The March episode of Nordic Rox on Sirius XM was broadcast on 6th March. Sven tells they have prepared a show which takes them so far back in time that even Per can’t remember. Per says „I do remember!” and the guys are laughing. This time they have a tribute to a 60’s Swedish band from Gothenburg called Tages. Per tells he had loads of Tages singles when he was a kid. According to Sven many say that Tages was the best Swedish pop group in the 60’s. PG tends to agree. He thinks that especially after a couple of years, when they started writing their own songs they made some really outstanding tracks. They had an amazing bass player and singer, Göran Lagerberg who had this R&B touch to his voice and to his writing, which was really cool. It made them stand out a lot in the Swedish crowd. Sven tells they picked out three songs which represent three faces of their career. The pop thing, the slightly psychedelic thing and also something in between. A little bit of R&B, Per adds. But before that, they play some classic Nordic Rox stuff.
First song played is Painted By Numbers from the Dying To Say This To You album of The Sounds. Per tells they are a great band from the South of Sweden. They had their breakthrough with a song called Living In America.
Factory, a Swedish band comes next with Efter plugget from their 1979 album. Per says this song is one of his guilty pleasures, he always loved this song. He loves these synthesizer sounds from the late 70’s. If you were around in 1979-1981, you heard this song all the time on Swedish radio. It was a major hit. This was one of the biggest songs in the late 70’s in Sweden. It came out the same year when Per’s first band, Gyllene Tider recorded their first album. They listened to this band a lot, you just couldn’t avoid them. GT didn’t sound like them at all, though. Factory was topping the charts with their debut album in the spring of 1979. Before them Spirits Having Flown by the Bee Gees, after them Voulez-Vous by ABBA was topping the charts.
Molly Hammar’s Douchebag is next. She’s a Swedish artist who has been around for a couple of years. Per tells she is doing some great singles. Douchebag is her most recent single from 2021.
The next song is James by Ex Cops from 2013 from their debut album. The Nordic connection of the band is Denmark. There are two singers, an American guy called Brian Harding and a Danish vocalist, Amalie Bruun. Per thinks it’s a great song and he says he started singing The Rose Of England by Nick Lowe when he heard the chords. Great chords! Sven jokes that „maybe they listened to Nick and decided to nick some of the chords”.
The guys start talking about Tages. Tage is a male name, Sven tells. It’s not even a cool name, old people had that name. Per tells the Swedish Prime Minister, Tage Erlander had this name. The band didn’t hesitate in giving themselves challenges when it came to the name. The first name they had was Alberts Skifflegrupp. Per laughs and says it’s a terrible name. It was from the singer, Tommy Blom’s middle name, Albert. Here Per sings a line from Paul McCartney’s Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey: „We’re so sorry, uncle Albert”.
Tages won a competition, „The Beatles of the Swedish West Coast” in 1964. Per thinks the song they won it with was Sleep Little Girl. His brother had that as a vinyl single. Per has always been a Tages fan. He had lots of their beautiful singles. They were a singles band with different sides, different qualities and that made them stand out in the crowd a bit. According to PG, their biggest quality was that they had several singers. The Beatles and The Hollies also had several guys who could sing and that makes the sound interesting all the time. Also, the band had different writers who wrote different styles of music. They had a good sound, Per thinks, and they also had a great producer, Anders Henriksson. He went on to become a very big producer in the 70’s.
Sven and PG kick off the Tages special with the band’s Swedish No. 1 song, Miss Mac Baren from 1966. Per’s favourite year. Sven tells a funny story about Tages being on tour when their record company called them that they wanted to print the new single sleeve. All they needed was a title for the single, but the band hadn’t even recorded the song yet. So the guys stopped on the road at a café or something and they saw an advertising sign of Mac Baren Tobacco. That’s how the title became Miss Mac Baren. PG tells it turned out to be a great song.
Sven shares Tages got a lot of flak in the beginning for being incompetent musicians, but they shaped up. Per thinks they sound as good as other Swedish bands in that era. Especially Göran Lagerberg is a great bass player, a great songwriter and a great singer. They changed the drummer halfway through their career, but both of them were good. Per thinks it was probably jelaous people from Stockholm who complained. There has always been a battle between Stockholm and Gothenburg.
The next track is another big hit for Tages, Every Raindrop Means A Lot from 1967. A bit adventurous song in a way. Tommy Blom, the singer was on every girl’s poster back then, Sven tells. Per says he was the poster boy of the band. Tommy sings the verse and Göran comes in and sings the chorus. Mr. G tells it’s sort of two songs combined, because it’s different tempos, which makes the song really interesting. It’s one of PG’s favourite tracks from Tages.
The third Tages song was not on an album, it was just a single in 1968, Fantasy Island. It was one of their last and best singles. Per thinks it’s a really wonderful song. They evolved into a slightly psychedelic pop direction. So many bands of this era broke up, when the classic 1966-67 sound turned into lots of psychedelica and Woodstock happened. Per tells music trends change and times are changing, people started to listen to other things. In Sweden a lot of artists and writers started to write in Swedish which didn’t fit this concept of beat generation of bands at all. Then in the 70’s so many things happened musically, the singer-songwriter thing and the progressive music started. Fantasy Island points in that direction vaguely. It’s kind of a swan song for Tages and the 60’s era. The singers quit shortly after this single. Per says it wasn’t a big song for them, they were over, but it’s a great track. If PG should rank the Top 10 singles of the 60’s made by Swedish artists, Fantasy Island is up there. Sven is curious what Per thinks makes the song so special. Mr. G loves the sound of it, the melody, the title, the cover of the single, but he is maybe too nostalgic, he adds. Sven says he doesn’t know how many singles Per has, but wouldn’t he like a jukebox. PG tells he has a jukebox in the West Coast in his workshop.
7Twenty7 demo by Per Gessle is played next.
Then comes Broken Promise Land by Weeping Willows. Sven laughs and tells the band is the drama queens of Swedish pop. The guys are laughing. The band is cool.
Amanda Jenssen’s debut single, Do You Love Me is played. Per loves that song, it’s from 2008. Sven tells she was the runner-up in Swedish Idol. PG thinks she’s got a great voice.
The Way We Used to Beg by Joel Alme is next.
Per picked a song from Ghost. He thinks they never played this band in their show. They have done some great stuff over the years. This is their latest single, Hunter’s Moon.
Anna Ternheim & Dave Ferguson’s The Longer The Waiting (The Sweeter The Kiss) is next. Mr. G thinks it’s a great song written by Roger Cook and Pat McLaughlin and he also thinks Anna is a brilliant singer. This interpretation of this beautiful song is amazing. Per says he plays it a lot at home when he is feeling a little blue. Sven asks PG if he had the chance to meet them when he was in Nashville. Per says no, but he had a good time anyway. Haha. 3 wonderful weeks. Mr. G thinks Nashville is still the most wonderful place. He brought along a couple of Swedish musicians for that album of his, but the whole idea was very much to work with local musicians. They have the best players in the world. Pedal steel guy Dan Dugmore was amazing, fiddle player Stuart Duncan, too. Per is proud to have worked with those people.
Blodspengar by Japop is next from 1982. Per remembers the band was called Janne Andersson pop when they came out. Janne is the lead guitar player and the singer. It was a trio. PG thinks they were really cool and they were destined for big times, but it never really happened for them for some reason. According to Sven, Japop was the product of the power pop era, the new wave era and suddenly that was also gone in the early 80’s. Per tells then the synthesizers came in. Destroying everything, Sven adds and they are laughing.
Sven tells the next gang bangs on the studio door, so they have to go, but they will be back in a not so distant future. Per’s goodbye words are „you better stay safe and sound!”
The usual closing track is Anita Lindblom’s Cigarettes.
Still is from the Bag of Trix comment videos recorded by Anders Roos.
Thanks for the technical support to János Tóth!