‘And Johnny who saw On The Waterfront and managed to find the same type of jacket that Brando wore and picked fights for several months afterwards, hoping to be given a similar beating to the one Brando got in the film.’

‘He didn’t need to go far for that. His dad would’ve given him one at home.’

‘Mhm.’

‘Do you remember the story about how James Dean rang Marlon Brando but didn’t say anything? He just put the receiver to the turntable playing Elvis: “You ain’t nothing but a hound dog … You ain’t no friend of mine”. There you have the whole triumvirate in one anecdote: Marlon, Jimmy and Elvis.’ Then suddenly he said: ‘We didn’t even have to marry, like so many others at that time.’

‘Wasn’t it mostly like that in Swedish films and Norwegian women’s magazines?’

‘We just had … desire.’

‘And you happily kept on playing. The Harpers survived?’105

‘Except that we changed our name. In 1970. That was when the Norwegian wave came in. Lyrics had to be in Norwegian … and preferably dialect … and above all political. We started calling ourselves Harpegjengen, translated some of our old lyrics into Norwegian, but largely kept to the same music. We never tried to compete with the left-wing Vømmøl stuff.’

‘And Rebecca?’

‘At least we got through the stormy seventies. After we had Petter in 1972 she began to study and got involved in the women’s movement.’

‘Who didn’t?’

‘But we managed well anyway. I even joined the eighth of March demo with a pram and everything, then went home and put the kids to bed afterwards, while she was at a women’s lib party.’

I sighed. ‘The heyday of the separatists.’

‘Then Grete came along in 1979 and Rebecca had to interrupt her studies again. Then I noticed a new restlessness in her, as though it was a pregnancy she actually had no time for.’

‘And you?’

‘Me? I’ve been the organist in various churches ever since 1970. First as a temp, then short fixed-term contracts and eventually, in 1980, I got a permanent post. Roughly parallel with that, I was drawn into the church. I formally joined the State Church in 1970 and today I’m much more involved in it.’

‘Really?’

He looked at me solemnly. ‘It was the music that did it. Sitting there, alone, beneath the high vaulted ceiling, playing for myself, there was a moment when I experienced a sudden closeness … to something. A … what should I call it? An intimacy that I’d never experienced before. Whereas Rebecca was moving in the 106opposite direction, away from her childhood beliefs. This was a difficult process for her of course, with her background. She found it so difficult, I made her ask for help from our priest, Berge Brevik, but that only slowed down the process.’

‘So that was perhaps what ultimately made you split up?’

‘Me and Rebecca?’

‘No. I was thinking about you and The Harpers?’

He appeared to be turning this over in his mind. ‘Yes, perhaps when it comes down to it, that was why.’ He tore himself away from his thoughts. ‘Well, Varg, let’s get going.’