Kent Norberg with The Boys

MARCH 2015

Photo by Rachel Gouk

When Kent Norberg joined classic 70s punk/powerpop band The Boys it was even beyond a dream come true. To grow up and find yourself in the band of your teenage heroes… well things like that just don’t happen.

The Boys were my idols and in a way they were even one of the things that lead to me being a part of Sator. I got back to Borlänge after a period in Norway, where I had discovered The Boys and thought it was the greatest band on the planet. I wanted to share this revelation with everyone but no one else seemed to know who they were. But then I got a tip that there was this guy called Chips who liked them. Chips was two years older than I and one of the cool guys, but I walked up to him and started talking about The Boys and we quickly found out that we liked a lot of the same music. That was it, he’s been my partner in crime ever since.

Kent

Kent joining The Boys all came about thanks to old friend and fellow Gothenburger Martin Hansson (ex-Troublemakers, Full Metal Jacketz etc) who has been drumming with The Boys for a few years. When the slot as bass player became available, he laid in a good word or two for Kent and lo and behold – he got the gig.

When Sator played in London last October, Honest John Plain joined us on stage for two classic Boys tracks. It was a blast but it felt a bit like an audition you know, like “let’s see if this guy’s got what it takes”. But I guess I passed the test because the next thing I knew I found myself in Shangahi, China, for a nine date tour.

Kent

The Boys arrived in China only to find that the Ministry of Culture had cancelled the tour. The official reason given was crowd control and security issues in the wake of the Shanghai stamped at a riverside New Year celebration attended by around 300,000 in which 36 people were killed and 49 injured. The Ministry of Culture had sent letters to all the venues on the tour telling them that if The Boys played there their premises would be shut down with immediate effect.

Undeterred, the band managed to play three secret underground gigs promoted entirely by word of mouth. In addition, the band gave multiple interviews, performed on a top TV channel in Beijing and did a gig that was recorded for a live album, which will be released later this year.

We decided to make the best of the situation and as it turned out, we had a fantastic time. Meeting all these great people, organizing and playing the secret gigs, it was tons of fun.

Kent

Here’s a clip from a 55 min TV show broadcasted on LETV:

The future has more time with The Boys in store for Kent. A mini tour of Finland in March, the Rebellion Festival in the UK in August and rumours that even Sweden will get a visit in the summer.

Stay tuned and get a load of The Boys!