The Nordic Kinks Konvention 2011

 The Nordic Kinks Konvention was opened by the Kinky Way. Beside Waterloo Sunset and Days, their tribute to Elisabeth, the highlights were Village Green and especially It's Too Late with a fantastic Geir Arne Westby on solo guitar.

 Then the concert of the Kast Off Kinks with John Dalton instead of Jim Rodford. The humor and cheerfulness of John again was an extra element this evening. They had no new songs today. You could buy a new KOK's live-CD "Live at The Brook!", recorded the 29th of January 2010 in Southampton.

Tracks: Where Have All The Good Times Gone, Victoria, I Gotta Move, Stop Your Sobbing, Days, Dead End Street, 'Til (that's what it says) The End Of The Day, The Village Green Preservation Society, Set Me Free, Apeman, Tired Of Waiting For You, Dedicated Follower Of Fashion, Better Things, All Day And All Of The Night.

 In Halden they played all these songs, except I Gotta Move (Jim's track of course) and All Day And All Of The Night (that wasn't played at all by the 3 bands we saw tonight). It was a very tight performance. We had no Olga with us to write down the track listing, but the whole konvention has been recorded on video, so we are sure we'll get to hear that in the KPS later from somebody from Norway. Better Things was dedicated to the Norwegian victims. After that the Kast Off Kinks were joined on stage by all the members of the Kinky Way to do Louie Louie.

 Back in the Grand Hotel, where everybody was staying, there was an after party with a gig by David Watts, a bluesy Kinks cover trio that consists of Lars Birkelund, Eirik Lie and Torbjorn Holte (don't know who's playing what, but it was bass, rhythm guitar+vocals, lead guitar).

Finally a cover band that's not just copying the original Kinks versions, but doing something special in every song (from 4/4 to 3/4, extended outro's etcetera). A lot of their songs are not the obvious ones, so finally we could all sing along (and we surely did) with Animal Farm, Most Exclusive Residence For Sale, End Of The Season, I'm On An Island, Act Nice And Gentle, Love Me Till The Sun Shines and a lot more!

I think we went to bed at 03:30. On Sunday Arve brought us back to Oslo Airport.

 We want to congratulate the Nordic KPS with their 1st Konvention and hope for them that many will follow. They can be very proud of what they achieved and we will never forget it!

 Simon van den Bergh (on behalf of the Dutch Kinks Preservation Society)