Biography

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Created on Friday, 27 March 2009 11:26

Last Updated on Monday, 10 April 2017 19:03

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Dear friends!

 

 

I was born under a full moon, early one morning, thursday the 9:th of March 1944, in the city of Mölndal (Mill Valley) Sweden.

 

My life as musician started at 1 year of age in our kitchen´s  saucepan cupboard.  I accompanied my always singing mother by banging at saucepans and trying to sing like her.

 

When I was 6, I found some empty barrels on a garbage dump and together with some pals, I arranged my first outdoor drum concert.

One year later I visited my family house “the Winsnes estate” in Norway. In the

salon stood a piano. I could not resist sneaking in and play on it. What a revelation!

After that my mothersavedsome money in secret every month from the housekeeping budget. When I was 10 she bought a piano. What a feeling of joy! At the same time I started in the music school of Mölndal.

 

I made my debut “professionally” when I was 14. One Saturday evening some friends knocked on my door. A little upset they told me that the Nordic Pat Boone, Barry Byberg, would perform at a nearby dance hall and his pianist was sick!  “Unfortunately” this evening gave me a taste for easy money and girls. (My piano teacher had great expectations for me in the classical field.)

 

1960 a very young trumpeter and me made great success in "Revue of unknowns" at the old classic Circus in Gothenburg. Three years later I was very lucky to be there again, in the audience, when The Beatles performed.

 

1961 I arose from the piano stool and won the Vocalist Contest at Rondo, Liseberg with the Cole Porter song I´ ve got you under my skin. We were accompanied by the Ronnie Hartley orchestra with the famous Jan Johansson at the piano.

 

1962 there was a nation wide singing contest called Flugan (The Fly) with a grand final at Soliden, Skansen, Stockholm. With the song I could have danced all night I was one more time in good terms with Lady Luck!  Among other things the first price included a recording contract.

 

In those days Stikkan Andersson (later the ABBA manager and Polar Prize creator) was building his music publishing company called Sweden Music and he became my manager for a while. Due to this all four songs on my first EP were his.

 

1963 October 27 I had the opportunity to enjoy The Beatles live at the Lorensberg Circus, Gothenburg !

 

 

1963-64 I substituted for Bob Lander in The Spotnicks when they were touring in France. Then I made my military service. Just before we were demobbed, I was choosen to be First Changer of Guards at  the Royal Castle of Stockholm. In the spring of 1965 I got an offer to be a permanent member of the band and I stayed with them until the end of 1969.

 

On Thanksgiving Day 1965 we (Spotnicks) were circling over New York, in a Pan-American plane, coming over from Stockholm, Sweden.  I had the opportunity, and an invitation, to be in the cockpit and to watch the neonlights twinkling, deep down among the skyscrapers on Manhattan !  We should spend a week at the Americana Hotel.

 

The first night in Time Square we dropped in at the Metropole Café. Gogogirls were dancing behind the bardesk. At 11 o`clock Gene Krupa and his band entered the stage ! (When I was 14 I used to sit in our basement and play to his Drum Boogie on old 78-records.). Later on that night, we were twisting away at the Peppermint Lounge ( "where the Twist was born") to the music of Joey Dee and the Starlighters. Fanny Mae, won´t you please come home?!

 

During my stay in New York city I heard and saw  Buddy Rich with Duke Ellington´s  big band. In the intermission one of my very early favorites, Mel Tormé, swang with his trio.

 

The last night I took a cab of my own ! I went down to Village Vanguard to listen to Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers. (Which I met at Nefertite Jazzclub in Gothenburg in the late seventies, and got them some "ganja" !)

Do You think  they were movin´ and groovin´?! 

Next to me at the Vanguard´s bardesk sat Boz Skaggs emptying his glass. He had visited my home town as a singer-songwriter a few years earlier. What a nice coincidence !

We toured the Swedish Folkparks, Denmark, Norway, Germany, France, Mexico, Thailand and Japan and had a number one hit in Australia with the song Just listen to my heart. – The Spotnicks was especially popular in Japan due to our number one hit record Kerino Karelia, which became a million seller. We were treated like kings. Very dedicated fans and limousines were waiting at the airports and we travelled several times with the New Tokaido Line (the fastest train in the world). The best hotels were booked for us. Everything was first class! The theatre in Tokyo where we performed, was well equipped and at our entrance we dropped down from the ceiling by parachutes. Our stays in Acapulco, Mexico and Bankok, Thailand can not be described in words !

 

Intending to take a sabbatical year I left The Spotnicks in the end of 1969. I went into physical training but after a few months I got a job as disc jockey at the Hunters Pub. Then I put a band together with, among others, the legendary female singer Doris of Gothenburg. I named our group Combination. We became the house band of the new night club Münchhausen. It was hugely popular for some years and was attended by many famous orchestra members after their shows. I could name just a few like Led Zeppelin, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Flock and  Sweden´s Jazzband.

 

In the autumn of 1970  the Combination was invited to a night club on board the old river boat  St. Lawrence in Copenhagen.  I fell in love with the city and stayed there for two years! That is why I went to the audition of Jesus Christ Super Star in 1971. I was picked for the title role by the producer Lars Schmidt (husband of the film star Ingrid Bergman) but the danish director (Bent Mejding) had promised Bruno Winzell to play the part of Jesus. So when he came with his lawyer I interrupted the rehearsal and left the stage. As a solution of the dispute I had to be the second Jesus! They called me the Thursday and Sunday Jesus! I was terribly disappointed, missing the opportunity to be Jesus at the opening night of the first European stage setting.

 

Lars Schmidt was also the producer in Gothenburg where the first Swedish version of J.C.S. was to have its opening at Scandinavium in February 1972. Now it was me acting as Jesus in all the 11 shows. The part of Mary Magdalene was played by Agnetha Fältskog and Herode by Örjan Ramberg. Today he is a famous actor at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm and in movies.

 

Acting as Jesus made me try meditation and it changed my life and I started to work as music teacher in different schools in Gothenburg, Mölndal and Kungsbacka.

 

 

During the above mentioned periods I had the pleasure to come across many famous bands and artists.

 

In the sixties we had a nightly jamsession with The Shadows in the Spotnicksleader Bo Winberg´s house, where we also gave a party for Chuck Berry. We (The Spotnicks) were supporting act for Frank Zappa and his Mothers of Invention at the Concert Hall of Liseberg in Gothenburg. - In Acapulco we met one of my matinéfilm idols Douglas Fairbanks Jr. - In Mexico City I had a chat with Stan Getz. - In Stockholm we played for the "first woman in space", Valentina Tereshkova.

 

I worked as a M.C. at concerts with Bill Haley and his Comets and Canned Heat. - In a club called "The Gold-digger" in Gothenburg, I sat at the same table as Jimi Hendrix and his Experiense a short while before his tragic death.

 

One night in March -72 I was honored by the great filmstar Ingrid Bergman, who came back-stage after a J.C. Superstar performance. A memory for life!

 

In the middle of the seventies I formed a group called "The White Band" (irony at my own expense!). We were supporting act for Fats Domino, one of my greatest idols and inspirations. That night I made the big fiasco of my life. I was hooked on drugs and booze. What a shame ! (Scandinavium, Gothenburg, Sweden. 18th of March, 1976.)

 

 

1983 I was offered to play Brad Majors in Rocky Horror Show at the New Theatre and in that way I continued as an artist again. From the show-band I put a new Combination together with Göran "Sam" Samuelsson and Peter Boström. We played in the piano bar at the Top Floor Club at the Old Gate restaurant for several years. Combination was also playing in a very popular TV-program called "Nygammalt" and got an offer to make a "Nygammalt Special".

 

The artist life was very hectic acting as Entertainer on pubs, boats, hotels and different events so during the 90ths I tried to calm down and find myself again.

 

Since 2001 I am working as music director in the Church of St. John (The City Mission) in Gothenburg.

 

During 2008 I was guest artist in The Spotnicks when they celebrated their anniversary of 50 years as a band. We are also giving concerts together 2009 at e.g. Vara Concert Hall, Skövde and Uddevalla.

 

The 30 & 31 of October I  played the piano behind Jerry Presley, a "cousin" of Elvis, at the Vara Concert Hall.

 

2017

I am still going strong as an Entertainer at different events  !