Indie-electro Star Driven Out Of Manchester By Violent Thugs

Kings Of Convenience indie star turned electro-disco DJ Erlend Oye chatted to Skrufff this week about his upcoming mix CD for K7 Records and revealed that he was savagely beaten up when he lived in Manchester several years ago.

The Norwegian artist launched his pop career in the notoriously rough Northern city
in 1999, and revealed that he'd initially been inspired by the friendly reception he found within the city's close-knit music community. However, his views changed when he became the victim of a vicious random street attack in the heart of the city centre.

"One Sunday I was walking past the Arndale Centre and there was a group of kids there who just decided to beat me up," Erlend recalled.

"I was looking a little different and I think they'd just got off a bus looking to do (attack) someone and I just happened to be the person who was there. I lost some bits of my teeth, my glasses were smashed and my nose badly damaged, though the hardest thing to cope with was the fact that I didn't feel secure anymore," he admitted.

"I'd never felt threatened in Manchester before and I ended up moving away a month later."

"Right now I find it amazing that I actually lived in Manchester at all," he added.

"How the Hell did that happen- It's definitely one of the grimmest places on Earth."

Erlend's (excellent) disco-electro-pop mix CD DJ Kicks is out in April on Studio K7.
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