About Me
Chinese Detectives started in 1994 as a "one single project", just to release the 2 recorded versions of "Situation" and the previously unreleased Yazoo/Vince Clarke instrumental track "Chinese Detectives", only familiar to the hardcore Yazoo fans from their live-gigs.The band at the time of the "Situation" single release, which was in 1995, consisted of: Preben Bjønnes (known from Defcon 4, Posh and Cronos Titan), Lars Erik Aasbrenn, Per Aksel Lundgreen (known from Apoptygma Berzerk, Angst Pop and Cronos Titan) and Kristine Ulfeng.The song was a club hit and sold many thousand copies, and a video was recorded at Punctum Nightclub in Fredrikstad. We'll see if we can't have this uploaded here later on.This generated interest, and with the influences of Silicon Teens, we wanted to be the Silicon Teens of the 90's, so we recorded our next single, one of our favourite 80's songs, "Where Do The Boys Go?" by Men Without Hats.We also had Lars Kristian Aasbrenn MIA (Missing In Action) between the first and the second single, and he was lovingly replaced by Agent Trond Haugerud.An amazing video was made for "Where Do The Boys Go?", that hopefully will appear on this page soon, and this track by Chinese Detectives was in spring of 1996, voted "Hitpick Of The Week" on the NRK (Norwegian Television) show "Topp 20", and a very decent amount of singles were sold. Promotion t-shirts was also made for this single release.A short while later, the Detectives had yet another casualty, and this time it was our singer, Kristine Ulfeng that went missing. She was later that year replaced by Desiree Grandahl, who where to be the new frontwoman of Chinese Detectives, and my oh my what a powerful frontwoman she was!A backing singer, Carina Ekeli was also included in the upcoming recordings (as well as on the album and for the gigs) and it all resulted in a fabulous summerhit in 1996 with the catchy DIVINE track, "You Think You're A Man".Following the success of the 3 first singles, the plans and recordings for an album started, but how should they choose the tracks to record?? The members sat down and made their notes and put some names on a list, and then these thoughts where shared, and we came up with the contents of the album.The only track we took into the studio and made an attempt at recording that didn't make it to the album, was a version of "Send Me An Angel" by Real Life. The version was never finished, so all the recorded material from Chinese Detectives has been released on CD.At this point, The Detectives were sought after as a vigorous live-act, and the main event was when they played at "Dance Party" in Askim Hallen in the autumn of 1996, in front of 2500 crazy dancing people, together with acts like "2 Brothers On The 4th Floor" and "Solid Base". A lot of clubs and pubs was also played at this time, and a great gig at a Romo Night in Malmö in Sweden still remains a great memory for The Detectives.The Detectives also had many noteable appearances on various compilation albums, and among them are:"System Vol 1" (with "Where Do The Boys Go?")
"It Never Happens To Me" (with "Situation")
"Yabba-Dabba-Dance" (with "Situation")
"Super Mario Dance" (with "You Think You're A Man")
"Strange Love" (with "Situation")
"Strange Love 3" (with "Hit That Perfect Beat"
"Prospective Mag Vol 2" (with "I Want A Lover")
"World Of Synthpop Vol 2" (with "All You Ever Think About Is Sex")The album, "Are Kisses Out Of Fashion?" was recorded, and ready for release in early 1997, when the record company, Tatra Records, suddenly hit the breaks.The dissapointment was enormous, and all we could do was wait for the record company to "create a momentum" for us, so that we could release the albumLittle happened, and singer Desiree Grandahl and keyboarder Preben Bjønnes went on to form "Posh", an 80's act performing their own written material.In 1999 the "Posh" album "In Vanity We Trust" was ready for release on their own label, Planet Records, and NOW all of a sudden, the record company found it suitable to release the "Chinese Detectives" album too!!! The "Posh" album was distributed through Tatra Records, and a split-promo CD-Single was made, including "Hit That Perfect Beat" by Chinese Detectives and "Read Me Poetry" by Posh. 500 copies where distributed and a lot of gigs was played. The album was released, but it was too little too late unfortunately, and The Detectives slowly suffocated in a pile of their own unsold albums...This was the last to be seen of The Detectives, and in this new millenium, neither their true identities or their real locations have been established...Will The Detectives ever return?Who knows, only time will tell...Still, this page is here, to make sure that their time, gigs, recordings and humour is never forgotten....
