Depp

 Last week I was bemoaning the way I currently discover music - but one positive in all of this available music is that it is possible to find long forgotten songs as well, and that is what today is all about - before I take a few days to talk a little bit more about music that has been released a little more recently, which is my plan for the next few entries...

But today, I want to go back in time. Back to 1988 or thereabouts, when I was about 16 years old. My friend Jan Are played rhythm guitar in the band Ceptic Tank, and they had secured a gig opening for (somewhat unknown) Ræva Rockers at UFFA (Ungdom For Fri Aktivitet - Youth For Free Expression, more or less), a notorious underground venue in Trondheim where several of the Norwegian great bands got their start (it was a place where bands like Wannskrækk, who turned to Norwegian rock's most popular band DumDum Boys, Motorpsycho, and Israelvis played early and often) - and the audience was always enthusiastic. 

Anyway, on the day of the gig, I think I was asked to push the buttons for the stage lights for Ceptic Tank. I had no clue what I was doing, but somehow ended up doing a decent enough job with it, so the people in Ræva Rockers asked me if I could do it for them as well. My 16 year old self was probably beaming with pride as I accepted, and I was getting very excited. I was going to do something for a touring rock band. Pretty cool, huh? 

So Ceptic Tank finished their set, and Ræva Rockers were getting ready to go on stage when tragedy struck: A fuse had blown in the mixer. It was late at night, and getting a new fuse meant going to a gas station, but most gas stations had already closed. However, there was one pretty close by exception: A Shell station. Problem solved, right? Not so fast... This was back in 1988, and South Africa was still in the throes of apartheid (this was right around Little Steven's Sun City project). What I neglected to say about UFFA was how radical it was - very, VERY left leaning, closing in on anarchism (some called themselves anarchosocialists), and Shell was doing business in South Africa, hence they were on the list of companies good leftists would boycott. So faced with the choice of spending a minimal amount of money at a Shell gas station or simply not playing the gig, Ræva Rockers held true to their principles and did not play - and thus my light contributions were limited to Ceptic Tank. But I still think the story is worth telling... And I did go back to UFFA to buy the Ræva Rockers EP, where today's song is from. It is called Depp, and the lyrics don't make much sense to me today either... But I like the song...