News: What is happening in the world of Madrugada and on this page? I try to stay as updated as possible, and I will try to bring you the latest rumours and facts concerning Madrugada. Of course, you will also be able to read all the interesting stuff about what has been updated or changed on this very webpage.

November 29th 2002 - Madrugada will most likely play their first ever concert in America at the South By Southwest festival in Texas, Nashville in America in Spring 2003. The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet is reporting this in an article that can be read here. Sivert is quoted as saying he has always wanted to go to Texas, so it will be lots of fun.

The South By Southwest festival is a very huge musical gathering, and Madrugada were supposed to have performed there on March 20th last year as part of an American tour of about twenty concerts co-headlining along with Big Bang and Midnight Choir. Those plans were never put into life, but hopefully Madrugada will get a chance to introduce themselves to America next year.

Yesterday Dagbladet also had another article about Madrugada, which can be read here. In the end of the article it says that the band's tour will continue next year, that after a long Christmas vacation the band is planning to to go Greece, Portugal and maybe Spain. It has been said earlier that there will also be several more concerts in Norway early next year, maybe even a concert in the band's 'home town,' Sortland. The tour will most likely end with festival appearances all over Europe next Summer.

The Concert Chronology has been updated with setlists from the first two concerts on the Norwegian leg of the tour. Thanks to Truls Thorstensen, Raymond Hauger and the people who make the new Norwegian Madrugada fan page Which Side Are You On? for the setlists. Also fixed an error in the setlist from Vienna, thanks to Bernadette Karner.

The Madrugada Tour Diary at VG Nett has been updated with reports from all concerts they did not have time to write about while on tour. They will keep updating the diary throughout the Norwegian tour. Sivert sent me a very nice mail about my translation of the tour diary, which I appreciate a lot, adding that unfortunately they do not have time to translate it themselves. Read the English translation of the diary here.

Tomorrow Madrugada will sit down and answer questions sent in by readers of VG Nett at a Tett På Nett net meeting. Make sure you send in your questions if there is anything you are wondering about. I do not know when during the day they will be answering the questions, but it will be some time tomorrow.

On Tuesday the third Madrugada will play a free concert at Egertorget in Oslo, Norway to support the work of the Frelsesarméen organization. They are scheduled to start playing at 15:30, and will most likely play for about half an hour or so. If you are nearby then be sure to check it out, and be sure to donate your spare coins for a good cause.

The new band of former Madrugada drummer Jon Lauvland Pettersen, Long Range Desert Group, are finishing a Norwegian mini-tour with a performance at Mono in Oslo on Sunday. More information about the venue, concert and the band can be found here.

The discussion forum on this page is down. The database was deleted, so all old posts and member registrations are lost. Sorry for any inconvenience, and for all the pain those who were addicted to the forum have had to go through in withdrawals for the last couple of days. A new and improved forum should be up and running hopefully by the end of the weekend.

November 25th 2002 - The Concert Chronology has had a major update, now features at least partial setlists from twelve of the fifteen concerts that have taken place so far on the tour. Lots of thanks go out to Franziska Ress, Christina Giordani, Jĝrgen Rasmussen, Fisherman71, Karin Hauber and Bernadette Karner for the recently added information.

There is a review of last night's concert at Lille Vega in Copenhagen, Denmark from the Norwegian newspaper VG available here. A very positive review that yields five points out of a maximum of six. Madrugada's Tour Diary at VG Nett has not been updated for about a week, a note about this has now been posted saying the band has had too little time to update it lately, but that all updates and pictures from the last couple of days will be put up tonight.

On last week's official Norwegian album chart list, VG Topp 40, "Grit" ended on the seventh spot in its fourth week on the charts, up twenty spots from the earlier week's very disappointing twenty-seventh spot. New charts will be available tomorrow.

On November 30th, Madrugada will take part in a netmeeting arranged by VG Nett, and will sit down and answer questions sent in from fans before their concert at Rockefeller in Oslo, Norway later that night. More information plus a link to where you can submit your questions can be found here. The netmeetings are usually centred around use of the Norwegian language, but I am sure it would not be too much trouble for the band to answer in English, so feel free to ask the band your questions even if you do not speak Norwegian.

November 20th 2002 - For all those who have asked for a translation, here is Madrugada's tour diary from VG Nett in English version. The translation has been done by the webmaster of this page, so there might be some grammatical errors and general mistakes in the translation. Hope all of you enjoy reading this as much as I have enjoyed reading the original version in Norwegian at VG Nett. Anyone who has ideas of what they would like to see on this webpage should feel free to send an e-mail and let me know about it.

As usual the The Concert Chronology has been updated with more setlists and information about the on-going tour. At Muffathalle in München, Germany on the 18th the band did a cover of the Grant Lee Phillips song "Daemon Called Deception," and Robert smashed his 1979 Les Paul guitar after a fabulous concert that lasted for two hours and fifteen minutes. Sivert and Robert performed "Majesty" and "7 Seconds" live on a radio station most likely called Radio 94.5 in München earlier in the day. Thanks to Sivert's writing in the tour diary for this info.

November 19th 2002 - The Concert Chronology has been updated again, with setlist from Abart Music Club in Zürich, Switzerland two nights ago, and setlist from in-store performance at Gibert Joseph in Paris, France on the 14th. Once again thanks to Carlo Coppola and Vinciane Lébrun. Carlo took some nice pictures in Zürich, these will be available here soon.

Those who have not checked out Madrugada's Tour Diary at VG Nett should do so. Very interesting read. In addition it is very nice that the band takes their time to write and put up pictures. Unfortunately they are writing in Norwegian, so most of their European audience will not understand what they write about. An unofficial translated version of the tour diary will be made available at this page in a day or two, for the convenience of all non-Norwegian fans.

The video for "Majesty," which will be the next single released from "Grit," is finished. The band got to see the finished version in Paris in the end of last week, and liked what they saw. Since most Madrugada music videos are not shown on TV very often, it is very nice that it has been put up at madrugada.net for everyone to see! Be sure to check it out, as it looks very nice.

The video was shot at the band's rehersal room at the Ringnes factory in Oslo, Norway. It is a mellow 'live performance' video, featuring the band playing their instruments and singing and the camera panning around in the room. Interestingly enough, a picture I have taken and given to Robert in poster-format is featured in the video. The picture looks like this, and can be seen on the amp next to Frode on a number of occasions during the video.

November 18th 2002 - More updates to The Concert Chronology. Thanks a lot to Carlo Coppola, Vinciane Lébrun and everyone else sending in setlists and information about the concerts, it is greatly appreciated even though not all of it ends up on this page.

The band keeps updating their Tour Diary at VG Nett. Quite an interesting read for everyone who knows the Norwegian language. Some nice pictures taken by the band to look at for everyone else. Sivert has taken most of the pictures featured on the page.

November 13th 2002 - Very interesting news for those who want to get a closer look into Madrugada's European tour, as the band has their own Tour Diary in the Internet edition of the Norwegian newspaper VG. It will be updated on a daily basis, and also features pictures of the band and from the towns that they visit taken by Sivert with his digital camera. Click here to go to the tour diary (in Norwegian). VG also put up an article about the first show of the tour, in Amsterdam, which can be read here.

In the diary, the band writes that an artist from Berlin called Carlos will be support act the next two weeks, starting in Groningen. Apparently he does a 'electronic-retro-trash-pop'-show. Madrugada refer to him as "Extremely funny, very low-fi and Berlin at the same time."

Also, the band writes that after the concert in Amsterdam, Robert and Frode missed the bus that took them to Groningen. Half an hour before soundcheck in Groningen, the incredibly nice and funny English tour manager Richard Bell got a call from Frode and Robert: "Oh, it's three o'clock? Where we are? Have no idea! Does it take a long time to take the train from Amsterdam to Groningen?" It turned out they were only fifteen minutes away, as opposed to the three and a half hours the train would take, but apparently almost managed to give poor Richard a heart attack before he got the joke.

The setlist from last night's concert in Bochum, Belgium has been added to The Concert Chronology, thanks to Rupert Pupkin from the Discussion Forum. What a setlist! This is the longest setlist reported to this page since the band played twenty-three songs at Rockefeller, Oslo, Norway in November 1999. And the first live performance of "Sirens" in two years. If the bands keeps up the pace with such amazing setlists, they will definitely end up with quite a couple of satisfied audiences throughout the tour...

In news that are not as positive, "Grit" fell from a thirteenth position on the official Norwegian album chart list, VG Topp 40, to a 27th place in its third week on the charts. But they are supposed to be topping the alternative charts in The Netherlands, so everything is not bad.

November 11th 2002 - Setlists for both live performances so far on the European tour have been added to The Concert Chronology. Thanks to Mortal Wombat, laydvine, Soda and Mohawk from the Discussion Forum for these. To read more about the two concerts, go to the forum and look in the "Madrugada Live Performances" section.

The Discography has been updated with information about limited edition vinyl copies of "Ready" and "Love's 1" that came with certain copies of "Grit" on CD and vinyl, respectively. Also, a "Majesty" promo has been added. It seems pretty confirmed that "Majesty" will be the second single from "Grit." Thanks a lot to Anne Lena Westrum, Raymond Hauger and some others that I have unfortunately lost the names of for this information.

The concert at Rockefeller in Oslo, Norway on November 30th has sold out. An extra concert has been scheduled for February 22nd 2003. Thanks to Anne Lena Westrum for the info.

At the official Madrugada webpage, madrugada.net, the music video for "Black Mambo" is available to view online. This video is more art than a proper music video, and has never been shown on TV, as the song was never released as a single.

November 8th 2002 - Earlier tonight, Madrugada were featured on the program "Absolutt Underholdning" on the Norwegian television channel TV2. The band was interviewed at their rehearsal space in Oslo, where they were also practicing "Majesty," and the segment included the world premiere of clips from the new and very beautiful "Majesty" video. The program will be re-run at 01:40 tonight.

Tomorrow marks the start of what the band described as their longest ever tour on "Absolutt Underholdning," at Crossing Border Festival in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Dutch 3VOOR12 will be broadcasting live from the festival on the Internet, and twenty minutes of Madrugada's performance is supposed to be aired between 22:00 and 22:20 tomorrow. You can check out this page for more information and a link to the audio stream. You will need RealPlayer to listen to the audio. Thanks a lot to Marc Verhees for the information.

November 5th 2002 - In last week's official Norwegian album chart list, VG Topp 40, Madrugada's "Grit" debuted on the fourth spot. This has to be considered at least mildly disappointing, as both "Industrial Silence" and "The Nightly Disease" debuted on the number one spot. In its second week on the chart the album fell to the thirteenth spot. In addition, last week the "Ready" single went out of the official Norwegian singles chart list, VG Topp 20. It debuted on a good third spot, fell to the ninth spot in its second week, and then went out of the charts in its third week.

According to the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet, Virgin Records Norway sent out 25.000 copies of "Grit" to Norwegian record stores. Supposedly the total amount of CDs shipped to record stores in all of Europe is around 70.000, but it is still unknown how many of these have actually shifted hands and have been sold from retailer to customers.

According to people on the Discussion Forum, Madrugada have been featured in the German music magazine Visions and the Dutch music magazine Oor lately.

Next Friday, Madrugada start their European and Norwegian tour at the Crossing Border Festival in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Check out The Concert Chronology for a full tour list. Tour reports, setlists, memoribilia, pictures and anything else that could be of interest for this webpage is greatly appreciated when sent to webmaster@madrugada.de.

Anyone going to the concerts should be very kind and write down the setlists, all it takes is a pen, some paper and a couple of seconds at the beginning of each song. Whenever in doubt of a song title, just write down some of the lyrics and the title will be figured out later.

Older News: Most of the older news pages are also being stored and are available from this page. These news pages are no longer updated, so some of the links might be outdated.