Happy Navel Year!!!

I hope everyone's happy, I sure am. First of all, apologies for not updating since before Christmas. This is due to me being very busy rehearsing with the band. But now I'm back, and with a new name for my column: Navel Notes! Thanks to Patricia McLoughlin for that splendid name!

We've enjoyed a successful holiday season, with a great concert at Loftet on the 29^th. The day started with the setting up of the equipment (What else?), we have no roadies, but we did get some volunteers to help us out. Morten's brother Thomas, and John's girlfriend Ingrid were both very helpful. Loftet is one floor up from street level, but thank goodness we had access to an elevator. Helge, the manager, had a very clever system were he actually built the stage from scratch in less than three minutes! I was so amazed that I could only stand and watch as the stage was built, it was truly incredible. Not too big, but not too small either, and there was a dance floor just in front of the stage with adequate room for the dancers.

The PA was borrowed from the cool guys of Millennium - Thomas Hanssen and Tom Roger Brumoen, who also helped us with getting a decent sound. Helge arrived with a small lighting rig that belongs to his own band - did I mention that Helge is a really nice guy? :)

So, later that evening, at around 10.00pm I arrived at Loftet. Would there be anyone there? Yeeees... well, there were a few people hanging around, but not too many. I went to our designated "backstage area" - a closed down nightclub nextdoor. At a few minutes past 11.00 we hit the stage while the intro was playing. The intro chosen for the evening was the season 5 theme from Babylon 5. Is that cool or what? :) As we walked on, I could see that the crowd had grown considerably! We kicked off with "Will There Be", rocking hard! The three "Navel Babes", Little-Ingrid, Kjersti and Isabelle, were out on the dance floor, getting a wild response out of the audience.

From there on... what can I say? Time passes quickly when you're having fun, and we certainly had fun that night! I remember getting lots of "good vibes" (man!) from the audience, I remember seing lots of people dancing to our songs and I remember being thirsty all the time! I must have consumed three litres of water in two hours - without ever having to go to the bathroom!:)

Half-way through the concert we had a 15-minute break. Getting off stage, we chatted a little with friends before eventually getting backstage. Mats had an important costume change, and the rest of us spent a couple of minutes cathing our breath. Then I walked on to the stage, announcing that the second set was about to begin. Then we were at it again, and the audience too, going nuts over our new song "From A Distance". Then came what many considered the climax of the evening: "Song About Me", with Mats singing classic lines like "I'm a supersexy lover" while the Navel Babes were dancing around him. For the guitar solo, the girls ripped Mats' trousers off him, leaving him with only a jock-strap for the rest of the song!!! Definitely popular with the females in the audience. For a while I felt like I was playing at a Chippendales show! :)

Mats got his trousers back on after the song.

Soon - much too soon for some - we finished, and bid the audience farewell. I found Helge standing by the bar, and the first thing he said to me was "So, would you like to do this again?" That's when I realised that the concert had been a success!!!:) We were all very tired, but also satisfied about a job well done. The audience was very enthusiastic, which is very fun! Our thanks go out to everyone who came! I already mentioned the people helping us setting up, but it bears repeating: Ingrid and Thomas - excellent road crew! Thomas H. and Tom Roger - safe and sound engineers! Little-Ingrid, Kjersti and Isabelle - Navel Babes forever! And of course Helge - all around nice guy! :) Thank you!

Kentil'Zha

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