Sven Lindström

Per Gessle and Sven Lindström continue their countdown of their favourite Swedish and Scandinavian songs from the ’60s in the May episode of Nordic Rox. Now they list the songs from No. 10 to No. 6. The tension rises, they got some stuff on this list that Sven believes is played for the first time on American radio. History in the making.

Sven asks Per what’s up and PG says there are lots of things on his agenda. Preparing for the world premiere of the Roxette musical, Joyride – The Musical in September in Malmö. There will be 110 shows in Malmö, then they move to Stockholm and Europe, he hopes. Sven finds it exciting and says he lives just around the corner to Malmö Opera.

Before getting down to the ’60s list, the guys got a lot of new material to present. They kick off with a joint venture between Anglo-Swedish band Alberta Cross & Band Of Skulls and play their brand new single Born In Amazement. PG thinks it’s a good song.

Ellen Krauss latest single Cherry On Top is next. Ellen broke through during a show called the Denniz Pop Awards, five or six years ago. Denniz Pop is a legendary pop producer.

Fading Like A Flower by Roxette comes next. Per says it was peaking at number two on the Billboard chart in 1991. Sven is not really sure whether it was in spring or autumn. It wasn’t the first single, but the second. Joyride was the lead single. Per thinks it was summer of 1991 and says it was number one on the Cashbox chart. Cashbox was competing with Billboard in those days. Sven read somewhere ages ago that when John Kennedy grew up and he was going to school or university, in a sports competition he had won a silver medal and his father looked at him and said, you don’t win silver, you lose gold. So Sven is curious how it feels being number two. PG laughs and says they were pretty pleased with being number two. It was the peak period of Roxette, Joyride was the big album for them and they were on tour in 1991-92. Fading Like A Flower for Per sums up the sound, the essence of Roxette. Marie is doing a fantastic job singing and the production, everything is classic Roxette. He is glad Sven picked this song. Sven is curious if Per remembers writing it, but he doesn’t.

Nails And Beauty by a band from Malmö, Going Big is played next. The band is from Malmö and this is their latest single. Sven loves the harmony vocals. It sounds a bit chilly like Bram Tchaikovsky.

Say Lou Lou’s new single, Dust comes next. The guys say they played a lot of Say Lou Lou songs already before this show. Julian is still Per’s favourite song from them. That was their breakthrough song. Sven loves it too. It’s such a great production and great track, Per thinks. Sven read that Dust is on a new EP and Say Lou Lou is going to release a couple of EPs in the upcoming months.

Next is The Soundtrack Of Our Lives with a great song, Believe I’ve Found, which is the opening track of their album called Origin Vol. 1. They made some great albums in 2001 and 2003, Per says. They came from Gothenburg, a great music city. Sven would say they came out of the punk movement, but then found their Stones roots. They had a sound of their own. Per agrees and he thinks this is one of their best songs.

Now it’s time to move on to the Nordic Rox list of Scandinavian ’60s goodies. And there is an emphasis on Swedish acts, but the guys have a Danish act coming up. Sven asks Per if he thinks that the Eurovision Song Contest is anything known in the States. Per doesn’t think so. It’s a very European thing and it’s only for certain European people as well. Lots of people are not interested and have never been interested in it. But funnily enough, it seems like it survived and only grew bigger and bigger and bigger. It was the breakthrough show for ABBA. They won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 with Waterloo. Sven adds ABBA sort of rewrote the music a bit, because the show became a lot more pop orientated after ABBA. It wasn’t before and after. Why Sven asked Per about this is because this guy they are going to play, he won the Swedish Eurovision Song Contest in 1968. Per and Sven picked this song for only one reason, because they love it. And because they are pretty sure it has never been played on US radio before. Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mej by Claes-Göran Hederström. Per thinks it’s a great track. The title is a bit tricky to translate, but it means It’s Starting To Look Like Love, Darn. Sven says this is also a kind of new chapter in Swedish Eurovision history, because here is when they started to move away from dramatic ballads and move closer to the pop era.

Most of the pop groups in Sweden sang in English, because that was the thing you did in the ’60s. Even today, of course. Ola & The Janglers is No. 9 on the list with a track called Love Was On Your Mind. Per loved that track when he was a kid and Sven loves it too. It was written by guitar player Claes af Geijerstam who was a really talented songwriter according to Per. There weren’t that many Swedish bands that wrote their own material. Sven guesses that Claes toured with ABBA later on as a backup singer. Per corrects Sven and says he was doing the front of house sound. There were a lot of hits for Ola & The Janglers. This song is sort of mega ’60s because it’s like a Swede pop ballad turning into some kind of The Swinging Blue Jeans frenzy and then back again. It’s really interesting.

Coming up next is Tages, an amazing band according to Per. They were called the Swedish Beatles. They also did covers of R&B songs and they wrote really wonderful pop songs themselves. It was like a mix, they had a little of everything. Great singer and bass guitar player in Göran Lagerberg and a wonderful front person in Tommy Bloom, who was all the girls’ hero. They also had a great producer, Anders Henriksson, one of the big producers in the ’60s and ’70s for them. Sven thinks their career started in 1964, very early on and it ended in the late ’60s, in 1968. The whole Swedish pop scene sort of ran out of steam. So a lot of those bands that were big in 1966, 1967, they quit and started doing other things. One of the last singles that Tages did is the one that the guys play at position No. 8 on their chart. Fantasy Island is a great song, Per thinks. He had this on a single when he was a kid. It’s a wonderful song, Sven agrees.

No. 7 brings us to Copenhagen, Denmark. Per says they have been pretty slow in playing Danish music on this show for so many years. Sven says, „for good reason. Did I say that?” Per says, „no, you didn’t say that.” Haha. The time has come to pick up one of the great songs from the ’60s. It’s two brothers and an uncle, who was almost the same age. The brothers were 14 and 13 when this was recorded and then it was released late in 1964. The brothers are Torben and Jørgen Lundgren. Per remembers this song when he grew up, but he must have heard it later on. Since Sven was three years older and much more mature than Per, he remembers when it came out. Sven thought they were sensational and their voices are so innocent. Per thinks the production of the song is really cool. The drum sounds great and it just sounds amazing. Sven agrees and says it entered the Swedish charts and they went down a storm in Sweden. The guys play Do You Know (How Much I Love You) by The Lollipops. After the song Sven says, The Lollipops clocking in at 1.56, that’s Ramones times. Per thinks it’s the perfect length of a pop song. Sven agrees.

The guys are back to Sweden to check out the founding father of the Swedish language in pop culture, Pugh Rogefeldt. Per says he was really early with writing songs in Swedish in the ’60s. The guys play his breakthrough song, Här kommer natten, (Here Comes The Night) from 1969. It wasn’t a big hit, but it was big enough to become a breakthrough for him. He became a really big figure on the scene for many years. Sven says he also rewrote the rules, because all the pop and rock guys in Sweden in the ’60s thought it would be too corny to write in Swedish. Per informs Pugh was very much influenced by artists like Captain Beefheart. He did some kind of strange sort of pop music and worked with a great producer, Anders Burman, a drummer who came from the jazz scene in the ’50s. Anders had his own indie label at the time and signed Pugh Rogefeldt. So he did three or four, maybe even five, amazing albums. Sven says we hear Georg ’Jojje’ Wadenius as well on guitar, who later would join Blood, Sweat & Tears. He was also in a band called Made in Sweden back then.

This Pugh song wraps up today’s snippet of the guy’s list of Scandinavian goodies from the ’60s. Next month they are back with the final countdown. (Here Per is humming the tune of Europe’s The Final Countdown.)

Coming up next is an interesting project by the Shout Out Louds from Sweden. They recorded an album in 2005 called Howl Howl Gaff Gaff and they have just recently made a new version called Howl Howl Gaff Gaff Revisited where they re-recorded a couple of songs. Per says they probably weren’t really happy with the original. Sven asks Per if he has ever considered re-recording any old material. Per says, absolutely, it happens all the time. Especially if you are not happy with it. It could be so many different things. Maybe the production didn’t work out or maybe it was recorded in the wrong key or the mood wasn’t right. Or you suddenly start to like the song more. Sven says we are going to hear a snippet of the 2005 version of a song called The Comeback and then we are going to seamlessly move into the 2024 version of The Comeback.

Sucker by Club 8 is played next. Per thinks it’s a great song. He doesn’t know anything about Club 8 though. Sven informs there is a band called Acid House Kings in Sweden and a band member there called Johan Angergård. This is his side project with a vocalist called Karolina Komstedt. Sucker is their latest single.

This wraps up the May episode of Nordic Rox. The guys thank the listeners for joining them and Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom closes the show, as usual.

Pic by Patrícia Peres, Book Fair 2014, Gothenburg

Thanks for your support, Sven!

Per Gessle and Sven Lindström recorded their April episode of Nordic Rox in March. The guys are having a good time, because it’s spring and they continue with their new special that contains their favourite Swedish and Scandinavian songs from the ’60s. They think the first episode was a great success, at least it felt like it, for them at least. They haven’t heard any comments from the audience yet, but they are sure they will come. This time they are going to count down from No. 15 to No. 11.

Before that, the guys kick off with something completely different. They start off with one of their favourite bands from Sweden ever, The Hives. Such a great band, Per says. Luckily for everyone, they are back in action again with their new album, The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons. They are also touring everywhere now. The song played is Countdown To Shutdown.

The next song is He’s Peculiar by Norwegian power-pop star Vibeke. Per thinks she is amazing. She has lots of great songs.

Then comes Walking On Air by PG Roxette. Sven is curious about the story behind the song. Per tells him it’s the opening track of the PG Roxette album that came out in the fall of 2022, Pop-Up Dynamo! It was the first song that PG wrote for the album. Actually, he got a request to write a song for the Top Gun: Maverick movie, for a particular scene, which eventually they didn’t use. So they obviously didn’t use Per’s song either. But anyway, it became the kick-off for this album. It’s really cool, Per thinks. It’s like the missing link between Roxette’s Look Sharp! and Joyride sound-wise. The bridge between the ’80s and ’90s, so that’s why it sounds like it does. Sven thinks it’s a cool track. Per is really glad that Sven likes it.

Before the guys get down to their list of ’60s highlights, they play two more tracks. The band Hello Saferide is first. Per says, when Annika Norlin is working in English, she calls herself Hello Saferide. She has been doing some great tracks over the years. Sven says, this song is from 2008 or 2009. So it’s pretty old, PG reacts. It’s on a compilation album by the indie label Razzia Records and the track is called I Was Definitely Made For These Times.

The next track is the wonderful sound of The Hellacopter’s new single The Electric Index Eel. Sven thinks it’s good to hear them again. Per agrees and adds that this one came out in November last year. It sounds really fresh to his ears.

The best of Swedish music from the ’60s is coming. Per explains that what they are trying to do here is to focus a little bit on Scandinavian acts, especially Swedish acts from the ’60s who wrote their own material. So many bands and artists in those days were doing cover versions of American and English hits, but there were a few exceptions. Sven says, you can’t avoid a guy called Benny Andersson when you speak about original Swedish music. PG adds that he came out in the ’60s, before he formed ABBA with Björn Ulvaeus. He had this Hep Stars band. He wasn’t the original keyboard player there, but he became the second keyboard player and he changed the band forever. He was such a great writer. At position No. 15, the guys play Wedding, one of Hep Stars’ greatest songs. Sven loves this one from 1966. By then, it seemed like Benny could just write hits that went immediately up to the No. 1 position on the Swedish chart. Per agrees. 1966, by the way, is a great year in pop music, Mr. G says. Sven says they always debate about whether 1965 or 1966 is the best year. Per thinks 1966 is by far the best. Sven says it’s not a bad year. So we listen to the song, taken from one of Hep Stars’ best-selling albums, recorded and released in 1966. We hear Benny Andersson, future ABBA member, on the keyboards. Per thinks it’s a great track and it was released on Olga Records, an independent Swedish label.

Sven says, now it’s time to play some music in Swedish. Basically, everyone who was a pop star sang in English in the ’60s, because The Beatles did, but there were a few exceptions that actually sounded like a pop band, but sang in Swedish. Per says, this particular band Sven is talking about is Sven-Ingvars. They came from Värmland. Hillbilly, Sven says, but Per doesn’t want to say that. What made them stand out a bit, in a negative way, for Per, when he was a kid, was that they didn’t have long hair. They looked a little bit like how you were supposed to look. A sort of late ’50s look, Sven adds. For PG it felt like they weren’t really hip. They had people writing their music within the band. They were really great writers and great performers as well and they made some outstanding singles. Sven says they had a wonderful singer, Sven-Erik Magnusson. Mr. G adds, he sang with this dialect that made him stand out a bit. Those in the South thought it was a little bit so-so. Sven thought it was really charming. He adds that Värmland is close to Norway, up there in mid-Sweden and they have these people there who love to watch racing cars out on the gravel roads, in the woods. You wouldn’t expect a superb pop band to come out of the woods. Per says, in the ’60s, they had so many hits and they continued over the decades, up until Sven-Erik unfortunately died. Then the front position of Sven-Ingvars was taken by his son, Oscar and they continued up to this day. They are very successful and they are touring a lot. So this position on the chart is very well deserved. Sven says they are a class act for more than 60 years. And this track the guys play is from 1965 and it’s called Säg inte nej, säg kanske, which you can translate into Don’t say no, say maybe.

The next Swedish city is Gothenburg on the Swedish west coast. It’s the second song by Tages the guys play on this list. Per says, Tages is his favourite band from the ’60s. He thinks they are outstanding. Great writers, great singers, great players. They promoted themselves as the Swedish Beatles and PG can understand that. They were like a head bigger than most of the other bands. Sven says the song they play is from November 1966. Per inserts, 1966 is such a great year for pop music. Haha. Sven says there is a funny story behind this song, because it originated when the band was touring in Scandinavia. Their record label was Platina Records, another independent label. They really struck gold with Tages. The band played Denmark when their record company phoned them up on the road and said, hey, you guys, we need to print the sleeve for your new single. What’s it called? And they didn’t have a title. They didn’t even have a song. The band was unsure of what to record until (Sven is reading from the Wikipedia site here) they were sitting at the bar and guitarist Danne Larsson spotted an ad for Mac Baren Tobacco. Per remembers that tobacco, it was tobacco for the pipes. Sven confirms. And boom, the band had the title. The song is called Miss Mac Baren. Now all they lacked was a song, so they wrote one. They wrote it on the tour bus on the way to the recording session. According to Per, they did a wonderful job, because it’s such a great track. One of their best tracks. Sven thinks it’s pure hit and went straight up to No. 1 on the Swedish chart, he believes. PG was seven years old in 1966 and he has this song on a single, because he has loved that song ever since he was a kid. He still loves it.

The guys are moving up to Stockholm and back to 1965. Per says, that’s a good year too. They are heading for No. 12 on this chart with a band called The Mascots. Per says, they had some great songs as well. They sound very much like Mercy in style, with lots of harmonies. You can hear a little bit of Peter & Gordon in there as well.  They wrote their own songs, that’s why they are on this list. Words Enough To Tell You is a beautiful pop track that stood out in the Swedish ’60s. Per doesn’t know if this was a big hit. Sven doesn’t think so. There was a pop magazine called Bildjournalen in Sweden and they sometimes released a flexi single next to the magazine, on a sort of plastic. Sven remembers buying this one and it was rather hard to play it on his player. Per is curious how it worked. Sven says he used the vinyl single underneath it. He put the flexi disc on top of it. Per remembers this, his brother had such things. It was cool. You bought a magazine and you got two or four tracks for free. Sven says, that’s hard currency when you are 10 years old. Haha. Sven never gets tired of hearing this song and he still misses the feel of the flexi disc.

No. 11 on the list of classic ’60s moments in Scandinavia is a band from the north of Sweden called The Shanes. They had lots of hits. They did lots of covers, but this particular song that the guys picked is called Chris-Craft No. 9 was written by the main songwriter, Kit Sundqvist, who was playing the keyboards. There is a great guitar riff. Sven asks Per if he knows what a Chris-Craft is. He knows, it’s a boat. The band was from Kiruna. That’s really far up. That’s as far as you can go, basically, in Sweden. The song was recorded in the Abbey Road studio in London, The Beatles studio. PG didn’t know that. Sven guesses, when they started out in the early ’60s, sitting up there in Kiruna and when The Beatles came around and they realized that they wanted to be a pop band, they wouldn’t even dream of one day recording in the Abbey Road studio. Per thinks it’s really cool and it’s pretty rare that they have these acts from the far north making it big. Sweden is, by the way, a very narrow country, he explains. If you fly from the south to the very north, it’s a three-hour flight. It’s a very long country. So there is a big difference between the south and the north.

The guys will continue the chart in the next show, but they move into some more modern sounds now, the next song is just 15 years old. My Life Is Shit But I Am Funky by Konie. Per thinks it’s a cool one, he hasn’t heard it before, so he thanks Sven for bringing Konie into his life. Sven said, this sounds like basically a rough demo recorded at home. Per noticed that there was another guy involved, Joakim Åhlund was part of the production team. He is a great producer. He has been all over the place. He produced The Teddybears, for instance. A trademark of quality.

In The Dust by Atomic Swing is next. It’s one of the singles taken from their magnificent debut album. Per says Sven has a soft spot for Atomic Swing. He confirms, and says he still thinks they sound like nothing else really. They have their own brand. Per likes them too.

Then comes the beautiful sound of Tove Styrke and her song Start Walking from her recent album Hard. Per noticed that this song was produced by Lost Boy who also produced Kylie Minogue. He is a big producer in Europe, also a trademark of quality.

Sven moves on with a new track from Alberta Cross. Per doesn’t know anything about Alberta Cross. He asks whether it is a he or a she or an animal. Sven says it’s a band led by a Swedish singer, Petter Ericson Stakee. They have been based in the States and Sven thinks they are in England right now. He is not really sure. They moved 10, 15 years ago and have been working the live circuit and recording. So Far Out Of Reach is a track from late 2023.

The guys play one more song, All Day Long by The Royal Concept from Sweden. It’s their new single.

That brings the guys to the end of this show. All day long they have been sitting here talking about Swedish music from the ’60s. Per thinks it’s good fun. The ’60s was a very special time, the ’60s and the ’70s. He thinks they should do something similar with the ’70s. Sven thinks it’s a good idea. They will get back to that. He tells the listeners, you will never get rid of these lists. You have to live with this for the next year or so. Haha.

Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom closes the show, as usual.

Pic by Patrícia Peres, Book Fair 2014, Gothenburg

Thanks for your support, Sven!

Per Gessle and Sven Lindström started a new special in the March episode of Nordic Rox. The guys met in Halmstad to record this session on a wonderful grey day. Per says it’s been a very long winter here. Sven describes that it looks like the Berlin Wall outside there, but it’s the sky in 50 shades of grey.

The new special contains their favourite Swedish and Scandinavian songs from the ’60s. In this show, they play the first five of those 20. It’s going to be mainly English speaking songs, but also some Swedish versions. They try to concentrate on those few Scandinavian artists who wrote their own material in the ’60s. There wasn’t that many. Most Swedish pop music in those days were covers from English and American artists, but there were a few exceptions. Per looks forward to this chart.

Before they start the countdown, they go to the mid-Swedish town, Örebro and check out a very, very talented guy called Ludwig Hart. Per says he is very interesting. He has been around for a couple of years now and he is getting better and better. The song they want to play is Less I Try and it’s very inspired by classic American rock music, radio friendly. Per loves this track. Sven says Ludwig is a new Nordic Rox favourite and Per confirms again that it’s a great song. [There was probably a little hiccup at the editing room at Sirius XM, because the song played instead is Walk by Naâman, who is a French reggae singer. /PP]

The next song is Freak Show by Grass Show from 1997. It’s the opening track on their debut album with an interesting title, Something Smells Good In Stinkville. Per finds the album title very good. It gets five out of five from him. The guys play the brand new single of Say Lou Lou. Sven asks Per if he can pronounce its title. Hecan: Wong Kar-wai and he says it probably means something. Sven informs it’s named after the Hong Kong film director and script writer of the same name. Per says Sven is so talented. Sven laughs and says he can read, he didn’t really know that. Per thinks it’s a good song.

Another Nordic Rox favourite is coming. The next band they play is called Roxette. Sven asks Per if he knows anything about them. Per has heard about them. Haha. She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio) is the song Sven picked. That was a single from the Charm School album back in 2011. Per says it’s a wonderful song to perform live. Sven thinks it’s a great pop track. Per says it becomes like a six minute guitar bonanza in the end. Sven says you really don’t hear that when you hear this sort of pop version, but there is something happening with Christoffer, the guitarist when he hears this song. Per says they played this song a lot with Roxette, but he also played it a lot on his own solo tours and it’s always a great one to play. People love it. The band is getting the chance to stretch out a bit. It’s cool. Per is glad that Sven picked this one. Sven says that’s a promising song title and let’s see if it delivers. Here they play it. Pure and shameless pop music written by Per Gessle, Sven says.

Now the guys get down to their Top20 songs from Swedish and Scandinavian artists from the ’60s. Per says they concentrated on original material. In those days, so many artists were doing covers of English and American hits in a Swedish style. But there were a few exceptions who wrote their own material. Sven and PG kick off with a song that could meander on forever. In the original version it’s 7 minutes and 15 seconds long, so Sven says they are probably not going to play that whole track. It’s by the duo Hansson & Karlsson and the song is called Tax Free. It’s got an interesting story to it. Per says Hansson & Karlsson were a jazz fusion, pop-rock, progressive thing, doing instrumental music based on Bo Hansson’s Hammond organ and John Karlsson’s drums. This particular song wasn’t a hit record at all, but it became a major track in Swedish music history, because Jimi Hendrix recorded it. He played it so many times live. So there are endless versions of Tax Free by Jimi Hendrix on Spotify, for instance. Per thinks it’s just a beautiful, haunting melody in there and it sums up this era in pop music so well. Sven says it was also quite a big thing among the pop aficionados back then, because in the ’60s, Sweden was like an isolated little island and nobody really thought they could break through in England or in the US. But when Jimi Hendrix came and grabbed this song and played it, that was quite an achievement. PG adds that the duo broke up, but Bo Hansson, the organ player became pretty successful on his own. He wrote music for Lord Of The Rings, which was a big album in the UK in the ’70s.

Next on the chart, number 19, is from the Swedish version of the Eurovision Song Contest in the ’60s. In those days, of course, there was a full orchestra and a band playing live in the TV studio and there were some really interesting songs. Per thinks this one makes you smile a bit, a song from the year of Sgt. Pepper, 1967. It’s Gå och göm dej, Åke Tråk by Mona Wessman. The title translates into „you can go away and hide you, boring old sod”. Sven explains Åke is a surname in Swedish and tråk is a boring old sod. Per adds it’s written by Peter Himmelstrand who was a journalist. He also wrote a lot of songs and especially his lyrics were always funny. Per thinks it’s a wonderful little song that has stood the test of time, if you are into this kind of thing, which Per is. Sven says it’s one leg into the easy listening genre and the rest is a bit pop. He thinks it’s an amazing track. Hard act to follow.

The next song is by Hootenanny Singers. They were a folk-inspired band in the 60’s and included Björn Ulvaeus, who eventually became part of ABBA. Björn was singing and writing on his own a lot before he started meeting Benny Andersson. The guys picked a song called No Time from 1966. Per says it was a great year in pop music. Sven says it was almost as good as 1965. The guys are laughing. Sven says the Hootenanny Singers was like a Swedish version of the Seekers or The Kingston Trio. Benny was in Hepstars, which was a pure pop band. They met during this time and realized that they had a lot of things in common. Per says they were really talented, both of them, as songwriters. And what PG guesses both Björn and Benny realized early on was that they weren’t that great lead singers. Sven agrees. Mr. G says they needed some brilliant singers and they found Frida and Agneta, of course. The guys play No Time. Björn Ulvaeus wrote the song and sang the lead vocals here. You couldn’t really guess that this would lead into Mamma Mia or Dancing Queen, Sven says. Per agrees, but he thinks it’s a good song anyway. They were a very successful band. They had lots of hits, like Greensleeves and stuff like that. Folk-inspired music was very popular in those days, deeply loved by the Swedish audience for 10 plus years.

The guys move on to another instrumental, a surf band from Gothenburg, Sweden, The Spotnicks. Per says it was before his time, so he doesn’t remember them that much. Sven either. They are from 1962, 1963 and they were really big in Gothenburg and in Japan. Big in Japan. Per adds they had space uniforms on. There was a trend in international music those days. The Ventures and all those bands that played instrumental songs, had instrumental hits. Per thinks The Spotnicks fit in quite well. One of their early hits was Amapola, which turns out to be a Spanish song from the ’20s. Per says one of the rules they had was that it should only be original material in this chart, but they made an exception here because it’s really old. Sven says they also made an exception because they had such a cool stage outfit with the space dresses.

The next band is also from Gothenburg, a beautiful city on the Swedish west coast, the second biggest city in Sweden. Sven says they are Tages, one of the bands that came up 25 minutes after The Beatles had performed live in Sweden. The guys are laughing. Per thinks Tages is his favourite Swedish band from the ’60s. Sven thinks they were very original and consistent. PG adds there were great writers in the band, great musicians and they had also the possibility to work with a really outstanding producer, Anders Henriksson. Per thinks Tages eventually went to London as well to record there. And buy their clothes at Carnaby Street, Sven adds, they were extremely well-dressed. The song played is I Should Be Glad from 1964. Sven says to him it sounds a bit like the early Mercy era with The Beatles playing minor songs with acoustic guitars. You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Per says. It’s a great little track, according to Sven, and wonderful timing as well, Ramones style, 2 minutes 17 seconds. And it’s on the number 16 spot on the countdown.

That brings an end to this 1960s special of Swedish classics for today, but the guys got 15 more to go. Until then, they play some wonderful ’90s sound. Hey Princess by Popsicle is next. Then comes Winter Saga by Gaeya & Anders Rane, a brand new version of an ’80s Swedish classic. The title translates into Winter Story. An interesting track according to Sven. He thinks this version is more subdued.

A Danish artist, MØ is next with her work on Spaceman, a song from 1996 by Babylon Zoo. Sven has almost had forgotten this track. According to PG, it was a great one. It was No. 1 in England and a big hit in Scandinavia as well. Per doesn’t know if it reached the American airwaves, but it was a great song. MØ used that chorus and wrote some other stuff around it. It came out in 2022.

With this, the show ends and the guys say goodbye. Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom closes the show, as usual.

Pic by Patrícia Peres, Book Fair 2014, Gothenburg

Thanks for your support, Sven!