In the late 1970s / early 1980s, when I was living in Oslo, and was about 30 years old, I kept a number of diaries. These were composed in quite a haphazard way, and included drawings of where I happened to be, and drawings of friends and girlfriends (they also included contributions from them). Sometimes, I might include quotes from authors I happened to be reading at the time. I would also include sketches of the works of artists that I admired, or just copy some popular comic strips, such as Hagar the Horrible (Norwegian: Hårek).
Also, I drew a number of self-portraits. Sometimes I would use charcoal, pens, inks, professional felt tip pens, and so on.
Here are about 70 images from the Diaries which I recorded in the late 1970s and early 1980s in Oslo, Norway. Many of the photos are taken at Sogn student town in Oslo. I wasn’t a student, but rented various rooms from students at a reasonable cost. The rooms were very small, and you had to share a kitchen and bathroom with five others. But I was around 30 years old at the time, so this didn’t bother me. Moreover, you could meet many people there, and have parties and meet friends. There were also two restaurants where you could buy beer. We had many a ‘sing-song’ – and I was ‘banned’ on two or three occasions for being the ringleader in such sing songs (as it wasn’t allowed).
I don’t have the time at the moment to describe every single image in detail – I might do this at a later date. But this is 40 years ago! So I might need to ‘jog my memory’ in order to remember every single name and event.
I have numbered the images so as to make it easier to understand this description. However, there is no strict chronological order.
Number 1: The first is based on a painting by the pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, which I have renamed: “I f*** you with my Chevrolet.” I have used felt tip pens.
Number 2 is ‘Hagar the Horrible’ in Norwegian.
Numbers 3 and 4 were drawn by my girlfriend Merete.
Number 5 shows the living room in Alistair’s (my brother) ‘working class’ house in Dunston, Sunderland, North England. I used to regularly visit Britain, although I lived in Norway.
Number 6 is my friend, Tore, who I met at Sogn Student Town, Oslo.
Number 7 is Knut, another friend from the student town – we stayed in the same student apartment.
Numbers 8 and 9 are autumn drawings of the beech trees at the student town.
Number 12: “Autumn nymph.” An ink sketch – a copy of Andre Derain’s sketch.
Number 16: “Urban Venus” by Titian.
Number 17: An ink drawing – a copy of a self-portrait by Leonardo da Vinci.
Number 18: A charcoal drawing – a copy of a sketch by Leonardo da Vinci.
Number 20: Pen and wash sketch: a copy of a Leonardo sketch.
Number 21: Self-portrait
Number 23: Eddie Jacobsen. My friend Eddie Jacobsen, whom I met at Sogn Student Town. He was a brilliant guitar player – we used to play Beatles and Stones songs together, and sometimes got free drinks for our efforts in the student town pub, which was in the basement of the high-rise building. Sometimes, girls were impressed by our guitar playing and singing, so sometimes the girls were ‘free’ too. One of our favourites was the Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” – which was a challenge for my ‘tenor’ voice, because you had to reach the high notes in the crescendo.
The high rise building wasn’t only a ‘place of fun’. I stayed in a room on the eleventh floor. One day there was a knock on the door. It was a friend of a friend who asked if he could use the phone – the student apartments had free phones in the ‘corridor’. I let him in and went back into my room. I learnt later that he had committed suicide by jumping off the balcony. So I was the last person he ever saw. He was a nice quiet guy that had ‘problems’.
Number 24: “Triumph sports car” I owned a red and gold TR5 in the late 1970s.
Number 25: I drove my TR5 to Stockholm with Safira, my girlfriend, April 1979. She wanted to visit her father, who was Jewish and ran a restaurant.
Number 26: Sketch by Safira’s friend Benedict.
Number 27: Sketch by Safira of her friend Ninni.
Number 28: Sketch of Liverpool Street Station in London, June 1980. I had travelled to Britain with my girlfriend, Merete.
Number 35: Vigelands Park, Oslo. September 1979.
Number 37: Munchs gt. 5, Oslo. February 1980. Around this time, my girlfriend, Merete Geser became my ‘partner’. I moved into her small room in Munchs gt. 5. I think the building was owned by the billionaire, Fred Olsen. I think it has been converted into a hotel.
Number 38: “Tårnbygget’ Sogn Student Town, Oslo. As mentioned, I lived in the student town. One of the rooms I rented was on the 11th floor of the high-rise building. These photos of Oslo are taken from the balcony.
Number 40: Around this time (late 1970s/early 1980s – unsure of the exact dates here), I travelled to Canada for some weeks / months. I visited friends that I had met in Greece. I travelled on the Transcontinental Rail Line, which takes several days to cross Canada. This is a drawing from inside the train.
Number 43: Sleeper on CN Express.
Number 44: Edmonton station. Memories are vague here. But I think I was thrown off the train at Edmonton for giving too many renderings of “The Ballad of John and Yoko”, which was about the only song I knew at the time. I had to play this song multiple times because of popular request. After all, the transcontinental is an extremely boring journey – just rolling along slowly, and stopping at stupid places like Winnipeg for several hours for no accountable reason – walking around outside was almost unthinkable due to minus 40 degrees Celsius. The only view out the window of the train for days on end was pine trees, and more pine trees, ad infinitum. However I was thrown off the train with other incalcitrants. But we weren’t too depressed by the ejection. We rented rooms in a hotel, and bought a crate of beer. But my Canadian friends told me not to get too friendly with the ‘Indians’. This proved to be wise advice – as some Indians were involved in a fight which we could observe from the hotel window.
Number 47: Sogn Student Town.
Number 48: Self-portrait.
Number 49: Leadhills, Scotland. I visited my brother Stuart and his wife Cath on two or three occasions in the late 1970s. This is a scene from inside a caravan. I’m drinking a Carlsberg beer, and Cath is sitting opposite me with her cat on her lap. They are living in a caravan (which I think belonged to my Uncle Gavin). Their cottage had caught on fire mysteriously. Stuart had also been involved in other insurance ‘episodes’, which I won’t go into details here.
Number 50: This is a sketch of Alexander – Stuart and Cath’s son. I had some contact with him around 2006-2010. But lost contact with him. He had moved to Sweden, where he married and settled down. He had two children (I think). He died unexpectedly of cancer at a young age (many in his mother’s family died of cancer).
Number 53: Leadhills cottage.
Number 54: Village of Leadhills.
Number 57: This is the youngest son Torquil.
Number 58: Chess and my TR5.
Number 60: Self-portrait and TR5.
Number 67: Living with Hannah. I rented a room from Hannah for a short while after moving out of the student town. She was one of the friends of my friends in the student town. But I only lived there for a short time.