Västervik Live!

“Can anyone remember what they were doing 100 days ago?” I started into my story at the Västervik Live Songs and Stories event, to a friendly crowd of Swedes in the historic and picturesque Båtmansgränd (the old boatmen’s houses).

April 9th was ‘day 1’, when we left Newcastle and started our new life in the van. After Copenhagen, we’d traveled up the Swedish coast and made it to our first planned destination – Västervik, and our Newcastle friends Andy and Ucci’s new house. I got to celebrate ‘day 100’ by playing at one of the city’s summer concerts. Easily the biggest show of our journey so far, I opened for Robin Bengtsson, who sang for Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2017!

There was a catch though – I had to tell a story! I was more nervous about that than the music. What would I say? Would they understand my northern accent? Would they laugh at my jokes? The promoter Jim and compere Catrin were really nice and encouraging, and Bev helped with ideas for a story. I talked about our adventure, about making positive changes in your life, taking a risk maybe, but following a dream. 

Sometimes if you listen to the news, especially in the UK right now, you’d think the world is a terrible place. You’d be better off staying in your homes, keeping your head down. But everywhere we’ve been, we’ve met wonderful, warm, friendly people doing amazing things to celebrate life and make the world a brighter, better place.

A good example: Sebbe at Strandkompaniet in Sandhammaren. He moved there from Stockholm to set up a smokehouse. His ambition: All the ingredients they use for hams and sausage are so local, they can be delivered by bicycle. In just 3 years, he has almost achieved that. This year, he opened a beach bar/cafe, putting on live music on Thursdays through the summer. We were camping nearby so I emailed to ask about a gig. He replied straight away and put on an extra night on the Friday. I played 3 sets and had a great night.

And, I can confirm the sausages are spectacular!

100 days on the road…

Our 100th day was fantastic from start to finish. Ucci’s sister Chrisa and Tony treated us to a huge breakfast of Swedish favourites including Västervik Korv (sausage), liver pate with pickled cucumbers, boiled eggs with dill caviar, and cheese with jam on toast! We walked with the dogs into Västervik – past Slottsholmen, the fancy hotel built by Björn from Abba – to see the Hasselörodden, an annual parade of rowing boats with locals dressed in traditional fisherman’s outfits. I was too stuffed from breakfast to try a herring burger, but by the size of the queue, they must be good. Back for lunch, then we helped move some furniture into the gorgeous new house.

Songs and Stories

Tony gave me a lift into town with my gear to soundcheck. It all sounded great with Alvin on the desk. Then, Bev shouting at the end of the row of historic houses, “Come and see this!” They’d got a lift into town in a convoy of army jeeps, including one used by the British army in WW2! Bonkers. We bumped into another set of relatives, Pea and Freddan, who happened to be stuck in Västervik by virtue of a broken steering cable on their boat. The gig went really well – I played 6 of my own songs and the crowd’s reaction was really positive. Lots of nice comments and great feedback from the organisers. Might be back next year!

We enjoyed the other acts, Stefan and Sarah and then Robin, playing acoustic guitar along with a fantastic percussionist. What a voice! Good mix of songs, mostly in English. A great version of John Fogerty’s “Blue moon nights”. His Eurovision song, “I can’t go on”, had everyone up at the end. We moved on to watch the sunset from the boat, drinking gin and singing songs!

We don’t know where we’ll be in a 100 days time, but I hope it is as good as this!

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