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GREENLAND WHALEFISHERS ( Bergen, Norway ) “a solid slab of heavily Pogues influenced Celtic Punk” – Shite N’ Onions Greenland Whalefishers started out in Bergen Norway in 1994, long before anyone had heard of bands like Flogging Molly or Dropkick Murphys. Combining british punk with celtic folk influences, the band soon became one of the most interesting post-pogues bands . Almost two decades of touring all around the world, releasing seven full length albums, piles of singles and EPs and an uncountable number of split-releases, contributing with music to the movie “Boondock Saints – All Saints Day”, etc. places the underground folk punkers in Greenland Whalefishers as one of the worlds most credible celtic rock bands. Greenland Whalefishers’ album “SONGS FROM the BUNKER” was rated to a fifth place by Shite N’ Onions on the list over the best Celtic Punk CDs in 2010. Shite N’ Onions also placed Greenland Whalefishers’ album “Loboville” on their list of the “10 BEST CELTIC PUNK ALBUMS EVER”, above artists like Dropkick Murphys and Shane MacGowan. During the USA & UK Tour of 2010, Greenland Whalefishers recorded their set at a festival in England. “Live at Farmer Phil’s Festival” was released in april 2012 as LP on red vinyl including download card for mp3. The album has received outstanding reviews. Greenland Whalefishers have toured in the USA, Japan, England, Germany, Italy, Scotland, Poland, Czeck Republic etc, and will continue touring all over with more power and energy than ever on what may be called their never ending world tour. It is all this hard work and all the experience touring that has made critics applaud the bands albums and concerts saying; ” this is probably one of the best Celtic Punk bands you will ever see perform live “. Greenland Whalefishers are: Arvid Grov – vocals, electrick guitar Ronny Terum – mandolin, banjo and bouzouki Alexander Bjotveit – guitar, vocals Agnes Skollevoll – tin-whistle, vocals Odin Døssland – fiddle Ørjan Eikeland Risan – drums Atle-Hjørn Øien – bass THE STORY OF GREENLAND WHALEFISHERS: Back in 1993 Arvid and Two Sheds started to meet once a week in purpose to listen and jamming to folk music, which at this point penetrated their rock’n roll brains. Thin Lizzy, Pogues, Dubliners, Waterboys and similar bands got things started and inspired to song writing. Soon own songs got shaped and others where gathered to get a band started. By picking inexperienced musicians, Arvid succeeded to create and form a band just the way he wanted. So in…… 1994 Arvid Grov, Gunnar “Two Sheds”, Trond Eikemo, Agnes Skollevoll, Kjellaug Borten and Bjørn Helgesen became Greenland Whalefishers. Followed by three or four free gigs an optimism grew which led to a bank loan so we could purchase our own P.A. rig. In June, Arvid injured his hand, and Stig Blindheim was asked to step in as a guitarist for a few gigs, but after a while the band (except Trond) decided to take him in on permanent bases. Things went well, and we manage to release the CD single “Mary B. (Good).” “Mary B” attracted good public attention which led to more gigs. Occasionally, right after finishing “Mary B”, we ran in to fiddler Kristina Malmo. We sorted him out, one thing led to another, and he joined us as well. 1995 This was the year when tons of Irish pubs established in Norway. They liked our music, we liked their beer. Except for three summer months, due to health problems, we had gigs all over the year. Anyway, Bjørn didn’t like all the travelling, so he decided to leave us in the autumn. Our biggest fan and “hang around”, Tommy Bårdsen, who occasionally was (and still is) an excellent bass player, were asked to take over. We sorted him out, offered him membership, and he was ready in no time. 1996 In march, we was ready for our first trip abroad. The hugh Irish friend, songwriter and ballad-singer, Fred Ove Reksten, let us join him on a arrangement on the ship “Color Viking”. Our job was three gigs on board and one at “Dirty Nelly’s” in Newcastle. Because of an accident with “Two Sheds” and Kjellaug being constantly seasick on board, we had to perform without banjo and mandolin. Anyway, Kjellaug got well enough to join us at “Dirty Nelly’s”. “Two Sheds” had to stay behind at Newcastle General Hospital for an extra week. Anyway, inspired of things got well on tour, we decided to do a full-time CD “Mainstreet Sword” with “The Clown as a CD single. The day before we got in studio we had a support gig for The Dubliners. This went so well that even some of the lads in The Dubliners came out an listen to us. We also had a few beers with the lads after the concert. This kicked our asses so well that we could hardly wait to start recording. Well, the releases went well, we got some time at radio stations, we made a video and got more gigs. So far, so good. Many hours on the road and in studio forced Kjellaug to leave us. To fill the gap “Two Sheds” learned how to play the banjo. 1997 The release of “Mainstreet Sword kept us busy the first part of the year. So much that Kristina couldn’t combine playing and take care of (increasing) family at the same time. So he left us. After a short while Kristina where replaced with Odin Døssland, to day 50 years old and with great experience. Anyway, in… 1998 we got back in studio with the purpose of a new full-time CD. The result was a CD single, “T. Bells Blues”. The hard work the years before had created disagreements between us. Ambitions were different added with bad atmosphere. Everyone had to compromise with everyone to get the band going. Because of this we never finished the full-time CD. Well, the only person who just wanted to play, Tommy, left us in the end of year so he could handle his three jobs at the same time. As a sheep farmer, truck driver and running his own general store, day and night had not enough hours for this fellow. After trying four bass players we landed at Terje Schumann-Olsen. A real rock’n roll bass player. 1999 Few gigs, lots of disagreements. Great girlfriends and wives. 2000 We didn’t give up. Except Trond, he left us. After a long time with health problems and playing in different bands for more than 30 years, enough is enough. Terje left us too. He took his family with him and moved to Kristiansand. To get the gigs going, we hired back Tommy. As a drummer we were lucky to get Ørjan Eikeland Risan, a drummer that was perfect for us, especially his good mood is appreciated. We have had lots of gigs this year and scraped up money for a new release (full time) early next year. A tour in UK is planned in march 2001 so we feel comfortable with the situation. In fact, the future is so bright we need sunglasses even inside… 2001 New Years Eve is over and looking back at 2001 is nice. January was so cold that all rehearsals were cancelled. Instead we spent a lot of time in studio working with “Loboville”. February also kept temperature low in the rehearsal assembly but we had to get ready for the “UK Mainstreet Tour”. And after lot of rehearsing and a few gigs, we were ready for our first real UK tour. It started in Glasgow followed by Bradford, Birmingham, Hereford, London and Stoke. We learned a lot and we’ve never met so much nice people before. A special thanks goes to Mr. Lard in Birmingham. Well back again rest of the spring contained lots of gigs and working in studio. In October we released “Loboville” that so far has been a great success for us. We must say that the passed year has been the best year of Greenland Whalefishers. Thanks to all our fans and especially Dagfinn (known as Dolphin in UK), Kjell, Mr Lard and at last Obi-Wan Kenobi for giving us the strength to keep going. Peace And Love the story goes on……… 2002 After some gigs around in Norway, it was a pleasure to get back to UK. “The UK know what i mean – tour” took us across the country, and the final show at “Market tavern” in Birmingham was a fantastic experience. Thanx to all the other bands (and fans) who shared that night with us! Early in the summer we started recording what was to be “Streets of salvation” in Grieghallen – Bergen, with Pytten as producer. We recorded 6-7 tracks and then we moved to Italy. Italy was over the top!! A big thanx again to Marco and Isaia! Brilliant food and wine! After Italy Stig left the band (fuck you!). Then Trond Olsen (fuck you to) joined us. A nice fellow to hang around with and a good guitarist as well! After some touring around Norway and work in the studio, we went back to Italy once more. We heard rumors there was still more wine left. We found it!! We had an exellent night at the “Cinnema Veccio” in Alba. No thanx to the Italian police. Then some more gigs in Norway….and another year was over. 2003 We started the year roving arond the country in deep snow. In February we sat sail for Poland and a huge festival in Krakow. This was (once again) the last tour for our farmer Tommy. Then Terje Schumann-Olsen joined us (once again) on the bass. Spring time has been spent working in studio and rehearsing new material for our comming European tours. First gig was the “Holidays in the sun”, Morcambe – England. A fantastic night – a great show and a great crowd!! In October we finally could release “Maybe the salvation starts here – EP” which was a four tracker, and a small taste of the full leght album “Streets of salvation” which was released in November. 2004 We started off with promotion of ”Streets of Salvation”. Lots of gigs in Norway during January and February, and off we went on our first tour in The Czech Republic in March. There we met up with Dusan our booking agent, road manager and driver; great lad, great tour!!! Back in Norway for more gigs. In June we set off for The UK together with JEF for a ten days rolling celebration tour. Schumann couldn’t join us, so once more Tommy came to our rescue; both as a bass player and a steady driver. Summer holiday;-) Finally time to sit down and relax with a few pints!! Autumn came, more gigs. In October we headed for Warsaw. Really good to be back in Poland!! Back home we started to prepare for the big fairytale; our first Japan tour. (November) An extremely well organised happening. Great gigs, crazy head banging Japanese fans and loads of great bands. Memories enough to cover both this life and the next!! The year ended in a hell of a fight out in Trond’s place – a worthy finale for a paddy punk band;-) 2004; best ever!!!!!!!! 2005 The first part of the year was split between gigs and studio recordings of our next album. Due to hectic touring in 2004, we chose (at least some of us) to slow down the touring. But still some highlights even this year. The most spectacular happening was the gig together wit Shane MacGowan in Bergen in May. In August we once more headed for a tour in The Czech Republic. We had a hell of a good time and attended some great festivals as well. This was a vital injection – even if it didn’t feel like that after two days off in Prague;- After this tour Kristian left the band again, (fuck you) so now Odin is the only fuck playing fiddle. Some more gigs during the autumn. But most important; the new album will be finished before the end of this year! More info from 2006 -> present will be added later.

Heimatstadt: Bergen Norway

Genre: Irish Punk / Paddy Punk / Folk Rock / Rock / Punk / Celtic Punk / Folk Punk


Songs in der Playlist

Songs From The Bunker (2010)

Song erster Stream letzer Stream Anzahl
Back Up Man 06.02.2015 28.02.2024 39
Drunk Vs Love Sick 04.01.2015 24.02.2024 75
I Just Saw You 14.03.2015 12.02.2024 35
In The Bunker 16.02.2015 27.09.2023 33
Police Chief Inspector 05.03.2015 16.02.2024 39
Put Me On A Train 06.01.2015 07.11.2023 42
Rich Holder At Thorp Arch 11.02.2015 14.09.2023 36
Rita Von Snider 11.01.2015 30.12.2023 41
The Guest 23.02.2015 12.02.2024 41
Tony Riot 20.03.2015 28.06.2023 31
Waiting 16.01.2015 12.02.2024 29

Greenland Whalefishers / The Tans - Split (-)

Song erster Stream letzer Stream Anzahl
Loralay 05.02.2015 06.12.2023 59
Roddy McCorley 06.02.2015 22.01.2024 53
Loralay - - 0
Roddy McCorley - - 0