Ah, yes. I saw him on the Rebel Yell -tour. 1984 methinks... Same year as I saw Twisted Sister, ZZ Top and this funny little band called Mötley Crüe who was squealing as they warmed up the audience before Van Halen (with Dave) and AC/DC on the Monsters Of Rock show in Sweden. This little midget called Ronnie James Dio had released his debut solo album called "Holy Diver," and we had to travel for five frikkin hours in a blizzard out in the woods to see the gig because metal concerts were banned in Oslo by the fire department. Now we're talking the 80s! My girlfriend had bought an album called "Purple Rain" by this other midget named Prince, and was all puffy sleeves and lovey-dovey. I didn't mind.:mischief: That runt made the girls dress up in the hottest outfits ever! There was this strange band named Metallica who played a gig in the gym of an Oslo high school to avoid the ban on metal concerts. I hated them, but my kid brother who is tone-deaf made me go. He was too young to get in without a chaperon. My dad got a "mobile phone" which my mother thought was a fad. It occupied most of the backseat of the family car, and you had to call an operator to get connected. Cocaine came to Norway, and it was the story of the day in all the mayor newspapers. My mother solved the Rubik's Cube in 30 seconds flat, which sort of took the fun out of that. (yes, I know it came out in 1980, but this is Norway) My parents kicked me out for being a pain in the hindquarters, and I spent 3 funny winter months sleeping on benches by the central station and learning how to cook curry-chicken from a Sri-Lankan family of 12, who were asylum-seekers living in a tear-down apartment building, but still took me in. I still make a wicked curry-chicken, and yes, I'm now the guardian of one of their grandchildren. Oh, and the word "racism" entered the Norwegian vocabulary... We didn't actually have that, you know. Hating someone for their skin was something they did "over there" and not something we could relate to. When the first Pakistan family came to Oslo in 1974 they were welcomed with open arms and instant celebrity. Then we screwed up.
Talking about something funnier: Bruce Springsteen put out his album "Born In The USA" which sold 15 MILLION albums in a year, in the US alone. I have NO idea why. I went to Krefeld in Germany and George Bush senior was there, drawling away, and they were playing that frikkin song. Loudly. My girlfriend (with the puffy sleeves and the shoulder pads) was screaming "GET ME OUT OF HERE!" and I tried, but everywhere you went, it was
that song. Or the Scorpions....
They had this power-ballad called "Still Loving You" and it worked like a hot knife in butter on the womenfolk. I met my then-girlfriend again about a year ago, and she went "we did a lot of strange stuff back then, and now I'm married with three children, but that song still makes me hot around the ears...."
That's 1984 by the Moonbiter. Any questions?
