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pictures from the Hultsfred anniversary show Read: "Memoirs of a Nomads fan" (willy b) Lindsay Hutton reviewing the 20th anniversary at Kolingsborg in Stockholm April ,friday 13: For Jeff Starship…. remembered
by willy b Part
I: The history (Practically speaking) The
first time I ever heard of The Nomads was sometime in the
spring of 1984. The Nomads had done their first gig in
Oslo, Norway, and I was playing guitar in a band myself
at the time. The drummer in this band, called Crawdaddy
Simone by the way, had attended this gig (at a place
called Ratz) and told me The Nomads had played
"Stranger blues", a song we also did ourselves.
I got a bit curious, went out and bought their mini-album
"Where the wolf bane bloom", and got stuck. Fat
and screaming guitars, and some incredible songs!
In December 1984 I got to see them on stage in Oslo for
the first time. I chatted a bit with them before the gig
started, and they were very nice and friendly. They were
great on stage, despite playing to about eleven persons.
They had some trouble with the bass sound, got some
horrendous bass-feedback, and I remember Ed Johnson
throwing his sticks on the stage floor, and shouting in
anger to bass player Tony Carlsson because of that. Not
only that, but they did "Red Cadillac and a black
moustache" as an encore, without Tony Carlsson, and
I wondered if he'd gotten the sack between the main set
and the encores. But then Tony came out into the
audience, and asked if I had a lighter, as he wanted to
smoke. He told me they never did that song with him.
In the spring of 1985 we (The Nomads and Crawdaddy
Simone) did a gig together at a place called Kroa, Bö i
Telemark. There they did a version of "Stranded on a
dateless night" which I really dug. I got on very
well with Tony Carlson, and when I got the chance to put
my own band together in the summer, under the name of
the willy b review, I picked Tony as the bass player. The
rest of the band was from Norway.
Big was my surprise when he told me that he no longer was
with The Nomads. Anyway, he came over, we recorded four
songs, and that was that. The willy b review did quite
well, but it was impossible to have Tony in the band,
after all he was living in another country, and we had no
money to pay for neither trains nor planes. It's a long
way from Stockholm to Oslo. Anyway, I went to visit him i
Stockholm later that year, got in touch with another
Solna group called The Shoutless, and co-produced their
45 "Baby come on" in December. In the summer of
1986 I was supposed to play at a local outdoor festival
in Solna, with the Shoutless. The drummer got ill, so
there was no gig, but The Nomads played there too. I do
remember a version of "Temptation pays
double" with Hasse Östlund on lead vocals from that
gig. In the autumn I did three songs with the Shoutless
at the already mentioned Kroa i Bö, playing support to
The Nomads. I remember the Nomads opening with a
fantastic version of "Swamp gal", and that they
did at least one Roky Erickson number.
The willy b review continued with several different
line-ups. In the spring of 1987 the line-up was down to
an instrumental trio for a few months, modeled after the
Solna-band Bottle-Ups, as I wanted to create Norway's
answer to them. We got to support The Nomads in Oslo in
April 1987, and this has to be the worst Nomads-gig I've
ever seen. Not only did they do an awful version of
"Milk cow blues", but they stumbled in
"Rat-fink a boo-boo" and had to restart it.
Hasse broke a string somewhere in their set too, a string
which I replaced. Anyway, this was apparently their
fourth gig with a new rhythm-section, so... That very
same rhythm section is still with the band today,
fourteen years later.
In 1988 I started to work on a local radio station,
having my own hour every week, playing records and
interviewing people. I called this weekly program
"Rat fink a boo-boo", and it became quite
popular. In addition to the signature-tune I always had
what I called "Veckans lilla Nåmads" where I
simply played one of their records. I also remember I
interviewed Frank Minarik about "All wrecked
up" at the time it was issued. To me, that album is
the lowest point of The Nomads' recording career. But
every group that lasts a few years seems to have one,
like The Pretty Things had "Emotions", The
Stones "Between the buttons" a.s.o.
Those of you with a bit of knowledge of the history
of The Nomads, surely know that both bass player Tony and
drummer Ed Johnson (and also Nick for a while), were
members of a group called The Rumblers, when they no
longer were with The Nomads. In the autumn of 1990 both
The Rumblers and the willy b review played in Trondheim
on the same day, at different places though. Ed and Tony
came down to where the willy b review were playing, and
you should have seen their faces when we ended our show
with "The way you touch my hand"!
On September 7, 1991, the willy b review supported The
Nomads for the last time at Studentersamfunnet,
Trondheim, Norway. I can tell the exact date, as I
have the poster from the gig on the wall right behind as
I'm writing this. They were OK I presume, except that
they were loud! Incredibly loud! I do think The Nomads at
that concert are the loudest band I've ever heard,
although the Norwegian group Motorpsycho seemed to be
louder in Kristiansand in spring 1999. But Nomads at
least had a decent sound despite the loudness, M'psycho
had not. At the same time I did an interview with Nick
and Frank for a Norwegian music paper, about
"Sonically Speaking" among others.
I more or less gave up music in 1992, disbanded the willy
b review, and even stopped collecting records. Wrote a
couple of books about pulp fiction, and the years went
by. I picked up the Nomads' albums as they came out
however, there were always a track or two I thought were
OK. I got the chance to see them again a couple of years
ago, just before the release of the "Big sound
2000"-album, and thought they were pretty good! They
weren't dead yet! Part
II: The importance (theoretically speaking) The
hard cold facts are: The Nomads is the most important
band to ever come out of Sweden. Bands like The Hep Stars
were probably bigger, and Abba was definitely bigger and
made tons of money as well, but none of those Benny
Anderson-related groups made an impact on countless
people, I don't think they made anybody more genuinely
interested in music. The same goes for Tages, Ola &
The Janglers, Cardigans, Bob Hund, Soundtrack Of Our
Lives and so on, they didn't make any young people get
together with their instruments to try to start a band. The
Nomads also opened up a lot of doors for Scandinavian
groups in Europe, with their long tours through country
after country. Groups before The Nomads were dreaming and
talking about doing things abroad, but never managed to
do it. Those points are essential as far as importance
go, the way I see it. Ok, I used to dig The Hep Stars in
my younger days (and "On Stage" is an
incredible album!), and I play "Abba gold"
quite a lot even today (oh mamma mia!), but as far as
activating people one way or another, The Nomads are
Sweden's all time #1 band.
The record of most importance here, is of course
"Where the wolf bane blooms". A masterpiece
when it arrived, a masterpiece still today, and it made
people think and do something. At least some. To me it
was the best record to come out of the eighties, along
with The Screaming Blue Messiahs' "Good and
gone" mini-album (not far behind), and "Lone
Justice" first album (not far behind there again).
It's directness, rawness and simplicity combined with
power influenced people all around the western world,
mainly based on the jungle telegraph. After all, there
were no big ads, hardly any radio or tv (the Swedish
television seems to be very slow, even compared to
Norwegian television), and I do remember laughing at one
Swedish rock-encyclopedia that came out in the middle of
the eighties that didn't even mention The Nomads, despite
a couple of European tours, "...wolf bane.."
and a bootleg or two. "What a shame", I
thought.
As a matter of fact, I think there is only one group that
can be compared to the Nomads that's been going for that
many years, and that is The Cramps.
Speaking of memories, I remember meeting Frank Minarik
who told me that a bootleg with The Nomads had arrived on
the marked. It was titled "Psycho live" and was
"quite good", Frank told me with a big smile on
his face. That smile wasn't quite as broad when we a few
months later were talking about "European Wolf
Tour", which had lots of vocals, bass and drums, but
hardly any guitar, PA-taped as it was.
But what is it that make people around the world still
buying their records, and still pay up the necessary cash
to get into the concert halls? There are several reasons
I think. First it's the music. It's always raw, pretty
simple, but still has guts. Nick Vahlberg is one of the
better singers in this world, although no Howlin' Wolf or
Phil May, he sound both natural and convincing. A good
voice, and easy to recognize as well.
Then there is Hans Östlunds guitar playing, which is
probably the most unique element of them all. I can't
think of any guitarist anywhere that is more easy to
recognize than him. Well, maybe Les Paul, but then that's
another bag of tricks. And finally, the rhythm-section
does what a rhythm section should do, providing Hasse and
Nix with a backbone and a bottom.
Please let me also add that I think The Nomads' music
sounds much better on vinyl than on CDs. The guitars
sometimes get a bit thin on the digital format,
especially when they are presented in wide-screen stereo.
So for your own pleasure, get yourself the vinyl
versions.
The Nomads have always been the Nomads (even when they
were The Screaming Dizbüsters), and they always will be,
it seems. I've never quite understood why they called
themselves The Screaming Dizbüsters, playing the songs
at Nomads-concerts as well. But the "Summer of
love" fortyfiver is one of the greatest records ever
made. I'm also glad to say that I think
"Up-tight" is their best album since
"Hardware", which mean they still got something
to give, in fact more than most other bands these days.
As the wise men say: You can't keep a good band down!
The Nomads are about music - playing it, enjoying playing
it, and doing what they do best the best way they can.
Therefore: Happy birthday, Nomads, and thank you for the
music! Oslo,
May 14th, 2001, willy
b (sign.)
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