Roskilde Market, Friday the 3rd of May 2002
"Bringin´ something home to mum!"

Safri Duo kicked off their first concert of the Mad Drums Tour 2002 today in Roskilde. We borrowed Nickie´s mum´s car and teamed up with our good friend Lars, who was able to drive the car! He isn't a good driver, but he is a fast driver, haha!!

It was pouring down, so we were kinda glad, that it wasn't an Open Air concert!

While we waited outside the tent to be let in, we could hear Uffe and Morten rehearsing "Sweet Freedom", which was pretty frustrating!!!!

Finally we were let in, now a little bit wet, and discovered, that the tent was split in two audience sections: One for the kids up front and a section for the adults in the back.

Since Bente isn't all that tall, she suddenly found herself being guided to the kids´ section!!!! And Nickie (whom actually isn't all that tall herself) was wondering: "Where the flying f... is Bente?!", until she spotted her, jumping and waving in a crowd of young children!!!

For the first time we were separated during a Safri Duo concert, which we discovered wasn't all that fantastic, because we have a tendency to discuss Uffe and Morten´s clothes (it's a girl thing!) and hype each other during the concerts. Of course Nickie was standing next to Lars, but let's face it...he is a guy and wouldn't understand and appreciate the fascination of Morten´s Vesterbro sweatshirt and Uffe´s MGP Nordic clothes.

Their tour manager, Torben Toft, presented Safri Duo on this, their first performance of the Mad Drums Tour and made everyone scream for Safri Duo.

This concert was also Mads Storm's debut on stage with Safri Duo. He plays the keyboard with Peter Buch, whom also plays the bass.

Safri Duo had a surprise. They played the unreleased "Higher Love" and Morten was doing the vocal!!! We are not sure, if the surprise was them playing "Higher Love", or the fact, that Morten was singing!! We were totally blown away! Morten was singing and doing a Hell of a job!

As an encore they did "Sweet Freedom" and we were ecstatic! We had been waiting to hear it live again ever since The Danish Music Awards 2002.

When we were reunited after the concert, the first words on our lips were: "Did you see Morten was singing?!!"

After being with us since early afternoon, Lars was probably getting a bit tired. He is a Safri Duo fan, but a bit more relaxed. The last thing he probably needed right now was for Uffe and Morten to come out and sign autographs.

Then Uffe and Morten came out to sign autographs, haha!!

Lars got autographs for his niece and nephew, Bente got one for her friend Line, who is in Kosovo, and Nickie got one for her mum. And of course we got one for ourselves, duh!

Nickie's mum was happy about the autograph, but she wasn't too fond of the muddy footprints all over her car. Ooooops!

Safely at home we spent the night cleaning muddy shoes and pants and getting ready for the Safri Duo adventure the next day.


Svendborg, Hoeje Boege Open Air, Saturday the 4th of May 2002
"The Fish Incident"

The next day we got up early to jump on a bus to Nykøbing, in order to reach another bus at 10.30 am, which would take us to the ferry and then onwards to Svendborg, Funen.

We reached the festival at 3.30 pm. We had a look around and found, that the festival was a bit small, but very cozy. We had our final visit to the ladies room for many hours, before invading the front row!

Safri Duo wasn't scheduled to come on stage for the next 2 and a half hours so we got to see some other Danish acts as well. Thumbs up for Shu-bi-dua and Us!!

Co-producer Michael Parsberg came on stage to greet Peter and Mads while they were doing the sound check! It was cool seeing him there; he has a wicked talent!

Due to some technical problems Safri Duo was a bit late, but of course they were worth waiting for!!!

Uffe was wearing white pants, white t-shirt and a dark blue jacket with yellow stribes on the sleeves (kinda looked a bit like grand-dads old navy jacket, haha). Morten was wearing his black Vesterbro sweatshirt and his dark green pants.

At this concert we were not allowed to take any pictures, so we had handed in our camera, before entering the festival. That really sucked!

After the concert Safri Duo had an interview with the local radio station, so they didn't have much time to write autographs. Only a few fans were let in to the backstage area, which was surrounded by a fence covered in black plastic. The fans outside started ripping small holes in the plastic in order to peek at Safri Duo. But that didn't really get us anywhere.....instead WE made one giant hole. Why only PEEK at Safri Duo, when you can SEE IT ALL?!

We didn't get any autographs this time, but waved at Uffe and Morten as they walked up the stairs to do the interview.

Then we walked to Svendborg Central Station, which wasn't all that easy to find. In Odense we had to switch trains and while waiting, Nickie suddenly discovered a blind passenger! A 10 cm long, red and green wine gum, shaped like a fish and covered in sugar, had been traveling on the top of her head for only God knows how long! Must have been a sticky little devil! Bente inspected it and said: "Hey,it´s still good!" (NO, we didn't eat it!!)

Because we were traveling this late at night, there is no connection to Stege (Moen), so we were stuck in Vordingborg 30 km from home. So we had arranged to stay at our friend Jacob's a week before. -And we are sure, that he felt pure appreciation when we rang his doorbell at 1.30 am! Would he have gotten up at 8.30 am to make pancakes if he didn't love us? Thank you, Jacob!

We left at 1 pm the next day and reached Stege at 2 pm. Safely at home we started planning our next Safri Duo adventure!


Kolding Open Air, Thursday the 9th of May 2002
"Baaaaaastian..."

Now it was time for our two-day Safri Duo extravaganza! And where do two poor kindergarten teachers spend the night: At Saxildhus; a 4 star luxury hotel, close to the central station, the festival area and all the local sights. We didn't look like any of the other guests, which made it even more fun!

We did some sightseeing and then went back to our hotel room, sat in our antique sofa, doing a royal wave, while saying the word "Baaastian." (which, if said right, sounds really posh.)

After this goofing around we headed for the festival, where we got a chance to see the Danish singer Christian perform. A former Big Brother contestant, turned pop-star, and a bit of a hunk!

Then we invaded the front row and started waiting for Safri Duo. 2 hours later, at 7.30 pm they came on stage, looking good as always! Morten was wearing dark green pants and his black MGP Nordic shirt. Uffe had on his orange Party Pants and a blue sleeveless shirt. Just as at every show Uffe and Morten were in a great mood, full of energy and hyping the crowd.There was a great vibe!!

Just like in Svendborg we were not allowed to take pictures of Safri Duo. So of course we didn't.....We waited until the security guy turned his back!! Hey, we are devoted fans, we HAD to. And we only took what?,..15-20 pictures, it's really no big deal!

Because of our hotel being a bit expensive we had agreed not to spend that much money at the festival. But then we heard Uffe´s voice from stage: "Don't forget to visit our merchandise shop. We will be signing autographs there!!"

!!! Merchandise? Did he just say merchandise? We had been waiting for that word for over a year. S-a-f-r-i-m-e-r-c-h-a-n-d-i-s-e! What a....tasty word!!
BLESS THOSE BOYS!!

So after the great concert, we went to the Safri Shop.

So did a Hell of a lot of other people!

We were standing in the back of the queue, right beside the beer tent. Suddenly we found ourselves in the middle of a fight between two very drunk and angry festival goers. WE didn't start it, we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time....and got a bit pushed around. So we duck for cover behind a big security guard, and suddenly found ourselves first in line to buy merchandise!

We had been talking about ONLY buying a cap each......but then we saw all the merchandise, and Uffe and Morten were standing right there signing autographs and smiling.....GOD DAMNIT! JUST GIVE US TWO OF EVERYTHING!!!

With our arms full of merchandise we got autographs for ourselves, Nickie got one for her sister Maria and Bente got one for Emil, a little Safri fan from back home.

Uffe and Morten smiled, when they recognized us and we asked them if they were staying the night in Jutland since they were playing in Horsens the next day? Uffe said, they had to drive home to Sealand tonight in order to do a radio interview tomorrow morning, and then travel back to Jutland in the afternoon for the concert in Horsens. It ain´t always easy being a bongo boy on the road!!! We were surely glad, that we were spending the night in Kolding, and not traveling home as we usually do.

We said goodbye, take care and see ya tomorrow and in return we cashed in a high five from Uffe.

We headed back to our hotel room and checked out the mini-bar. Doing some channel-surfing we sadly discovered, that the porn-channels were pay-per-view, so we called it an early night (haha, just kidding!)......(no, seriously - just kidding!!!)

Then we had our daily chick-fight, which resulted in Nickie getting wrapped up in all the bed-sheets and tumbling down between the beds! Bente thought it was extremely funny and being a true friend, she knew exactly what to do: Laugh out loud and take a picture!

Then we went to sleep, or at least Nickie tried to sleep, because Bente was talking in her sleep, yelling and cursing at an unknown naked man, running across the Safri Duo stage in her dreams!! It ain´t always easy being two bongo-girls a long way from home! But damn, we have fun!!!


Horsens Open Air, Friday the 10th of May 2002
"Saybia mania"

Waking up in our beautiful hotel room with the sun in our faces, we realized: We are not going home yet! We are going to see Safri Duo once more!!!

After a lovely breakfast in Marco Polo, one of 3 restaurants at the hotel, we jumped on a bus to Horsens and found the festival. After waiting in line for 30 minutes to get in, we decided to check out the new Danish group Saybia, who was about to go on stage and suddenly we found ourselves in a Saybia mania, we couldn't get out off! We were surrounded by very devoted Saybia fans, who were basically ready to kick in our skulls in order to get the lead singer to notice them! We were thinking "we are too old for this shit!" but ask us if we'll be at the next "Safri Duo festival?" Hell yeah!

Being surrounded by die-hard Saybia fans, Nickie went right ahead and said: "Well..Saybia, they are quite ok, but I don't think I'm a fan," to which Bente replied, in a panicky voice: "What the f... are you thinking? You wanna get us both KILLED?!!"

We survived Saybia mania, and thought, that Saybia did a good job, even though they almost got us killed.

Then we had the pleasure of seeing Christian perform again (still a hunk!), and then we thought it was time for some serious bongo, but nope: the festival had a surprise for us. The Baya Baya girl Tine Bjerregaard had teamed up with Peter Buch and a girl named Maria in a project called Catch. They played a few songs and THEN it was time to bongo!!

Tine also came on stage to sing Baya Baya, Uffe did an adorable dance (thank you) and Morten did a great job hyping the crowd.

After the encore "Sweet Freedom", Safri Duo remained on stage and did their kick-ass "Played-a-live/Samb-Adagio" medley!!!! Just when we had decided to ask them if they would consider bringing the medley back on tour, they did!!!! BLESS THOSE BOYS!!!!

After that mind-blowing final number, we had a look around the festival, had a bite to eat and then headed for the station.

We had to wait 1 1/2 hour for our train, which arrived at 2.30 am. After spending 2 hours on the train, we had to switch trains in Ringsted and had to wait there for 1 hour and 45 minutes!! This train arrived at 6.21 and after one hour, we reached Vordingborg, where we had to travel by bus for 45 minutes to Stege. We got home at 8.30 am and at 9.30 am we were far away in dreamland for the next 8 hours!!

Safely at home, and still a bit tired, we started planning our next Safri Duo adventure.


The Circus Building, Copenhagen, Wednesday the 29th of May 2002
"Anyone fancy an autograph?"

Today Safri Duo was giving a benefit concert for the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

As this concert was on a week day, we packed up our gear and brought it with us to work. It was a long day getting to the point where it was time to jump on the bus and train to Copenhagen!!!

We went directly to the Circus Building, had a look around and found our seats. Yes, you read it correctly: Our SEATS. Because this was the first Safri concert with numbered and reserved seats!! So for once we q-u-i-e-t-l-y sat down and waited for Safri Duo to go on stage.

The president of the Sclerosis Society welcomed Safri Duo on stage and before starting the concert, Uffe and Morten presented him with a cheque for the amount of 110.000 Dkr (approx. 14.000 dollars!!!), which was the profit of the concert. We were sitting there, clapping and thinking: Those guys are just amazing!!

And then Safri Duo started the concert, which we think is one of the absolute GREATEST concerts to date!!!! The sound was amazing, the lights hypnotizing and the crowd was unbelievable. The interaction between Safri Duo and the audience was out of this world! At times very intimate to the point where we all got shivers down our spines. It was extremely powerful!

At this incredible night Morten was wearing his dark green pants and his black MGP Nordic shirt. Uffe was wearing white pants, a blue sleeveless shirt and a white long-sleeved shirt.

And, OH GLORY DAYS, Safri Duo decided to play the Played-A-Live/Samb-Adagio medley!!!! We really, really, REALLY have taken a liking to this number!!!!!!

It is incredible how fast time flies when you are in the company of Safri Duo! Hot-diggy-di-damn, those guys sure know how to rock!! They bongoed the roof off the Circus Building!!

Safri Duo had truly captivated the audience so all 1700 people were now standing in line in front of the Safri Shop to get autographs!!!

-And Safri Duo didn't leave until EVERYONE had gotten an autograph from them, including us. We had the pleasure of being fans number 1699 and 1700 to get autographs! While waiting we said hi to Thomas Hendrix, the webmaster of www.safriduo.dk and the creator of The Safri Zone logo! Thanx Thomas!!! We also had a chat with Safri Duo's tour manager Torben Toft. It was great talking to him, since we are also members of his Safri Duo News Group!

We had a talk with Uffe and Morten before they left and they complimented us on The Safri Zone. Let's just say we were two VERY happy bongo girls!!

We left Cirkusbygningen at 11.30 pm and headed for Nickie´s dad's apartment.....because we were not going home to Moen juuuuuust yet. We had another Safri Duo adventure in sight!


The Sealand Festival, Slagelse, Thursday the 30th of May 2002
"SAY WHAT?!"

Around noon, we were about ready to leave dad's apartment, which he appreciated with the words: "Oh, geez! Leaving AAAAAALREADY?!!"

He loves us, but our frequent giggle-attacks and invasion of the bathroom is enough to drive any man crazy!

Before going to the Sealand Festival we stopped by Rigshospitalet to visit our friend Line, who had been flown in from Kosovo to have surgery. We wanted to cheer her up, but she was on medications, so she was already in a good mood! We stayed for a while and then jumped on the train, which took us to the Sealand Festival.

This was a festival mainly for the physically and/or mentally disabled, but everyone was very welcome. So there we were in the front row with a lot of happy Safri fans!

Thumbs up for Birthe Kjær, a Danish folksinger, who performed right before Uffe and Morten. She created a really great atmosphere, which carried on to Safri Duo.

Nickie works in a house for disabled people and she met some of them at the festival. They were really hyped to hear Safri Duo and we ensured them, that they wouldn't be disappointed.

So Safri Duo entered the stage and Morten was wearing his dark green pants (we really like those pants!...and apparently so does Morten!) and his grey tie-dye long-sleeved shirt.

Uffe looked as if he was going for a spot on our Top 10 list: Favourite Safri Duo Outfits! He was wearing the BLUE sleeveless shirt and a WHITE long-sleeved shirt. And on TOP of THIS shirt he wore a dark GREEN shirt with short sleeves.

And the grand finale: Light BLUE pants with vertically PINK stripes! (The pants kinda looked a bit like grand dad's old pyjamas, haha) We were standing there, thinking: "Say what?!" but at the end of the concert we began to like them, but they are not going on the list, sorry Uffe, but you get a big shout out for trying something different!!

Being at the last two concerts we have truly discovered the difference it makes, when you are not able to buy alcohol. The energy is so much better and joyful. We were all there for the love of the music and the companionship. Not for getting drunk and harassing as many people as possible. We were really surprised of the difference it makes. Come to think of it...a bit sad, really.

Of course we will be at the next festival and of course we are always having fun, but it really threw us, that a concert could be this peaceful. And why drink, when you can get high on Safri Duo?

It is truly amazing that Uffe and Morten are able to keep the energy high through an entire concert. The passion for their music shines through and touches us all.

Luckily we were allowed to take pictures, so we did. But only 5....10...18...37..or so.

Sadly there was no time for the Played-a-live/Samb-Adagio medley, that sucked big time, but of course we did get "Higher Love", "Sweet Freedom", "Crazy Benny", "Agusta" etc, so we can't really complain.

Then we started our trip home and as always we were stuck in Vordingborg, so luckily our friend Jacob had agreed on letting us stay the night. -AND WE GOT THE BED!! Poor Jacob settled with the couch!

The next morning we jumped on an early bus to Moen. Bente had to be at work and Nickie went home to clean the refrigerator. A perfect end to a perfect adventure!


Harbooere Festival, Saturday the 8th of June 2002
"I'll have a Grilled Chicken Menu..with medium fries. And a coke."

Now it was time for our "Two Safri concerts in one day" marathon, and we had been looking very much forward to this Safri Duo overload.

We had been having some problems with the planning of this tour, because Harbooere is in the opposite side of the country. Also it would be difficult to make it to Skive by train in time for the second concert of the day.

It was SO AGONIZING, because once we have decided that we wanna go, we won't accept, that it can't be done!!!!!

And just when we thought, that this might be the first time we had to give up a Safri concert, our friend Lars volunteered to drive us the long way from Stege to Harbooere, on to Skive and then all the way back to Stege!!! WE´RE THERE DUDE!!!! He didn't get a chance to reconsider, so once again we teamed up with Nickie´s mum´s car!

Lars arrived in Stege the day before, because we had to leave home at 6.30 am!

We tried to get an early night....but that didn't happen, because Lars stayed in Bente´s room, so Nickie had the pleasure of Bente´s company that night. She just couldn't lose.

And when we were getting up at 5 am, one should think that we went to sleep instantly, but noooooooooooooo, we had very important issues to discuss, like:

"Will Safri Duo play the medley?"...

-and we also had to write a message in the guest book on www.safriduo.dk!!

But we forgot something, which is quite important when you have to go on tour:

Early morning Bente woke up in panic: "Nickie!! Are you awake?!

Nickie: "Mmmmfszz zzz zzz, eh?"

Bente:"Did you set the alarm clock?"

Nickie:"zzz what? Set the alarm clock? Didn't you do that?"

Nickie and Bente:"AAAAARGH, OH MY GOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!"

Lucky for us it was only 3 am, so we calmed down and just to be on the safe side we set TWO alarm clocks to 5 am!

So at 5 am we jumped out of bed!!!

Well, no,...we more or less slided, feeling a bit sorry for ourselves. Discussing all night whether or not Safri Duo would play the medley suddenly didn't seem all that clever....

Well, we got up and only 15 minutes behind schedule we started our trip to Harbooere in Jutland.

It was a fun, but long drive, and we got a little panicky, when we suddenly got stuck in traffic with only 90 minutes ´till the first concert!! Lucky for us, Lars is good at reading maps and found a way around the traffic jam, by taking some of the smaller roads.

So in the early afternoon, we arrived at "Haze Over Haarum" in Harbooere, made a stop at the ladies room, and then headed STRAIGHT to the front row!!!

Before Safri Duo another Danish act was going to perform: Danser med Drenge. But they were delayed because their guitarist had become sick on the trip to Harbooere and they were thinking about canceling their performance!! But lucky for us, they reconsidered and gave us all a great show, even though they were missing a band member. Thumbs up for Danser med Drenge!!

As a surprise act, Catch came on stage and played a few songs. GO PETER!!!!

Finally Safri Duo came on stage!!!

Uffe was wearing white pants, the sleeveless MGP Nordic zebra-shirt, and the green MGP Nordic shirt. Morten had on his dark green pants and his grey tie-dye shirt.

Now, before going further we have to mention the security guards at the festival. They were REALLY NOT doing their job! During "Baya Baya" 3 very drunk 16 year old boys decided to wipe out a piece of the front row. A girl standing next to Nickie, who had been waiting just as long as us, was harassed to leave! The guards saw it, but said nothing. One of them even turned his back on the ones who needed his help!!! That is the worst security we have ever seen!

But getting back to the, otherwise, knock-out Safri Duo concert, something happened that totally blew us away! As Uffe was thanking the crowd for the support he suddenly said: "And also a thanks to our loyal fans, Nickie and Bente, who are standing right here in the front row!!!" He really shocked us, and we must have looked that way too, because Uffe got a good laugh! The total score:

Uffe: 1

Nickie and Bente: 0.

During the rest of the concert, we kinda were a bit.....out of it! But it was great and we felt very honored!!

The encore was "Sweet Freedom", which we totally adore and as always we got into our "very devoted Sweet Freedom sing-a-long" mode!!

Sadly they did not play the medley, which was a bit on the empty side, because it is really awesome!

On a funny note, Uffe mentioned that they had been up at 5 am today in order to get from Stockholm to Harbooere. So we were standing there in the front row, with a smile on our faces, thinking: "Heeey, so we are not the only ones, who had to get up early for the Safri concert!"

By the way: The performance in Stockholm was amazing according to our friend Agneta from Sweden, who saw Safri Duo for the first time at this event!

After the concert, we headed for the car and speeded off to the festival in Skive, for our second Safri Duo concert of the day! (Oh yeah, we also had a pit stop at McDonalds....Yep, it was a real road trip!)


Skive Beach Party, Saturday the 8th of June 2002
"Fancy meeting you here!"

We arrived at Skive Beach Party at 7 pm and had a bit of a problem finding a place to park, because of the 14.197 other music lovers at the Beach Party!

We got to see the end of the Danish band TV2´s performance, and what we saw was really good. They even had a ballerina on stage!

We were standing in the second row (oh, the pain!), but lucky us, the people right in front of us were fans of TV2, so they left!!! And we skipped right in and took over their front row spot!

We had the pleasure of seeing Catch once more, so now we almost know the lyrics to their songs. GO PETER!!

-And then we had the pleasure of once again, seeing Uffe and Morten jump on stage. Honestly, you could not see, that they had been up since 5 am, traveled from Stockholm and had already played one concert! It is amazing how passionate they are about their music and their live performance; truly admirable.

At this concert Uffe had on very faint blue pants, the blue sleeveless shirt and a white long-sleeved shirt. Morten had on his dark green pants and a white long-sleeved shirt..........LOOKING SPIFFY, GUYS!!!!!!!!!

Then they reached the part of the show, where Uffe thanks the fans and OH MY GOD, HE WENT RIGHT AHEAD AND THANKED US AGAIN!!! -He even remembered where we had met them for the first time! And for the perfect finish he told 14.197 people about The Safri Zone!!!

The total score:

Uffe: 2

Nickie and Bente: 0

We were totally shocked.

Words cannot describe how thankful we are to Safri Duo for bringing their music to us and allowing us to spend a bit of time with them once in a while.....and now Uffe Savery was thanking US in the middle of a Safri Duo concert!!!

That was just overwhelming; but in a good way!

Our initial reaction was to start crying.....but people were kinda looking at us.....so we didn't.

-But Uffe is up for a big hug the next time we see him, that's for sure!!

Tine Bjerregaard came on stage to sing THE BEER SONG as Morten prefers to announce Baya Baya. She apparently always does this when Catch performs before Safri Duo.

The entire show was just out of this world, but did they play the medley? No, they didn't!

We didn't have time to see Status Quo, because we had a long drive home, with a few coffee stops along the way.

We had to give in and fell asleep on the way home, but Lars stayed awake. Lucky for us, because he was driving!

At one time we woke up, and discovered that we had stopped, but the engine was running, the door was open in the driver's seat and Lars was GONE!! And we thought: "Oh my God! Did a cheetah get him?!"

But then he appeared from the dark and we learned, that when a man has to go....HE HAS TO GO!

So we continued driving into the night and at 4 am we reached Stege. Lars went to sleep, but did we? Noooo, we had important issues to discuss and we couldn't go to sleep without writing in the Safri guest book! So at 4.30 we fell asleep, dreaming of new Safri Duo adventures.

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