After the rock school for adults and the band Tumult that formed from the class I joined B-sides. Tumult kind of just died after our gig at Stora Rör. So I found myself with out a band. But it was all still new to me so Tumult just seemed as a couple of year of fun, rather than the beginning of something new. As I now know it was.
In the 4sound store at Fridhemsplan in Stockholm I met Andreas Abrahamsson. A colleague to me. He was the voice of the blues band B-sides. And, they needed a bass player. So I signed up! Or rather I was allowed to audition. So I came to Solna outside of Stockholm for one of their rehearsals. It worked out fine, I thought. They did not say anything so I kept coming. And still to this day I never knew if they liked me or if I just took the spot by coming back. But I worked fine with the talented musicians of B-sides. They were Claes Johansson (drums), Kenneth Öberg (guitar) , Stefan Hedenström (guitar), Andreas Abrahamsson (vocal) and ... me. For four years. The last two years of the four Andreas Abrahamsson had to prioritize other things and left the band. But the spot as singer was soon filled with Andreas Alexandersson. Yeah, read it again if you have to. Very similar names but quite different as persons.
In B-sides we took our name from how we choose covers. It was less known songs, but good songs, from before. In fact quite old. Much of them from 60:s and 70:s. All of them seemed to have their roots in the Woodstock festival. So we played songs that often appeared on the b-side of the singles. Maybe you remember, small waxes with only two songs on, one on each side and often with that big hole in the middle? And we choose covers from them that where rythmical or fun. Or as Stefan used to say: "-Maybe people won't recognize the songs, but no one should be able to stand still".
After a year or so, learning songs enough, we went on stage. Some of the gigs on rather famous stages in Stockholm. As Le Bon Palais, Kolingen, Big Ben pub and Medicinska Föreningen. Le Bon Palais is a well known gigantic dancehall in Stockholm. It used to be called Alladin and everyone has a memory from Alladin. At least if your over 35. And we had fun there. About 400 middle aged women from a nearby conference center came by that night. And ... yeah we had fun.
On nearly all our gigs we had the help of technician Kenneth Schlaich. He mixed our gigs so we always had really good sound. And he also had played a lot on stage himself so he had good advise for us just before going out on stage. Like a good coach.
I left B-sides in the summer of 2016 to form RMF. Because by now I knew that I wanted to continue with music, and in a more intense way than with B-sides. But B-sides is still going strong. Still playing b-sides from the past and still playing for big audiences. There are some new guys in the band and Kenneth Schlaich emerged from the control both to the stage. This summer the former singer of B-sides had a micro festival att his summer house that he called Wedstock. Not Woodstock, but close. Wedstock means log to burn is swedish. Or it sounds like wedlock. I don't know what he meant but his wife is american.... so? Anyway below is a mobile phone video from a B-sides gig at Kolingen in 2015. A typical B-sides song in a typical B-sides way. Keep going guys!
/proud former member Gus
(in the video I'm Gunnar Möller in the subtitle. It's my akward swedish name that my producer said had to go before my first single, so ... Gus Muller it became. Rather close to home, ehee?)
