1989
A pretty slow year for Sator, tour-wise. A short trip to Norway, a couple of dates in Switzerland and Finland. There was only two shows in Sweden this year.
JANUARY — FEBRUARY 1989
As a result of all the touring the year before, Sator managed to get rid
of all the debts that had been hanging over the band for a long time.
The guys took a short, well deserved vacation.
During the break Chips took the chance to work with some other bands like
Psychotic Youth, Stry
Terrarie, The Union Carbide Productions, Blue for Two and Whipped
Cream among others.
MARCH 1989
Wed 1st - Chips joined another Blue for Two tour which would last until
April 22.
APRIL 1989
Thurs 13th - Sator cut a demo of Restless Again. 4 more songs were written
on the 18th and 19th.
Fri 28th - Bergen: The first of 3 shows in Norway. A couple of new songs
were premiered.
MAY — SEPTEMBER 1989
Most of the forthcoming album was written in the band's rehearsal-basement
during May and June. The band had about 30 songs to pick from when the
summer was over. One of the very last titles to arrive was Machine Gun
Justice.
Chips also did the last work on the Psychotic Youth album they started
up earlier that year. Kent and Chips also provided some backing vocals.
Kent can also be heard on backing vocals on several tracks on the Swedish
garage band Dolkows album "Levitation".
On July 24 Chips plays bass and guitar on a session with the band Commando.
Details unknown.
OCTOBER 1989
The band rehearses and puts the finishing touches to the songs written
this summer.
Wed 4th - Kent and Chips shows up as special guests at Dolkows show in
Malmö.
THE RECORDING OF STOCK
ROCKER NUTS!
NOVEMBER 1989
Wed 1st - Sator entered the Music-A-Matic studio in Gothenburg. Once
again with Michael Ilbert as the engineer and producer. The recording
budget had grown considerable since the last album. No late night sessions
that time.
During a couple of weeks, 16 songs were recorded Turn off the News/Restless
again/Gruesome Sunday morning/Ain't seen nothing/Hitch-hike to Caudine
Forks/Rise again/World/No reason/Machine gun justice/Sideshow screwballs/
Baby Doc holiday/Dog/Sergeant/Wonder/Raymond/Last call.
All but the last four ended up on the album. Sergeant became the b-side
of the 7" single World, but a long version of the song was later
added to the CD version as a bonus track. Wonder gets adopted by the Psychotic
Youth. The last two are still unreleased.
DECEMBER 1989
Sun 10th - Chips and Ilbert arrived at Hamburg airport on their way to
Loft studios, where the album was mixed with Aaron
Denson. An Englishman exiled in Germany.
Fri 22th - Stock rocker nuts! was completed and the band and the record
label got together to listen to the whole thing at Music-A-Matic.
Sat 23 - Hans, Michael, Kent and Chips played a secret gig in Borlänge
under the name Baby Demons.
A name they sometimes use when they're doing covers only. No Sator songs
will ever be heard on a Baby Demons night.
1990
JANUARY 1990
Rehearsals for the upcoming tour.
FEBRUARY 1990
Tue 6th - A video for World was filmed by Erik
Pauser.
Mon 26th - Stock Rocker Nuts! was released. The band celebrated by rehearsing
hard for the upcoming tour. The single World will give the tour it's name.
MARCH 1990
Fri 2nd - Sator's "The World Tour" opened in Arvika. It wasn't
really a world tour but it would cover Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark
Switzerland and Germany.
APRIL 1990
"The World Tour" continued
Thurs 19th - The band went to Crete, where they had a week off.
MAY 1990
Back on the road again with shows in France, Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
Fri 18th - Slug it out was written. It would take almost two years before
it was released.
4 more new songs were composed that month.
JUNE 1990
Mon 4th - Sator played at "XTC" in Berlin supported by The
Seers. That was the first date of a short
German tour.
Fri 15th - The whole band sang back up vocals on Joakim
Thåström's track "Miss Huddinge
centrum 1972" at Decibel studio in Stockholm.
Fri 22nd - Geneva, Switzerland with Les
Thugs among others.
JULY 1990
Sat 14th - Sator was back in Berlin for a charity show for "Radio
100"
Sun 22nd - A demo was made of the song You Got It All Wrong.
AUGUST 1990
Sat 4th - The weirdest engagement of the tour was when Sator played support
to the Rolling Stones
on the train that brought the audience back to Stockholm after the show
in Gothenburg. Strange gig indeed!
Fri 10th - The Hultsfred festival. A moment that would later will become
very important to Sator. The last minute idea to do a version of the early
Swedish punk rock classic Tyst för fan (something like "Shut
up" in English) with the original band Ebba
Grön's lead singer Joakim Thåström.
After Ebba Grön broke up, Thåström formed Imperiet,
probably the most successful band in Sweden during the 80's. Imperiet
never performed any Ebba Grön songs, so it was a major surprise to
the audience when Thåström showed up on stage with Sator for
the very last encore and sang Tyst för fan.
(A lot of fans still talk about this gig.)
This wasn't the last time the coalition Sator/Thåström would
perform together.
SEPTEMBER 1990
Fri 7th - Kaunitz: The first show of another German tour, as support
act to Die Toten Hosen.
This time Sator played arenas instead of the clubs they played last summer.
Kent - "There were a lot of high-lights on this tour. I remember when we supported Die Toten Hosen in Germany. We've never played that big venues before. In Kiel there were something like 10 000 people watching us".
Michael - "We became really good friends with "Die Hosen" during that tour and on some nights we did The Boys cover First Time and The Lurkers song New guitar in town together. We've been friends since that tour and still get together now and again."
Sat 22nd - Krefelt: The last night of the German tour,
only without Die Toten Hosen. Back to the small clubs again.
Sun 30th - "Hello hello (I'm back again)" was recorded at Music-A-Matic
Studio.
OCTOBER 1990
Mon 1st - The band recorded Dogday Afternoon.
Tue 2nd - The final touches were given to the songs.
Wed 10th - A planned mix of the two songs recorded earlier that month
was cancelled because of broken studio equipment.
Thurs 11th - The studio was repaired and the single could now be completed.
Sun 21st - Chips was working on a 6 song demo with The
Nomads at Sonet studios in Stockholm. It was completed in one 16
hour-session.
Wed 24th - The test pressing of the new single was approved.
NOVEMBER 1990
Mon 19th - A meeting with MNW Records. There was trouble at Radium Records
and the band had started to check out the options if the label goes under.
While the band was in Stockholm, Chips also found some time to put some
guitars on Thåström's LP "Explodera Mig 2000".
DECEMBER 1990
Fri 21st - Kent and Chips sang backing vocals on another Thåström
track.
Some time around Christmas, the bands latest single, a cover version of
the Gary Glitter song "Hello hello!
(I'm back again)" was released. It became one of the live favourites
from that tour. The B-side was a very sentimental country song called
Dogday Afternoon. It was only pressed in 3000 copies and all copies were
sold in two weeks time. Due to the shaky situation at the record label,
no reissues were planned.
It became Sator's last record on Radium Records. Even though Sator's catalogue
were selling more and more everyday, the rest of the label's artists lost
money. Radium finally went bankrupt and was bought by another company.
Sator was not included in that deal. Sator suddenly found themselves without
a record deal, and no one to pay the royalties owed for the two last albums
on Radium Records. They also got involved in a 3 year long legal battle
to get their rights back for the Sator and Sator Codex material. A bad
ending of a good year!