Chapter 11

MAY 2004

Mon 3rd – Sator entered the Music-A-Matic studio, Gothenburg. The recording of Basement Noise started. The following four weeks 21 songs were recorded. (Not all of them were completed)
The band took a short break after two weeks so Heikki and Chips could do the last Wild Kings show.

Fri 14th – The Sons of Cyrus album Rock & Rollercoaster was released. The album was produced by Chips who also added some piano and backing vocals.

Mon 19th – The Wild Kings at Wild Kingdom/Debaser for the last time supported by The Ackermans.

Setlist:

This is as far as we planned The Wild Kings to exist. It’s been a great six months and I think we all learned some new licks and that it made us better musicians. It’s always interesting to go into other songwriters minds and try to figure how they were thinking.

We might bring the band together again one day or maybe we won’t. Who knows? The last night was perfect apart from that some fucking asshole stole Markus’ Telecaster which he had borrowed for this night. Some creep just went up on the stage and walked away with it after the show! If anyone knows anything about it please help us. Markus income does not cover this sort of things.

Chips

Fri 28th – Basement Noise session ended for this time. Read more about the sessions.

JUNE 2004

Fri 11th – Chips went to Malmö to produce an album by Wilmer X.

The Wild Kings single released last month was withdrawn since all copies had a pressing fault on the b-side. Just a few copies managed to slip through to the shops.

Fri 11th – Chips went to Malmö to produce an album by the band Wilmer X.

Tues 15th – After 4 days of rehearsals and pre-production Chips and the guys in Wilmer X entered the Varispeed studio in Klågerup just outside Malmö. 15 songs were recorded in about over two weeks. Engineer at the sessions were studio owner Acke Bengtsson.

26th – Sator were supposed to play at a festival in Hjo but unfortunatly the whole event was cancelled for reasons unknown.

I think it had something to do with that some of the artists demanded their money upfront and the promoter couldn’t come up with the cash. We were really looking forward to try out some of our new songs.

Michael

JULY 2004

Chips did more Wilmer X sessions at Varispeed studio and also at the Music-A-Matic studio.

Wed 14th – Chips began working with Millencolin’s 6th album doing pre-production in Örebro.

Fri 23rd – Some last touches were made on the Wilmer X album at the Music-A-Matic studio.

During the weekend 6 leads vocals was also laid down by Markus Karlsson for the The Republicans album.

Fri 30th – During the weekend Chips produced 4 tracks with the Swedish band The Billy Pilgrims at Music-A-Matic Studio in Gothenburg with Henryk Lipp as engineer. The band didn’t have a record label yet so it was ment as a “high profile” demo ready for release.

Heikki kept touring with Lisa Miskovsky all summer long playing most festivals in Sweden like in Skellefteå, Gothenburg, Borlänge among other towns.

The only work done on Basement noise this month was Kent’s lead vocals on “No!”.

A Sator song has once again appeared on a compilation album without the knowledge of the band. The album’s called “Monster Trucks” and the song was “We’re right, you’re wrong”. The CD was sort of the soundtrack to the TV-show “Hotwheels Monster Jam”, on Swedish TV4 this summer.

It’s quite annoying that we don’t get asked before they use our songs! We usually say yes to things like this but we want to keep control over what’s released.

Kent

AUGUST 2004

Mon 9th – Another production job for Chips. The recording of Millencolin’s album started at Fascination Street Studios (former Kuling Studios) in the band’s hometown Örebro. Engineer was Jim Brumby who worked with Sator on Barbie-Q-Killers vol 1 and Stereo. He also worked with Speed of Sound Enterprise on their sole album.

It’s been a very hectic year producing albums by Sons of Cyrus, Captain Murphy, Wilmer X, The Republicans, Millencolin and the Sator album. But all the projects were so interesting and I really like the bands so I just couldn’t say no.

Chips

SEPTEMBER 2004

The Wilmer X album was mixed by Ronny Lahti at Megaphon studio in Stockholm from the 6th to the 14th.
Chips also recorded some more vocals in Gothenburg with Markus Karlsson for the Republicans album in Gothenburg along with more sessions for the Millencolin album.

Thurs 23rd – The “Thåström band” from his last three tours (Chips Kiesbye, Heikki Kiviaho, Jörgen Wall, Per Hägglund and Joakim Thåström) was brought back together again for a recording session at Decibel studio in Stockholm. A song written by Thåström/Hägglund was recorded for the movie “Tjenare Kungen”. The track was produced by Carl-Mikael H-son and Per Hägglund.

That band doesn’t exist anymore. It was a one-off reunion for this movie. It took us a couple of hours to learn and record the song which I don’t know the title of.

Chips

OCTOBER 2004

Sat 16th – The Millencolin album was finished. It was mixed at Music-A-Matic Studio with Henryk Lipp. 13 tracks were completed. 1 was dropped from the final list.

Sun 17th – After 2 tracks were remixed at Megaphon with Ronny Lahti, The Wilmer X album was also finished. 15 tracks were completed. 2 were left off the album.

Sat 23rd – Kent performed a two hour set with Rolling Stones covers with the band De Stenade Rullarna (something like “The Stoned Rollers”) at Jazzhuset in Gothenburg. The set included “I wanna be your man” and “It’s only rock ‘n’ roll” and many more.

Tues 26th – The Wild Kings returned for another show for The Wild Kingdom club at Debaser in Stockholm. The set was a mix of earlier setlists from previous spring.

The setlist:

The opening band was The Silverbug from Stockholm.

Thurs 28th – This year’s first Sator show took place on the cruise ship “Silja Opera”. It was a festival called “Dalaslaget” The festival’s policy was that all bands had to have some Borlänge connection. The other bands were Blacksnake, Voyager, Twin Earth, 197, Machina and Månsson Allstars.

Setlist:

Encores:

The first time we ever played on a cruiser. We didn’t plan to do any shows this year but this was one of those things you just have to do. Apart from some technical problems with the bass amp it was a really good show too.

Hans

Some of the audience was as drunk as only Scandinavians on a boat trip can be. I think a lot of people missed us because they passed out in their cabins.

Michael

Pretty much as we expected. I mean we all come from the same area. “The liquor belt” of Sweden as they call it, so we know how it works.

Kent

NOVEMBER 2004

Tues 2nd – Chips did some more sessions with The Republicans. The recordings continued on the 11th and 14th.

Wed 10th – The Hellacopters “Strikes by Lightning” mini album was released. It was produced by Chips and contains the remaining songs from the “By The Grace of God” sessions in 2002. It includes one song called “Blinded by the light” written by Robert “Strings” Dahlqvist/Chips Kiesbye. (Chips contributed the words)

Tues 30th – The last Wild Kings show for the season at Wild Kingdom/Debaser in Stockholm. All new songs this time apart from the band’s theme song.

This was the second “the last show” with The Wild Kings before we all returned to our “home bands”. We only planned for the Wild Kings to exist until last summer but we just couldn’t say no to a few more nights. It has actually been loads of fun working as a cover band. This night might have been our greatest moment and it felt quite good to end like this.

Chips

It’s always good to go back to being just a fan again and play some songs we like for no other reason than having a good time. But I must admit that there were some songs Chips came with to the rehearsals that I had never even heard before. So I got some musical education as well.

Heikki

Tues 23rd – Release party for the Clash-tribute DVD at Debaser in Stockholm. The documentary was shown on a big screen. Mick Jones and Tony James new band Carbon/Silicon played at the party.

DECEMBER 2004

Chips continued with pre-production and recorded demos for The Hellacopters’ and Dozer’s forthcoming albums.
There was also some more work done on the Republicans’ album and two tracks were mixed for a vinyl only single.

Hardrock café opened in Gothenburg. If you go there you can see Sator’s Grammis award from -92 and Chips ancient leather vest (seen in many old Sator pictures) on display.

Heikki (and Jörgen “Jugglo” Wall) produced some songs with the Eskilstuna band Le Mans. And the Fatboy album “Steelhearted” they produced was finally released.

Sat 4th – The last recordings on the four The Billy Pilgrims songs were done.

Sun 5th – Finally some more work on the Sator album! Kent and Chips put down some backing vocals on “World Keeps turning” and “Ghost of my control”.

Sun 26th – Sator played a short set at the club “Blå” in Eskilstuna. It was the second and last show this year. Hasse couldn’t make it this night so some songs had to be dropped or rearranged.

Setlist:

We were only supposed to play six songs but when we got started we just couldn’t stop, so it almost became a full set anyway.

Kent

Fri 10th – The Clash London Calling albums was released 25 years ago this day. It was celebrated at “Pustervik” in Gothenburg. Kent sang “Brand New Cadillac”. Some of the other guests were Stry Terrarie, Incka Ullén, Johan Johansson, Stefan Nilsson, Michael “Krånne” Krohné, Sulo, Marcus Birro & Lasse Franck, Crippa and Balsam.

2004 was a very busy year for me but it didn’t become “the return of Sator year” as we planned. It was mostly my fault. I just couldn’t find the time. 2005 will be better for the band. The album is almost done and we will play a lot more shows.

Chips

2005

JANUARY 2005

Chips did more pre-production on The Hellacopters “Rock ‘n’ roll is dead” album.
Fri 21st – Sator played at Folkets Park in Tranås at a mini festival named “The Gathering”. The other bands were Rövsvett, Mimikry and Asta Kask. Sator’s setlist was similar to the last two shows’ but the band had to drop a few songs because of the curfew.

I think we dropped three songs but the audience kept on screaming so we were finally allowed to do one more song after the curfew so we did ‘You ain’t nothing to me’ as the very last encore.

Hans

It was a really good night for all the bands. The audience was great.

Heikki

Wed 26th – The Chips Kiesbye produced Wilmer X album “13 våningar upp” was released with good reviews. It entered the Swedish charts at no 1.

That’s actually my first number 1. Sator has never been higher than number 2. I think Thåström’s album was a number 1 too but it doesn’t count as I only played guitar. The charts are not that important to us but it looks good in the ‘history books’.

Chips

Mon 31st – The recording of the next Hellacopters album started at the Atlantis studio in Stockholm. Once again Chips produced. Engineer was Michel Ilbert, Chips and Janne Hansson.

FEBRUARY 2005

For the 5th year in a row Chips were part of a Grammis nomination. This time with The Hellacopters “Strikes like lightning” mini album, but as usual the Grammy went to someone else. The recording of The Hellacopters “Rock ‘n’ roll is dead” album continued the whole month.

Fri 11th – The second Sator show this year (wow almost a tour!), at Blue Moon Bar in Karlstad. Support band was Mama Kin, a local “sleaze rock” band.

Kent produced sessions for an album with the singer/songwriter Dan Viktor at Nacksving/Music-A-Matic studio. The working title is “Mitt hjärtas monster”. It will be Dan Viktor’s second long player. Dan is also part of Kent’s Dylan tribute band The BOB.

MARCH 2005

March 3rd – Chips played guitar on two tracks for a Niels Jensen album at 44traxx studio in Stockholm. The album was produced by Heikki and Jörgen “Jugglo” Wall. Heikki and Jugglo also acted as the backing band on all tracks. Niels Jensen is an actor/artist/video director/movie maker… who has released at least 6 albums from 1980-93. Mostly under his own name but also some electro sounds as Vipera.

The album is a total mess of styles and sounds. Everything from punk to more experimental stuff. I don’t know what label it will be released on yet.

Heikki

Sun 13th – “ADHD”, the last Niels Jensen track was laid down live in the studio by Chips, Heikki and “Jugglo” with Niels on lead vocals and some extra guitar. Michael who happened to be in town helped out on backing vocals.

This is the punkiest track on the album. Pure primal punk.

Heikki

The track was basically written on the spot after an idea from Niels that the chords should fit with the lyrics. So the chords are A/D/H/D and nothing else. It felt like we were all back in the basement in 1979 again.

Chips

And easy job. All I had to do was scream ‘ADHD’ over and over again.

Michael

Wed 16th – Wilmer X recorded their version of Björn Skifs’ (of Blue Swede “Hooked on a feeling” fame) mid-70’s hit “Michelangelo” for a Eurovision song contest 50 years celebration compilation called “Alla Tiders Melodifestival”. Chips produced and sang backing vocals. Stefan Boman engineered. The song was recorded and mixed at Park Studio in Stockholm.

Thur 24st – The Hellacopters album was finished.

Mon 28th – The Hellacopters b-side “It might mean something to you” was recorded and mixed.

We discovered that we didn’t have a b-side for the single and the mastering was booked for the day after! So me and Nicke very quickly put together a song. It was written, recorded and mixed in about 2-3 hours! It was fun to write a b-side on purpose and I think it actually turned out pretty good.

Chips

Wed 30th – The Millencolin album “Kingwood days”, produced by Chips, was released and entered the Swedish charts at number 2.

Heikki produced 2 tracks; “A withered rose” and “The letter” for the Eskilstuna band Dave at Studio Ambassaden in Eskilstuna.

Kent produced the first album by Per “Flamman” Westling. Per “Flamman” Westling also plays guitar in Dan Viktor’s band and in The BOB.

The album will be great! It’s like a mix between Wilco, Neil Young and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Kent

APRIL 2005

Wed 13th – Sator returned to Music-A-Matic studio to finish the Basement Noise album.
Some vocals were re-recorded and some extra guitars and keyboards were added.

Sat 23rd – Kent played a show at Jazzhuset in Gothenburg with The BOB. (The Dylan cover band The SHE’s new name from now on)

Sun 24th – The BOB did another show at Jazzå also in Gothenburg.

The Republikans’ 7″ single “Thanks a lot Buddy” was released. It was produced by Chips and was the first songs to be released from the never ending album sessions.

MAY 2005

Tues 11th – 11 of the 13 songs for the Sator album had now been mixed. Since the studio was booked the last two songs had to be mixed at a later date. Chips went back home to Stockholm and some more work on the Republikans album.

The Republikans album is the slowest project ever, but we were finally beginning to see the end of it now.

Chips

Wed 12th – The Billy Pilgrims session produced by Chips was recorded last august and now it finally got mixed. All 4 songs were completed in 1 day.

Thurs 19th – Heikki played bass with The New York Dolls tribute band The New Dork Yolls at the club “Number six” in Eskilstuna. The band existed as Frenchette in the 80’s. This was a sort of reunion. All original members of Frenchette – Kjell Carlsson on guitar, Håkan Carlsson on drums and the singer Per Ekström – joined the line-up. Apart from the original bass player Lasse Johansson who didn’t wanna do it so, Heikki helped them out instead. Heikki’s own band from the early 80’s – Minx – was part of the same scene. Minx released two now hard to find 7″ singles.

Mon 23rd – Heikki started working on an album with the band Le Mans from Eskilstuna. He produced the album together with Jörgen “Jugglo” Wall. The recording took place at Park Studio and was engineered by Stefan Boman.

Chips also started pre-production work on the second Captain Murphy album this month.

Thurs 26th – Chips and Stefan Boman mixed the Wilmer X track “Kungen heter Bo”. The song was an outtake from the album sessions last year. It became part of an EP called “4×4”, along with 2 more outtakes and “Michelangelo”.

JUNE 2005

Thurs 9th – The Niels Jensen album “All min kärlek” was released. Three Sator members are featured Heikki, Michael and Chips.

Sat 18th – The Hultsfred Festival
Chips, Heikki and Jörgen “Jugglo” Wall were the backing band at the Hultsfreds 20 years anniversary show. Host was Allram Est (a big doll from a Swedish children’s show).

THE GUESTS/SONGS/ORIGINAL ARTISTS:
Joppe Pihlgren (Vocals/Guitar) – Bensin i blodet (Docent Död)
Anders “Moneybrother” Wendin (Vocals) – Ace of Spades (Motörhead)
Olle Ljungström/Andreas Kleerup (Vocals) + Kent Norberg (Guitar) – Shake some action (Flamin’ Groovies)
Maria Andersson (Vocals/Guitar) – Heart of the city (Nick Lowe)
José Gonzales (Vocals) – Small town boy (Bronski Beat)
Nix Vahlberg (Vocals) + Mats Gustafson (Saxophone) – Have love will travel (Richard Berry/The Sonics)
Kent Norberg (Vocals) – Too drunk to fuck (Dead Kennedys)
Kent Norberg (Vocals) + Robert “Strings” Dahlberg (Guitar) – Smokin’ in the boy’s room (Brownsvillle station)
Freddie Wadling (Vocals) – No fun (The Stooges)
Bo Sundtröm (Vocals) + Nix Vahlberg (Guitar) – Sweet Jane (Velvet Underground)
Nina Natri (Vocals) + Emma “Emmon” Nylén (Synth) – Living on video (Trans-Ex/Fidget)
Robert “Strings” Dahlberg (Vocals/Guitar) + Various backing singers – Rock ‘n’ roll is dead (The Rubinoos)

Later the same evening Sator were the last of the festival’s surprise acts on The Pampas stage. It just wouldn’t be a real Hultsfred festival anniversary without Sator.

Thurs 23rd – Another The Hellacopters b-side, “Positively So Naive”, was written and recorded in the same way as the previous one. Chips co-wrote the song with Nicke Andersson and played some guitar on the track as well. It turned up on the “I’m in the band” single.

Sat 25th – Sator played at the Midsommarrock festival at Säterdalen in Säter.

JULY 2005

Fri 8th – Sator returned to their hometown Borlänge for the Peace and love festival.

We played quite early so the sun was still hot. It was probably 40° on stage. We almost melted away!

Michael

Sat 30th – Another Sator show at The Vadstuck Festival on Gotland. The set ended with an unrehearsed version of Ring Ring.

We had dropped the song from the set quite a while ago but picked it up just for fun this night. You never know what might pop up in the set list.

Hans

AUGUST 2005

Tues 16th – The last three tracks (“Escape from Pigvalley Beach”/”Water on a drowning man”/”Out of my hands”) were finally mixed. The Basement Noise album was completed! “This ain’t the way home” was remixed and was the last song to be finished.

It’s been a long trip. We started in May 2004! The problem was getting studio time when everybody was available. We didn’t actually spend that much time in the studio. It was just ages between the sessions.

Chips

Wed 24th – “Hellraiser”, a song Sator recorded with Freddie Wadling back in 1988, was mixed by Henryk Lipp.

No one remembers much about that session. We don’t even know who recorded it. It might have been Henryk Lipp or Michael Ilbert. It’s also possible that we did it on our own. I’m not sure why it didn’t get released back then. I think we left for the Slammer-tour shortly after and didn’t get back home for a year. I guess we just forgot about it.

Hans

Fri 26th – The BOB (Kent’s Dylan cover band) played at Jazzhuset in Gothenburg

Sat 27th – Chips produced 2 songs with Swedish band Docenterna for a forthcoming greatest hits CD. The recording was done at 44 traxx studio with Jörgen Wall as engineer.

The Wilmer X live DVD was completed as well. And Chips kept on working with Captain Murphy doing more pre-production for their second album.

SEPTEMBER 2005

Tues 6th – The mixing of The Republikans album started. 11 songs were mixed for a yet untitled album. It was done at Music-A-Matic studios with Henryk Lipp.

The movie “Tjenare Kungen” was released this month. Thåström and his bandmates from the “Thåström band” (Chips, Heikki, Per Hägglund and Jörgen Wall) performed a newly written Thåström/Hägglund track called “Bara för mycket” on the soundtrack. The vocals were handled by Josefin Neldén (One of the actors in the movie).

OCTOBER 2005

Heikki played bass on another Lisa Miskovsky album.

Sat 22nd – Kent played with his new band, Luxury Liner, in Gothenburg. The band members were Bengan Blomgren guitar, Johan Håkansson drums, Fabian Kallerdahl keyboards, Petter Ericsson bass and Kent on vocals. The set included some soul, country and a bunch of 60’s classics.

Tues 25th – Chips produced 3 tracks by The Steroids at Music-A-Matic studios.

NOVEMBER 2005

Fri 11th – The Wild Kings returned for another Wild Kingdom show at Debaser in Stockholm. The set list was a sort of “greatest hits” and was the only Wild Kings show this year.

We decided not to do any ‘new’ songs this time. There were so many songs that we really wanted to do again. The Wild Kings have played over 50 different tracks so there were quite a few to choose from. They were finally picked by chance. Whoever of all the guests we ran into first got asked.

Chips

The guests were Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, Maria Andersson, Johan Bååth, Sonny Boy Gustafsson, Victor Hvidfeldt, Robert “Strings” Dahlberg, Kristina Karlsson, Kurt Dräckes, Odd Ahlgren and Patrik Wirén.

Sat 19th – Sator played at Högfjällscenter, Sälen. The last gig before the new album. Several songs got “retired” after this show.

DECEMBER 2005

Fri 2nd – Chips started working on the 2nd Captain Murphy album at Music-A-Matic. It was engineered by Chips and Henryk Lipp. 23 backing tracks were recorded in a week.

Wed 14th – Chips went to Dresden to work on demos with the German band Krieger at the bands own studio.

Fri 23rd – Chips recorded lead vocals for the White Flag song “Land Minds”. It can be found on the Italian “Piango con me” 10″ EP.

Kent’s cover band Luxury Liner played the first 3 weekends at Jazzhuset.

2006

JANUARY 2006

Sat 1st – One more lead vocals by Chips for the White Flag EP was done this day. It was a Joni Mitchell cover called “Both Sides now”.

I’m not familiar at all with the original version. I just tried to sing like Doug did on the guide vocals.

Chips

FEBRUARY 2006

Sat 4th – Chips went to Rome for the White Flag tour of Italy. The line-up of White Flag this time was Pat Fear on vocals and guitar, Doug Graves on vocals and bass, Chips Kiesbye (AKA El Swe) on vocals and guitar, Ken Stringfellow (AKA Kim Crimson) on vocals, organ and guitar and Victor M Surrounded on drums.

Wed 8th – The Swedish singer-songwriter Dan Viktor’s album “Mitt hjärtas monster” was released. It was produced by Kent Norberg who is also credited as co-writer on one track.

Mon 13th – White Flag returned to Rome for the final show of the White Flag Italian tour.

Mon 20th – Sator signed a distribution deal with Bonnier/Amigo for the Basement Noise album.

Tues 21st – After almost 3 months wait it was finally time to pick up working on the Captain Murphy album again. The band had been waiting for their contracts to be sorted out.

The Steroids sessions that began in October last year were completed this month.

MARCH 2006

Mon 6th – Chips produced 1 track with The Nomads. “No king of Rock ‘n’ roll”. It was recorded at the band’s rehearsal studio.

Mon 13th – Another production job by Kent Norberg was released this day. An album by the band Flamman called “Surprising sun”. Kent also co-wrote one song. The band consisted of Per “Flamman” Westling on guitar and vocals, Johan Håkansson on drums and Nikke Ström on bass.

Heikki Kiviaho produced a 3 track CD single with the Eskilstuna band Dirty Hearts.

The new 1-track Sator single “So Dressed Up” got heavy rotation on several radio stations this month.

APRIL 2006

The last songs for the Republikans album was mixed by Henryk Lipp at Music-A-Matic studios.
Chips kept on working on the Captain Murphy album.

Fri 7th – Rehearsals started in Gothenburg for Sator’s new live set.

It felt great to throw out a couple of old songs and put in some of the new stuff instead.

Hans

Thurs 13th – Sator played at “Eurobowl” in Norrköping. Several new songs were performed for the very first time live. Support band was The Nifters.

Fri 14th – Another Sator show at “Palace” in Kalmar. This time the support bands were Black Pine and Loud ‘n’ Nasty.

Wed 19th – Sator’s 7th album “Basement Noise” was released at last!!!! A release party was arranged at Debaser in Stockholm. The band played the whole album in correct order. This will probably never happen again. The encores consisted of three oldies. “No reason”, “I wanna go home” and “I’d rather drink than talk”. The band were also DJ’s, playing their favorite songs until the lights came on and everyone was thrown out.

This was the first release party I’ve ever been to that actually qualified to be called a party. Most of the invited were our friends. We had a great time and it was fun to play the whole album. We’ve never done that before. Some songs will probably never be played again.

Chips

Fri 28th – Sator played on a cruise to Finland arranged by the radio station “Bandit Radio”. The event was called “Bandit goes Baltic and the bands were Sator, Stereolith & The Bandit Metalizers.

MAY 2006

Fri 5th – Le Mans released their album “Rebel action” in Sweden. The album was produced by Heikki Kiviaho and Jörgen Wall. It was recorded at “Psykbunkern” studio in Stockholm and was engineered by Stefan Boman. The first single from the album – “Rolling the stones” – was actually written by Heikki. The album reached the rest of Europe in September this year.

Fri 12th – Another Sator show. A semi-official show at the small club “Raw” in Eskilstuna.

We were actually supposed to be waiting at the airport outside Stockholm for a really early flight to Björkliden the morning after but instead of being bored at the airport hotel we asked Heikki to quickly arrange a show in his hometown.

Kent

It was probably one of the longest shows in my life. I got really sick a couple of hours before the show. Throwing up and everything. We all thought that we might have to cancel but I managed to play the show anyway with a break for throwning up.

Michael

Yes, we were really mean to Michael. We played all the fast songs with not very long breaks between them just to see if we could get him to puke on stage. When we got to ‘I’d rather drink than talk’ Michael suddenly stopped after a few bars into the song and said ‘This is not possible anymore’ and left the stage very quickly. So there we were looking at each other with no drummer. Luckily Christer Heldring, the drummer of Heikki’s first punk band SS Dase (they also played together in Minx), was in the audience so we asked him up. The show must go on! Christer played ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ and ‘Teenage Kicks’ with us before Michael came back pale as a ghost and finished the show. Christer Heldring now plays in The Baditudes by the way.

Chips

Heikki also played in one of the support bands. A New York Dolls tribute band. They sometimes go under the name “The New Dork Yolls” but they changed the name for this night. Sadly noone remembers what the name was. The third band was The Dirty Hearts.

Sat 13th – Sator played at the ski resort Björkliden located in the very very north of Sweden.

That was a wild show. The ceiling came down after only two songs.

Heikki

Mon 15th – Chips went to Iceland to produce the Brain Police album “Beyond the wasteland”. Engineer was another Swede, Stefan Boman, who Chips has worked with many times.

JUNE 2006

Fri 3rd – The Brain Police album was completed around midnight after three weeks of hard work. The rest of the night was spent in bars celebrating a well done job.

Tues 6th – Pre-production and rehearsals started for Nisse Hellberg’s solo album “Snackbar Blues” in Stockholm. Another production job for Chips, very different from the last one. Nisse Hellberg is the singer and main songwriter of Wilmer X. The backup band consisted of Marcus Källström (Sky High, Stonecake…) on drums, Janne Lindén (Tuff Enuff, Micke “Mojo” and his Bedroom Bazookas, Wilmer X…) on guitar and Affe Östlund (Fatboy, Wanda Jackson…) on upright bass.

Mon 19th – Chips started working with The Bones in Music-A-Matic in Gothenburg. The backing tracks to 19 songs were put down on tape in 10 days.

Tues 27th – Sator and The Bones recorded the backing tracks to a cover of the 1975 hit “Touch too much”. It was originally recorded by the Arrows (The band who also did the original version of “I love rock ‘n’ roll” – Joan Jett’s mega hit.). The song would be worked on on and off through july in Gothenburg, Stockholm and Karlskrona. The line-up was:

Sator:

The Bones:

“Touch too much” was released on an Italian compilation CD.

Heikki was also part of a very different side-project this month. He played on a new version of the finish tango-evergreen “Satumaa”. It was released as a bonus CD with a book about speaking two languages. Finnish and Swedish in this case.

JULY 2006

Sat 1st – Sator at “Olsson’s Brygga” in Arvika

Sun 2nd – The very last stuff was recorded for the Captain Murphy album at Planet of Noise Studios in Stockholm.

Mon 3rd – The recording of the Nisse Hellberg solo album started at Atlantis studios in Stockholm. Chips produced and engineered together with Janne Hansson. The recording continued for 5 days.

Thurs 6th – Sator at the Peace and Love festival in Borlänge. The band went on at midnight. Chips and Michael drove from Stockholm, played and went back to Stockholm again straight after the show. Heikki came with a specially charted private plane from Sundsvall where he had played a Lisa Miskovsky gig earlier the same evening.

This was a very long day but we didn’t want to say no to our hometown when they ask so we decided to do it anyway.

Chips

Wed 13th – A Kent Norberg solo show supporting Stefan Sundström in Stockholm at Kulturhuset. Kent was backed by Bengt “Bengan” Blomgren on guitar. Kent also joined Stefan Sundström for a couple of songs in Stefans set.

Mon 17th – The work on the Bones’ album continued in Karlskrona and would continue for another three weeks.

Sat 22nd – Sator played at Hot Rats MC’s Summerparty in Vetlanda.

AUGUST 2006

Sun 6th – The following six days Nisse Hellbergs album was completed at Varispeed studio in Klågerup. Mainly vocals and backing vocals were done.

Tues 8th – The Kinks-tribute band Kind of Kinks played at “Göteborgskalaset”. Some of the guests were Kent Norberg, Ebbot Lundberg and Freddie Wadling:

Wed 9th – The mix of the Captain Murphy album was finally completed when the last song “Buffalo’s heart” was mixed by Henryk Lipp at Music-A-Matic studios.

Sat 12th – Sator at Ögir in Köping.

Sat 26th – Sator could be seen at the mini festival at Tantogården in Stockholm with Babylon Bombs, House of Shakira, Titanic Toys, Foxes… The last show this summer.

Mon 28th – First day of The Nisse Hellberg mix. It was mixed by Ronny Lahti at Megaphon studio, Stockholm. It was completed the following Sunday.

Chips also did more work on The Bones’ album this month.

SEPTEMBER 2006

Sat 2nd – Kent sang with De Stenade Rullarna at Jazzhuset in Gothenburg.

Fri 8th – Kent played two nights with his coverband Luxary Lineup at Jazzhuset (the same band as Luxary Liner).

Wed 20th – Chips work with The Bones were done. The band completed the album in Karlskrona on their own.

OCTOBER 2006

Fri 6th – A show by Kent’s band Luxary Lineup at Jazzhuset in Gothenburg.

Wed 18th – Another Lisa Miskovsky tour for Heikki started at the club “Katalin” in Uppsala. It would continue for the rest of this year.

Wed 11th – Strip Music released their 2nd album “Hollywood and Wolfman”. It was produced by Heikki Kiviaho and recorded during the summer at Europa studios in Stockholm. The single “Sugar & Lime” hit the stores a week earlier.

NOVEMBER 2006

17th – A show by Kent’s band Luxary Lineup at Jazzhuset in Gothenburg.

Chips worked on demos for a forthcoming album with The Nomads. He also did some demo sessions with the band Café Society Ltd from Stockholm.

DECEMBER 2006

Sat 9th – Another show by Kent’s band Luxary Lineup at Jazzhuset in Gothenburg.

Sat 16th – Sator played at a packed “Sticky Fingers” in Gothenburg. The show was recorded for a DVD-release. Some songs were played for the first time ever this night like “Dance to The Rocket from the Crypt” and “Find the time”. Other “rare” songs in the setlist were “I’ll wait”, “Kiss of the rat “and “Ain’t seen nothing”.

Mon 25th – Chips started pre-production work with Mimikry for their next album.

Fri 29th – Chips and Heikki with Rocco Gustafsson on drums played a couple of songs at “Hitlistan #1”, some sort of mini-festival held at the club Raw in Eskilstuna. They did Sham 69’s “Hurry up Harry” and was joined by Kenja Edh from The Slapping Suspenders for Ebba Grön’s “800°” and “Alla visa män”. Some of the others bands that night was The Baditudes, Allan Ladds, Le Mans…

I was some sort of new wave party with 13 Eskilstuna bands playing one song each from 1976-1982. It was a really good party. The Baditudes did a great version of 999’s “Homicide/Nasty nasty”. We played last so we got to do 3 songs.

Chips

2007

JANUARY 2007

Thurs 11th – Heikki played with Lisa Miskovsky at the “Rockbjörnen” awards held at Circus in Stockholm. Lisa won two “Rockbjörnar”.

Fri 12th – Chips got up on stage with the punkband Topper and Mosebacke in Stockholm singing Stiff Little Fingers’ “Suspect device” and playing guitar on Sham 69’s “If the kids are united”. The lead vocals on the second one was handled by Bo Johander, who once guested with The Wild Kings.

Thurs 18th – The Sator live DVD was mixed the following three days by Håkan Wollgård and Chips.

Chips did more demos with both The Nomads and Café Socitey Ltd.

Wed 24th – Docenterna released their greatest hits compilation. It was celebrated with a show at Debaser in Stockholm. Kent joined the band on their classic “Solglasögon” on lead vocals. Chips produced “Dags att bli hög”, the only new track on the compilation.

Fri 26th – A show by Kent’s band Luxary Lineup at Jazzhuset in Gothenburg. There was a second show by Luxary lineup at Jazzå this month too but the date is unknown.

FEBRUARY 2007

Fri 2nd – A show by Kent’s band The Bob at Jazzhuset in Gothenburg.

Sun 4th – Kent played at Jazzå with Ola Bjurman.

Wed 7th – Chips did some backing vocals and guitars on a couple of White Flag tracks for their forthcoming album.

Fri 9th – Chips and Henryk Lipp started mixing the Belgium band Southern Voodoo’s second album “Devil’s drive”.

Fri 23rd – Chips played piano, guitar and did some backing vocals with Nisse Hellberg on Swedish national TV on the show “Go’ kväll”. The songs performed were “Lyckliga gatan” and “Tufft jobb”.

Sat 24th – Recordings for a new Hellacopters album started at Music-A-Matic Studios in Gothenburg. Once again with Chips as producer. This time with Henryk Lipp engineering the backing tracks.

Wed 28th – Recordings for an album with the band Billy Pilgrims started at Music-A-Matic Studios in Gothenburg. Again with Chips as producer and Henryk Lipp as engineer.

MARCH 2007

Wed 21st – “A Tribute To Gene Clark” at the Woody West club featuring Shade Tree, Baby Grand, Kent Norberg among others.

Sator “Live at Sticky Fingers 2006” DVD was released.

APRIL 2007

Chips worked on the Hellacopters ”Head off” album all month.

Fri 27:th-The ”Road to Ruins” festival in Rome. Chips guested with The Zeros on ”Black ´n´ white”. Some of the other bands at the festival was Paul Collins’ Beat. Cheeta Chrome (from the Dead Boys) and Chariot (with members from The Zeros, White Flag and The Posies).

Fri 6:th-Clubnight at “Raw“ in Eskilstuna. “Hitlistan#2, A tribute to The Ramones”

Kent and Heikki got up on stage with Rocco Gustafsson on drums and Kenja Edh on guitar.

The songs played were ”Commando” and ”California sun”. Some of the other bands were The Jacks, The Domus, Lemones, The Lindbergs, Baditudes and The Ramned.

MAY 2007

Chips kept on working on The Hellacopters and The Billy Pilgrims albums.

Fri 30:th-The recording of Mimikry’s ”Alderland” album started at Music-A-Matic studios with Chips producing. 21 songs were recorded!

JUNE 2007

Work on the Mimikry and Billy Pilgrims albums continued.

Fri 15:th-Yet another production job for Chips. The first sessions for Nisse Hellberg’s album ”En tiger i tanken” at the Atlantis studio in Stockholm started today with Janne Hansson engineering..

Sat 23:rd-Chips guested with The Turpentines on a one-off reunion at the ”Gearfest” festival at Debaser in Stockholm. Johnny Thunders old side-kick Walter Lure from The Heartbreakers was headlining.

JULY 2007

The work on the Mimikry album would continue on and off for the rest of the year.

Fri 22:nd-The old Sator Codex song “Leech” was one of the tracks on a double compilation CD called “Svensk Postpunk”, featuring 35 Swedish goth rock bands of the eighties.

AUGUST 2007

Chips kept on working with Nisse Hellberg.

Mon 27:th-The mixing of The Hellacopters ”Head off” album started at Park Studio in Stockholm with Stefan Boman.

Wed 22:nd-“Escape from Pigvalley Beach”, along with songs from Thunder Express, Republikans and The Turpentines, was used in an online 3D car racing game called ”Pork Racer”.

SEPTEMBER 2007

Mon 3:rd-The final session of Nisse Hellberg’s album took place at Atlantis studio.

Fri 7:th-Sator played at the ”Crossroads” festival in Oviedo in Northern Spain. Some of the other bands appearing at the festival was The Bones, El Vez, Sonny Burgess, Jason and the Scorcherers, Georgia Satellites, The Tommy’s and The Slaptones.

We headlined this night which in Spain means that you go on at 4,30 in the morning! I’m impressed that people actually stayed for us.

Kent

We were there for the whole festival. It’s actually one of the best festivals I’ve ever been to. We saw so many great shows so it was really worth staying.

Hans

Some new additions to the live set were tried out, among them Dance to the rocket from the crypt, Find the time and Nothing Hurts.

Setlist in Oviedo:

Sun 23:rd-Nisse Hellberg’s album was completed.

Tues 25:th-The Hellacopters album was completed.

Sat 29:th-Kent Norberg was one of the guest stars when Mejeriet in Lund celebrated their 20:th anniversary. Kent performed together with Eggstone and sang Docent Död’s “Hand i hand”. Some other guest stars were The Creeps, The Sinners, Jakob Hellman and Lars Winnerbäck.

Heikki wrote the music and did the “sound design” for a play called “Hundarna i Prag” at Judiska Teatern in Stockholm. The play was based on Marguerite Duras book ”Abahn, Sabana, David” It was directed by Pia Forsgren and was very well received by the critics.

OCTOBER 2007

Mon 1:st-Heikki followed the path of many rockstars (Mick Jagger, David Bowie…) going into acting when he participated in a stage play for kids called ”Skriket från tvättkorgen”. Heikki also wrote and performed part of the music. The play was directed by Christina Nilsson.

Heikki also wrote some music for an art-project called “Bjanck” this month.

Wed 24:th-Another Chips-produced Nisse Hellberg album was released. “En tiger i tanken” It would (like the previous Hellberg album) eventually give Chips another ”Gold record” to hang on the wall.

Sat 27:th: The second and last Sator show for 2007 at ”Monsters of Mora” in Mora. It was a mini-festival where all band’s had some ”Dalarna connection” (The part of the country where the town of Borlänge is) The other bands were Tryckvåg, Sabaton, and Hammerfall.

The Italian compilation “Wild sound from the past dimension” on Go Down Records was finally released. The theme was ”Rock ‘n’ roll songs of the 60’s and 70’s” Sator’s contribution was a version of The Arrows’ “Touch too much” from 1975. It was recorded last summer together with The Bones. Also on the album was White Flag’s version of “Both sides now” (originally by Joni Mitchell) with Chips on lead vocals.

Kent started working on his ”Swedish” album this month. It would be worked on sporadically over the following months. Kent’s backing band consisted of Nikke Ström on bass, Bengan Blomgren on guitar, Johan Håkansson on drums and Per ”Flamman” Westling on guitar. The sessions took place at Music A Matic studios in Gothenburg.

NOVEMBER 2007

Fri 9:th-Yet another production job for Chips. The Paul Collins’ Beat. The album was recorded in 11 days at Music-A-Matic Studios. Kent did some backing vocals on ”Big pop song”. To return the favour Paul Collins played some accoustic guitar on one of Kent’s songs.

Mon 19:th Sator recorded the Unnatural Axe song ”3 chord rock” for the American compilation ”Ruling the world from the backseat” A Tribute to Unnatural Axe. The album would not be released until the autumn of 2008 on Lawless records (A two record vinyl only set, limited to 500 numbered copies on colored vinyl).

We just sneaked in late at night and used the Paul Collin’s setup. It was done very quickly. We rehearsed it twice and then recorded it on the first take. It was over and done in like 20 minutes! That’s the way to record punk rock. The song was actually on the list for possible songs for ”Barbie-Q-Killers vol 1” but somehow we forgot to record it.

Chips

DECEMBER 2007

Chips did more work on the (never ending) Billy Pilgrims album, The Paul Collin’s Beat and Mimikry albums.

2008

JANUARY 2008

Mon 7:th-The mix of The Paul Collin’s Beat album ”Ribbon of Gold” started today at Music-A-Matic studios with Henryk Lipp.

Tues 29:th-Kent appeared with The Bob at ”Göteborgs Filmfestival”

FEBRUARY 2008

Fri 1:st-The very last recordings for the Mimikry album was done with Chips mobile studio in Borlänge.

Mon 25:th-The mixing of The Billy Pilgrims album started at Music-A-Matic studios with Henryk Lipp engineering.

That was quite a relief!. We had been sneaking into the studio on off-hours for ages. It’s a cheap way of making records but not good for your nerves.

Chips

MARCH 2008

Tues 4:th-Chips went on a short tour with White Flag. The tour started at ”The Sonic Ballroom” in Köln, Germany. The other members on this tour was Pat Fear, Kim Crimson (Ken Stringfellow of the Posies) and Trace Element. Chips again went under the name ”El Swe”.

Wed 5:th-White Flag in Utrecht , The Netherlands. At ”A©U” supported by S.U.C. it.

Earlier the same night we went to see Golden Earing which was the reason this tour was booked in the first place. It was mainly so Pat Fear would get to see one of his favourite band’s ever. A reason as good as any”

Chips

Thur 6th: White Flag in Rotterdam at ”Waterfront” There was also an interview for Dutch TV.

Total chaos! The idea was the put a couple of young students together with White Flag just see what happened. I think the TV people got more than they bargained for. The kids ended up starting a band and got to learn all about the seedy sides of rock`n´roll. They were probably damaged for life.

Chips

The TV-show was later released on a very limited editon DVD. The support band was again ”S.U.C it” And a short performance by The Fashion Models (the band formed the same afternoon on the TV show by the Dutch kids). After the show White Flag recorded a song called ”Dido” at Waterfront Studio with parts of the audience invited to sing backing vocals. Chips played guitar and sang some extra backing vocals on the track. The title was the band’s way of getting back at the artist Dido for calling one of her songs ”White Flag” The song can be found on a German compilation called ”Compilation#78” that came as a freebie with the magazine ”Ox”.

Fri 7:th-Two White Flag shows tonight. The first one was at ”The Baarmoeder” in Amsterdam and the second one at ”El Engel” in Den Helder.

Sat 8:th-Yet another The Bob show for Kent. This time at ”Jazzhuset” in Göteborg.

Sun 9:th- The Mimikry album mix started. Once again Henryk Lipp was engineering at Music-A-Matic Studios.

Thurs 20:th-Eskilstuna. Heikki played a short set with David Lindh (Yvonne, Broder Daniel…). The band also included Henric de la Cour, Rocco Gustafsson and Theodor Jensen.

Fri 21:st-SS Dase, Heikki’s first band reformed for one night at ”Raw” in Eskilstuna. It was the first reunion since the band broke up in 1980. The band played three songs by The Clash, ”Clash city rockers”; ”Complete Control” and ”I’m so bored with the USA”.

The SS in the band’s name had nothing to do with the nazis. It was written on the rocks at ”Nyforsberget” and it we thought it was a cool name. But of course we didn’t mind a little controversy either. We were punks.

Heikki

APRIL 2008

Tues 1:st-Pre-production for an album with The Kasbah (Formely know as Café Society Ltd) from Stockholm started today.

Thurs 10:th-Chips guested with Topper at ”Mosebacke” in Stockholm singing the Stiff Little Fingers classic ”Suspect Device”.

MAY 2008

Fri 16:th-Chips, Kent and Heikki celebrated ”The king” at ”Raw” in Eskilstuna . Chips sang ”(You’re so square) Baby I don’t care” and Kent did ”Little sister”. Rocco Gustafsson was behind the drums and Kenja Edh played guitar.

Sat 17:th-Kent played with The Bob at ”Slussens Pensionat” in Orust.

Sun 18:th-The Bob at ”Jazzå” in Gothenburg.

Chips also worked o demos for a possible The Nomads album.

JUNE 2008

Thurs 19:th- Rehearsals for a White Flag tour with Chips and Kent started in Den Helder, Netherlands. The tour started in Den Helder on the 22nd and would last until July 15th, with the Sator lads making a short trip back to Sweden for at Sator gig on June 28th.

Sat 28:th-Sator played in Motala. New song in the setlist was Halter Top, a rarely performed song from the Sator/White Flag split.

Our roadie Ola tricked us by telling me that Kent wanted to do this one while telling Kent that I wanted to play it. Very clever of him but a good choice. We have so many songs so we tend to forget some of the good ones.

Chips

Sun 29:th-Chips and Kent reunited with Pat and Trace in Germany for the remaining part of the White Flag tour which would last until July 15 and take the band to Germany, Italy, Croatia and Austria.

July 2008

Fri 18: th-Kent and Chips was back in Sator again when they played the ”Lillhärdalsyran” in Lillhärdal, Sweden. Basically the same set as in Motala last month with the exception that “Black `n´ White” made a short comeback in the set.

Thurs 31:st-Sator played at the “Vibrasons festival” in Pontevedra, Spain. There were only two bands this night. Paul Collins’ Beat and Sator. Chips and Kent guested with Paul Collins’ Beat on “Rock`n´roll girl” and “Walking out on love.”

After all these years I finally got to see Paul Collins. I’ve played many of his songs. The Sator show was amazing as well.

Heikki

It was in a beautiful square in the middle of the city. We all had a marvelous time and the bars in Spain plays much better music than the Swedish ones. So we spent as much time as possible in the bars.

Michael

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