The Aftermath

Today it has been a month since we saw the Sabaton Tour To End All Tours trek roll through Sweden. So what did it mean for the reputation of Babymetal in these parts? Well I have not seen any reviews in print but 15,000 rockers did see Babymetal nail it and a lot of these had no idea of what to expect of them. What I did notice on the night was a good reaction from the crowd, and that is always an important clue. Then you hear things. A friend at work has a daughter that travelled to see Sabaton in Stockholm, but came home a huge fan of Babymetal. Effectively, Babymetal went from being an underground act to being a contender in this country, and it took this tour to do it. All in all, this was a successful tour and a strong package. Kudos to Sabaton for including Babymetal. Metal Hammer has a two page review in the 375 issue from Leeds, and I would expect most Metal media in Europe to cover the tour within the next few weeks. Not so much in Sweden though, as the main publication Sweden Rock Magazine really do not cover live events (except for Sweden Rock Festival). In a sense, the slow rise of Babymetal in these parts has been happening by word of mouth and by social media. In November, as they return for their third ever show in this country, we shall see were things stand. I would say that it is looking good though. 2023 is a year of hard work for them but they are cementing a solid reputation. On a sidenote I have just discovered how insanely good the song “Maya” is live. I hope we get a video for that one. Is has the Babymetal formula of brutality with a strong pop element in full flight. And the presentation live is just fantastic. Pretty sure we will get a video eventually. Maybe ahead of the Stateside trek that is coming up? We shall see. I would say that they are on a roll. The recent visit in Jakarta was an incredible success. Next up, Australia. First proper tour ever, big venues only.

(My shots from Stockholm, outside and inside the venue)

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Malmsteen Takes A Stand

Yngwie Malmsteen has reuploaded a song from his “Blue Lightning” album that is called “Peace Please”. Obviously a statement regarding the evil deeds that are ongoing in this world and that could kill us all if the stupidity continues. We need more artists that stand up for peace. Enough is enough.

(My shot of the remains of an old defensive position from a long forgotten war, Jämtland County)

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At The ABBA Museum, We Met Our Waterloo

We figured that it would be a good idea to pop into the ABBA Museum in Stockholm, but to our surprise it was sold out. Loads of people. We did get to see the ABBA Shop though, so at least we had some fun checking that out and to give away some hard earned money on some essential stuff. Here is a few shots from the Shop and of some stuff that I brought home.

(My shots from the ABBA Shop and from back home – thanks for your good company Kalle)

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Essential Record Stores (Bengans)

Good all round record shop in Stockholm with a good stock of music for all tastes. Bengans Record Store is one of my favourite shops and if you want stuff (like Babymetal DVDs) from Japan, you can contact them and they will help you out. They have an online shop. Address: Drottninggatan 20. Found a lot of great LPs in there on the Sabaton trip.

(My shot of said store)

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Forever Underground

Swedish media ignored the Sabaton show in Stockholm a few days ago, I can not find one single review. Here we have a Swedish band that has fought long and hard to build a solid career and when they reach The Globe, a 15,000 seater, there is silence. How can you explain this? Well, there is nothing new under the sun. I think it is discusting. The big newspapers should have been all over this. Still, if you love this music in this country (Sweden), you still belong to a very large family that spans generations. And we say “Fuck You!” to media. They always hated our music. Clearly, media hype had nothing to do with Sabaton selling out this venue. Openers Babymetal and Lordi could have used some press. Apparently, they will have to build their momentum without the help of our establishment. Remember that, and support them. That is it for today, loads more on this blog tomorrow (Babymetal, Sabaton etc).

(My shots)

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Montana Blue In My Heart

I have been thinking about the Montana Blue project from back in 2010-2014. It started with me having a couple of photo-sessions with my lovely model Nina in the Summer of 2010, and then I wrote the novel that was published through the Retrofuture platform. The novel was eventually reprinted twice, thousands of people have seen it in these parts since I was handing out copies for free all around The Great Lake (Storsjön, Jämtland County) back in the day. I had my eye on a comic book version as well and artist Richard Svensson was drafted into the project. I was looking to print it through Retrofuture but the project stalled and in the end only 18 pages saw print (in Retrofuture 7, back in 2014). In 2015, I printed the final issue but this project had been abandoned by then. Quite a shame too since Richard had done a marvelous job with the existing material. And the novel is probably the best piece of work in that field that I have ever done (Western theme, Norse Gods, Great Lake Monsters, you name it, it is all in there). I have had plenty of good feedback over the years and I am very happy about it. The 18 pages that saw print in Retrofuture 7 was in black/white, but the original was in full colour (I highlighted that fact on the back of the magazine). If this comic was ever completed, maybe it could be picked up by a publisher and released as an album? I am basically floating an idea here. Who knows… Crazier things have happened. If somebody out there wants to get in touch, I am right here. Of course it would be up to Richard too, but if interest existed, maybe it could happen. I guess it is one of those loose ends. And I am a dreamer.

(My Montana Blue shots, drawings by Richard Svensson – much more on the “My western gals” tag on this blog)

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Retrofuture Stawka Article Highlighted In Swedish Phantom Book

I was contacted a few months ago by Swedish Phantom (Fantomen) editor Andreas Eriksson on whether it was OK if he reprinted the Retrofuture 6 article on Polish television show Stawka (Kapten Kloss here in Sweden) that Maciek Szatko had penned for the magazine, and of course I said yes. I would say that recognition like this is quite nice to achieve. So why did Andreas think that an article about Stawka/Kapten Kloss suited this book (“Den inbundna årgången 1971 – Del 5”, Egmont 2023), which is, after all, dedicated to the Phantom? Well, this television show was very popular back in the day and it spawned a Swedish comic book as well as pocket sized books, and within the pages of the Swedish Phantom comic, there were ads about all this at the time. Ads that can be seen in this edition of the highly exclusive reprint series. So Andreas probably felt that a bit of history that represented the day was a good idea. I was not sure when exactly this would pop up but now it has. Seen above is said book, the issue of Retrofuture that inspired Andreas to include this in the book, and some Polish media from when Stawka star Stanislaw Mikulski passed away in 2014. The following images is from the Phantom book and from Retrofuture 6 and 7 (Maciek Szatko did manage to give a copy to Mikulski, and so there was a page about that in issue 7 – see also this blog, November 18 2013). In any case, enjoy this trip down memory lane…

(My shots of said book and magazines, many thanks to Maciek Szatko and Andreas Eriksson)

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And So The Seasons Change

And so we have arrived at Fox Day, or Fox Day Weekend rather (as Babymetal is set to play two major concerts on April 1 and 2 in Japan, and everybody expects news about a third member to be announced in one way or another). Babymetal did release the image you see inserted in my live shot above with three empty coffins yesterday. Of course, Japan is ahead of us and a few hours ago it was announced that there will be an official release in Japan of the two January shows on Blu-ray, DVD and Vinyl (not to mention the obligatory super box) called “Babymetal Returns – The Other One”. The big news will be revealed during the concerts this weekend and I will give my take on the situation on Monday.

(My shot from Stockholm, official image inserted)

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International Women´s Day

Well, I did my bit…

(My fanzines, my cover shots)

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Where Is This Going?

I see a lot of crazy people out there. Warmongers. You have to be pretty insane to risk escalation and possible nuclear conflict. Nobody has the right to take us to Armageddon. This is pissing me off no end. 50 years ago, when the Vietnam war was on, horrible images of death and destruction was seen in media every day. Where is the coverage now? Just asking. Glad to see that a peace movement is starting to grow now in spite of this. This needs to stop, sooner rather than later.

(My shot, taken at an aviation museum in Ope, Jämtland County)

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