Hairy: History of Swedish 80s Metal
From: Café - March 2002Translation
by: SuzyPart 1: Swedish hair metal breaks through
Stefan Johansson (Journalist in OKEJ magazine)
The breakthrough for this kind of Heavy Metal in Sweden came with the Monsters of Rock festival at Råsunda Stadium in 1984. The genre was mega big and many young Swedish guys who wanted to be rock stars watched the international stars with envy. The Swedish record labels woke up and many bands were formed. At the same time EUROPE were starting to get it on.
Anders Tengner (Journalist in OKEJ magazine)
I started freelancing for OKEJ in 1984 when I was interviewing Scorpions and Bon Jovi in the USA. It was at this time that Heavy Metal started to grow big in Sweden. The Monsters of Rock festival at Råsunda in 1984 was the start of everything. Sure, there had been bands in Sweden earlier - Kiss, Thin Lizzy and so on - But this was the first time that there were so many at the same time: Mötley Crüe, Queen, Van Halen, AC/DC. Way out! After this, Heavy Metal became "a part of Sweden" in a different way. Swedish bands started breaking through, Heavy Metal clothing became fashion and TV and radio were on to it.
Hempo Hildén (Drummer in Trash, John Norum Group)
Every Heavy Metal fan in Sweden was at Råsunda in the summer of 1984. We stood there with our eyes wide open and dreamt about making it as as they had. Something was happening. It was in the air. Even though I had listened to and played Heavy Metal for at least a decade.
Anders Tengner
The first wave of Swedish metal was EUROPE, of course, Treat, Heavy Load, 220 Volt, Dalton and Easy Action even if they were a bit too much "glam" to be called Heavy Metal.
Hempo Hildén
Hard Rock Café opened in 1985 and that was a bit of a start. Suddenly everyone knew where the rockers were. During my nights at Hard Rock Café I used to meet journalists Annika Sundbaum, Susanne Ljung and Vera Selander in the basement. They really knew a lot and were good looking and it was important to have good relations with them. That's why I never tried to start a sexual relation with them. At least I think I didn't. The male journalists on the other hand, Stefan Johansson, Jörgen Holmstedt and Anders Tengner knew a lot, but Anders was a bit of a wannabe. He wrote about whoever had the most beer back stage. That's why EUROPE got so much attention.
Anders Tengner
You shouldn't believe everything Hempo says.
Annika Sundbaum-Melin (Journalist in Aftonbladet)
I wrote for "The Hammer", a fanzine about Heavy Metal, so I had a lot of demos sent to me. Most of it wasn't that good, of course. But you understood what was happening and when EUROPE broke through, everything changed.
Part 2: The rise and fall of EUROPE
John Norum (Guitar)
I got to know Joey in school. We drove our mopeds and listened to music. Thin Lizzy, David Bowie, Deep Purple… It was a real mix. Neither he nor I were metal freaks.
Mic Michaeli (Keyboards)
Joey called himself Joey even before EUROPE was formed as he was convinced that he would be a rock star. He didn't care that much about school but instead practiced on writing autographs.
John Norum
At Lucia night (December 12) 1982, we won the Swedish championship in Rock (Rock SM). It was like the coolest thing. The first prize was to record an LP with Hot Records and we did. In February 1983 we released the "Europe" album. It was recorded in a studio that our manager Thomas Erdtman had gotten for us. After that everything moved fast. The LP sold to gold and all of a sudden we were one of the largest bands in Sweden.
Ian Haugland (Drums)
EUROPE went on tour in 1983, but I wasn't in the band by then. I played in my own band called Trilogy where I sang as well as being the drummer. Since I lived in Märsta and the EUROPE guys lived in Upplands Väsby, we had run into each other once in a while. Suddenly one day in 1984, Thomas Erdtman called and asked if I was interested in being the drummer in EUROPE - He told me not to tell anyone as he hadn't fired the current drummer, Tony Reno, yet.
Peo Thyrén (Guitar in Easy Action, Sha-Boom)
Erdtman did a really shitty thing, just as he did with other things. I heard that he sent a letter to Tony, where he said that he wasn't good enough and that he was fired.
Ian Haugland
I'm sure it was like that. But I was really happy and said yes at once. The first time I met the guys was somewhere downtown. Joey and John Norum were sitting with their sunglasses on during the whole meeting. I remember thinking they were really cocky. But after the meeting they were really nice and I blended in well.
John Norum
After his first gig with us, somewhere in northern Sweden, I remember him running naked in the corridor, screaming. It was a good start. He was a real drummer. Crazy. But in a good way.
Anders Tengner
We had EUROPE on the front cover the first time in 1984. After that I was constantly on tour with them for three years. The first major international thing was Japan in 1986.
Jan Gradvall (Journalist in Expressen, Café)
You could easily say that EUROPE set the standard for Sweden. Somewhere in 1985-86 I was assigned to write for the "Rock SM" magazine. I was freelancing and I needed the money, so I had to go to all of these tryouts around the country. It was like a punishment from God. Everyone wanted to sound like EUROPE, but no one succeeded..
Annika Sundbaum-Melin
When EUROPE broke through, I looked upon them as a bunch of upper-class boys from Upplands Väsby who played sissy rock. Joey came from a well off family. His dad was an airplane pilot. They weren't a suburb band even if they came from the suburbs. Afterwards I have re-evaluated the songs, and somewhere I have, of course, understood why "Final Countdown" was a world hit.
John Norum
We made it internationally in 1986 with "The Final Countdown". But I remember the first time Joey played a demo version of the song in Väsby. My first thought was, "Oh no. What the hell is this?" I didn't like the keyboards. I wanted everything to sound like Gary Moore or Ritchie Blackmore. More guitars. But when the real version was played, I changed my opinion.
Anders Wikström (Guitar in Treat)
I got really enthusiastic when "The Final Countdown" hit it big. Everyone was really surprised, but most people reacted like me, "Shit, it's possible!"
Peo Berghagen (A&R)
Treat, 220 Volt, Easy Action and the other bands never reached EUROPE's success as they didn't have a "Final Countdown". It was that simple. It was all about one song.
Stefan Johansson
Pretty soon after EUROPE had made it big internationally you started to hear stories about what a luxurious life they were living. It was all champagne and limousines. Very far from Upplands Väsby you might say.
Ian Haugland
It was difficult to look soberly at this idol thing when you were in the middle of it and had a manager like Thomas Erdtman, who really liked to burn cash. The weirdest thing was probably that we put millions into our stage apparel and our stages - without knowing how much people would come to see the shows on tour. I suppose Erdtman figured it was better to look big than to thread carefully. Hell, our stages were worth more than the gross national product of India.
John Norum
I did my last gig with EUROPE in Munich 1986. But I had resigned a couple of months earlier in Japan. Money had become too much of an issue and I knew that Erdtman was not to be trusted. But the others wouldn't listen. They had a pretty bad attitude, and were oozing "We are the coolest". We were all young, but I felt that they were so unintelligent when they didn't hear me out about Erdtman.
Mic Michaeli
We were well aware that Erdtman was a bit of a car dealer. But we took the bad with the good. He did a tremendous job for a long period and was definitely a power behind the band's breakthrough. But then a lot of cash was burnt for a long time. We had no control of the economy and were bad at checking up on what was really happening. We were a bunch of 20 year old guys who wanted to be rock stars. Not accountants.
John Norum
Joey and Thomas were a real team. They even shared rooms during the US tour. You did get a bit suspicious.
Ian Haugland
Erdtman treated Joey in a special way. But I'm not holding Joey responsible for that. Naturally, Erdtman wanted to give VIP treatment to the guy that was most important to the band.
John Levén (Bass)
John got tired pretty quickly during the promotion tour, and to a certain extent I don't blame him. You had dreamt about being a rock star, to play and to tour. Not about making interviews.
Ian Haugland
When John quit, I felt, "How good". The rest of us were doing hundreds of interviews even though all journalists ask the same questions. But John was whining all the time. He probably told us that Erdtman was a damn car dealer and that everything was going to hell, but we just thought he was crazy. We didn't have the energy to take him seriously. Maybe we should have. History has proven him right.
John Norum
I released my first solo album in 1987. It sold really good and the singles were on the Tracks chart (Top 20). I know that Joey locked himself in a bathroom in Japan when he got my album. He listened through it and came out, a bit pale. He was shocked that it sounded so good.
Ian Haugland
It was Kjelle, Kee Marcello from Easy Action, who replaced John and he came just as we were making it big. Kjelle blended in perfectly with the band. At least in the beginning.
Peo Thyrén
Many thought it was really bad that Joey called Kjelle when John quit, since Easy Action had an international deal coming up with a German label. But of course he should go with EUROPE. They were an international band.
Ian Haugland
Unfortunately Kee and Joey didn't get along for that long.
Mic Michaeli
There was always tension between Joey and our guitarists. When it came to the tension with John, something good came out of it. Joey was inspired. When Kee joined the band and wanted to write and produce, as Erdtman had promised him without our knowledge, there wasn't the same positive creativity. And Kee was disappointed when he noticed that no one supported him when it came to the songwriting. The conflict between Joey and Kee was the beginning of the end for EUROPE.
Ian Haugland
Since Joey had done so well with writing the songs so far, there was no point in Kee beginning to write too. That's why we didn't support him.
Mic Michaeli
When everything was going well in 1987-88, it was easy to be a member of EUROPE. "The Final Countdown" had sold six million copies and we were big in the USA, the world's most important record market. But I also feel that the success with "The Final Countdown" was one of the reasons to why we broke up. When the rest of the albums didn't sell as much, we lost the spark. And that was even though the other albums didn't flop. They all sold a couple of millions. Perhaps we were a band that should have sold one million instead of six. We weren't mentally prepared for this tremendous success.
Ian Haugland
After the US Tour in 1987 we moved to the Bahamas. We had a really cool house that we bought together. In retrospect I think this whole Bahamas thing was stupid. It was definitely not a creative climate. You can't sit in the sun, writing rock songs. Hell, if we would have stayed any longer, we might have written a reggae album, and I don't even want to think about what that might have sounded like. Besides, we didn't move to the Bahamas for creativity. It was a way to save whatever money could be saved. We had already spent absurd amounts. Unfortunately our management had no control of our expenses nor how to deal with taxes.
Mic Michaeli
When we understood how much money was gone, we realized it was time to break up with Erdtman.
Ian Haugland
There were no hard feelings when we broke up with Erdtman in 1991. But one of the reasons that there were no hard feelings, was that we didn't realize how much money had disappeared, and that the contracts were not to our advantage. When I moved back to Sweden in 1992, I didn't have much money at all. It was barely enough to start a new life. It might seem stupid, but if you haven't met Erdtman, you don't know what an incredible salesman he is. He could sell anything. Sand in Sahara… You name it.
Anders Tengner
From what I understand, the accusations against Erdtman might very well be true. It's too bad if he succeeded in tricking these poor guys out of that much money. These talented musicians, who now have to live on welfare. They deserved better than that. Erdtman seemed to be a fun, nice guy, but no one knows what went on behind the scenes.
John Levén
When I moved home from the Bahamas in 1992, I didn't have a cent. It was a shock. At least I thought I had something saved, but there was nothing. I had to live on minimum, which wasn't fun as I had a pregnant wife. But you learn from your mistakes. And the time with EUROPE was the best in my life. I got to see the world. I got to play. I was a rock star.
Part 3: Give a helpin' hand - Band Aid in Swedish
Stefan Johansson
Before the big Live Aid Benefit Gala in 1985, I went with a photographer to the USA to work, and there we heard about Hear'n Aid, the Heavy Metal benefit gala. I ripped off the idea. When I came home, I contacted Joey, who was a bit reluctant at first, but suddenly one day came running into OKEJ's office with a demo. That was "Give A Helpin' Hand" and once Joey was with us, there was no problem with getting things started.
Anders Tengner
This was the era of charity, so naturally Sweden should also help the starving children of Africa. When you look at pictures, you can see that everyone was really there. Journalists, photographers, club owners and others.
Peo Thyrén
"Give A Helpin' Hand" was the first thing Joey and Kjell (Kee) did together. And it was the first time Tommy Nilsson (new vocalist in Easy Action) showed up at such a big event. He had only been singing with Horizont earlier. It was Freddie von Gerber who had recommended him to the rest of us in Easy Action. We felt that he sang so good that we fired our singer at the time, Zinny Zan.
Stefan Johansson
When the single was released, it got top reviews from Aftonbladet's Lasse Anrell and really bad reviews from Expressen's Jan Gradvall.
Jan Gradvall
I remember putting it off and called it "We're Only In It For The Promotion". It was a really terrible song. The worst kind of power ballad without any humor. When my article was published, I heard that there were some "famous" heavy metal musicians who wanted to beat me up.
Lasse Anrell (Journalist in Aftonbladet)
I can't remember the song "Give A Helpin' Hand". Not a clue. Honestly.
Stefan Johansson
The papers were really on when we were performing the song on the TV show "Nöjesmassakern". Joey flew in from Switzerland, where he was recording new songs. Everyone was writing about the duel between Tommy Nilsson and Joey. I think everyone agreed that Tommy won. But it was a bit unfair as Joey had a sore throat and couldn't do his best.
Anders Tengner
The duel between Tommy and Joey was a product of the media. We who were in the business were wondering what Tommy was doing there. He wasn't exactly your average Heavy Metal singer.
Ian Haugland
"Give A Helpin' Hand" wasn't really a good song. The whole project was about being seen. Especially for the less famous bands, like Heavy Load.
Peo Thyrén
In retrospect you might question the motives behind Metal Aid. It was oozing with speculation.
John Norum
I felt that the whole thing was totally worthless and totally gay. It was so damn tasteless. If you look at the video, you can see me standing in the back, trying to hide. I didn't want to be there, but my label forced me.
Anders Tengner
Looking back, you might question this project, but back then we felt damn proud.
Stefan Johansson
I don't feel that the motives were doubtful at all. To say that would be cynical. The single sold for 600 000 Swedish Kronor (77 000 US Dollars) that were given to "Band Aid Trust". I can't see anything bad about that. I got to meet Bob Geldof after the Metal Aid in London at the Hard Rock Café and he thanked us very much for our contribution.
Part 4: The foggy days
Anders Tengner
I don't think there is one rock musician from the 80s who hasn't received a blowjob backstage. The groupie scene was quite developed in the 80s in Sweden. We were waiting together backstage. Me for interviews and them for sex.
Peo Thyrén
When Easy Action was formed in 1983, we used to hang at the rock club Studion at St. Eriksplan and later at Hard Rock Café and Ritz. The whole business went to the same clubs. The guys from Treat, 220 Volt, Hempo… sometimes Haugland and Michaeli from EUROPE showed up. It was rocking, but people mostly drank beer. There wasn't much drugs at all. Some were doing amphetamines but they were a real minority. There was an abundance of girls. But I kept it cool.
Hempo Hildén
Studion was a cool place. Bullen who did the lights, always made them blink to the music. That was impressive. I had an apartment at Thulegatan 31, which was close by, where we had some wild times before and after our visits to Studion. Michael Monroe from Hanoi Rocks was hanging with a chick named Coco, but sometimes he came with me instead, since he liked some black chicks from Detroit who were playing with Jerry Williams' band at Börsen and I knew them.
Peo Berghagen
There was competition between the bands but it never got violent.
Hempo Hildén
We loved each other across the borders. Hell, Kee Marcello and I were sharing the same chick for a while. Not literally sharing, but I had her one night and Kee the next. But we really didn't use those girls. They were tough chicks who knew what they were doing. At least the older ones, the ones I liked. Joey and John Norum could have the young girls as long as they left the airhostesses in their 30's for me. The ones with real lingerie. Girdles from Yves Saint Laurent and things like that.
Annika Sundbaum Melin
Quite a lot of girls came to Stockholm for the weekends just to hang with these guys.
Hempo Hildén
Those who didn't come from Stockholm were the best. There was a bunch of girls from Älvsbyn in northern Sweden who were into lace and leather, and two of them liked to go down on each other, which of course was appreciated.
Annika Sundbaum Melin
I often heard those groupies stories. It was mostly about the international rockers who they had slept with. About how nice Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy) was, how Ian Gillan from Deep Purple wanted to pee on them and how good Biff Byford from Saxon was in bed. They didn't care about the Swedish stars. They were too easy. They were begging for sex.
Anders Wikström
Around the same time as Monsters of Rock, I was at Studion to check out Swedish band Six Feet Under. Suddenly Mötley Crüe showed up. They wanted to go backstage and get Six Feet Under's instruments, and have an improvised concert, but the Six Feet guys didn't dare lending them their instruments, since they were so wasted. Too bad. Tommy Lee probably would have slammed the shit out of those drums. But it was a cool evening. We played our first single to Nikki Sixx who told us to watch out or he might steal the song.
Hempo Hildén
I don't think Tommy Lee had one of his best nights when it comes to girls. It was so damn dark that no one could see the difference between him and everyone else. And he looked a lot like Kee.
Erica Evenlind (vocalist and Yngwie Malmsteen's ex-girlfriend)
Kee was really popular, but the best looking one was John Norum. He was so cool. All the girls loved him and he took what he wanted.
Annika Sundbaum Melin
Speaking of hitting on celebrities, I remember that John Norum told me once: "Carola (Swedish singer) is so easy that it's not even fun trying."
John Norum
Sure, I got my share. But no one can compete with Ian Haugland.
Mic Michaeli
Since Ian was a drummer, and they don't show behind the drums, he had to make himself seen in other ways. He did a hell of a lot of party tricks and often they involved his extremely long foreskin.
Ian Haugland
Sometimes when I got bored, I used to keep myself occupied by putting bottle caps under my foreskin. My record is 19. After that you'd pee blood for a couple of days, but it was worth it. We didn't do any drugs so you had to have fun in other ways.
Mic Michaeli
EUROPE had some parties also in Sweden, before the international breakthrough. There were quite a lot of wild parties in shitty hotels around the country. If there was a pool, the nights used to end there. Skinny-dipping with girls from the party. Sometimes we broke into the hotel bar to get more beer.
John Norum
Of course Joey was the one who was surrounded by most groupies. He lived the complete rock star myth. The rest of us - we got the girls that were left over, and we were happy with that.
Ian Haugland
It was me and John Levén who partied the most. Mic has always been a bit of a thinker and Joey was quite shy, just like John Norum was. John Levén used to do the caveman style, he picked a girl and took her up to his room. He didn't talk that much. I was a bit more charming, even if I wanted the same thing.
Erica Evenlind
Ian, well, he was a funny, crazy guy. Legendary. It was common knowledge that he had had so much clamydia that his dick was starting to look like a cauliflower. Many people think that EUROPE was the nicest band in the world, but that's not true. The poodle rockers in Sweden thrashed as much as any other band, even if they didn't do drugs, like the international stars.
Mic Michaeli
The rock'n'roll culture was completely different in the USA - on all levels. Marketing, tours, press, drinking and of course chicks. But I didn't live it all out, because I had a girlfriend. Besides, I was a bit calmer than some of the other guys, who had no problem with screwing on tables, in public. Like Ian. Chicks in the USA were completely different. In Europe they were more apologetic and said: "I usually don't do things like this" if they went with a guy to his room. In the States it was more like: "Can't we go up to your room and have sex instead of standing here talking?"
Ian Haugland
One time we had a day off in the US in 1987, and the whole band went out to party. We didn't get any girls and went back to the hotel. When we came into the lobby, we met a group of American girls who'd had a party in the restaurant. They were quite hot, so I walked up to the girl with the biggest boobs. She looked like Pamela Anderson. I was pretty straightforward and asked her if she wanted to come up to my room, and she said yes. We were like two dogs sniffing each other and we didn't talk. The first time I opened my mouth after she had said yes to my invite, was when I went down on her. The whole US tour was like that. It was like stepping in to a time machine and coming out into another world that totally lacked morale.
Anders Tengner
EUROPE's tour in the US in 1987 was the wildest. It was here that Ian Haugland's foreskin trick was hot. He always wanted to impress with his long foreskin, and put things under it. One favorite was to squeeze it in the end and then start to pee so that the foreskin swelled like a balloon. One night he was unsuccessful, to say the least…
Ian Haugland
The pee balloon is a classic. That night we had a band meeting with Thomas Erdtman, and after a while nature called for Mr. Haugland, so I went to the bathroom. Once there, I decided to save a little. Then I went out to the restaurant with a steady grip on the pee balloon. But when I held my dick over John Levén's shoulder, he got so scared that he slapped me. I lost my grip and the pee came all over the table and…well, it's possible that some people were hit. The pee balloon is a very good party trick.
Mic Michaeli
If Ian was the craziest, Joey was the calmest. The longer we were on tour, the earlier he went to bed. He was so dependant on his voice and couldn't be out partying every night.
Anders Tengner
Oklahoma 1987 was the worst. The guys started to realize the power they had over the female fans. There was a party where someone said that only topless girls would be allowed in. No problem. I don't think I've ever seen so many topless girls in the same room. There were some…quite daring things going on. I know that some of it is still on videotape.
Ian Haugland
Oklahoma was wild. To get into the party, the girls had to take off their bra or their panties. Anyone can guess what went on in there. Def Leppard's manager was there and videotaped the whole thing. A couple of years later, I met him when he was on tour with Metallica, and he showed me some pictures. The only thing you could see was a hairy ass moving up and down but it gave a clear hint as to the level of the party. And honestly: The whole US tour of 1987 was fucking wild.
Mic Michaeli
One day on our first US tour in 86 or 87, while we had a hit with "Final Countdown", we were supposed to go to a "meet and greet" party to meet some fans and record company people. It was quite far, so limos picked us up. They were well equipped with liquor, so we could have some fun during the ride. I was unlucky and had to ride with Haugland. He started to drink as hell right away. Unfortunately the driver didn't know exactly where we were going, but finally he thought he'd found the right hotel. We stepped out of the limo and Haugland saw the fountain outside the lobby and jumped in - With his clothes on. After a while it turned out to be the wrong hotel, so we had to continue driving. And I had to sit next to a wasted and wet Haugland in the backseat. When we finally made it to the right hotel, the others were pretty shocked and it wasn't all that popular with everybody involved, but Ian was just laughing.
Ian Haugland
I had a girlfriend when EUROPE had the international breakthrough and if there is anything I regret, it is not being fair to her and playing it straight. There were a lot of girls on the side. Finally we went separate ways, but we found each other again, and today we have three children. But I would like to add that it wasn't just us guys in the band who had girls. Erdtman was just as good, but he felt bad about his little penis and kept commenting ours….
Mic Michaeli
Well, Ian didn't feel bad about his penis. In a hotel party with Magnum in England, he started hitting on a girl that was together with the keyboardist in Magnum. After a while I told him that maybe it wasn't such a good idea, and then, like to cover it all up, he took out his dick and started talking about safe sex. He pulled out his foreskin to the max, folded it backwards and took a rubber band to keep it in place. Then he shouted that this was his version of safe sex.
Ian Haugland
At least I kept it cool when we were in Japan. I was afraid to come home with my dick in a bag. In some weird way it felt as though there were more sexually transmitted diseases in Japan. But I had no problems saying no, since all the chicks were so ugly. They also had bad mouth hygiene. And their teeth… It looked as though someone had been standing 200 meters away and thrown the teeth into their mouths.
John Levén
It felt as if Japan had the same groupie culture as there was in the USA in the 60's and 70's. The girls were actually waiting for us in the lobby and asked us if they could come with us to our rooms. They kind of asked if they could be given the privilege to be with us. I wasn't afraid of any sexually transmitted diseases in Japan. All you had to do was take a shot when you went home, and it cleaned out everything. I don't understand what Ian is talking about.
Anders Tengner
I was only there as a reporter, but never mind, the first thing I heard was, "Hello, I am Mishoda, will you sleep with me tonight?" Ian was still faithful to his girlfriend back then and I was newly engaged, so we were looking out for each other. We let two girls have sex in front of us once or twice, as entertainment, but we never touched them.
Ian Haugland
One morning when I came home to the hotel, from a wild party, I did pick up one of the girls in the lobby. I was a wreck, and when we came up to the room I lied down in bed, and after a while I threw up all over the room. Most of it landed on the girl's back and she ran out of the room, crying.
Anders Tengner
EUROPE was the band that trashed the most, since they were big internationally. But bands back home were pretty good at it too.
Hempo Hildén
When I was in Åland in the late fall of 1988, to play with a small band, there was one hell of a party afterwards. I had sex with a chick from Gothenburg in the hotel pool. She was holding on to the edge and while we were having sex, John Norum served me drinks. That was rock'n'roll.
Anders Tengner
In the end of the 80s there was no secret that Sha-Boom and their singer Dag Finn were the worst.
Peo Thyrén
We were all pretty wild. But Dagge (Dag Finn) was the worst. He was the one who brought sex to the limit.
Dag Finn (Vocalist in Sha-Boom)
I had chicks every night. Everything from 16 year olds to 30 year old mothers, so I had every possibility to live my sex dream. There's nothing I haven't done. I've slept with the club owner's daughter, had sex in the DJ booth, had many girls at the same time, had girls doing it in front of me, and I've had sex on stage. After a gig in Motala I had four girls the same night. One in the shower after the concert, two at the party afterwards and one in the hotel room. It was really sick, and I didn't enjoy it. It became a sport. Luckily I always used condoms so I never caught any diseases. And I also want to say that the girls were willing. Always. When Sha-Boom split up I was so tired of it all. For three years I only had oral sex. I had to do something new.
Peo Thyrén
At one time we were called to a crises meeting with the record company and the tour manager. The roadies felt that we were too wild, and wanted to quit, which didn't really scare us. So we kept on partying.
Dag Finn
The worst thing I've done was in the summer of 1988. We were in Skara to play at Skara Sommarland. In the afternoon we were waiting in Bert Karlsson's (infamous record label owner) office, and I pooed on his glass table. The whole band were lying underneath, watching. Bert still doesn't know about it, as we cleaned up after us. To me it was fun. Since Bert was always walking around, belching and farting, I felt it was OK to poo on his glass table.
Annika Sundbaum Melin
All boys turn seven years old when they step into a tour bus. But my impression is that the best looking guys had less sex than the others, as they didn't need that confirmation. Those who weren't that good looking took anything that moved. Sometimes I was upset because some of the girls were way too young. Even if they didn't offer any resistance, I'm not sure that they really wanted to have sex with those guys. There was tragedy.
Erica Evenlind
There weren't just female groupies. I always had a bunch of guys after me. Even if I didn't use them in the same way as the guys did, I thought it was fun to meet young, good-looking rockers. I was dating Yngwie (Malmsteen) back then, but after a while it was hard to remember if I had a boyfriend or if I was single… I don't know how many articles were written about me and James Hetfield of Metallica, even if they weren't true. But Axl Rose hit on me. Hard. But I turned him down and he was really sad because no girl had ever said no to him.
Peo Berghagen
Another band that partied really hard was Electric Boys. One midsummer day I was woken up by an editor at Expressen, who asked me if I knew that the guys had trashed a hotel room. A TV had been thrown out and they had broken into the hotel bar to get more beer. Most people thought it was Sha-Boom, but Peo Thyrén denied it in the papers. We felt that we had to admit that it was us, and that turned out to be a smart move. People like bands who know how to party.
Erika Evenlind
I was in the tour bus in 1991 when Aftonbladet called. I think it was Annika Sundbaum. She asked me if it was my musicians or Electric Boys who had left a wasted, almost unconscious, girl in a hotel room with a chicken bone up her vagina. They never found out who did it.
Annika Sundbaum Melin
Dance bands and boybands were and are probably just as thrashy as rockers, but rockers never say that they are romantic guys, who would light candles and buy flowers, like some other bands would say. That's why I think rockers are more honest. It's all about straight moves and fast sex. - Nothing else.
Part 5: The death of poodle rock
Anders Tengner
Heavy Metal fell on its own grip. Everyone wanted to be better than everyone else when it came to pyro, makeup and excess. Hell, Mötley Crüe had a flying drum kit on one tour. How can you top that? The stars became more and more untouchable and introvert in their bubbles of limos and chicks. Heavy Metal was working class music in the beginning, but which working class guy could identify himself with these pastel maniacs? It was the same for Swedish bands, who got more and more commercialized. Suddenly the Grunge came and that was the end of it all.
Peo Thyrén
It would have been impossible to go on. There were a lot of bands that would have run us off the track if we had continued.
Anders Wikström
It started to die when Guns n' Roses came along. Their sound was rougher and the deathblow was Nirvana.
Epilogue: A new millennium
Erica Evenlind
In December 1999 EUROPE did a sneak gig at Hard Rock Café before the millennium gig. It was so damn fun, because all the old friends were there. Some who I hadn't seen for ten years. Many had gained weight and looked really worn out. But some were really fresh, like John Norum. He gets better and better looking with age. During the gig he was the only one who played in a leather jacket and a T-shirt, even though it was 30 degrees below zero. He's really cool.
Anders Tengner
I saw the millennium gig on TV. It was fun. The guys looked great.
Mic Michaeli
It was a one time thing, and playing two songs was enough. But the arrangements were bizarre. Partly because it was so damn cold and partly because the audience was hundreds of meters away from us. After the gig, manager and CEO Jan Stenbeck (Swedish Rupert Murdoch or Silvio Berlusconi had arranged for a boat to take us to Gamla Stans Bryggeri, where the party continued. It was one hell of a party, and I remember leaving the place and seeing a drunk Haugland trying to make out with Stenbeck. Very much Ian.
