Karre Erichs
Who is the highest-paid pop group to have played in Scandinavia so far this year. (Beach Boys, who will arrive in November, are twice as expensive.) But Who is also the group that is most regularly “fined”. During Thursday’s show in Copenhagen, a minor riot ensued, and 250 chairs were completely destroyed. Pete Townshend was to blame, when he during the final number attempted to get the audience to charge the stage. This deed set him back 11 500 Danish Crowns.
A bill can also be expected from the Liseberg concert venue in Gothenburg. During the second set, Pete Townshend developed his pop-art even further, toppling a speaker stack which also pulled down a huge British flag with it.
We shall give a couple of impressions of the Who’s performance in Gothenburg. One can’t say that the Englishmen a playing enjoyable music. It is far too loud and the vocals are hardly audible. But their distinctive stage appearance almost makes up for such things.
Experience
This is mostly noticeable in the final number “My Generation”, where the sound is gradually increasing to the almost unbearable all the while Pete Townshend combats speaker stacks, microphone stands and so on. Much has been written about the Who’s famous pop-happening, and seeing it “live” is not disappointing. Today, they are in Malmö, so don’t miss out on the opportunity to experience Who’s famous happening.
Surprise
Much praise has also been written about the Stockholm-based group Science Poption. And, having heard them live for the first time, one has to agree with this.
With their distinctive style of playing, the group sounds different to most other Swedish groups, and one can understand that they do not have any large-scale popular appeal.
For that, their style of playing is simply too advanced and “difficult”.
The boys singing are excellent, although the amplifiers were turned up rather too loud. However, this all seemed like whispers compared with Who.
Science Poption played several Lovin’ Spoonful-numbers, and calling them “Sweden’s answer to Lovin’ Spoonful” would be entirely in error. However, without a doubt, their best number during Friday’s pop gala was the Beach Boys-song “California Girls”. It is said that England is showing some interest in the group, and that is understandable.
Weak
The Danish group Stoke Sect also participated in the gala in Gothenburg, and didn’t make much of an impression. They couldn’t sing at all, but the singer admittedly did his best to entertain the crowd anyway.
Note
Translation by Jan Forsgren
