Reeperbahn

Formed in early 1977 by Olle Ljungström & Dan Sundquist. Original line-up also included guitarrist Eddie Sjöberg. First gig in the summer of '77 rendered the name "Rott'n Group". 2nd gig changed the name to "Lesbian HardCore". New drummer recruited in jan '78. Peter Korhonen had a Quarz-chip embedded in his front lobe, so now the Reeperbahn powerpop quartet was at last running reliably like an AmTrack diesel train. The name was chosen for it's compact easy-to-remember qualities. Reeperbahn was never involved with electronic music or racism activities. They signed their first publishing deal with Ola Håkansson at Sonet (legendary AR & publisher responsible for Cardigans, etc, etc) in '78. Soon to follow was the first recording Deal with PolyGram in summer '79 which resulted in the debut album "Reeperbahn". Single "Havet Ligger Blankt" got fair airplay and the album got mixed reviews, sold badly, but their live appearances had already established them as an alternative bandwith intelligent lyrics, which made them a true pre-indieband. An ill-fated decision of the record company led them to support Rainbow on their two Swedish gigs at Scandinavium, Gothenburg and Isstadion, Stockholm in early '80. The combination of Reeperbahn as a support act for Rainbow may have been bad, but again the band got a haussing review of dazumal rock journalist mogul Mats Olsson of tabloid Expressen declaring Reeperbahn to having been the winners of the show. The other tabloids were soon to follow in the build-up to a matrimony between Reeperbahn and Swedish music press that for many years to follow earned both both Olle Ljungström http://www.myspace.com/olleljungstrom and Dan Sundquist http://www.myspace.com/thenitesite http://www.myspace.com/dansundquist a lot of credibility to pursue their individual solo careers. One EP's & 3 singles were released in '80 & '81. None of these songs were to appear on the bands follow-up album "Venuspassagen" of autumn '81. The line-up had been completed and formed into a quintet with singer/keyboard player Jan Kyhle. His great sounding voice and swirling synthesizers helped update Reeperbahn's sound into a powerful groundbreaking rock band. Suddenly there were huge backing vocals and the electronic sounds that the band's name had implied in the first place. The album sold well (for a band like that, in those days) 23.000 copies but what did it was the reviews where all the music critics throughout Scandinavia tried to overwhelm each other in dazzling headlines like:......... In the late spring of '82 Sundquist split from the band leaving Olle Ljungström in pole position with the heavy responsibility of writing all songs on the third album "Peep Show" A darker and more restrained album, but also more mature and excellently recorded and mixed by craftsmen in London. The sound of some of the songs, especially "Gröna Tapeter" is really up-to-date. The new bassplayer Peter Ivarss was a skilful musician and really lifted the sound. The band was offered a part in Film Director Staffan Hildebrand's "G- Som I Gemenskap" of '83. The film was a massive success. Even today people who were born around the early 70's remember Reeperbahn as "Nürnberg 47" a half-nazi outfit with their black shirts (not brown) wrapped in belts over their chests. "Hundarna Brinner" was never released as a single. Had it been, it would have earned the band a bigger success than the Cult status that part in the film earned them. "G" is to this day their biggest claim to fame. Peter Ivarss never lived to see that, though. He sadly committed suicide later that year. The line-up changed after Korhonen & Kyhle's defliction in '83. Enter Fredric Holmqvist on keyboards, Latte Kronlund on bass and the legendary drummer Fred Asp who even wrote "Små Druvor", one of the top songs on the album that followed. But "Intriger" of '84 lacked the mysticism of the two albums before and a lot of the magic was lost with the new Mid-80's plastic sound. The band played their last gig in '84 but reunited at the first Hultsfred Festival in August '86 with the original line-up + some of the recent members as guests. The audience exceeded a limit of 5.000 heads.To be continued...