Who's your favorite?
The
Bert Bennys?
The Cool Candys?
Gert Jonnys?
Ivan Henrys?
Tommy Bergs?
They're all so fantastic, it's impossible to pick just one!
(Bon
admits to having a little thing for the Gert Jonnys)
This site sent to us by Karl Zwick
Were
we surprised! Our pal Stefan Ahlstrom from Karlskrona, Sweden emailed us a fascinating
report about this Don't Touch button. We'll let Stefan's own words speak for
themselves, and be sure to check out his links below:
Hi Bon- I'm impressed that you've posted a link to those cheezy looking band
cards by the Bert Bennys and the likes. You should know that I've actually seen
some of these bands play live! And if you think they look cheezy you should
have heard them play. Awful doesn't describe it. So why did I pay to go and
see something that awful. These groups and groups like them played public dances
and outside of discos that was about the only place to go to if you wanted to
meet girls. Horrible but true. Anyway my best friend was very much into meeting
girls and used to drag me along to these dances. This was in the beginning to
mid '70's. My friend got lucky sometimes, but I never did! I'm blaming the awful
music for that. I must've looked truly and utterly bored and that scared away
the girls for sure. Or maybe it was the fact that I was incredible shy. No I'm
sure it was the music. Now you know the horrible truth about my teens!
When
I emailed Stefan back for more info I also asked him if he ever wore one of
those incredible outfits to the dances and he replied...
Actually
I can't swear that I've seen those exact bands. It's been too many years now
to remember the names of the bands I saw play, but I've seen plenty of bands
in this genre to last me a life time. And believe me all wore those dorky looking
outfits. And no, I didn't look like that when I went to see them. Wrong, I didn't
go out to see them. I was there with my buddy who was there to try and pick
up girls, remember?
So how did they sound? It's hard to describe. Not rock, folk or corny pop. These
bands were all part of a genre that in swedish is called "dansband".
That's almost the same in english - danceband. That pretty much says it all.
These bands were there for one purpuse only and that was to play music for people
to dance to - four to five hours every night. They played mostly the hits of
the day, both swedish and international, with the odd 50's and 60's cover thrown
in for good measure. For some strange reason they always sounded that they all
came from the same mould. A male lead singer with a very nasal voice with a
very basic backing band. A bit like shifting between second, third, fourth and
fifth gear when your driving. Midtempo thats third or fouth gear, ballads that's
second gear and uptempo that's fifth gear. Always the same backing track done
in various tempos. That's not very nice and some may say very exaggerated discription,
but that's my opinion and I stand by it. You really have to hear them to fully
to "appreciate" the sound. As a special treat for you I've also dug
up some more cool looking groups from that era. The links are here:
SVEN-ERICS 1976 (DON'T MISS THESE OUTFITS! INCREDIBLE!)
Don't think this genre is dead. Oh no, it's very much alive today. It has had it's ups and downs, but it's very much alive today. The sound may be a bit more modern, but basically it's the same old thing as Bert Bennys and those guys played.
Thanks
Stefan for that amazing glimpse into the world of "dansband" music.
Stefan even sent us a comp CD of some of these bands! We say, "Think ABBA,
Euro song fest competitions and the Osmond Brothers"...but that's just
our opinion.
