09/06
We're lucky again with the weather and as the drive is not really a very long one today we decide to stop here and there for a coffee. Conveniently the Swedish make it easy for foreigners to catch some nice sights without even having to leave the motorway. So we stop at Brahehus grab a cuppa and have a look at lake Vättern from top of the old castle there. Quite a view.Didn't buy
polkagris though.
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| Tourist attractions on the way. Brahehus. |
Fortunately we can leave the motorway after Jönköping just before the boring bit towards the south.
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| Close to Växjö. | |
Turning east onto smaller roads Smaland appears to be a beautiful sunny place. Lovely.
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| Even closer to Växjö. |
And then it's Växjö. Kafe de Luxe. Sure one of the warmest receptions I had on this tour when arriving at a venue. Maybe it felt like that as it is the first time ever I'm playing a gig in Sweden. First thing they tell us: "Please feel like home here! Want a coffee? Piece of cake? Let us know when you want to have dinner!" What's wrong in here?
The day seems to be exceptionally sunny for this part of Sweden as they say and decisions are made to put up a stage out on the terrace. A small vocal pa is put up with speakers with embroidered (!) covers. Lovely.
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| Watching over Mäkkelä & van Velzen in Växjö. |
As this was in the first place booked as a Mäkkelä's Trash Lounge gig I'm playing the first set solo. For the second one later on Robin joins in and we're doing a Church Of The Blue Nun set. Turns out that half of the audience are the local musicians which can be a pain at times. Not in Växjö. In fact we're having a fantastic time with particularly Pelle, Mikael and Bobo. The latter entering stage after our last song - Roy Harper's "Another Day" - and plays an amazing dobro/slide version of "Hat's Off To Roy Harper". Brillant. Thanks guys for coming down that Sunday!
10/06
A short drive to Malmö today so we've got time for a little stroll around town. I remember a small
recordshop I've discovered the day we arrived and by chance we meet Ulf, the owner, while having breakfast at the de Luxe. We walk those few meters down to his store and the place turns out to be what can be described as a memorial site of Scandinavian underground music. Apart from a huge vinyl selection Ulf shows us around the basement where the shop is located. He used to run a venue in the place and all the great Scandinavian bands played here over the early 90s. And I mean
all of them. The Nomads, 22-Pistepirkko, Bob Hund...well you name it! This all in a basement venue, capacity of about 50, middle of picturesque Smaland, Sweden. How weird is this? Looking at the place one can almost feel the spirit of northern Rock'n'Roll... Besides he used to run a studio down here which is still set up but apparently not in use anymore as I understood this. Shame. A fantastic, full analogue, recording unit. If I get a chance to come here again I've got to convince him to do some recordings here. I bloody
have to!
As a little souvenir I purchase a limited Bob Hund LP "Live In Ystad". Would have picked up an Ebba Grön too but there were none. Next time I'll be lucky. Before leaving we run into Nils the promoter who tells us he's putting up a psychedelic/prog rock festival (
"Psykjunta") nearby the coming weekend. We decide to have a look at the festival site which he recommends as an interesting place worth seeing.
This place dear reader, named Tyrolen, is definitely one of the whackiest things the writer of these lines has seen in a while. An old countryside dance hall they put up I assume in the 60s.
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| Gateway to fairy land |
Some theme park for lunatics. At least that's how it looks like. Trying to imagine hundreds of Swedish psychedelic music afficionados gathering here makes the whole thing even more bizarre. But have a look yourselves...
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| You might guess the purpose of this stage |
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| Surrealistic icons of pop history |
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| Ceiling fresco at Tyrolen... |
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| Favourite Tyrolian pastime |
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Arriving in Malmö late afternoon. And no - I haven't got the faintest clue what to expect. The gig place is a bar named Cafe Simpan with an improvised vocal pa (which sounds surprisingly good) and we're curious about Rebecka, who got us this gig on pretty short notice. A friend of a friend who used to live here. She's a jazz singer (have to recommend
her album here!) and turns out to be a wonderful person. She puts us up in her flat, there is even presents for Robin and me, and she shows us around the quarter named Möllan. To cut a long story short: this is just lovely. To say the least. Try to imagine a buzzing Berlin Kreutzberg or Neukölln plus a dash of Barcelona all condensed on a square mile with people being just unbelievably relaxed. A mixed, peaceful neighbourhood of immigrants and Swedes. Robin and me enjoying ourselves loitering about
11/06
Before leaving for Denmark for a last wind down gig at a party of my old friend Tina in Padborg, Rebecka takes us down to the Folkets Park and the west harbour for a coffee and we're having a look at Sweden's highest building.
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| Rebecka and Robin. Sunbathing. |
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We've been told about this by a very drunk, very excited young man on the ferry from Finland. I'm not sure if I fully agree to his words this being a very beautiful building. Well, it's revolving. That's something.
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| Very beautiful Swedish building. Revolving. |
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in a mild summer night this early June. Not too many people turn up this Monday evening but the gig is a good one and a perfect official ending to this tour. Worth mentioning here is I have to say I'm kinda tempted to say I really love this country and it's people. Comes as a surprise as previous experiences had to do mostly with not very friendly Swedish customs and border police officers.
I think that's it. Thanks to all of you who put us up, fed us, bought
drinks for us or been friendly in whatever way. Hope we'll meet again
next year. The next longer tour stint will take me in opposite direction
towards Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland and Spain in autumn...
