David Hartley in Norway

[Bent Romnes]

Hi Friends,
This weekend David attended the Western Norwegian steel meet in Fosnavåg, Norway, where he and lovely Fran Allum were the main entertainers. Fosnavåg is a collection of small islands off the western coast of Norway. Atle Kvalsvik was, as usual, the arranger for this undertaking. Atle, being from that area also called Kvalsvik is a steel player of 3 years and is coming along nicely in his studies on his Fessenden. He is showing a lot of promise according to reports.
Seeing how most of the pro players and amateurs alike did not have the opportunity to attend, the arrangement was built around the annual celebration of the "Kvalsvik Days", where participation from local population and media as well as local steel players, were near the 100% mark I predict.

The festival stretched over fri and sat this weekend, which included Fran and David as the main attraction of course. From what I understand, it was a very casual get-together which included participation form the local population, with the guests and others being able to stop by at different homes and be invited in for coffee and waffles. Also, a boat ride out to Fosnavåg's beautiful Bird Island was scheduled. I do hope that the weather cooperated!
I would have loved to be able to attend. Had the money permitted, I would have hopped on the first flight from Canada.

Here is a wee taste of what went on there. Here we see local steel man Kjell Helde perform on his Hal Rugg Franklin together with David.
I am sure you will agree that Kjell has a great future in this business!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yxVlW1tCsM

Best wishes,
Bent

[David Hartley]

Thank you Bent for posting this thread. It was a pleasure talking to you too recently.. This was my second visit to Norway. April of last year was the first time I was invited by Atle and I made the trip on my own not really knowing anything about Norway. It was an amazing experience that first time as Atle collected me from Oslo and drove me 400 miles to his area just so that I could see a bit of Norway in just one day..he had the whole weekend planned then and indeed on last weekend visit too. It seemed as if we done so much in such a short time. He made Fran and myself so welcome and really looked after us both. Every morning was a huge breakfast with plans made for visits and sightseeing every day. I must say a special thanks to Per Ove who travelled up from south of Oslo on a 10 hour trip mto see us and also brought his Hartley Rains guitar so that I could play it over the weekend. We played on the Friday and had the pleasure of kjell Helde joining us too during the evening performance to a large local crowd of about 360 people in the most beautiful setting at the Kvalsvic days venue.. The next day we played in Fosnivag shopping centre introducing ourselves and advertising the big event starting later that day.. It was a quick pack up and straight off to the Kvalsvic days venue again to set up and play our 2 x30 minute sessions during that afternoon.. The weather was fabulous and the event was unbelievable too. We did go back to Atles house in the evening but went back to the event at about 1100pm to join in and watch more entertainment.. I think it went on till about 3am but myself and Fran decided to walk back before the evening came to an end as we were shattered. The next day was great as we walked to the beach and across the rugged areas of coastline on this island. We done so much and all thanks to Atle. It was very sad when it all had to come to an end but there,s next year to look forward too.. Fantastic people and unbelievable scenery.. I can't say anymore than that. Thank you so much Atle for making this trip a very very special one yet again..

David Hartley.

[David Hartley]

As I said, we were well looked after, Atle has posted some pictures on the Norwegian PSG forum, click on the link and scroll down !

http://steelforum.diskusjonsforum.no/steelforum-about846-0-asc-15.html

David Hartley

[bob adams]

Sounds like a fun trip Mr 'H'!