The Contenders (band)
Encyclopedia
The Contenders were one of the most popular Norwegian roots rock bands of the early 1990s, playing more than 200 gigs and releasing three albums.
in March 1988 . Having broken up The Act
in January 1987 after four years of regular gig playing, he was now yearning to get back on stage.
So initially just to have some fun and play a few gigs, Kulseth rounded up his younger brother Stein and the rhythm section they had played with while growing up in Flisa
, a rural village close to the deep forests by the Swedish border. The last recruit was Bjørn Gulliksen, the front man of The Ramblers from Kongsberg
who were also handled by Kulseth's manager.
From the very first show – playing mostly pub rock classics and a few new originals by the Kulseth brothers – the response was strong. As word got around that the guy from The Act had a new band with three frontmen, offers for gigs started coming in. So when his more pop oriented solo album bombed – great reviews and close to zero sales – Bjørn Kulseth just kept on gigging with The Contenders and writing new songs with his brother.
After a few months, Bjørn Gulliksen found two bands to be one too many and was replaced by lead guitarist Stein Ramberg, who had played with Bjørn Kulseth in The Act
in 1984.
In the spring of 1988, The Contenders started a residency at Cruise Café, Oslo’s main venue for Americana music. Every week the band invited other Norwegian performers they respected as special guests: Singers like Trond Granlund, Henning Kvitnes, Jan Dahlen and Pål Andreassen. On the back of this residency, The Contenders were hired to back US singer-songwriter Steve Young
(best known for Eagles' cover of his song “Seven Bridges Road”) on a Norwegian tour.
In the summer of 1988 the band recorded demos of three of their own songs. A version of “Ain't That Brave” from this session was included on the Norwegian Garage Rock collection Rock 'n' Roll Stowaways Vol. 1. Later that summer they played alongside Tom Russell
and Backstreet Girls
at Down on the Farm: An event that started out as a barbecue for musicians and friends and in a few years become the premier Norwegian roots festival with audiences up to 5,000.
– Kulseth’s label for both The Act and the solo album released under the project name Hi-Yo Silver! – got the first listen and decided to buy the master and sign the band. Released in January 1990, the debut album The Contenders features 11 tracks written by the Kulseth brothers, a rollicking boogie woogie-style cover of Hank Williams' “Jambalaya” and the first released recording of “A Little Love is a Dangerous Thing” by US songwriters Katy Moffatt
and Tom Russell
.
The critics were enthusiastic, with possibly the highest praise coming from the veteran Swedish critic Mats Olsson of Expressen
. Annoyed that a new generation of Norwegian sports stars were now beating the Swedes, Olsson “worried” that The Contenders' debut album might signal a similar trend in rock music. The single “Sweet Little Thing” – written and sung by Stein Kulseth – got a fair amount of airplay and the band was invited to perform on both local and national TV. More importantly, the album helped to establish The Contenders as one of the most popular live bands of the time.
When guitarist Stein Ramberg left to play with Casino Steel – the Norwegian pianist who had been in the UK punk band The Boys
in the 1970s – The Contenders continued as a quartet for almost a year. As they started preparing for the second album, they recruited Arnfinn Tørrisen who was originally also from Flisa
, the town the others had grown up in. Tørrisen was known as the Norwegian Albert Lee
and had been playing professionally since he was seventeen with Norwegian country acts like Big Hand Johansen’s Country Team, Lillian Askeland, Bjøro Håland, Egil “Gille” Larsen, Teddy Nelson, G. Thomas etc.
close the Swedish border, to record their next album at the residential studio Athletic Sound with house engineer Kai Andersen. The Kulseth brothers had by now been writing new songs for their live gigs for two years and had a good selection to choose from. One song seemed particularly promising: A midtempo tune called “Radioland” which was a tongue-in-cheek commentary on all the late night request shows that had become popular as Norwegian airwaves were opened up for competition during the 1980s. To maximise the song's commercial potential, “Radioland” and two other tracks were brought to Stockholm to be mixed by Dan Sundquist, the Swedish musician who had been in the new romantic band Reeperbahn in the early 1980s and who by now was a successful engineer/producer with a Swedish Grammy for Best Producer in 1988.
When the Radioland album was released in January 1992, the whole campaign was focused on the title tune. The strategy worked. The single “Radioland” topped the airplay charts for four weeks and helped to sell close to 15.000 copies of the album. The Kulseth brothers now signed an international publishing contract with the Stockholm-branch of EMI Music Publishing. The critics were also enthusiastic about the new and modernized version of The Contenders, with several comparisons made to the transformation Tom Petty
had recently gone through by working with Jeff Lynne
.
In March 1992, The Contenders were happy to be invited to support Tom Petty
at his sold out shows in Gothenburg’s Scandinavium
and Stockholm’s Globen
. So after performing songs like “Louisiana Rain” and “Listen to Her Heart” hundreds of times during the previous 10 years, Bjørn Kulseth got to celebrate his 30th birthday on March 7. by supporting the writer of those songs in front of 12.000 Stockholmians and later hanging out with The Heartbreakers at the legendary Café Opera.
With two weeks notice, The Contenders were now invited to compete in the Norwegian Final of the Eurovision Song Contest
, traditionally a huge television event watched by virtually all Norwegians. The band quickly wrote and recorded their first ever song in Norwegian with the title “Munn mot munn metoden” (i.e. “The mouth to mouth method”). After the live and directly televised performance in Oslo Spektrum
on March 21. the regional juries voted The Contenders’ song in at next to last of the ten entries.
Much of the summer of 1992 was spent on the road, with highlights being an outdoors show in the port of Malmø during Euro 92
(The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship) in June and The Molde International Jazz Festival
in July. In the fall of 1992, The Contenders were invited to contribute to a double tribute album to the Norwegian singer-songwriter Åge Aleksandersen
. The Contenders chose to cover “Kvalmen” (“Nausea”) from Aleksandersen’s 1979 album French Only.
for overdubs and mixing.
In January 1994 the album Amors bil (i.e. "Cupid's Car"), was released. The first single “Folkets Hus” (i.e. "Community Hall") - an allegory on the fall of the post World War II social democratic solidarity - became a minor radio hit. The second single "Indianere" (i.e. "Red Indians") also received much airplay, but even though the critics lauded the band's new blend of classic Americana music with Norwegian lyrics, the album sales never took off.
After touring the Amors Bil album, Per Ivar Stræte found he had developed tinnitus
and put his drums in storage. The rest of the band then joined forces with the singer-songwriter Roy Lønhøiden as a third front man and called themselves Kulseth & Lønhøiden Almenning. Lønhøiden had grown up in roughly the same area as The Contenders and after singing in English in the boy/girl duo Peyton Place (one self titled album on Sony
in 1994) he had also decided to switch to Norwegian.
Kulseth & Lønhøiden Almenning released their one self titled album in 1998 on Bjørn Kulseth's own label Norskamerikaner (i.e. Norwegian-American). Bjørn Kulseth has later produced and released solo albums by Roy Lønhøiden in 2004 and 2006 on this label. Stein Kulseth has also worked with Lønhøiden as a songwriter and studio musician and has since 1999 been a semi-permanent member of veteran Norwegian roots singer Trond Grandlund's band.
The guitarist Arnfinn Tørrisen started playing and writing songs with J.T. Lauritsen & the Buckshot Hunters in 1995 and they have since released four albums. Tørrisen has also recorded and performed with Roy Lønhøiden. In 1998, the bass player Odd-Eirik Fleischer joined Home Groan, a band led by The Contenders' former soundman Martin Hagfors, which have since released 10 albums.
The drummer Per-Ivar Stræte learned to live with the tinnitus after a few years and the last line-up of The Contenders occasionally reunites for one-off gigs, mainly around Christmas time in their old hometown Flisa
.
(Blue vinyl promo single, EMI Odeon 1989)
(Vinyl single, EMI 1991)
(CD single, EMI 1992)
(CD single, EMI 1992)
(CD promo single in cardboard cover, EMI 1993)
(CD single, EMI 1994 )
(Vinyl album, That's Entertainment 1988)
(Double CD, Norske Gram 1992)
Band members
- Bjørn Kulseth – vocals & guitars
- Stein Kulseth – vocals, piano, accordion, guitar & mandolin
- Odd Eirik Fleischer – bass & vocals
- Per Ivar Stræte – drums
- Arnfinn Tørrisen – guitars (1991– present)
Former members
- Stein Ramberg – guitars (1988–1989)
- Bjørn Gulliksen – vocals & guitars (1987–88)
History
In the fall of 1987, Bjørn Kulseth was waiting for the release of his first solo album Away, recorded in England that summer and due for release under the "project name" Hi-Yo Silver!Hi-Yo Silver!
Hi-Yo Silver! was a musical solo project by Bjørn Kulseth, the former lead singer and songwriter of the Norwegian rock band The Act. The only Hi-Yo Silver! album was entitled Away and was released in 1988.- History :...
in March 1988 . Having broken up The Act
The Act
The Act was a popular and critically acclaimed Norwegian rock band in the mid 1980s. They toured extensively and released the album September Field.-Band members:*Bjørn Kulseth – vocals, guitars*Rune Krogseth – vocals, guitars...
in January 1987 after four years of regular gig playing, he was now yearning to get back on stage.
So initially just to have some fun and play a few gigs, Kulseth rounded up his younger brother Stein and the rhythm section they had played with while growing up in Flisa
Flisa
Flisa is a small town in south-eastern Norway, and the administrative centre of Åsnes municipality. Its population as of 1 January 2009 is 1,561....
, a rural village close to the deep forests by the Swedish border. The last recruit was Bjørn Gulliksen, the front man of The Ramblers from Kongsberg
Kongsberg
is a town and municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. It is located at the southern end of the traditional region of Numedal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Kongsberg....
who were also handled by Kulseth's manager.
From the very first show – playing mostly pub rock classics and a few new originals by the Kulseth brothers – the response was strong. As word got around that the guy from The Act had a new band with three frontmen, offers for gigs started coming in. So when his more pop oriented solo album bombed – great reviews and close to zero sales – Bjørn Kulseth just kept on gigging with The Contenders and writing new songs with his brother.
After a few months, Bjørn Gulliksen found two bands to be one too many and was replaced by lead guitarist Stein Ramberg, who had played with Bjørn Kulseth in The Act
The Act
The Act was a popular and critically acclaimed Norwegian rock band in the mid 1980s. They toured extensively and released the album September Field.-Band members:*Bjørn Kulseth – vocals, guitars*Rune Krogseth – vocals, guitars...
in 1984.
In the spring of 1988, The Contenders started a residency at Cruise Café, Oslo’s main venue for Americana music. Every week the band invited other Norwegian performers they respected as special guests: Singers like Trond Granlund, Henning Kvitnes, Jan Dahlen and Pål Andreassen. On the back of this residency, The Contenders were hired to back US singer-songwriter Steve Young
Steve Young (musician)
Steve Young is an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist, known for his song "Seven Bridges Road"...
(best known for Eagles' cover of his song “Seven Bridges Road”) on a Norwegian tour.
In the summer of 1988 the band recorded demos of three of their own songs. A version of “Ain't That Brave” from this session was included on the Norwegian Garage Rock collection Rock 'n' Roll Stowaways Vol. 1. Later that summer they played alongside Tom Russell
Tom Russell
Thomas George "Tom" Russell is an American singer-songwriter. Although most strongly identified with the Texas Country music tradition, his music also incorporates elements of folk, Tex-Mex, and the cowboy music of the American West. Many of his songs have been recorded by other artists, including...
and Backstreet Girls
Backstreet Girls
Backstreet Girls are a Norwegian rock band. Formed in 1984, they have released 14 records.- History :The band was formed in 1984 by brothers Pål Kristensen on bass and Tom Kristensen on vocals. They were joined by guitarist Petter Baarli, formerly of the band Riff/Raff, and his brother, drummer...
at Down on the Farm: An event that started out as a barbecue for musicians and friends and in a few years become the premier Norwegian roots festival with audiences up to 5,000.
First album
In the spring of 1989, the band hired Oslo’s all digital BEL Studio for four nights. Thirteen songs were recorded and produced by the Kulseth brothers with engineer Gragg Lunsford. EMIEMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
– Kulseth’s label for both The Act and the solo album released under the project name Hi-Yo Silver! – got the first listen and decided to buy the master and sign the band. Released in January 1990, the debut album The Contenders features 11 tracks written by the Kulseth brothers, a rollicking boogie woogie-style cover of Hank Williams' “Jambalaya” and the first released recording of “A Little Love is a Dangerous Thing” by US songwriters Katy Moffatt
Katy Moffatt
Katherine Louella "Katy" Moffatt is an American musician, lyricist, composer, vocalist. She is the sister of country singer-songwriter Hugh Moffatt.-Midnight Radio:...
and Tom Russell
Tom Russell
Thomas George "Tom" Russell is an American singer-songwriter. Although most strongly identified with the Texas Country music tradition, his music also incorporates elements of folk, Tex-Mex, and the cowboy music of the American West. Many of his songs have been recorded by other artists, including...
.
The critics were enthusiastic, with possibly the highest praise coming from the veteran Swedish critic Mats Olsson of Expressen
Expressen
Expressen is one of two nationwide evening tabloid newspapers in Sweden, the other being Aftonbladet. Expressen was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and slogans "it stings" or "Expressen to your rescue", always on the reader's side....
. Annoyed that a new generation of Norwegian sports stars were now beating the Swedes, Olsson “worried” that The Contenders' debut album might signal a similar trend in rock music. The single “Sweet Little Thing” – written and sung by Stein Kulseth – got a fair amount of airplay and the band was invited to perform on both local and national TV. More importantly, the album helped to establish The Contenders as one of the most popular live bands of the time.
When guitarist Stein Ramberg left to play with Casino Steel – the Norwegian pianist who had been in the UK punk band The Boys
The Boys (UK Band)
The Boys are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1976.Members of the band had previously played in other groups, such as London SS and Hollywood Brats. After recording four studio albums and eight singles, as well as recording Christmas themed music under the name The Yobs, they disbanded...
in the 1970s – The Contenders continued as a quartet for almost a year. As they started preparing for the second album, they recruited Arnfinn Tørrisen who was originally also from Flisa
Flisa
Flisa is a small town in south-eastern Norway, and the administrative centre of Åsnes municipality. Its population as of 1 January 2009 is 1,561....
, the town the others had grown up in. Tørrisen was known as the Norwegian Albert Lee
Albert Lee
Albert William Lee, born 21 December 1943 in Leominster, Herefordshire, England, is an English guitarist known for his fingerstyle and hybrid picking technique. Lee has worked both in the studio and on tour with some of the most famous musicians which stretch through a very wide of genres...
and had been playing professionally since he was seventeen with Norwegian country acts like Big Hand Johansen’s Country Team, Lillian Askeland, Bjøro Håland, Egil “Gille” Larsen, Teddy Nelson, G. Thomas etc.
Second album
In the fall of 1991 the band headed down south to HaldenHalden
is a both a town and a municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The seat of the municipality, Halden is a border town located at the Tista river delta on the Iddefjord, the southernmost border crossing between Norway and Sweden.-History:...
close the Swedish border, to record their next album at the residential studio Athletic Sound with house engineer Kai Andersen. The Kulseth brothers had by now been writing new songs for their live gigs for two years and had a good selection to choose from. One song seemed particularly promising: A midtempo tune called “Radioland” which was a tongue-in-cheek commentary on all the late night request shows that had become popular as Norwegian airwaves were opened up for competition during the 1980s. To maximise the song's commercial potential, “Radioland” and two other tracks were brought to Stockholm to be mixed by Dan Sundquist, the Swedish musician who had been in the new romantic band Reeperbahn in the early 1980s and who by now was a successful engineer/producer with a Swedish Grammy for Best Producer in 1988.
When the Radioland album was released in January 1992, the whole campaign was focused on the title tune. The strategy worked. The single “Radioland” topped the airplay charts for four weeks and helped to sell close to 15.000 copies of the album. The Kulseth brothers now signed an international publishing contract with the Stockholm-branch of EMI Music Publishing. The critics were also enthusiastic about the new and modernized version of The Contenders, with several comparisons made to the transformation Tom Petty
Tom Petty
Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T...
had recently gone through by working with Jeff Lynne
Jeff Lynne
Jeffrey "Jeff" Lynne is an English songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer who gained fame as the leader and sole constant member of Electric Light Orchestra and was a co-founder and member of The Traveling Wilburys together with George Harrison, Bob...
.
In March 1992, The Contenders were happy to be invited to support Tom Petty
Tom Petty
Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T...
at his sold out shows in Gothenburg’s Scandinavium
Scandinavium
Scandinavium is the primary indoor sports and event arena in Gothenburg, Sweden. Construction on Scandinavium began in 1969 after decades of setbacks, the arena was built in time for the 350th year anniversary celebration of the City of Gothenburg and was inaugurated on May 18, 1971.Scandinavium...
and Stockholm’s Globen
Stockholm Globe Arena
The Ericsson Globe is the national indoor arena of Sweden, located in the Johanneshov district of Stockholm . The Ericsson Globe is currently the largest hemispherical building in the world and took two and a half years to build...
. So after performing songs like “Louisiana Rain” and “Listen to Her Heart” hundreds of times during the previous 10 years, Bjørn Kulseth got to celebrate his 30th birthday on March 7. by supporting the writer of those songs in front of 12.000 Stockholmians and later hanging out with The Heartbreakers at the legendary Café Opera.
With two weeks notice, The Contenders were now invited to compete in the Norwegian Final of the Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...
, traditionally a huge television event watched by virtually all Norwegians. The band quickly wrote and recorded their first ever song in Norwegian with the title “Munn mot munn metoden” (i.e. “The mouth to mouth method”). After the live and directly televised performance in Oslo Spektrum
Oslo Spektrum
Oslo Spektrum is an indoor multi-purpose arena in east central Oslo, Norway. It opened in December 1990. It is currently owned and operated by Norges Varemesse , who also own and operate the Norges Varemesse conference center in Lillestrøm which is Norway's largest conference center...
on March 21. the regional juries voted The Contenders’ song in at next to last of the ten entries.
Much of the summer of 1992 was spent on the road, with highlights being an outdoors show in the port of Malmø during Euro 92
1992 UEFA European Football Championship
The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was hosted by Sweden between 10 and 26 June 1992. It was the ninth European Football Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. Eight national teams contested the championship, which was won by Denmark, one of...
(The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship) in June and The Molde International Jazz Festival
Moldejazz
Molde International Jazz Festival takes place annually in July, and is known as one of the oldest jazz festivals in Europe. It was initiated by the local Storyville Jazz Club...
in July. In the fall of 1992, The Contenders were invited to contribute to a double tribute album to the Norwegian singer-songwriter Åge Aleksandersen
Åge Aleksandersen
Åge Aleksandersen is a Norwegian singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is one of his country's most famous singer/songwriters, musicians....
. The Contenders chose to cover “Kvalmen” (“Nausea”) from Aleksandersen’s 1979 album French Only.
Third album
Though neither of The Contenders’ first experiments with signing in their native language were particularly successful, the Kulseth brothers decided that Norwegian lyrics was their future. They worked hard on their songwriting and in the fall of 1993 had enough songs to start recording their third album. As on Radioland they started recording basic tracks in Halden’s Athletic Sound, but then moved on to Studio Nova in SpydebergSpydeberg
Spydeberg is a municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Spydeberg. It is divided into the parishes Spydeberg, Heli, and Hovin. Spydeberg was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 .The village of Spydeberg has approximately...
for overdubs and mixing.
In January 1994 the album Amors bil (i.e. "Cupid's Car"), was released. The first single “Folkets Hus” (i.e. "Community Hall") - an allegory on the fall of the post World War II social democratic solidarity - became a minor radio hit. The second single "Indianere" (i.e. "Red Indians") also received much airplay, but even though the critics lauded the band's new blend of classic Americana music with Norwegian lyrics, the album sales never took off.
After touring the Amors Bil album, Per Ivar Stræte found he had developed tinnitus
Tinnitus
Tinnitus |ringing]]") is the perception of sound within the human ear in the absence of corresponding external sound.Tinnitus is not a disease, but a symptom that can result from a wide range of underlying causes: abnormally loud sounds in the ear canal for even the briefest period , ear...
and put his drums in storage. The rest of the band then joined forces with the singer-songwriter Roy Lønhøiden as a third front man and called themselves Kulseth & Lønhøiden Almenning. Lønhøiden had grown up in roughly the same area as The Contenders and after singing in English in the boy/girl duo Peyton Place (one self titled album on Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
in 1994) he had also decided to switch to Norwegian.
Kulseth & Lønhøiden Almenning released their one self titled album in 1998 on Bjørn Kulseth's own label Norskamerikaner (i.e. Norwegian-American). Bjørn Kulseth has later produced and released solo albums by Roy Lønhøiden in 2004 and 2006 on this label. Stein Kulseth has also worked with Lønhøiden as a songwriter and studio musician and has since 1999 been a semi-permanent member of veteran Norwegian roots singer Trond Grandlund's band.
The guitarist Arnfinn Tørrisen started playing and writing songs with J.T. Lauritsen & the Buckshot Hunters in 1995 and they have since released four albums. Tørrisen has also recorded and performed with Roy Lønhøiden. In 1998, the bass player Odd-Eirik Fleischer joined Home Groan, a band led by The Contenders' former soundman Martin Hagfors, which have since released 10 albums.
The drummer Per-Ivar Stræte learned to live with the tinnitus after a few years and the last line-up of The Contenders occasionally reunites for one-off gigs, mainly around Christmas time in their old hometown Flisa
Flisa
Flisa is a small town in south-eastern Norway, and the administrative centre of Åsnes municipality. Its population as of 1 January 2009 is 1,561....
.
Albums
- The Contenders (EMI Odeon 1989)
- Radioland (EMI 1992)
- Amors bil (EMI 1994)
Singles
- "Sweet Little Thing" b/w "A Little Love (is a Dangerous Thing)"
(Blue vinyl promo single, EMI Odeon 1989)
- "Radioland" b/w "You’re So Swell"
(Vinyl single, EMI 1991)
- "Radioland" c/w "Ride Away" & "Saturday Roadhouse Fight"
(CD single, EMI 1992)
- "Munn mot munn metoden" c/w "Rock ‘n’ Roll Hurricane"
(CD single, EMI 1992)
- "Folkets hus"
(CD promo single in cardboard cover, EMI 1993)
- "Indianere" c/w "Amors bil" (live)
(CD single, EMI 1994 )
Compilations
- "Ain't That Brave" on Rock 'n' Roll Stowaways Vol. 1
(Vinyl album, That's Entertainment 1988)
- "Kvalmen" on Æ - A tribute to Åge AleksandersenÅge AleksandersenÅge Aleksandersen is a Norwegian singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is one of his country's most famous singer/songwriters, musicians....
(Double CD, Norske Gram 1992)