delivered around China in July 2009 and left an impression on everyone who saw them on a stage. It is a shame there never was a second tour.
List
2009A duo from Stord playing fine folk-pop songs, exactly what we thought the Chinese would want, and their CD was very well received in September 2009. They brought Peter Pogo from Jokke og Valentinerne on bass; the Chinese knew nothing about Jokke, but it was still cool.
Kalashnikov + Gustu
2010Two tough bands that ploughed through China together from 5 to 14 August 2010, leaving deep, sweaty rock'n'roll tracks behind them. That was right before the Peace Prize turned every opportunity upside down.
Le Fant
2011They toured in May and June 2011 behind the album Last Chance To Dance. The title fit better than they knew, because theirs was one of the last dances any of us got over there.
Steinar and the Ramshackles + Depui
2011Steinar Hjembrekke played guitar in K-Jell and used to open our concerts with his solo project. In the summer of 2011 he took it a step further, criss-crossing China with his own band and his friend Depui right after the K-Jell tour ended.
Chasm
2011On the road in July 2011, in the dramatic minutes before Norway was banned outright in China. Their Tianjin date was cancelled after a Finnish band had run political appeals about Tibet at the club, so the authorities simply shut it down.
Tripod
2011Hard-hitting metal, allowed to be rock stars night after night from 14 to 24 July 2011. They became the very last band we sent to China before the Peace Prize put out the flame for all of us.
Sassy Kraimspri
Dates lostThey toured China too, but neither Kang Mao nor I could recover the dates from our archives, and the band never answered my attempts to reach them. A very tough band; I hope they publish the story themselves one day.
On the Beijing shelf 2006-2011
Some names on the Beijing catalogue never got a tour chapter of their own. What my archives hold for them is the release itself: each one a CD on October Party Records in China, in a first pressing of 3,000 copies.
Punishment Park
2006My own band from the years before all of this. In 2006 we pressed China CD editions of Punishment Park, The Return of the Shovel Police and Party, 3,000 copies each.
Fox Feather
2007-2011Their CD Fox Feather came out on October Party Records in China between 2007 and 2011, in a first pressing of 3,000 copies.
The Arthats
2007-2011We released their album No Exit on the Beijing operation between 2007 and 2011, first pressing 3,000 copies.
My Misspent Youth
2007-2011An EP on October Party Records in China between 2007 and 2011, pressed in 3,000 copies like the rest of the artist CDs.
Syrach
2007-2011Their album Days Of Wrath came out on the Beijing operation between 2007 and 2011, first pressing 3,000 copies.
Varde
2007-2011The album Folk, released on October Party Records in China between 2007 and 2011 in a first pressing of 3,000 copies.
I was contacted by far more bands and artists than I could ever help, and I did all of it in my spare time, from the cellar and the living room. The good stories and the whole adventure of each band, they tell best themselves.