Patti Smith at the Øya Festival in 2018. Today is Patti Smith’s birthday, Happy Birthday to her! She is one of the most fascinating artists iI know, and has been around on the music scene for more almost fifty years since her debut album Horses in 1975. Most people will know Patti Smith from the song Because The Night that she co-wrote with Bruce Springsteen in 1978. The song has been her calling card ever since, and is still on her setlist at concerts. But she has done much more than this one song in her career, both as a singer of her own and other artist’s songs, as a songwriter and as a po ..read more

Marianne Faithfull at Grieghallen in Bergen 2001. Today is Marianne Faithfull’s birthday, and it is an occasion for looking back on her career that started almost 60 years ago in 1966. From there it was a bumpy road for her for several years. But after a dark period in the 70’s, she came back with the album Broken English, and we have seen a strong artist with a distinguished voice and live performance. I can still remember her debut as a recording artist with As Tears Go By. Not necessarily from when it was released in 1966, but probably a bit after. I liked the song, of course, first of all ..read more

Dagny had a good summer in 2023, headlining several festivals. The photo is from Bergenfest. Here is the second part of my personal favorite photos from 2023. They are not ranked, but all of them are special to me in one way or another. You will see 30 photos from different settings and genres. They may not be from the same genres, but they are all taken at a Norwegian festival or venues. One of the great advantages of photographing concerts, is the opportunity to attend many concerts and festivals. And instead of limiting myself to one or two genres, I try to attend several different ones to ..read more

Daniel Boone at Slottsfjell 2023 has been a special year for all of us. The continuing war in Ukraine and the atrocities in Gaza plus the clear signs of the climate crisis overshadows much of what happened during the year. But in spite of all this, there have been concerts and festivals that made it worthwhile to visit. Here are the first 30 of my favorite photos from 2023 – most of them shot for Getty Images. I have attended 16 festivals and photographed all together 300 + concerts at these festivals and different other venues. Pop, rock, metal, jazz, classical, folk music, Americana – many d ..read more

Nick Cave at the Øyafestival in Oslo, Norway. 2022 has beeen a busy year for me with many concerts of festivals. Half of them shooting for Getty Images. All in all I have covered more than 300 concerts at venues and festivals, about 165 for Getty. Here are some of my favorite photos from this year. The photos are in a random order, I have no chance of sorting them from best to “worst”. All photos are © Per Ole Hagen, licensed to Getty Images, and must not be used, copied or exploited in any way. Tatiana Shmailyuk of the Ukrainian band Jinjer performs at the Tons of Rock festival in Oslo, Norw ..read more

Because of the pandemic, many of the regular guests for SXSW stayed home, so the attendance for the festival was lower than before. This also reflected on the Picnic, with fewer people. But the atmosphere was as it always is at Leeann’s – friendly, open, welcoming and including. And social distancing, for those who wanted, was not a problem. (Photo above: Jon Langford) Leeann Atherton The music started with Leeann who sang some welcome songs, before Ben Jones entered the stage. He played an excellent solo set. He gets better and better, and soon someone must discover his talents (other than B ..read more

Norway has four different showcase festivals, and Trondheim Calling is the second longest running of these. This year was their 10th anniversary. A total of 82 bands/artists with all together 350 musicians and artists plus 900 delegates from the Norwegian and international music business were gathered for three days of concerts, seminars and networking. (Photo above: Agnete Kjølsrud from Djerv) The Northern Belle In 1998 by:Larm started as the Norwegian answer to SXSW and other showcase festivals. The first years the festival alternated between different cities in Norway, but after by:Larm dec ..read more

Here are the last twenty of my favorite photos from concerts I have attended this year. I have seen some excellent concerts, both with big international artists and also by lesser known artists and bands. And I have been able to photograph over 300 different concerts in 2019, which is a personal record for me. (Photo above: Robyn from Øyafestivalen) From the Oslo Runway 2019 One of the great things of being a concert photographer in Norway is the good friendship between us who do it regularly. We compete, of course, but at the same time we cooperate, helping each others out. I do think this is ..read more

2019 has been a busy year all over for me, and I have not been very good at posting here on my blog. I will try to do better in 2020. But I have been shooting many concerts and festivals, actually more bands and artists than ever before. Here are the first twenty of my favorites from 2019. (Photo above: All the Norwegian blues artists who performed at The Royal Albert Hall in November) Angela Marquez at the Feria in Nerja My total concerts, both single events and also cncerts at festivals for 2019 totalled at 322, split between 13 festivals and 43 single concerts. This also includes two events ..read more

OverOslo is a new festival to me, even if it has been going on for some ten years. It is located high at Grefsenkollen, a spectacular location with literally a view of all of Oslo. The only practical problem is getting up there, with only a quite narrow road winding up to the venue and no parking on site. But when you get there, it is definitely worth it. The festival’s audience is mainly in the 30-50’s, and the profile is quite mainstream with some older big names and a few newer artists and bands. But it works well for the crowd who isn’t necessarily those who read all the newest music news ..read more