Annie (From Norway)

Firstly, hardly anyone had ever heard of her, and the place doesn't really lend itself to live performances. The sound wasn't working properly, so you could hardly hear her - I mean she has a fragile enough voice at best, but over the buzzing of a malfunctioning sound desk, she was virtually inaudible.

She soldiered on through the sound problems and general indifference and the K'd guys staggering against the DJ booth, poor thing. But I don't think she won over any new converts. I'd hyped her to my friends as Norway's answer to Kylie, and they remained unconvinced.

Her sound guy was very annoying, making (hopefully) ironic RAWK gestures while fiddling with loose wires and only succeeding in making the sound worse.

She did six or seven of her own songs, alternating them with the sort of records you'll find on her DJ Kicks album.

I doubt she'll be rushing back to perform there, but she did stay and have a couple of drinks and a dance afterwards, so perhaps she enjoyed herself after all.

her "band", which consisted of a tall euro dude with dreads playing "percussion" [a really simple kit that only had snare and a couple cymbals] and guitar; the other guy was twiddling away on knobs and laptops.

everything worked perfectly, except at the beginning of "come together" where she had monitor issues and you could see how easily things fell apart; by the time the intro of the song was over, she was back in business. regardless of whatever technical issue she was having, the most amazing thing happened -- the audience was cheering her on to get it fixed. i dont think ive *ever* encountered that at a show in this city. if a band's having problems, the audience will more or less make fun of them as they try to tackle it.

i liked that the live performance treated the record as a guideline but didnt stray so far off the mark that the songs were unrecognizable. everything had this great party vibe that was accented by the crowd, who just wanted to have a good time.

and though i am a fan of "gimmick rock" the openers were these two hipster bands that were so not good for the billing. the only musically suitable local support i could think of is res -- its a shame they didnt try to get her. that would have been AWESOME.

Who will you work with for your next album then?
I'm looking out for new people. I've already done three new songs with Richard X. We did one cover of a song called Two Of Hearts, a cover of that Status Quo record.

What's that like?
It's a dance version, quite poppy, definitely different. I'm not a big fan of Status Quo, but always liked that song -- it's great. (We think Annie actually means Two Of Hearts by 80s New York club ingenue Stacy Q -- silly cow! Ed)

What are the other two songs you did with Richard X like?
One is quite poppy -- a bit like what I've done before.

Did you ask to work with him?
He asked me actually.

I'm surprised they've allowed her to make another album, given the record-breaking sales of the first one.

Annie was at Black Cat in DC Sunday night.

But she and the band were really into it (I think she said it was the last night of the tour?), and the crowd was too. I would have loved a longer set.

I was there! The place was tiny and still wasn't even half full. But the Arctic Monkeys were playing the same night in another venue so maybe that didn't help.

http://www.thelowry.com/WhatsOn/EventDetail.aspx?EventId=2192

alan braxe and annie will be huge.

Top ten artist in her own country though, innit.

Apparently, it turns out they haven't: Plateselskapet droppet Annie.

initial lily allen hype: april '06
album released: july '06

GEE, I WONDER WHY ANNIE'S ALBUM DIDN'T SELL.

"Anniemal" did sell well in Norway, although here she is a bit overshadowed by Bertine Zetlitz, another female Norwegian electro act who has been one of the most popular Norwegian artists of the past 3-4 years.

it's the same reason no-one bought the rapture's album - anyone who cared had it six months earlier off p2p.