Rudi London
Encyclopedia
Rudi London, an American citizen, was born Njål Helle, July 7, 1949 in Nedstrand
, Norway
. As both a singer/musician and a writer, his artistic career spans over three decades, and two continents. His first single, "You Can Take No Money Into Heaven" was released by Talent Records, Oslo
, Norway, for release in Europe
, December 1978, followed up with his first album release of 1979, the song "Nottingham Forest
Is My Rock & Roll" was featured on BBC
Sunday Night Sports
and BBC News
. Rudi London’s first novel for worldwide release, The Operator Is Calling was published in 2009 by Amazing Road.
supervisor
, carpenter
, plumber
, welder
, logger
, fisherman
, military professional
, and a political/practical visionary
; his mother a homemaker
, seamstress, singer in the local choir
, painter
, life
artist and a student of the stage
, the classics
, and opera
. London could sing before he could talk and his first musical instrument was the harmonica
and later the accordion
. London loved to read the weekly Donald Duck
magazine. His favorite bible story was John the Baptist
. Inspired by his parents, London was at age 10 working summer jobs at Tveit Agricultural School picking weeds from endless rows of turnips and continued his career with hammering wooden tomato boxes at the local sawmill. His pursuit of cash had but one purpose: A brand new blue DBS
bike from Jonas Øglænd
. Stories of London's growing-up days can be found in his rather unusual biography, 3 Angels.
(smaller trumpet
). During 1965, London quit the school band and began attending high school
in the city of Bryne
, south of Stavanger
, Norway.
London's favorite reads before teens were The Bobbsey Twins, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
, Uncle Tom's Cabin
and Deerfoot stories. During summers, he worked different jobs on local Nedstrand farms
and as a tomato
picker in green house
s on the island of Finnøy
.
became the new talk of the town. The bass player was the only one not singing now and the band with the new name became popular. During one of their Veritas appearances, they shared stage with the famous Norwegian folk singer Åse Kleveland
. During spring of 1967, Lambeth Walkers was the first real Beatles type rock & roll band to perform at the Saturday night dance facility, "På Baustad" in Nedstrand. The band toured the islands and small towns from up north in the fjords of Rogaland
Fylke all the way down to Egersund
south of Bryne. On one occasion, the band recorded a demo tape backing a hopeful singer to pitch her talent to Arne Bendiksen
, the major record producer and label owner of Oslo, Norway.
Lambeth Walkers made rock impact and started doing concerts at Bryne Film theater. Nurk Twins from Stavanger and The Vanguards
of Oslo later joined them. Back then you didn’t hear much of the music played on stage since all the girls screamed louder than the PA systems were able to keep up with. London’s biggest moment came when Per Lorentz "Peder" Borsheim, the popular and very established lead vocalist of Nurk Twins, told drummer London that his singing would definitely take him places. Beginning fall of 1967, London started electronics
class at Sandnes
Vocational School
and Lambeth Walkers became Needs Must — Magne Rimestad joined the band doing lead vocals, rhythm guitar, and blues harp
. The band's music turned more toward John Mayall
type of blues
and jazz
. Instead of playing what he called, “Ode to The Fire Engine,” on his harmonica, London now got inspired by Rimestad and switched to blues harp playing. Then, in the end of spring of 1968, Needs Must went history. Schooling was over. Magne Rimestad later played bass in the famous Naboens Rockeband in Trondheim
, Norway.
London's favorite reads during his teens were Nancy Drew
, The Hardy Boys
, Jack London
, and Norman Qonquest
stories. He earned extra cash by painting houses and carpentry
repair work.
tech guy that one day we would have music and books and pictures and all sitting on a little black box the size of a cigarette lighter. The IBM'er did not share that view of the future.
problems. The pilot-no-longer-to-be was reduced to guarding his king, King Olav V, and miscellaneous other duties at the Norwegian Pentagon
. Performed secret missions – addressed in 3 Angels– for his colonel and served at one instance as captain for a two-week period. London did services with access/security clearance
to the large operations room.
. Next, the private computer industry came calling to offer London good reasons to grow his potential. First, in the fall of 1971, he continued with operations management at Rogalandsdata A/S in Stavanger and the year after he moved on to Trondheim
Datasenter A/S working with systems flow analysis
. In 1973 London was promoted to Planning Department Leader and started taking classes at Bedriftsøkonomisk Institutt (BS) to study law, computer science and business. Experimenting with his company’s new IBM 370 mainframe system, he soon found a way to bypass the system’s operating job-step initiation procedures. As result, production throughput on some jobs increased with up to 70%. London wrote about his system ideas in a book produced for computer insiders only and spoke of his operating system flow improvements at the University of Oslo in 1975. The year after London went to Seattle and met with Jean Bartik
, one of the original ENIAC
programmers.
1979 was London’s busiest year yet. The Nottingham Forest songs came out in early fall followed by the album named "Njaal Helle". Rosy, from Århus, Denmark
, became the concert band. Two songs from the album — "Hyper People" and "Nottingham Forest is my Rock & Roll" — climbed the European radio charts, Europatoppen. Music from the album has been covered by many other artists and also translated in different languages/countries all over the world. London was featured on BBC TV/Radio and German radio as well in Norway and USA.
1980 came with more songs, now recorded with Rosy, and London started writing articles/short stories for different Norwegian magazines, such as Det Nye
, Allers
, etc.. Some of the stories were then later released in Best-of-the-year collections in book form. "Hyper People" received an award at The American Song Festival in Los Angeles in 1980. The song "Home for Sale" received an award in The Music City Song Festival, Nashville, Tennessee, in 1981.
, Felice & Boudleaux Bryant — the writers of Rocky Top
, Grandpa Jones
, Roy Acuff
, Minnie Pearl
, Skeeter Davis
, Conway Twitty
, Bill Anderson, The Statler Brothers, Gary Morris
, Rosanne Cash
and Rodney Crowell
, Lorrie Morgan
, Kathy Mattea
, Governor Ned McWherter
, Maggie Cavender–the founder of NSAI
, Lillian Askeland, Teddy Nelson, Bjøro Håland
, and Arne Benoni had one thing in common: London took their picture: used for album/magazine covers, billboards, articles, and promotional literature. From November 1983 to April 1988 London was Project Manager for the building of the Service Merchandise
767,000 sq.ft. automated distribution center
in Montgomery, New York
. In June 1988 wedding photojournalism
and video production
became London's profession.
, Islam
, Buddhism
, Hinduism
, Shintoism, in addition to writings of Billy Graham
, Napoleon Hill
, Martinus
, The Dalai Lama, Jiddu Krishnamurti
, Cornelia Shakour, The Egyptian Book of The Dead
, The Tibetan Book of The Dead
, to name a few. London accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior
in the Church of Nedstrand on October 23 1963. Today he attends Oaklawn Free Will Baptist Church
in Chapmansboro, Tennessee, USA.
/Kindle
/Nook
/eBook) ISBN 978-0-9823022-0-0 Library of Congress
2009921307 Copyright
© 2009
3 Angels (Hardcover/Kindle/Nook/eBook) ISBN 978-0-9823022-4-8 Library of Congress 2010900184 Copyright © 2010
No Escape From Berlin (Hardcover/Kindle/Nook/eBook) ISBN 978-0-9823022-7-9 Library of Congress 2011901203 Copyright © 2011
Njaal Helle Talent Records Album TLS 4017 Copyright © 1979
Norske Rockere (Njaal Helle with Jahn Teigen
, etc..) Trønder Selskapet Homes/Nidaros Studio Album Copyright © 1986
We Are The Champions (20 Football Fantasies) (Njaal Helle) Summit Records
Album SUMCD4076 Copyright © 1991
You Reds (Njaal Helle with Paper Lace
) Cherry Red Records Album CDGAFFER8 Copyright © 1996
Fulle Mugger - Norwegian Rock
'70s/'80s/'90s (Njaal Helle with Kristin Berglund) Godt Norsk Records Album 11804-2 Copyright © 2000
Det Beste - (The Best From The '70s) (Njaal Helle with Inger Lise Rypdal
) Flexi Records FLX 123 Copyright © 2006
The Early Years (Rudi London) Talent Records Album TWEB4017 Copyright © 2010
Nedstrand
Nedstrand is a village and a former municipality in Rogaland county, Norway.The village is located on the south-eastern coast of Nedstrandhalvøya, and its population is 241 ....
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. As both a singer/musician and a writer, his artistic career spans over three decades, and two continents. His first single, "You Can Take No Money Into Heaven" was released by Talent Records, Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
, Norway, for release in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, December 1978, followed up with his first album release of 1979, the song "Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest F.C.
Nottingham Forest Football Club is an English Association Football club based in West Bridgford, Nottingham, that plays in the Football League Championship...
Is My Rock & Roll" was featured on BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Sunday Night Sports
BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...
and BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
. Rudi London’s first novel for worldwide release, The Operator Is Calling was published in 2009 by Amazing Road.
Early life
Rudi "Njål" London was born at 12:37 A.M., July 7, 1949, upstairs at his parent’s home built by his father on a piece of land called Rabben, part of Nedre Helle, Hinderåvag — in the county of Nedstrand — situated on the southern west coast of Norway. His father was a constructionConstruction
In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...
supervisor
Supervisor
A supervisor, foreperson, team leader, overseer, cell coach, facilitator, or area coordinator is a manager in a position of trust in business...
, carpenter
Carpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
, plumber
Plumber
A plumber is a tradesperson who specializes in installing and maintaining systems used for potable water, sewage, and drainage in plumbing systems. The term dates from ancient times, and is related to the Latin word for lead, "plumbum." A person engaged in fixing metaphorical "leaks" may also be...
, welder
Welder
A welder is a tradesman who specializes in welding materials together. The materials to be joined can be metals or varieties of plastic or polymer...
, logger
Lumberjack
A lumberjack is a worker in the logging industry who performs the initial harvesting and transport of trees for ultimate processing into forest products. The term usually refers to a bygone era when hand tools were used in harvesting trees principally from virgin forest...
, fisherman
Fisherman
A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishermen and fish farmers. The term can also be applied to recreational fishermen and may be used to describe both men...
, military professional
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
, and a political/practical visionary
Visionary
Defined broadly, a visionary, is one who can envision the future. For some groups this can involve the supernatural or drugs.The visionary state is achieved via meditation, drugs, lucid dreams, daydreams, or art. One example is Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th century artist/visionary and Catholic saint...
; his mother a homemaker
Homemaker
Homemaking is a mainly American term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping or household management...
, seamstress, singer in the local choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
, painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, life
Life
Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased , or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate...
artist and a student of the stage
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, the classics
Art music
Art music is an umbrella term used to refer to musical traditions implying advanced structural and theoretical considerations and a written musical tradition...
, and opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
. London could sing before he could talk and his first musical instrument was the harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
and later the accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
. London loved to read the weekly Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
magazine. His favorite bible story was John the Baptist
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
. Inspired by his parents, London was at age 10 working summer jobs at Tveit Agricultural School picking weeds from endless rows of turnips and continued his career with hammering wooden tomato boxes at the local sawmill. His pursuit of cash had but one purpose: A brand new blue DBS
Den Beste Sykkel
Den Beste Sykkel, , better known as DBS, is a Norwegian bicycle brand, manufactured by Jonas Øglænd AS in Sandnes, Norway....
bike from Jonas Øglænd
Jonas Øglænd
Jonas Øglænd was a Norwegian merchant and indudstrial entrepreneur. He was born in Høyland, and started a small business in Sandnes in 1868. In the late 1890s his sons acquired the Scandinavian agency for the bicycle brand "The World". They eventually started producing their own bicycles, and the...
. Stories of London's growing-up days can be found in his rather unusual biography, 3 Angels.
School Band
In 1961, London failed in trying out for drums in the Nedstrand School Band and started playing the tenor horn instead. He was later promoted to kornettCornet
The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...
(smaller trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
). During 1965, London quit the school band and began attending high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
in the city of Bryne
Bryne
Bryne is a city, located in, and the administrative centre of, the municipality of Time, Norway. Bryne is located about 25 minutes south of Stavanger by train. The area of Bryne is 4,79 km²....
, south of Stavanger
Stavanger
Stavanger is a city and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway.Stavanger municipality has a population of 126,469. There are 197,852 people living in the Stavanger conurbation, making Stavanger the fourth largest city, but the third largest urban area, in Norway...
, Norway.
London's favorite reads before teens were The Bobbsey Twins, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is an 1876 novel about a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River. The story is set in the Town of "St...
, Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman....
and Deerfoot stories. During summers, he worked different jobs on local Nedstrand farms
Farm
A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...
and as a tomato
Tomato
The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...
picker in green house
Green House
Green House, or variations such as Green Mansion, may refer to:*Green House , an innovative person-centered small long term care home.in Hong Kong...
s on the island of Finnøy
Finnøy
Finnøy is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is an island community located in Boknafjorden, 13 nautical miles north of Stavanger.The parish of Finnø was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838...
.
High School
In the fall of 1965 he joined a rock & roll band called The Honeymoons and London finally got to play the drums. The group performed their debut at the popular Sunday Night Veritas (student society) at Bryne High School that same year. In 1966 the lead singer had left the band and their name changed: Lambeth WalkersLambeth Walk
Lambeth Walk is a street in Lambeth, London, England, off Lambeth Road. It was an old street market and housing area.After some bomb damage during the Blitz in World War II on September 18, 1940, the area became rather run down and was subsequently rebuilt....
became the new talk of the town. The bass player was the only one not singing now and the band with the new name became popular. During one of their Veritas appearances, they shared stage with the famous Norwegian folk singer Åse Kleveland
Åse Kleveland
Åse Maria Kleveland is a Swedish-Norwegian singer and politician.A well-known folk singer and traditional guitarist in Norway, she was appointed Minister of Culture in Norway from 1990 to 1996, representing the Labour Party under the Gro Harlem Brundtland administration...
. During spring of 1967, Lambeth Walkers was the first real Beatles type rock & roll band to perform at the Saturday night dance facility, "På Baustad" in Nedstrand. The band toured the islands and small towns from up north in the fjords of Rogaland
Rogaland
is a county in Western Norway, bordering Hordaland, Telemark, Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder. It is the center of the Norwegian petroleum industry, and as a result of this, Rogaland has the lowest unemployment rate of any county in Norway, 1.1%...
Fylke all the way down to Egersund
Egersund
The town of Egersund was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 . It was merged with the surrounding municipality of Eigersund January 1, 1965....
south of Bryne. On one occasion, the band recorded a demo tape backing a hopeful singer to pitch her talent to Arne Bendiksen
Arne Bendiksen
Arne Joachim Bendiksen, born 19 October 1926 in Bergen, Norway, died 26 March 2009, was a Norwegian singer, composer and producer, described as "the father of pop music" in Norway....
, the major record producer and label owner of Oslo, Norway.
Lambeth Walkers made rock impact and started doing concerts at Bryne Film theater. Nurk Twins from Stavanger and The Vanguards
The Vanguards
The Vanguards were a rock band from Oslo, Norway that debuted in 1961. Although the band disbanded eight years later, members continued to reunite for appearances during the 1970s....
of Oslo later joined them. Back then you didn’t hear much of the music played on stage since all the girls screamed louder than the PA systems were able to keep up with. London’s biggest moment came when Per Lorentz "Peder" Borsheim, the popular and very established lead vocalist of Nurk Twins, told drummer London that his singing would definitely take him places. Beginning fall of 1967, London started electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
class at Sandnes
Sandnes
is a city and municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is part of the region of Jæren.-History:Sandnes was separated from Høyland as a municipality of its own in 1860, and gained city status the same year...
Vocational School
Vocational school
A vocational school , providing vocational education, is a school in which students are taught the skills needed to perform a particular job...
and Lambeth Walkers became Needs Must — Magne Rimestad joined the band doing lead vocals, rhythm guitar, and blues harp
Blues harp
The Richter-tuned harmonica, or 10-hole harmonica or blues harp , is the most widely known type of harmonica...
. The band's music turned more toward John Mayall
John Mayall
John Mayall, OBE is an English blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, whose musical career spans over fifty years...
type of blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
. Instead of playing what he called, “Ode to The Fire Engine,” on his harmonica, London now got inspired by Rimestad and switched to blues harp playing. Then, in the end of spring of 1968, Needs Must went history. Schooling was over. Magne Rimestad later played bass in the famous Naboens Rockeband in Trondheim
Trondheim
Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
, Norway.
London's favorite reads during his teens were Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew is a fictional young amateur detective in various mystery series for all ages. She was created by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate book packaging firm. The character first appeared in 1930. The books have been ghostwritten by a number of authors and are published...
, The Hardy Boys
The Hardy Boys
The Hardy Boys, Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional teenage brothers and amateur detectives who appear in various mystery series for children and teens....
, Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
, and Norman Qonquest
Edwy Searles Brooks
Edwy Searles Brooks was a British novelist who also wrote under the pen-names Berkeley Gray, Victor Gunn, Rex Madison, and Carlton Ross. Brooks was born in Hackney, London...
stories. He earned extra cash by painting houses and carpentry
Carpentry
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
repair work.
Early career
During the summer of 1968, London got busy building houses for Block Watne Hus in the Stavanger/Sandnes area. But then fall came. Who wants to build houses in the snow? London moved to Oslo and started his computer career in January 1969 at Forsvarets (Norwegian Military/NATO) Datasentral, Oslo. Working on IBM 360 mainframes, Mr. London sent his first emessage from Oslo to Bergen in November that same year. In early 1970 he told an IBMIBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
tech guy that one day we would have music and books and pictures and all sitting on a little black box the size of a cigarette lighter. The IBM'er did not share that view of the future.
First recording
In the spring of 1970, a Tandberg’s 64X (4-track) tape recorder became London’s best new friend and he recorded himself playing all instruments on his very first song on tape: "Stumblin’ ‘Round". Exploratory reading: DänikenErich von Däniken
Erich Anton Paul von Däniken is a Swiss author best known for his controversial claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture, in books such as Chariots of the Gods?, published in 1968...
Air Force
In July 1970, He joined the Norwegian Air Force to fly fighter jets. During the initial eyesight checkup pilot-hopeful London suddenly became b-airman due to visionVisual system
The visual system is the part of the central nervous system which enables organisms to process visual detail, as well as enabling several non-image forming photoresponse functions. It interprets information from visible light to build a representation of the surrounding world...
problems. The pilot-no-longer-to-be was reduced to guarding his king, King Olav V, and miscellaneous other duties at the Norwegian Pentagon
Norwegian Armed Forces
The Norwegian Armed Forces numbers about 23,000 personnel, including civilian employees. According to mobilisation plans , the strength during full mobilisation would be approximately 83,000 combatant personnel. Norway has mandatory military service for men and voluntary service for women...
. Performed secret missions – addressed in 3 Angels– for his colonel and served at one instance as captain for a two-week period. London did services with access/security clearance
Security clearance
A security clearance is a status granted to individuals allowing them access to classified information, i.e., state secrets, or to restricted areas after completion of a thorough background check. The term "security clearance" is also sometimes used in private organizations that have a formal...
to the large operations room.
Systems Management
Eventually, London convinced his colonel to let him go back to the IBM 360 for the remaining draft period. Forsvarets Datasentral promoted him to computer operations shift supervisorComputer operator
A role within IT, computer operators oversee the running of computer systems, ensuring that the machines are running and physically secured. The traditional role of a computer operator was to work with mainframes which required a great deal of management day-to-day, however nowaday they often work...
. Next, the private computer industry came calling to offer London good reasons to grow his potential. First, in the fall of 1971, he continued with operations management at Rogalandsdata A/S in Stavanger and the year after he moved on to Trondheim
Trondheim
Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
Datasenter A/S working with systems flow analysis
Systems analysis
Systems analysis is the study of sets of interacting entities, including computer systems analysis. This field is closely related to requirements analysis or operations research...
. In 1973 London was promoted to Planning Department Leader and started taking classes at Bedriftsøkonomisk Institutt (BS) to study law, computer science and business. Experimenting with his company’s new IBM 370 mainframe system, he soon found a way to bypass the system’s operating job-step initiation procedures. As result, production throughput on some jobs increased with up to 70%. London wrote about his system ideas in a book produced for computer insiders only and spoke of his operating system flow improvements at the University of Oslo in 1975. The year after London went to Seattle and met with Jean Bartik
Jean Bartik
Jean Bartik was one of the original programmers for the ENIAC computer.She was born Betty Jean Jennings in Gentry County, Missouri, in 1924 and attended Northwest Missouri State Teachers College, majoring in mathematics. In 1945, she was hired by the University of Pennsylvania to work for Army...
, one of the original ENIAC
ENIAC
ENIAC was the first general-purpose electronic computer. It was a Turing-complete digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems....
programmers.
Rock & Roll
Late fall of 1976, London was asked to lead sing with a band called Viscount in Trondheim, Norway. This developed into Njaal Band, with Johnny Yen on Keyboard; but success wasn’t meant to be. Moscus came along and saved the day. They could really play and later recorded a few tunes with London: "Kommer Du" and "America" (very first try at "Happy Birthday America".) These and other songs landed him a deal with Talent Records in Oslo, Norway. First single, "You Can Take No Money Into Heaven", came out in November 1978 and took to the German air waves in late December.1979 was London’s busiest year yet. The Nottingham Forest songs came out in early fall followed by the album named "Njaal Helle". Rosy, from Århus, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, became the concert band. Two songs from the album — "Hyper People" and "Nottingham Forest is my Rock & Roll" — climbed the European radio charts, Europatoppen. Music from the album has been covered by many other artists and also translated in different languages/countries all over the world. London was featured on BBC TV/Radio and German radio as well in Norway and USA.
1980 came with more songs, now recorded with Rosy, and London started writing articles/short stories for different Norwegian magazines, such as Det Nye
Det Nye
Det Nye is a Norwegian magazine that comes out every three weeks. The target group is women from 18 to 35 years. It contains feature articles, as well as material on careers, fashion, sex and relationships. Its circulation was 68,765 in 2004. The editor is Elisabet Skårberg. It is owned by Hjemmet...
, Allers
Allers (magazine)
Allers is the name of a Swedish and a Norwegian weekly magazine, both published by Aller Media. They both trace their origins from the Danish weekly Illustreret Familie-Journal, founded in 1877 by Carl Aller....
, etc.. Some of the stories were then later released in Best-of-the-year collections in book form. "Hyper People" received an award at The American Song Festival in Los Angeles in 1980. The song "Home for Sale" received an award in The Music City Song Festival, Nashville, Tennessee, in 1981.
United States
London retired from Norwegian rock & roll and came to Nashville, Tennessee, on November 2, 1980, two days prior to Ronald Reagan's presidential election win. London started his photojournalism business: Hope HinesHope Hines
Hope Hines is the Sports Director at WTVF in Nashville, Tennessee.-Career:Hines joined WTVF, then known as WLAC-TV, as Sports Director in 1971 following his graduation with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of...
, Felice & Boudleaux Bryant — the writers of Rocky Top
Rocky Top
"Rocky Top" is an American country and bluegrass song written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant in 1967 and first recorded by the Osborne Brothers later that same year...
, Grandpa Jones
Grandpa Jones
Louis Marshall Jones , known professionally as Grandpa Jones, was an American banjo player and "old time" country and gospel music singer...
, Roy Acuff
Roy Acuff
Roy Claxton Acuff was an American country music singer, fiddler, and promoter. Known as the King of Country Music, Acuff is often credited with moving the genre from its early string band and "hoedown" format to the star singer-based format that helped make it internationally successful.Acuff...
, Minnie Pearl
Minnie Pearl
Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon , known professionally as Minnie Pearl, was an American country comedienne who appeared at the Grand Ole Opry for more than 50 years and on the television show Hee Haw from 1969 to 1991.-Early life:Sarah Colley was born in Centerville, in Hickman County, Tennessee,...
, Skeeter Davis
Skeeter Davis
Mary Frances Penick , better known as Skeeter Davis, was an American country music singer best known for crossover pop music songs of the early 1960s. She started out as part of The Davis Sisters as a teenager in the late 1940s, eventually landing on RCA Records. In the late '50s, she became a solo...
, Conway Twitty
Conway Twitty
Conway Twitty , born Harold Lloyd Jenkins, was an American country music artist. He also had success in early rock and roll, R&B, and pop music. He held the record for the most number one singles of any act with 55 No. 1 Billboard country hits until George Strait broke the record in 2006...
, Bill Anderson, The Statler Brothers, Gary Morris
Gary Morris
Gary Gwyn Morris is an American country music artist who charted a string of countrypolitan-styled hit songs throughout the 1980s....
, Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash is an American singer-songwriter and author. She is the eldest daughter of the late country music singer Johnny Cash and his first wife, Vivian Liberto Cash Distin....
and Rodney Crowell
Rodney Crowell
Rodney Crowell is a Grammy Award-winning musician, known primarily for his work as a singer and songwriter in country music....
, Lorrie Morgan
Lorrie Morgan
In 1996 Morgan married Jon Randall, a singer/songwriter now credited with writing the 2004 Brad Paisley/Alison Krauss hit "Whiskey Lullaby"; they divorced three years later in 1999....
, Kathy Mattea
Kathy Mattea
Kathleen Alice "Kathy" Mattea is an American country music and bluegrass performer who often brings folk, Celtic and traditional country sounds to her music. Active since 1983 as a recording artist, she has recorded seventeen albums and has charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot...
, Governor Ned McWherter
Ned McWherter
Ned Ray McWherter was an American politician who served as the 46th Governor of Tennessee from 1987 to 1995. He was a Democrat.McWherter was born in Palmersville, Weakley County, Tennessee...
, Maggie Cavender–the founder of NSAI
Nashville Songwriters Association International
The Nashville Songwriters Association International is a 501 not-for-profit trade organization that works to help songwriters in three ways: through legislative advocacy, through education and advice about the actual craft of songwriting, and through teaching about the music industry, and how to...
, Lillian Askeland, Teddy Nelson, Bjøro Håland
Bjøro Håland
Bjøro Håland is a Norwegian country singer.He was born on Håland in Norway and grew up in Audnedal with five siblings. In 1960 he emigrated to the USA. He worked as a construction worker and sang in bars...
, and Arne Benoni had one thing in common: London took their picture: used for album/magazine covers, billboards, articles, and promotional literature. From November 1983 to April 1988 London was Project Manager for the building of the Service Merchandise
Service Merchandise
Service Merchandise is an online retailer and former retailer chain of catalog showroom stores carrying fine jewelry, toys, sporting goods, and electronics that existed for 68 years...
767,000 sq.ft. automated distribution center
Distribution center
A distribution center for a set of products is a warehouse or other specialized building, often with refrigeration or air conditioning, which is stocked with products to be redistributed to retailers, to wholesalers, or directly to consumers. A distribution center is a principal part, the order...
in Montgomery, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. In June 1988 wedding photojournalism
Wedding Photojournalist
A wedding photojournalist is a person who takes photographs during a wedding using an alternative approach where images are captured spontaneously to emphasize moments and emotion. Much like photojournalists for the media, wedding photojournalists present the story of the day through their...
and video production
Video production
Video production is videography, the process of capturing moving images on electronic media even streaming media. The term includes methods of production and post-production...
became London's profession.
Religion
The underlying principles established in The S.K.E. Institute’s Laws of The Universe has taught London the true relationship between language practice and actual physical behavior. Thus it became the primum mobile of his novel debut, The Operator Is Calling. Since age of seven, under great influence of his paternal grandmother, Sina Helle, and his grade 1-7 teacher, Odd Roalkvam, London has studied ChristianityChristianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
, Shintoism, in addition to writings of Billy Graham
Billy Graham
William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...
, Napoleon Hill
Napoleon Hill
Napoleon Hill was an American author who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature. He is widely considered to be one of the great writers on success...
, Martinus
Martinus Thomsen
Martinus Thomsen, referred to as Martinus was a Danish writer and mystic.Thomsen was born to a poor family and had a simple education. He worked as a dairyman....
, The Dalai Lama, Jiddu Krishnamurti
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Jiddu Krishnamurti or J. Krishnamurti or , was a renowned writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual subjects. His subject matter included: psychological revolution, the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships, and bringing about positive change in society...
, Cornelia Shakour, The Egyptian Book of The Dead
Book of the Dead
The Book of the Dead is the modern name of an ancient Egyptian funerary text, used from the beginning of the New Kingdom to around 50 BC. The original Egyptian name for the text, transliterated rw nw prt m hrw is translated as "Book of Coming Forth by Day". Another translation would be "Book of...
, The Tibetan Book of The Dead
Bardo Thodol
The Liberation Through Hearing During The Intermediate State , sometimes translated as Liberation Through Hearing or Bardo Thodol is a funerary text...
, to name a few. London accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior
Savior
Savior or Saviour may refer to:*a person who helps people achieve salvation, or saves them from something- Religion :* Mahdi* Mashiach* Messiah* Redeemer * Saoshyant* Soter- Music :* Saviours , a stoner metal band...
in the Church of Nedstrand on October 23 1963. Today he attends Oaklawn Free Will Baptist Church
Free Will Baptist Church
Free Will Baptist is a denomination of churches that share a common history, name, and an acceptance of the Arminian theology of free grace, free salvation, and free will. Free Will Baptists share similar soteriological views with General Baptists, Separate Baptists and some United Baptists...
in Chapmansboro, Tennessee, USA.
Works
The Operator Is Calling (HardcoverHardcover
A hardcover, hardback or hardbound is a book bound with rigid protective covers...
/Kindle
Amazon Kindle
The Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader developed by Amazon.com subsidiary Lab126 which uses wireless connectivity to enable users to shop for, download, browse, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other digital media...
/Nook
Nook
Nook may refer to a small corner formed by two walls.Nook may also refer to:*A slang name for a person reading; also known as a "book nook"*"Nook", a science-fiction TV series Lexx episode...
/eBook) ISBN 978-0-9823022-0-0 Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
2009921307 Copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
© 2009
3 Angels (Hardcover/Kindle/Nook/eBook) ISBN 978-0-9823022-4-8 Library of Congress 2010900184 Copyright © 2010
No Escape From Berlin (Hardcover/Kindle/Nook/eBook) ISBN 978-0-9823022-7-9 Library of Congress 2011901203 Copyright © 2011
Njaal Helle Talent Records Album TLS 4017 Copyright © 1979
Norske Rockere (Njaal Helle with Jahn Teigen
Jahn Teigen
Jahn Teigen is a Norwegian singer and musician. Jahn received a knighthood from H.M. King Harald V. He represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest three times, in 1978, 1982 and 1983. His given name was Jan, he added the silent H later. Since October 2006 he has been living in Sweden...
, etc..) Trønder Selskapet Homes/Nidaros Studio Album Copyright © 1986
We Are The Champions (20 Football Fantasies) (Njaal Helle) Summit Records
Summit Records
Summit Records, Inc. is an internationally distributed record label that evolved out of the dynamic large brass ensemble, Summit Brass in the late 1980s...
Album SUMCD4076 Copyright © 1991
You Reds (Njaal Helle with Paper Lace
Paper Lace
Paper Lace are a Nottingham based pop group, formed in 1969. They are known to Americans as a one-hit wonder; however, in the UK they were a "classic two and a half hit wonder".-History:...
) Cherry Red Records Album CDGAFFER8 Copyright © 1996
Fulle Mugger - Norwegian Rock
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
'70s/'80s/'90s (Njaal Helle with Kristin Berglund) Godt Norsk Records Album 11804-2 Copyright © 2000
Det Beste - (The Best From The '70s) (Njaal Helle with Inger Lise Rypdal
Inger Lise Rypdal
Inger Lise Rypdal is a Norwegian singer and actress in many different genres: pop, rock, theater, film, and musical.-History:Inger Lise Rypdal has been an artist since 1968...
) Flexi Records FLX 123 Copyright © 2006
The Early Years (Rudi London) Talent Records Album TWEB4017 Copyright © 2010