When I came in he removed the headphones, turned off the CD-player, removed his feet from the chair and grinned. ‘Long 179time, no see, Varg. Looking for a career in music? Then you’ve come to the right place. Sit yourself down before someone else does.’

I shifted half a ton of British music magazines to the side and sat on the chair that had become free. I glanced at Arild Sletten. Like most people he wasn’t as young as he appeared at first sight. He had been dealing with the same stuff since he was twenty, and unless I was much mistaken that would soon be a quarter of a century.

‘I’ve come to see you because you’re the one rock journalist in town who has the breadth of knowledge I need. I’m looking for information about a group called The Harpers, later Harpegjengen, who were active from—’

‘You don’t need to tell me when The Harpers were playing, Veum,’ he interrupted. ‘From the late fifties to … 1975, I’d guess. What do you mean by information?’

‘Well, perhaps a description of them … their career, what they were really like, why they split up; whatever you have on them.’

He nodded. ‘I’m your man,’ he said, leaning forward. He flicked through a card index box, pulled out two cards, opened a drawer and thumbed through a system no one else but he could make sense of and removed a file that appeared to contain a plethora of newspaper cuttings, interviews, copies of LP covers and suchlike. ‘Hey presto,’ he said, looking at me with a conjurer’s look of triumph in his eyes.

I waited. ‘Well … what can you tell me?’

‘Do you want a lecture?’

I nodded.

‘Well, man…’ Then he started. Every now and then he referred to his cabinet material, to back up his memory, but most 180of it was in his head. If he knew as much about all the bands who had played in the area (and all the others in the world) this was an impressive feat.

‘The Harpers, along with the Stringers, Badboys and Rhythmic Six … were among the top bands in the Bergen Beat period. Actually The Harpers began earlier. Back in – and now I have to check … they played their first dances in 1958. Then they performed Elvis numbers with Johnny Solheim as the front man…’

He broke off and pointed at me like Perry Mason in an American TV courtroom. ‘Johnny Solheim! So that’s why…’ He thumbed through a pile of notes on his desk. ‘Actually I was asked to submit a kind of obit, or at least an article, about dear Johnny before twelve today. Surely you don’t think this has anything to do with the good old Harpers?’

‘Not necessarily. There are other reasons I’m interested in The Harpers.’

‘Such as?’

‘I’m afraid I can’t divulge that. Not now anyway. So Johnny was the main man?’