In memory of Thomas Mera Gartz

Thomas Mera Gartz, drummer in Träd, Gräs och Stenar, Pärson Sound, Mecki Mark Men, Harvester and International Harvester, has died at the age of 68. An amazing musician and human being is gone, leaving us in great loss. Thomas was a fantastic source of inspiration and with a heart with room for all. An innovator and discoverer in his music, a drumming shaman.

Below is an article from Dagen Nyheter July 23th , 1967. Thomas was then playing with both Mecki Mark Men and Pärson Sound, two bands that revolutionized the swedish sound forever.

Summertown with the Hounds

Hounds with “Summertown” in the program “Pop – en jättegrej mellan öronen: morgontankar innan tunnelbanan börjar gå” (Pop – a big deal between the ears: morning thoughts before the subway opens). Directed by Lasse Hallström. Broadcasted in Swedish television 1968-05-01, 18.30-19.00. The song “Summertown” was released the same year on Portrait Of My Love / Summertown (Gazell, C-216) and on the compilation EP Juke Box (JSEP-5580). Below is an article from Dagens Nyheter from July 6, 1967. Hounds on tour!

Sleepstones; one minute of the same old thing

It’s not many clips from the Swedish beat era that have the same intense feeling as this one. It’s just like if you’re standing there at the club (like the T-Boones song) as the clothes tightens around your body with sweat. A young Janne Schaffer drips his chords  at the same time as Ted Åström wander with his eyes over the crowd like if there was no tomorrow. Hopefully, someday, the whole session will be found…

The Kings in Swedish Television’s noise test

“Can you get noise damaged by pop music?”

They did a fabulous version of The Fire´s “Fathers name is dad” on their one and only single from 1968. It’s something about that guitar in the chorus, playing those chords in a slight different way. It’s just beautiful and it makes you wonder if it was on purpose or if it was a accident. Kings formed in 1965 and were from the small town Hofors. They didn’t make much noise outside their parts of Sweden, but had the unofficial record in longplaying, that was twelve hours, two minutes and fifteen seconds. This clip is from Swedish television’s own noise test, and Kings is one of the bands participating. Enjoy!

The Most family

The Most, formed in 1966, came from Katrineholm and recorded one single for Nashville in 1967 with  “This is our family” and “Rag doll”. The A-side was written by Steampacket’s front man Mikael Ramel. It’s a great composition with similarities with The Who. The Most was pretty well known locals and did a lot of gigs in the middle of Sweden. They made success at a local pop contest that was supported by famous acts like Mascots and Steampacket. Maybe it was then they laid the ground for the Ramel/Most collaboration. The band also tried their luck abroad with a short tour in Germany. But the lack of money made them rapidly to go back home, just as many other Swedish bands at this time, for example Ramels own Steampacket (Read more about it here). This soundclip was made possible by the former Most guitarist and vocalist Bo Gylfe who kindly lent out his own copy. A song that has been in the shadows for too long, enjoy this rare release!

Bizarre and beautiful Mascots

Two clips with Macots. One bizarre with the group fooling around as cavemen with the actor Brasse Brännström. The other one, a beautiful expose of mods hanging around in Stockholm 1966. Both vlips are parts from  Lasse Hallström’s film “Tryck opp i topp! : hur man lyckas i pop, om man riktigt anstränger sig” (Push it to the top! : How to make it in pop, if you really try). A humorous depiction of how Mascots tries to make it to the Swedish chart “Tio i topp”. Broadcasted in Popside,Swedish television, January 4, 1967.

 

Steampacket’s bad luck

They won a prestigous pop contest in the Swedish television show Hylands hörna (Hylands corner). But when they were performing their two songs “Bara ett par dar” and “Viva l’amour” the main televisions transmitter broke and no one could see the band as they went on. New years eve 1966 became a disaster for the band. The clip above is probably from early 1967. Steampacket are back, a second chance to play their songs and get things right in Önskeprogrammet. This is their chance for success. But now in another show, and their is no more popular show than Hylands Hörna in those days. Mikael Ramel plays Hollies song “Fifi the flea” and after that they do their very melodic but kind of flat “Viva L’Amour”. But the success didn’t come and the band never came over their bad luck. It was as they where hunted by misfortunes. For example as they toured England, with high hopes, they soon came back to Sweden impoverished and dissatisfied. Steampacket had lots of debts and later they splitted apart trying to pay back what they owed. But nevertheless the band left behind fabulous songs as “Fruitseller Oldman’s song”, “Take her anytime”, “Only in her hometown” and “Bluebird”. Steampacket created a colorful pattern between the beat and psych.

Lots of more about Steampacket at Mikael Ramel’s own site.

Tube Treasures #12 Gonks

Starting up with the great “In A Persian Market”, not mentioned in the clip, and after that is their “Going Round”. Both songs was released on the single G*P records (GPS 1005)

The X in Rabatt

This is some really obscure heavy psych. And just like the band Drugs no one seems to know who those three guys in Rabatt were and where they came from. If someone knows anything about the band, please tell us! A beautiful instrumental song which grope forward and almost gets lost when an amazing echoing fuzzy guitar breaks loose.

 

Sleepstones with a nameloser

Sleepstones with their version of The Yardbirds “I Ain’t Got You”. Recorded live for the Swedish Radio show “En poppig halvtimme” (A poppish half hour) and probably broadcasted in 1966. At this time the guitarist, Janne Schaffer, was doing his military service and was replaced by Johnny Andersson from the Namelosers. You can hear Johnny’s fuzzy guitar shaking every inch at Studio 2 in the Swedish Radio house. Sleepstones was formed as early as in 1962, but the band we can hear from this live performance has no original Sleepstones member in the set-up. But still, this is the most famous band setting with Ted Åström, P-O Alm, Per Sahlberg, Hans Lundqvist and Janne Schaffer, except that he’s been replaced by Andersson for this gig. The band did five singles before they changed their name to Attractions after some problems with their manager. Before that they had been on the Swedish chart at two times and released some of the most intresting songs of the time, for example the self-composed “It’s the same old thing”.