Cocktail Slippers: Oslo's Glitter-and-Grit Garage Band That Started a Record Label

Photo: Tore Sætre / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cocktail_Slippers_Over_Oslo_2018_(213558).jpg

Cocktail Slippers are five women from Oslo who play loud garage rock and power pop in costumes inspired by wrestling and Dynasty. They also helped bring a record label into being. Wikipedia and NJ.com both tell how Steven Van Zandt of the E Street Band discovered the band and signed them to his Wicked Cool Records. Cocktail Slippers have 4,997 plays on U-Rock®.

Out of The Barbarellas

Wikipedia says the band formed in Oslo in early 2001 from the all-female group The Barbarellas. Several former members regrouped with a new drummer and took the name Cocktail Slippers. Moosic Entertainment and Rockmommy also date the band to 2001. The debut album, Rock It!, came out that year on the Norwegian label MTG, and the band quickly made a name for high-energy shows around Norway.

Little Steven

Accounts of the discovery vary in the details. Wikipedia says Van Zandt found the band in 2003 while in Oslo with Bruce Springsteen, after buying their debut in a local record shop. NJ.com describes the band as "a chance discovery" for Van Zandt and connects it to their song "Rock 'n' Roll Babe." Every source agrees on what happened next. He began playing them on his radio show, Little Steven's Underground Garage, and signed them to Wicked Cool. Wikipedia says he has claimed the band were the reason the label came to exist. Guitarist Stine Bendiksen, known on stage as Rocket Queen, told Rockmommy that the label was launched after conversations with Van Zandt about Norway's music scene.

Saint Valentine's Day Massacre

The band's 2009 album, Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, was made with Van Zandt. Wikipedia says it includes two songs he wrote, the title track and "Heard You Got a Thing for Me," plus covers of Lesley Gore's "She's a Fool" and Connie Francis' "Don't Ever Leave Me." NJ.com covered the record's arrival in the US that year. Wikipedia calls it the band's widest exposure so far, with festival dates in Europe and the US, including repeat invitations to South by Southwest. The band have stressed in interviews that most of their music is their own. "We don't have any template for making songs," they told Moosic Entertainment. "Actually we don't have templates for anything in the band, which is quite nice!"

Changes and a comeback

Wikipedia says several line-up changes in the 2010s moved the band toward a poppier sound on People Talk (2014). They appeared in the TV series Lilyhammer, competed in Norway's Eurovision national final in 2012, and played Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park on a bill with Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney. After line-up changes, parental leave and the pandemic, they returned with Shout It Out Loud! (2021) on Wicked Cool, followed by the EP Talking About Love in 2024. In early 2026, Wikipedia says, singer Silje Hope left and Sandra Szabo joined under the stage name "Flame."

Glitter and grit

Styletalk Magazine describes a band "armed with glitter, grit, and zero apologies." Wikipedia says their costumes have ranged from sailor girls to tennis players to gangsters. More recently, designer Cårejånni Enderud has added glam and glitter, aiming for girl power in an exaggerated, wrestling-style look. The name nods to Alexis from Dynasty, and they often open shows with the show's theme.

Why it matters on U-Rock®

Cocktail Slippers are proof that a garage band from Oslo can end up with a record label, a Hyde Park slot and two decades on the road. With 4,997 plays, they're a big part of U-Rock®'s garage sound.

U-Rock® play data: 4,997 plays logged across the BROADCAST and CORE histories (2026-07-02 to 2026-10-12), using the higher of the two logs.

Sources 1. Wikipedia, "Cocktail Slippers" — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocktail_Slippers 2. NJ.com, "All-woman Norwegian garage band a chance discovery for Van Zandt" (Mar 2009) — https://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/2009/03/allwoman_norwegian_garage_band.html 3. Moosic Entertainment, Cocktail Slippers interview (28 Jul 2023) — https://moosicentertainment.com/2023/07/28/cocktail-slippers-interview/ 4. Rockmommy, "Catching up with Cocktail Slippers' Rocket Queen" (Mar 2024) — https://rockmommy.com/2024/03/catching-up-with-stine-bendiksen-the-cocktail-slippers-rocket-queen/ 5. Styletalk Magazine, "Not pussyfooting around: Cocktail Slippers" (26 Jun 2025) — https://styletalkmagazine.com/2025/06/26/not-pussyfooting-around-cocktail-slippers-are-armed-with-glitter-grit-and-zero-apologies/ 6. U-Rock® BROADCAST (AzuraCast) and CORE (airplay_spins) play logs