|
THE FABULOUS FOUR
Swedish pop music from the 60´s has not the best of reputation either. The bands were generally put off as unsuspecting plagiarists and surely there is some truth in this. But we have to be aware of the conditions during this era. Very often Swedish bands plagiarized British bands wich in turn copied American originals. No wonder that the final results could turn out somewhat pale. In those days commercialism was not a bad word either. What really counted was a chart position - otherwise you would soon be out of the game. A group that I have always been very fond of were actually The Fabulous Four. Althougt their chart hits were quite weak they almost always had very strong B-sides, and not to be forgotten, they were a hell of a showband on stage! In fact that they also had a very cool apperance didn´t impair the total impression of the band. Therefor I feel the time has come for their tale to be told. The members started dabbling in music
already in the 50´s as the skiffle craze was sweeping all over the
country. In the early 60´s they worked as an instrumental outfit
using the name The Sharks. The guitarists were Uffe Arvidsson and Björn
Magnusson, with Lalla Hansson on bassguitar and Jan Sandelin on drums.
After a while they took the name The Beatmakers wich they soon sold to
The Telstars for the princely sum of SEK 200. After that they adapted
the name of The Fabulous Four. Both Lalla, Uffe and Björn were
decent singers and very soon the airy vocal harmonies became a trademark
of the group, as were their smart stage suits where Uffe´s sew-abled
sister Birgitta played a vital role. The many youth centres of Stockholm
concentrated heavily on beat music and the band found lots of engagements.
Other venues were the cellar clubs of Gamla Sta´n (The Old Town)
or the legendary Nalen In 1965 Lalla Hansson had a summerjob at the public bath Valhallabadet and it was here that he got to know a guy named Stefan Schröder. He enjoyed pop music very much and volunteered to became the bands manager. He didn´t know anything about a manager´s responibilites but by plowing through a pile of Bild-Journalen and Idol-Nytt (the most important pop-magazines at that time) he learned so much about the business that within a few months he had landed the band a record deal with the Fontana label. In 1965 the singles releases of "I
still love you" and "Sheila" was put on the market. The
first titel being self-composed and the second a cover of Tommy Roe´s
big hit. None of them made much impact chart-wise but extraordinairly
enough the B-side of "Sheila" was going to provide the group
a ticket for the big time. The song was a self-penned ballad with an ingeneously
placed flute passage in the middle. It was entitled "After all". The same year the band did a gig at the PUB department store in central Stockholm. In the audience was an Italian hotel manager and his teenage daughter. She was very delighted with what she saw (and heard). She managed to convince her father to book the band as main attraction at his hotel back home in Riccione. Stefan Schröder managed to put a deal together and the band loaded their Chevrolet Apache and headed south. In Riccione the band was supposed to play each evening in the hotel garden. The first evening the audience was quite few in number, the second evening a few more and on the third evening the place was packed! The word spread about the swedish pop group and very soon the queues were winding around the block. An Italian record company caught on wich resulted in the single release "Quella occhaili" with "After all" as B-side. The A-side was a translation of the classic "Get out off my life woman" and Lalla Hansson recalls how the songs were translated by a homosexual Italian songwriter whose main interest was making passages to the group members who was not in the least interested. The single eventually reached a no
5 spot in the Italian charts but by then the boys have had enough of Italy
and steered their course back to Stockholm. Shortly afterwards our hereoes were booked for a recording session at the Europafilm Studios. They were determined to perpetuate "Puff" on vinyl. The problem was, however, that they had not the lyrics to the song. Time was short and finally Lalla faked certain lines. Something that nobody in the Tio I Topp-jury (Chart program on the swedish radio) noticed as the voted the song for the no 1 slot. Sales-wise it charted at the no 3 position in the Kvällstoppen charts wich were based on actual record sales. The Fabulous Four now truly belonged to the cream of the Swedish pop. At Hep House a certain Benny Andersson (later of Abba fame) became their producer and he sat in as engineer during the recording of "Puff". If you find this song somewhat sugary I recommend that you turn the record over. Here you will find a rocking version of Woody Guthrie´s "This land is your land" wich is really great. (Generally speaking, the records of The Fabulous Four are best being turned over. It´s on their B-sides you will find the real classy pop material). With the Tio I Topp-jury in mind the next single was recorded. It was a version of Harry Belafonte´s classic "Island in the sun" wich rendered the band a no 5 position in the Tio I Topp-chart plus a no 19 spot in the sales charts. None of the "Fabs" had Harry Belafonte´s version in their record collection. When they made their own recording they had the Righteous Brothers version in mind. Unfortunately the swedish sound technicians in those days didn´t have quite the same feeling for "The wall of sound" as Phil Spector. It should also be noted that the B-side of "Island in the sun" was the self-penned "For you and for me" wich is one of the bands real aces. At this time the bands old record label released the album track "Rhythm of the rain" as a singelrecord and it rocketed to no 7 in the chart. The Fabulous Four now did almost 200 gigs in a year. When they were not touring they were preoccupied wiht recording for records, radio and TV. Unless you happened to bump into some girl working at Bild-Journalen. (THE Swedish 60´s pop magazine) wich was also considered as a part of the job. Bild-Journalen was the magazine that counted and it was of vital importance to be seen in it. Evidently "The Fabs" got along quite well with the female reporters of the magazine as they were not only frequently appearing, both in lavishly illustrated articles and on posters sent out with the magazine, but also recivied the honour of contributing one of their songs for the magazine´s flexi discs. A nice pop pastiche entitled "Life is fab". 1967 was the year when the band intended to profile themselves on the market through a selfcomposed single in wich they had big faith. Messr Hansson and Arvidsson wrote a cool uptempo number entitled "Anita (change your mind)". A very strong number wich should have made a clean sweep up the charts but a brain-dead Tio I Topp-jury gave it thumbs-down and the record didn´t even get in the charts. A harsh faith indeed, as the record showed the group at it´s best. Chart entries were necessary, however, and in the studio another attempt was made with the ultracommercial "Don´t go out into the rain" wich both Hermans Hermits and Swinging Blue Jeans had recorded for the British market. In their home ground it was The Fabulous Four who won the game. Their version of the song stayed in the charts for six weeks with a no 4 position as it´s best. Bu now the band had consolidated their position at the Swedish pop scene and naturally, this would have been the right time to release a new album. This would certainly also have happened had not the Hep House label gone into bankruptcy. They´ve have had big earnings with hit records made by The Fabulous Four as well as The Deejays but as they housed a supreme contempt for paying taxes and other charges they now decided to put the shutters up. The band´s final release on the Hep House label was a cover of Van Morrison´s "Brown-eyed girl" where once again "Life is fab" was re-cycled as a B-side. No chart position were noted for this 45. The Fabulous Four was now facing a crossroad in their career and decided to start their own record label, Mystery Records. The first singelrelease was a new cover attempt with West Indian signatures, "A place in the sun". A competent A-side but if you should find a copy of the record - turn it over! Here is yet another fantastic own composition, "Mr Music Man", wich clearly shows that they were still unbeatable in the pop genre. In the lyrics of this song they also ironised heavily over the directors in the music business. The band had now developed very well musically. They had also auditioned for American record producers with good results but in the nick of time they jumped out of an international launching. They were probably discouraged by the way the international launchings of both Hep Stars and Tages had ended up. The Tio I Topp-jury had no warmer feelings for a new calypso-influenced street ballad from The Fabulous Four however and the band chose for the second release on their own label to do a cover version of Jagger/Richards "Sitting on a fence". On the B-side another song from the Stones-repertoire ended up. "438 South Michigan Avenue". This record was plugged by a promotional film showed on Swedish TV. The recording was also high class and it was a great song. Nevertheless it was thumbs down from the Tio I Topp-jury. In 1968 Swedish TV also made a documentary of the group wich was shown on high-peak time. It has never been rerun and I can only recall certain scenes from the film, for instance shots from the tour bus and views from Lalla Hansson´s summer cottage in the archipelago outside Stockholm. There were also shots from the club scene in Stockholm at the time and the band members posed in cool stage outfits. One of the songs performed in the film was "Mr Music Man". Hopefully, this is one of the films from the era wich have not been erased by the Swedish television. In the autumn of 1968 the boys thought that the Swedish pop scene was turning dull. Military service also awaited some of them. Their economy was also quite satisfactory as this side of the business been run deservingly by Lalla´s mother. They decided to take a one year break. In 1969 the band got together and did a few odd gigs but realized that the spark was no longer there. Then they shelved their instruments for good. That means that The Fabulous Four had morale stature enough not to became a part of the Swedish progg movement wich plagued the country for several years to come. Neither did they turn into a dance band singing in Swedish. Two decisions for wich they should be honoureed. During their existence The Fabulous Four went from an able cover band to a piece of musical dynamite. It is true that most of their single releases were ingratiating endeavours of trying to please the Tio I Topp-jury but what choice did they have? This was the way the musical climate were in those days. On stage the band was really rocking and when their own compositions lacked, they made own arrangements of songs like "Walking the dog", "The last time" or "Memphis". No dead parts and a heavy beat strait through. The fact that they posessed a very good tast in clothes and really know how a pop group should look is another plus. This is something that Lalla Hansson surely hasn´t forgotten during his solo career. Lalla was the only "Fab" who decided to carry on in music. In 1971 he went straight to the no 1 spot in the Swedish charts with his translation of Kris Kristofferson´s "Me and Bobby McGee" wich in Swedish was called "Anna och mej". During the 70´s he had a whole bunch of hits and he has also made several albums. He is also one of this country´s foremost text writers when it comes to translating foreign originals to Swedish and altough he may be singing about himself being an old hippie you very soon realize, as you see his well-fitting suit and wellpolished boots that it´s rather an old Mod you have encounted. Sadly the supply of releases by The Fabulous Four on CD has been very limited. Let´s hope that the people in charge will give us a well compiled anthology very soon. Discography 45´s: LP´s: "Fabulous Four 1965 - 68"
|