Неизвестные 60-е. Часть 44. Группа The Hep Stars

Неизвестные 60-е.Шведы.Первый дивизион.Очень плотовидная и долгоиграющая группа (вместе с привеском 70-х).

HEP STARS BIOGRAPHY

THe Hep Stars were Sweden's biggest selling rock act in the 60's, even outselling The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. The name "Hep Stars" means "Stars in the know".

They were formed in 1963 by Lennart "Lelle" Hegland and Christer "Krille" Petterson. The two met while serving together in the Swedish Air Force. At first their group played the supper clubs, but soon rock took over. Jan "Janne" Frisk joined the group, and they soon aquired an organist, Hans "Hasse" Цstlund. At first Jan was the lead singer, but they soon realised they wanted a seperate vocalist, so Sven "Svenne" Hedlund joind the group. They recorded one single which bombed, "Kana Kapila."

They were unsatisfied with Hans Цstlund's playing and soon were seeking a replacement. A friend of Svenne's named Gцran "Benny" Andersson called him up one day. Benny's band needed to get it's equipment to a gig and asked to borrow Svenne's van. Svenne drove them to the club and stayed to hear his friend. The band was terrible, but Benny's playing was excellent, indeed he had been talented on the keyboards ever since the age of 6, when an accordian was first placed in his chubby hands. Svenne asked Benny to join the Hep Stars, and Benny agreed. From the very first recording session with Benny the hits came.

On March 23, 1965 they appeared on the Swedish TV program "Drop in." They sang "Cadillac," while running all over the stage and doing other such wild antics. Indeed, at one concert, Svenne broke his ankle jumping off a speaker cabinet! This, and their rock star good looks assured their popularity, especially with the young girls. That week, their 45 of "A tribute to Buddy Holly" entered the Swedish Top 10, as did "Cadillac" and "Farmer John" 2 weeks later. "Bald headed woman" was the third single in a row to hit #1! A month later they appeared on Norwegian TV with "Farmer John" and "Cadillac" and those entered the Norwegian Top 10 as well. Hits followed in Denmark and Finland.

The Hep Stars were influenced by English and American rock and roll. Their early recordings were led and driven by Benny's wailing electric organ. It seems the Hep Stars were well known for partying, womanising and living the rock and roll lifestyle. The temptations of the road proved too much for Benny, and soon he asked his "wife" Christine Grцnvall for a divorce. The young couple had two small children. The Hep Stars 1965 Folkpark recording, "The Hep Stars on stage" reminds one of Beatlemania, with all the screaming and excitement. From the very first LP Benny was songwriting. He was strong musically, but often needed to reply on lyricists for the words. In 1966, to slow down the pace at the shows because of Svenne's hurt ankle, he wrote the classically inspired "Sunny girl." This #1 was a hit all over Europe. even in Germany and Holland. That year Benny and Svenne wrote "Wedding", another #1 and another big European hit, although it, like "Sunny girl" had "dictionary lyrics". With every song he wrote Benny became better and better. This 'soft' approach alienated early fans of the group, who wanted the more raucous rock and roll, but earned the group many new fans with their new sound.

In 1967 after a concert the group were relaxing at a pub when another band, who was playing the same city came in. They were The Hootenanny Singers, a folk act from Vдstervik. The group's lyricist and singer was Bjцrn Ulvaeus. Bjцrn and Benny clicked from the start. That very night they started writing songs. They proved to be an inspired team, Benny with his knack for beautiful melodies and Bjцrn, with his mastery of several languages. The very first time Bjцrn and Benny ever appeared together on a record was The Hootenanny Singer's version of an old folk tune, "Blomman." Benny played electric organ on this recording. They wrote a tune, "No time", which both bands recorded. The Hootenanny Singers recorded it as an accoustic folk song, while the Hep Stars gave it a snappy pop sound. The two men from this point on never separated or stopped working together.

The Hep Stars decided to make a film like the Beatles had done with "A hard day's night" They decided to film it in Africa and call it "Habari Safari." Their plan was to start the cameras rolling, and let the witty things flow out of their mouths, just like the Beatles did in "A hard days night". What the Hep Stars did not realise was that that movie was carefully scripted and rehearsed. The Hep Stars had no script, no shooting schedule and no concept of the money they were wasting. The shoot was a disaster, the film never released. This, and other acts like ill advised trips to the USA and England to record music that wasn't even written yet quickly drained their coffers. They also started their own record label and production company called "Hep house." While the label had a couple of hits, it too went the way of the Beatle's ill managed Apple records, finally loosing the Hep Stars incredible amounts of money. Indeed, finally the Revenue caught up to them for non-payment of royalty taxes, and Benny, in particular, had to work for many years to pay off this debt.

In 1968, Svenne had gone to see a show by an American "girl group" called The Sherrys. They were known for dance hits, and had appeared on American Bandstand singing their biggest hit, "Pop pop pop-eye." Svenne was smitten by one of the girls, Charlotte "Lotta" Butler Walker. She was also taken by Svenne, and decided to stay in Sweden. Soon after, the two married. The wedding portrait is on the cover of "The Hep Stars pa Svenska". Lotta joined the group ala Yoko Ono did the Beatles. Several songs were written for Svenne and Lotta by Benny with Bjцrn and Lars "Lasse" Berghagen like "A flower in my garden," "Songs we sang" and "Speleman." They recorded an LP in Swedish featuring several lovely covers like Cliff Richard's "Visions," "Last night I had the strangest dream," which in addition to English and Swedish they recorded in Dutch, and "Four strong winds," another American folk tune. Just as Yoko had influenses (good or bad) on the Beatles, so had Lotta on the "Swedish Beatles." After Jan missed some dates, Bjцrn was temporarily filling in for him. Their last recording together, "Speedy Gonzales" was a smash hit, but the group was divided. Svenne and Lotta wanted to continue the easy listening hits and persue the Supper club/Cabaret scene, while Jan, Lennart and Christer wanted to return to the rock and roll of the earlier days. Benny choose the side of Svenne and Lotta.

Benny, Bjцrn, Svenne and Lotta had several months of engagements on the Supper club curcuit. By this time, Benny had met a jazz vocalist named Anni-Frid Lyngstad, and Bjцrn had married a pop singer named Agnetha Fдltskog. Bjцrn and Benny decided to form a group together and to feature their women. The resulting group soon faded into rock obscurity and no one knows whatever became of them...

Svenne and Lotta continued as a duet and were signed by Bjцrn and Benny's label, Polar. Their first LP was a collection of oldies, produced by B & B. The second LP, "S & L II," featured their Eurovision entry, "Bang a boomerang," plus the flip side, a wonderful B & B song called "Roly poly girl." (This song reminds me of Honey honey). The third LP, "Letters," featured a B & B song called "Funky Feet," which was rejected by ABBA as sounding too much like "Dancing Queen." It does, and also reminds me of "If it wasn't for the nights." (Baby, I got funky feet...If it wasn't for the nights) . Another rare B & B song, "If we only had the time" was also on this LP. The fourth Polar LP was their "Disco" LP, "Bring it on home." They also released a Greatest Hits package on Polar, "20 Golden Hits." They started their own label, Romance, and also recorded several LPs for Sonet. They continue to perform to this day.

The Hep Stars regularly reunite to play the still lucrative Folk Park tours, and still sell out! They recorded a reunion CD, with long time Benny fan Benneth Fagerlund on the keyboards called "Act II." This CD also features ABBA's guitar ace, Lasse Wellander. Long time fans hope that Benny and Bjцrn will produce again for their old pals. For Svenne's 50th birthday, Svenne and Olga/EMI released his rare solo LP, recorded at the height of The Hep Stars' fame, Svenne Hedlund sings Elvis on CD.

Talent discovered

In 1964 the Hep Stars was an up and coming rock 'n roll group in Sweden. Their lead singer, Svenne Hedlund, had seen Benny playing at a gig with his group Elverkets Spelmanslag. Svenne was quite impressed and when the Hep Stars' organist left the group because of an argument, Benny was asked to become their keyboard player.

Benny joined them in October and at the end of that year the Hep Stars went into the recording studio. Amongst the songs recorded were 'Tribute To Buddy Holly', 'Farmer John' and 'Cadillac'. The Beatles were taking the world by storm. Not surprisingly the Hep Stars' recordings where in line with the then popular British beat.

In the beginning of 1965 the Hep Stars got the opportunity to perform Cadillac on TV. Their performance was that of a true rock 'n roll band, they were raving on the stage and climbing onto their amplifiers. It made them famous almost overnight. Three of their singles reached the top four of the Swedish chart. Two albums were released that year: 'We and our Cadillac' and 'Hep Stars on stage'.

Writing his first material

Also in 1965, Benny wrote his first original material for the group and his early songs like 'No Response', 'Wedding', and 'Sunny Girl' became hits. From now on Benny would regularly write material for the Hep Stars. 'No Response' became a number two hit. Both 'Sunny Girl' and 'Wedding' became number one hits in Sweden in 1966. 'Sunny Girl' even topped the chart list in the Netherlands. Several years later Benny would play his self-written song 'Wedding' on the church orchan while Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog were walking to the altar to be married.

Meeting Björn

Like all successful bands at the time the Hep Stars were touring a lot in 1966. On one occasion they were invited to a party by another famous group called the Hootenanny Singers. One of its members was Björn Ulvaeus. It was at this party, in the beginning of June 1966, when Benny would meet Björn for the first time. At the end of the year a very successful album 'Hep Stars' was released which contained 'Isn't it easy to say', the first song co-written by Benny and Björn. Also at the end of the 1960s Björn would be asked to fill in on a Hep Stars tour to Finland when their guitarist Janne Frisk had failed to return from a holiday to Spain.

Sweden's Beatles

In the meantime the popularity of the Hep Stars in Sweden equalled that of the Beatles. Selling records in such large quantities could have made millionaires outof the Hep Stars members, were it not for several disastrous business dealings that their production company, Hep House, became involved in. One these was a very costly film 'Habari Safari', which was filmed in Africa in February of 1967. Together with their production manager and a crew, they spent two weeks in Kenya followed by ten days in Denmark for some additional footage. But as the film hadn't been scripted yet, very little footage turned out to be useable. A huge sum of money went down the drain.The only noticable result of their trip to Africa was the recording of the traditional African song 'Malaika'. It was released as a single and became a number one hit in May of that year. The B-side of the single was a song written by Benny with the appropriate name 'It's nice to be back'.

Tax problems

The Swedish Inland Revenue also thought it was nice to have them back. For two years the Hep Stars had failed to pay income tax. In December of 1967 Inland Revenue caught up with them. This, together with the Hep Stars' reckless spending, made the group virtually bankrupt. That same month an album called 'Jul med Hep Stars' (meaning 'Christmas with Hep Stars') was released. Their Christmas could have been jollier though...

In 1968 they continued working, trying to pay off their debts. Their repertoire contained more and more songs in Swedish and increasingly leaned towards middle-of-the-road. Svenne Hedlund's American girlfriend Charlotte Walker was added as a lead singer. Two albums were released: 'Songs we sang' and 'It's been a long time'.

The end of the Hep Stars

In the beginning of 1969 the Hep Stars toured with a successful floor show. It was in Malmö, during this tour, that Benny met Anni-Frid Lyngstad for the first time. That year their album 'Hep Stars på Svenska' was released. In February guitarist Janne Frisk left the Hep Stars. Benny, Svenne and Charlotte preferred to continue working with the floor show type of music. As the other members Christer Petersson and Lennart Hegland wanted to return to the rock 'n roll style of their early days, the Hep Stars decided to split up. Benny, Svenne and Charlotte left the group in August 1969.

Состав:

BENNY ANDERSSON keyb
JANNE FRISK voc/gt
SVENNE HEDLUND voc
LELLE HEGLAND bass
CHRISTER PETTERSSON dr
HANS ÖSTLUND keyb 64
LOTTA HEDLUND voc 68-69

Дискография:

http://www2.gol.com/users/davidr/m&m/hepdisco.html

No Response
https://www.beatles.ru/down.asp?id=87

Sunny Girl
https://www.beatles.ru/down.asp?id=88

Wedding
https://www.beatles.ru/down.asp?id=89

Очень хорошо.

Книжка есть очень интересная про Бенни Андерссона и Hep Stars - "Benny's Road to ABBA".

Что-то я не понял: это не ошибка? No Response - кинксовская песня, которую я знаю под названием Bald Headed Woman.

2SkyElevator:

>Что-то я не понял: это не ошибка? No Response
>- кинксовская песня, которую я знаю под названием
>Bald Headed Woman.

Да, это, очевидно, ошибка с мр3

Ну ладно, теперь еще надо No Response выложить.

каюсь! не то название вбил!

Ochen kajfnaja gruppa, nedavno w magazine ih disc slushal!! Tam prikolnye cover versii Beatles, Stones, Kinks byli.

Vobshem ne skajesh, chto eto Proto-ABBA