Olle Karlsson

Olle Karlsson

song

A Girl Like You

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at OOTB

(March 2002)
It was great to see the charismatic Swede Olle step up to the mic again. His music is only part of the story as his between-song banter is second to none, hilarious and his English is very good. The theme for his first song "Nymph" (sung in Swedish) is "18th century Sweden where everyone is wearing a wig". Some of the bass notes he sang I can only dream of hitting. "A Girl Like You" (a title in the tradition of The Troggs and Edwyn Collins) is a good, old-fashioned love song including the line "when I first saw you coming through that door/ I've never felt like this before". His last song "Smile" was an open invitation to make people smile and due to its infectious optimism it certainly worked. Olle is normally a bass player and he's looking for a band. If his bass playing is as good as his singing, guitar playing and songwriting you'd be a fool not to take him up on the offer.

(March 2002)
I like surprises and these tall, blonde Scandinavians certainly were a surprise of the pleasant sort. A-strumming and a-blowing, their heartwarming, melodious songs were a breath of fresh air. "A Place Where I Will Grow Old" was a tribute to Scotland where Olle said he felt very much at home. "My Morning Song", featuring some subtle harmonica playing, spoke of lazy days without a job with the lyric "I get up and there's some breakfast for me/My mum has left me some bread and cold tea" and having time to play his morning song. It might be a generalisation but mainland Europeans seem to be less angst-ridden than us Brits... These two have obviously been playing a lot of late as their duelling guitars were tight as a gnat's chuff. Look out for them around Edinburgh in the near future.