ARCTIC STORM; FESTIVAL SPECIAL.

Byline: GAVIN MARTIN

When the Arctic Monkeys play the Leeds/Reading festival next weekend, they'll be making a triumphant double-whammy comeback as Britain's best-loved young band. Performing their first UK dates supporting their new Humbug album, they'll undoubtedly reclaim their native territory with a victorious gig close to their home city of Sheffield, before conquering the south.

The Leeds/Reading setting certainly won't be much like the Oya Festival the band played last week in Oslo, Norway.

Oya runs for five days on a site of historical Norwegian importance - a medieval burial ground.

Separated from a motorway by a strip of water from the nearby harbour, it has no camping on site, infamously expensive Norwegian bar prices and, most disconcertingly, prolonged periods when the only music to be heard is that on my own portable sound system. The setting might be rather sterile, but the dazzling Seun Kuti has no trouble in cutting through it with some genuine Nigerian warmth. A pencil-thin figure gyrating on the good groove, he keeps alive the spirit of his late, great father Fela's Afrobeat with a sizzling band and hot-panted female accompaniement. Seun is the undoubted highlight of the day and proves a hard act for even the defiantly cocky lead Monkey Alex Turner and company to follow.

However, with their new headbanging, heavy sound, the Arctics give it a good go. Opening the set without a guitar, shaggy hair covering his face, the leatherjacketed Alex looks more like a Jim Morrison-styled Rock God than a plucky indie rebel.

It's all in line with the rebranding process that's accompanying Humbug.

The sound mix emphasises Nick O'Malley's rumbling bass and the ferocious power of Matt Helder's drums, and even old favourites such as Still Take You Home are subject to the makeover.

They now seem more like a project intent on conquering international territories with a franchised sound. But, along the way, they do seem to have lost a certain individuality.

The 16,000 local youths in the crowd create a energetic celebratory world of their own as they experience the liberating power of rock 'n' roll - a welcome diversion in the home of the seven-quid beer, and bleak winter months when the sun barely rises.

On the opening night of the festival, the security -heavy bars of Oslo resound with superior psych and garage rock from local firebrands Pow Pow and Manhead.

"The bars are closing earlier and earlier," Manhead's main man tells me. "The drinks get more and more expensive, but the youth don't care - we just drink more!"

Prior to the Monkeys' headlining stint on the second night, we're treated to the outstanding, savage and brilliantly theatrical black metal of Satyricon, complete with giant devil trident mic stand, burning red fires of hell stage lighting and a huge Vikinghelmeted drum kit.

The Oslo band's music and presentation is a positive riposte to the terrible events - church burnings, youth suicide and murder - that plagued the Norwegian death metal scene in the 90s.

"This stuff blows your brains out," says frontman Satyr. And it does - in a good way.

Other acts dotted throughout an eclectic line-up include Lily Allen, Madness, Glasvegas and Doves - evidence of Oya mixing it up in great style.

Especially hot are the newly energised Wilco who deliver a bristling blend of pop know-how, feral intensity and elating musical liftoffs. It's like Neil Young in supernova mode.

Oya is a winner - it's just a shame you need to bring Viking treasure to buy a beer.

CAPTION(S):

BLUE TWO: Punters beat the Oslo rain READY TO ROCK: Oya's waterside setting MAKEOVER: The new-look Alex Turner MAKEOVER: The new-look Alex Turner