Lister

Af Camille Gudmand Lange
Translated by Nadia Duthiers

”It’s scary to think of the number of cold sore mouths that have been in close contact with the plastic animals through the years,” Alexander from Alien & Cow says and shudders.

He explains that years of spit, duct tape, and patches will wear down a plastic alien, so the boys have had to buy several new aliens.

”Any self respecting toy store used to have aliens and cows, but today you can only buy them in porn shops, and then they have access holes. We order them straight from Michigan now, and they’re not even expensive, “Jonas says.

Timeless design

The easily recognizable Alien-boinking-cow banner has existed for nearly 11 years and has been present at approximately 200 concerts. Even though many other camps take pride in changing their banners from year to year, Alien & Cow have never changed their design.

”We came up with the idea in 1999 where we had a blow up cow and alien that we wanted to combine on a banner. One of us suggested a brilliant setup where one doll would boink the other!”

Boink moves

The famous boink move was not discovered until later, when one of the banner bearers happened to sway the banner back and forth.

”It’s the perfect boink angle! That’s what makes this banner a cult object. I’ve brought it to festivals for 10 years now, and it still cracks me up when I look at it, ” Jonas giggles.

A smash hit on stage

It is not just the boys themselves who worship their banner. Musicians at Roskilde often comment on the strange creation from the stage. The boys tell us that they once got Natasja Atlas so flustered that she forgot her refrain and started laughing out loud on stage.

When we ask the boys if they are ever going to part ways with Alien & Cow, they exclaim:

”Not as long as the audience loves it. It’s not just a cool banner, it’s also a gathering point – easy to navigate by.”

And so it seems that Alien & Cow will be boinking for years to come.

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