– We will end our touring life with Åge Aleksandersen and Sambandet, and the last concert will be on 6 September 2025 at the Lerkendal stadium. As I have never been called up as a footballer at Rosenborg, I will arrange it myself, says Åge Aleksandersen, avowed football fan, to NTB.
On January 30, the sale of 25,000 tickets will start for what will be the real farewell concert, after last year – when it was known that Åge wanted to jump off the tour bus for good – it was said that the finale would be a concert at Sverresborg in Trondheim in August .
About what is in store this very last time, Åge says:
– It will be a damn long concert! The fans will be pleased.
Lies flat after criticism
– My best years
With this very last farewell concert – fittingly enough in the first autumn month – it’s the knock on the door for life along the country road for the veteran artist, who has played with Sambandet for almost 50 years. He started the band in 1976, the year after Prudence joined, and as of 2003 the same line-up has largely held up.
– Those are my finest years as a musician. We are a nice bunch. It’s a small community, with good people, says Åge, who reckons that just last year he spent 100 days on the road in the Association’s company.
– When I leave the stage at Lerkendal that evening, it will be the end of Åge Aleksandersen and Sambandet’s touring life. It is a hard physical life. Next year I will be 76 years old, and I am absolutely sure that I can manage to do this with the dignity that should be present – until then. Now it’s also going very well for us, and that’s another good reason to quit.
Gives up
– Sad
– Do you have plans for what you want to do afterwards?
– I haven’t given that a thought. It is clear that the time, the grief. This is so fresh now that what awaits me now is a lot of work, planning the tour business, so time will tell what happens, says Åge Aleksandersen.
– I have known this for quite some time, that we are going to end our touring life. But only yesterday did it become real: Then we started setting up our timetables. I’m just looking forward and dreading it, it’s a little wistful, I must say now – when I’ve started thinking about it.
– Rest now, dad
– Mountain butter
– The whole tour is filmed with a view to making a documentary, reveals Åge Aleksandersen, who thus acts like The Band and films “the last waltz”, the last meeting with the audience. The Trønder rocker is an old Dylan fan, and started Prudence around the same time that Bob Dylan began his collaboration with The Band.
He promises a long farewell evening – or rather day – at Lerkendal, because the program starts at five in the afternoon with a number of warm-up artists. He will not reveal the name. When asked if he fears that some of the younger forces may play tricks on him and the Association, Åge laughs resoundingly and well and replies:
– They don’t! There is still a difference between mountain butter and margarine!