WINE, WOMEN AND SONG28.03.2006: This March, a new book about women in the Norwegian rock and pop industry during the last 50 years was published in Norway. "Piker, vin og sang" ("Wine, women and song") is written by journalist Marta Breen, and Anneli was asked to write the preface.
The project started out as an article, but Breen soon noticed that the female artists she interviewed, didn't know much about the history of Norwegian women in the music business. It was a story she was driven to tell, and she ended up with 300 pages covering 50 years of Norwegian rock and pop history, told by the female participators in a very male industry.
Why Anneli was chosen to write the foreword? Breen explains;
- Anneli Drecker is a fascinating artist in many ways, especially due to her role as a pioneer in the electronica field in Norway and in Europe, but also because she has shown us in a brilliant way how a woman can combine being an artist and being a mother of small children. She has made many brave choices, like posing with her bare and very pregnant belly on the cover of the magazine Beat, by combining her career as a musician with roles in movies and on the stage, and by participating in something as hyper commercial as Idol, something she completed with her credibility intact. Breen has collected interesting quotes from various newspapers and music magazines published during the years, and has also interviewed many of the artists mentioned in the book.
Breen's book shows the norwegian pop and rock history from a different perspective than we're used to in rock journalism in general. Case in point, pregnancy. In one chapter several artists share their stories about how they had to hide their pregnancy, and even how their careers failed because of it. Anneli Drecker's performance with Music Chanel is mentioned briefly, as her appearance on stage while pregnant did cause some reaction among the audience.
Anneli has been an artist for 20 years now, and she is of course one of several central musicians in the book. In addition to the preface written by Anneli, Breen has also included a mini biography over two pages about Ms Drecker in the chapter about "Electronic ladies".
The book is both an important historical document, but it's also a very entertaining read. If you thought you knew everything about the pop and rock scene, think again. The book tells interesting and funny stories from "behind the scenes", told by women.
Anneli is mentioned frequently throughout the text, although there is little here that is news for the hardcore fan. Anneli's preface is very personal and amusing to read, but it is only three pages long, so you should be interested in the Norwegian music business in general to get your money's worth if you are comtemplating purchasing this book. Unfortunately, there are currently no plans for an English edition of this book.