Ten Sing

When I was a teenager I joined the local Ten Sing choir.  This was around mid 80s and Ten Sing was huge in Norway. It was fresh, hip, liberal, social and gave many opportunities the kids would never have been able to experience otherwise:

We would go on Ten Sing weekends (90 teenagers and very young leaders. Imagine the intense social life!), give concerts with lightshows, microphones and mixing unit, smoke machines, impetuous rhythms and loud instruments.

We learned how to read sheet music and those who wanted to play an instrument were taught how to play. We had dancers with choreography and outfits. It was all very new and exciting to us. We enjoyed both listening to and performing music together.

Everybody was welcome, and everybody was encouraged to sing out loud with whatever voice they had.

Our Ten Sing choir was one of the biggest in Norway and thinking about it now I have to say I admire those who took charge and the responsibility. The commitment was amazing. Maybe they were too young to realize what they took on, but we were rather successful and quite good too.

Being part of a new concept and run by very young adults situations occurred;

We were threatened to be excluded when we performed Eric Clapton’s Cocaine… it was changed into “krokan” (= almond brittle) but apparently it was not good enough. People suspected it was not the original intention of the song.

I was offered and tasted alcohol for the first time on a weekend we were to practice for our grand tour. I was not the only one, and it was merely a sip or two… not a big deal for anyone other than me, but not good timing and place nevertheless. Thinking about it now alcohol should of course never have been brought to such an event, and it was strictly forbidden, but maybe the setting of people you could trust and who cared was the best possible. Not saying it was ok, just trying to ease my conscience and justify the misbehavior. After all it was a choir founded on Christian values.

At the end of the day it was all very good-natured and including, both ideologically and in practice.

A great many of the active musicians in Norway today have Ten Sing as the starting point of their career.

Highlight of my Ten Sing career was to me, like it was to all the others in our choir, the tour in Germany. Close to 90 teenagers, 2 full busloads of kids, equipment, a nurse, 2 drivers, (those three were also the parents, who were (and still is) usually required as adults in charge) and baggage hit the road and ended up in Germany. We were to promote Ten Sing and get some publicity. We did. We held concerts outdoors and in gyms, at schools and tourist attractions from Köln to Hamburg and Kassel. We had a lot of fun and it was a lifetime experience. We wore ugly (at the time we thought they were cool) light blue sweaters with our logo on it and jeans. Very mid 80s.

When introducing a new song, we were always asked if anyone would like to sing solo. Many wanted, and a few more often than others. I never really volunteered, but I was pushed forward ones… maybe because they thought it would be fun to see me fail, I do not know, but in any case I ended up singing a rather, to me, challenging song by Amy Grant, a rocked up, breathless version of Love of Another Kind. Listening to the tape today, I still think I did fairly well. Even my brothers gave me credit for that one, and on our tour I got roaring applause, just like everyone else. I had my minutes of fame and I was part of something important to me. And I have to admit it was sweet.

Today Ten Sing is far from as popular as it was then, I know we have a few choirs left, but nothing compared to what it was like. I wonder how kids get to love and live music today?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Sing

Not very mainstream

I do not consider myself a musical snob, but I have strong feelings when it comes to music and musical performances.

Music must be passion, joy, brutal, psychoactive, symphonic beautiful and engaging. And many other things, but never insignificant, thoughtless and physically painful bad.

There are so incredibly many really good musicians out there, who create really strong music and lyrics. And no, I'm not a narrow-minded person who hates pop, and feel that the only true music is one specific genre. I like the whole spectrum.

My brothers are a few years older than me, and they have always been interested in music. They played themselves and recorded a couple of cassette tapes, and they introduced me to Earth, Wind and Fire, Dire Straits and Yngve Malmsteen when I was only a small child.

In the beginning I liked mostly rock. New forms of music came along and I was more than ready to explore and embrace.
Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Willy Nelson and, of course, Johnny Cash taught me to appreciate outlawcountry, country music has an undeserved bad reputation in many circles, there is a lot of excellent country artists worth the while listening to.

Motorhead made me, who was fond of symphonic music ala Vangelis, realize that everything you need to create a massive wall of sound is two or three devoted musicians who give everything they have, and then some. Blood, Sweat and Tears in practice.

Leonard Cohen taught me that one can say a lot even if one is low-key. And later Jeff Buckley showed me that one can always do things better than the original, as long as it has soul and character.

Before he became raving mad Brian Wilson showed that 3 minute pop could be written into eternity as long as it was smart and with heart and soul involved.

Satiricon hit me with a bang in 1990s and made me realize that wild and brutal music can be incredibly beautiful, if you just listen. Past my younger youth I still discovered hidden treasures.
Screaming Jay Hawkins and The Blues Brothers made me like the blues, and later more artists added to the list, which goes on. The night we watched the Blues Brothers three times in a row is still a precious memory, maybe because it was a mad thing to do, but we had fun. It was great.

I could have rattled off singersongerwriter Robert Wyatt's incredibly strange low-key music, for example the song Goccia with Cristina Dona. The strange collective Current 93 which presents goth somewhere far to the left of the one and only Nick Cave.

I like the love Bach strive to describe, through his divine inspiration, through the mighty organ pipes, but I also think Kurt Cobain, Faith No More and Alice in Chains are excellent.

Beethoven's Fifth and Ninth Symphony are powerful, passionate and tumultuous beautiful. But sometimes, instead of weather, you need Kate Bush's strange universe.​​When craving some quality time, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and all the other dead rockers from the 60s-70s, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and the rest of the gang from the eighties. Grunge in the nineties and old pop included.  A little country, not too much but some, and of course gems like Meatloaf, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, but preferably from the old days, and plenty of metal from the time when men wore tights and had long hair, flow like a mind blowing force of nature from the speakers. Maybe even Dimmu Borgir, Satyricon and their black-minded friends are compatible to my mood at the time.

Positive bands in the recent past is System of a Down and Wolftmother bright steady. The latter makes me always think of hard rock's childhood with Sabbath, Zeppelin, Hendrix, Thin Lizzy and a whole lot of other brilliant bands, while it sounds new and fresh, and makes me believe that maybe the best of things is not over.

It certainly sounds far-fetched for people of today, but I did not actually own a stereo system until I was an adult and moved out from my parents’ house. I listened to music from a tape recorder, it was not fixed either, at first it was a little mono cassette player, the stereo soundblaster was the first thing I bought when I got my first paycheck; I was 13.
The miracle of music sounding was still present. It was not just music, but the joy of having music in my power.

In a world with no MTV and only one channel on the radio playing music primarily addressing the older generations I found Radio Luxemburgh. I would sit by my radio/cassette recorder and record the songs played, using the pause button to edit away the talking. My tape cassettes were a wonderful collection of what went on in Europe as far as music was concerned.

I left my family and friends behind and went abroad, not yet 19 years old. I was supposed to stay away for three months… and came back home a year later. During this year the locals tried to convince me that Bob Marley with his reggae was the only true way to experience music. I was never quite sure if Bob Marley was merely a symbol of a lifestyle or actually the best music they ever heard. I still love Bob Marley, but I never fell for the temptation of adopting the lifestyle. Music was the only drug I needed.

 
The list goes on and on. There are thousands of good artists, and thousands of brilliant songs, probably enough to not have to play the same song over again the first year if you play music constantly non stop.

So, why this list of strange bands who I enjoy and love so much? Even though we have a vast plentitude of radio channels, we very seldom get to hear music played by these great musicians.

We are presented the top 100s or designed music, produced to tickle our ears in order to create high ratings and fast cash, often accompanied with distinguished looks. Image is far from bad, it does emphasise identity and the sense of belonging to a group of like-minded people. But too often image is used to increase the factor which sells the best: sex.

I want to hear Aerosmith, Beatles, Biosphere, Black Debatth, Black Sabbath, BlurBob Dylan, Bobby, Boyd Rice, Bryan Adams before he went ballads (but I admit I have my romantic moments), Turbonegro, Camel, Cat Stevens, CC Cowboys, David Bowie, Dum Dum Boys, Elvis, Euroboy, Frank Zappa, Gary Moore, Genesis before PhilCollins began to sing, Gwar, Hawkwind, Him, Jefferson Airplane, Judas Priest, Kinks, Kyuss, Led Zeppelin, Manowar, Marlin Manson, Megadeath, Mike Oldfield, Mike Patton, Nazareth, Neil Young, Eagles, Oasis, Ozzy, Tough Men, Prince, Queensland, Radiohead, Raga, Rammstein, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Saxon, Sepultura, Sex Pistols, Simon and Garfunkle, Skunk Anansie, Slade, Sliverstein, Soundgarden, Steppenwolf, Talking Heads, The Byrds, The Cure, The Mamas and the papas, The Rex, The Streets, The Sword, The Who, Van Halen, Yngve Malmsteen, ZZ Top, and many more.

But save me from Kim and her girlfriends