Tag Archives: Stockholm

Uncategorized

March 27th 2025–kent’s Final Concert.

5 Comments

Is there anyone outside of Scandinavia who has heard of kent, the band from Eskilstuna, which, in my estimation, has probably sold as many–if not more–albums than ABBA in Sweden?

A little historical background. kent was formed in Eskilstuna in 1990. There were five members: Jocke Berg (vocals and occasional guitar), Martin Sköld (bass, keyboards), Markus Mustonen (drums, backing vocals, keyboards, piano), Sami Sirviö (lead guitar, keyboards), Harri Mänty (rhythm guitar, programming, percussion; 1996–2006), and
Martin Roos (rhythm guitar; 1992–1995).

I first heard about kent when I went to Skellefteå festival in June 1995. I pulled a festival poster (as per usual for me) off a wall hoping to get some autographs. The real reason I went to the festival was to see two other bands; Suede and the Ramones. Also the Wannadies (a Skellefteå band) were playing and I liked them. At that time kent had only released a first CD entitled simply kent. I had an early copy and I made an LP-sized enlargement of the booklet cover, which I hoped to get signed along with two Ramones LPs and three Suede albums.

My poster signed by kent, Ramones, Wannadies

kent were playing on the smallest stage and after their show I asked Jocke Berg to sign my CD and the LP-sized enlargement. He got excited and asked if their album had been released on vinyl (which wouldn’t happen until 2015!)

I have seen kent at least ten times to date:
— Skellefteå festival — 23rd June 1995
— Hultsfredsfestival — 1996, 1998,
— Roskilde festival — 1998*
— Pontushallen, Luleå — 25th February 2000
— Kalas2000, Umeå — 22nd July 2000
— Hultsfred festival –15 June 2001
— Kalas2002, Umeå — 31st July 2002
— Skellefteå travbana — 4th June 2005
— Piteå Dansar o Ler — 31st July 2010
— 3Arena, Stockholm — 27th March 2025.
*I was at Roskilde but I can’t swear I saw kent there.

kent autographs from Pontushallen, Luleå, February 2000.

I was part of the the security crew at the Piteå Dansar o Ler festivals from 1999 to 2010 and together with the festival organisers Jan Wimander and Anna Carin Johansson, I curated three exhibitions of record cover art. In 2008, with assistance from Guy Minnebach, I organised an exhibition of Andy Warhol‘s record cover art. The following year we put on an exhibiton of Peter Blake‘s record cover art and in 2010 we did a major exhibition of kent’s record and poster art called kent – på nära håll (kent close by). Here’s pictures of the catalogue, made to look like a record cover with a paper record inside. All my kent record and CD covers are pictured on the inner spread. The “record” describes the exhibition and kent’s discography and some additional works from a previous kent exhibition in Linköping.

Like everyone else, I thought we’d never see kent again. There were regular reissues of their albums but no one expected the band to reunite. But in August 2024 they announced a final set of three concerts scheduled for MArch 21 st, 22nd and 23rd March 2025. Tickets went on sale on October 26th and the three concerts sold out within hours so three more dates were added 25th, 26th and 27th March and I was lucky to get tickets for the final date. 3Arena in southern Stockholm has a capacity of 40,000 and each of kent’s six concerts was sold out, meaning that 240,000 tickets had been sold! Each ticket cost SEK 999 plus a service charge of SEK 200 and a basic fee of SEK 130. So my two tickets cost SEK 2318 (about €201 or GBP172)!

So the concert on March 27th, the last of the six, would (potentially) be kent‘s last stand. During the concert Jocke promised twice that this really would be kent’s final concert. Well, they are all in their mid fifties now. It’s not like they were still 20-somethings.
Now for some pictures from the concert.

And here’s the setlist from the final, final concert. 24 songs in two hours and seven minutes:
— Stenbrott
— Ingenting någonsin
— En timme en minut
— Om du var här
— Kevlarskäl
— Hjärta
— Socker
— Romeo återvänder ensam
— Pärlor
— Var är vi nu
— Utan dina antetag
— Musik Non Stop
— Kärleken väntar
— Ingenting
— Dom andra
— Stoppa mig juni (lilla ego)
— Innan alting tar slut
— Sundance kid
— La belle epoque
— Förlåtelsen
Encore1:
— Sverige
— 999
— 747
Encore 2:
— Mannen i den vita hatten (16 åe senare)

Tom Waits in Concert

Tom Waits in Concert, 1999.

1 Comment

There are artists who don’t tour very often and some of my favourites seem only to tour once in blue moon. Such artists are Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell — and Tom Waits.

I remember his concerts at Stockholm’s Cirkus on July 13th and 14th, 1999, very well. We were living in Luleå then and had to travel down to Stockholm to our little Stockholm flat for the concerts. And I’ve lately been clearing out my storage room and came across a whole lot of memorabilia, including the tickets for Tom Waits’s concerts promoting his Mule Variations album. Well, in addition to the tickets, I found that I had gone to the trouble of making set lists of both nights’ concerts.

These concerts were really very expensive — costing SEK 600 per person (about GBP 50 or USD 80), so for two people for two nights it meant an outlay of SEK 2400! Unheard of in 1999. But Cirkus is a great concert venue, with great acoustics and we had seats quite high up and to the right of the stage. On the first night, Tom sauntered into the theatre entering though a door just above us and walked down the stairs past our seats and on down to take his place on the stage. The first nights’ concert went on for over three hours. For the second night it seemed that he had had instructions not to go on for so long, so the show only lasted a bit over two and a half hours. The first night was magical and the second felt a bit like a disappointment after the previous evening. Perhaps we should have been satisfied with one night.

Tom Waits Set list
Te set lists for both concerts and our tickets.

It looks from te set list as though the second night should have been longer — but I can guarantee that it wasn’t.

Per Bjurman, reviewing the concerts said Waits was great but thst the ticket price was extortionate!
Tom Waits review

Anyway, the first night was magical! I would pay the same to see Tom Waits again — should he ever decide to come over.

Concerts, Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk and Me.

Leave a comment

The recent death of Kraftwerk’s co-founder Florian Schneider reminded me of the band’s concerts I have been lucky enough to see.

My introduction to German electronic music was via Tangerine Dream’s album Phaedra that I bought in 1974. I also owned several other of their albums and a single Can LP. I was aware of Kraftwerk at the time but didn’t have any of their albums until 1998 when I first saw them live.

I was one of the Medical Crew at the year’s Roskilde Festival and Kraftwerk were appearing there in (I think) the Green Tent. I only have dim memories of seeing the band members playing standing on a sort of balcony in the tent and no memory at all of what songs they played. I just remember being excited to see this mythical band live.

I bought the albums Man Machine, Radio-Activity and Trans-Europe Express thereafter and, sometime later, probably around 2010, bough a fantastic Mensch Maskine knitted sweater.

kraftwerk sweater
My Kraftwerk sweater.

I have been an on-and-off member of the Tate Museums and in 2013 saw that Kraftwerk were going to play live in the Machine Hall at the Tate Modern. They were going to play  eight concerts one after the other on separate nights from 6th February through to the 15th (having a night off on the Sunday.) By the time I found I would be in London on some of those dates tickets were, of course, sold out. So I succumbed to temptation and searched Ebay for tickets and bought a pair for Thursday 7th February at an extortionate rate. So donning my Kraftwerk sweater I went to the show.

Kraftwerk Tate Modern
Before the show at the Tate Modern.

We received our 3-D glasses and a souvenir booklet as our armbands were checked.

The concert was due to start at 21.00 h and went on for over two hours. Everyone sat on the concrete floor of the Turbine Hall as the swirling sounds enveloped us and the 3-D projections leaped out of the screen. This was Radio-Activity evening but they played a selection of songs including The Robots, Computer-World, Trans-Europa Express, Autobahn, Die Mench-Maschine and others. A wonderful experience! The Wallpaper folder contained a short introduction by Ralf Hütter and two-page spreads of pictures from Kraftwerk’s slides.

I was also a member of Stockholm’s Moderna Museet and was really happy when the museum announced that there would be an exhibition Dansmaskiner – från Léger till Kraftwerk that opened on 22nd January 2014, which Ralf Hütter had been involved in planning. In addition Kraftwerk would play two concerts at Cirkus on 21st and 22nd January. I was lucky to get tickets for the 21st January.

fullsizeoutput_68a2
My Kraftwerk ticket.

As far as I remember, the set was substantially identical to that at the previous year’s show at the Tate Modern. But we didn’t get to keep our 3-D glasses this time.

Now I can simply play the music and reimagine the 3-D films that accompany them.