Everyone’s Rune
When I showed some musicality as a child, my mother and father bought me an organ in 1972. The organ was delivered by Rune and placed in the fine room. I don’t really know why I didn’t continue playing the organ, but what I do know is that it was soon replaced by a used Ludwig set.
First band
It was 1973 and consisted of the Fors brothers who moved from Karlsborg to the Airfield. The repertoire included songs such as the theme from Hawai 5-0 and also a song by the Ventures.
In the record container then
The first records I bought from Rune that came to play on my Centrumstereo were Best of The Spencer Davies Group and Deep Purple in Rock. DP came to be my household gods but of course eventually had to be crowded with Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heep, Thin Lizzy, Rush, Jethro Tull, Yes, ELP, Genesis, Mountain and Pink Floyd in the background. Later, Rainbow, Kiss and many more joined the picture. 1972 saw a milestone, Deep Purple Made in Japan. An album that I still consider one of the best live albums of all time.
1974
My drumming was extremely intense during 1973-1974 but mostly practiced at home in the chamber.
In 1974, two things happened that changed my musical life.
- Deep Purple released the record Burn and to the annoyance of the neighbors I practiced the record as soon as I got home from school.
- For those of you who attended Manhem, you know that next to Bertil’s music hall, there were a number of group rooms intended for playing instruments in. Imagine my surprise when I came down from Röda Hallen once and heard the intro riff from Burn echoing among the coat hangers. I will never forget that moment. In the group room closest to the music hall, Jan Morin was playing the intro to Burn. Something I never thought a local musician would do! There was a drum set in the room, so of course I sat down and tried to follow along. That meeting was the beginning of a long, fun and sometimes very intense musical time together.
Kilax
It turned out that Janne played in a local dance band – Kilax, consisting of Jan, Roger Nilsson, Sven Borgmästars and Åke Nilsson. One thing led to another and suddenly I was a dance band musician. We scratched at the school in Björkfors. A time that I will always remember as perhaps the most joyful musical period of my life. The pranks were many and more than once we were doubled over on the floor laughing. Since we didn’t have a car at home, the whole weekend was usually spent in Björkfors with one of the friends in the band, usually with Janne or Sven. The evenings were almost always spent analyzing a song and especially the guitarist’s skills.
Rain
During this period I also got to make inroads into Rain. A band consisting of Roland Strålberg, Bernt Ek and myself. The music consisted of covers of Mountain, West, Bruce and Laing, Creem and other old gods.
Kiss on Lucia
During the last period at Manhem, Bertil Sjödin was replaced by a substitute who was happy to find mischief. Among other things, we presented an idea about how we wanted to modernize the school’s Lucia celebration. The substitute hung up. The Lucia celebration began as usual with the performance of the Lucia train in the auditorium. Atmospheric and beautiful. When the last note from the lucia choir sounded out, the curtain went up and there behind was a bunch of crazy people (including me) playing some Kiss songs. The students howled with joy and the teachers vacated the room
Grace
I don’t remember today how it happened, but for a short period I was the drummer in Grace together with Janne Lundberg. A fun and different experience, I can only imagine how much it must have rattled with two drummers in the rehearsal room.
WildliW
Sometime in 1978 I started WildliW. Then I played for a few years on a Ludwig Pro Beat Black Velvet. Something that came to change after a lottery win that went to Bennet at Lindblom’s music for the purchase of my Tama Superstar, double reeds, nine pukas and five cymbals (second picture).
In WildliW, we worked hard and succeeded with a lot of our ventures. Among other things, we played as a band for Gyllene Tider twice to packed arenas – really fun! Peter in the band was our pyrotechnician and made sure to charge the stage before each gig. No one was seriously injured but it was close at some point. To further enhance the pyrotechnics, I played with burning drumsticks in some song endings. Crazy!
At that time I played very physically and got incredibly hot, which led to “light clothing” – shorts and tank tops were quite common. At one of the gigs with Gyllene Tider, Micke Syd came up to me after the gig and asked “how can you play in shorts?”. The month after I saw Gyllene Tider on TV, was Micke wearing shorts?
The sticks on the shelf
After completing their military service, the moving team went to Skellefteå for work in 1979. The guys in WildliW wanted to bet harder and for them it meant moving to Stockholm. For me, the drumsticks ended up on the shelf. There they would remain for many years. Actually, I played almost nothing between 1980 and 1995.
During my “break”, however, I managed to participate in a corner of Roland Strålberg’s project, which, in addition to me and Roland, involved Peter Majanen and Jens Isaksson. We stayed at Roland’s house on Strandängesvägen and luckily there is a recording left! I play Simmons drums and sing vocals.
Right Stuff
In 1995 I started Right Stuff. A band that I still play with, the gang today consists of some happy old men and my daughter Ella. We play everything from Ventures via Alannah Myles to Journey. When I sold everything in droves, I had to buy new stuff in 1996, this time it was a Mapex standard set.
The rehearsal space for Right Stuff soon became Anders Åström’s garage – something that led to changing the drum set to something quieter. The choice fell on Roland, a drum kit I still play. The ropes with this band are always marked by pleasant company.
Wildliw
Austin Band
From an idea to play country rock, the Austin Band was born in 2018. Pretty soon it became clear to us that what separates us from many other bands is that we all sing. It is natural then to start with Eagles covers, something we still focus on.
Apart from me, the band consists of a very experienced group with long stage experience:
- Seppo Härkönen, vocals, keyboard and guitar
- Janne Stridsman, solo guitar and vocals
- Jan Lundberg, backing guitar and vocals
- Erik Tornberg, bass and vocals
The Austin Band is the most active band I’ve played with since WildliW with practices every week. Most of the practice time is actually spent on voice singing as we see it as our way of being “a little different”.
Musicians I’ve played with over the years
- The Fors brothers: Åke, Anders and Jan-Olov
- Jan Morin, guitar
- Sven Borgmästars, bass
- Roger Nilsson, vocals
- Åke Nilsson, keyboard
- Roland Strålberg, guitar
- Bernt Ek, bass
- Olle Rönnbäck, bass
- Björn Axelsson, keyboards
- Kaj Strang, bass
- Anders Forsberg, keyboards
- Henning Forsberg, accordion
- Peter Majanen, vocals
- Jens Isaksson, bass
- Gunnar Andersson, keyboards
- Henrik Tall, keyboards
- Mikael Junell, keyboards
- Dick Greus, guitar
- Janne Lundberg, drums
- Tomas Jakobsson, guitar
- Peter Karlsson, guitar
- Kurt-Erik Fors, bass
- Per Wäppling, bass
- Anders Nyström, vocals
- Lars Björnfot, keyboards
- Kenneth Nelson, keyboards
- Fredrik Holmberg, vocals
- Anders Åström, guitar
- Lars Lund, guitar
- Lennart Wiklund, bass
- Ella Wallgren, vocals
- Seppo Härkönen
- Jan Lundberg, guitar
- Jan Stridsman, guitar
- Jyrki Unhola, bass
- Erik Tornberg, bass