A POEM FOR THE SPOTNICKS by Dachlan Cartwright
Hi Spotnicks Site,
I’m a Liverpool Welsh poet, and would like to share my poem for The Spotnicks.
I believe I sent it a few years ago to the Guest Book, but I’m re-sending it as a tribute, after the demise of the group.
I was privileged to see them in 1964 in Grona Lund, where they shared the bill with Paul Anka, who was just going through the motions on the way to becoming a swinger. But The Spotnicks were great, and will surely be rocking away in rock’n’roll heaven.
Rock on, Dachlan
THE SPOTNICKS
Shadows and Tornados and the Flemish Fleerekkers,
Euroboys stroking their electric peckers,
Gothenburg trolling in the Bergman summer nights,
Bo Winberg’s Spotnicks spotifying Yuri’s flight.
Probers for Abbas and propellers for Roxette,
Gagariginals spaced in odyssean helmets,
Never evanescing like Salomon Andree
Don’t need rediscovering, never – relatively – away.
Some little green teens from the sun’s fourth rock
Landed on this planet looking for a place to bop.
Was it Memphis, Liverpool, or cleft lands of Alan Freed?
No, the first need that they pleaded was “Take us to your Swedes!”
NOTES on THE SPOTNICKS.
After The Shadows, The Spotnicks were the most popular European guitar group, and actually played wearing space suits and helmets. Sweden is one of the significant rock countries, with The Spotnicks boldly pioneering the spaceways for Abba, Roxette, and Ace of Bass.
The Shadows:
They started as Cliff Richard’s backing group, but, in their own right, became the world’s most popular guitar group.
The Tornados:
Originally Billy Fury’s backing band, a guitar group augmented by electronic keyboards, their Joe Meek-produced Telstar became the first US No 1 by a British outfit.
The Flee-Rekkers:
A British instrumental group whose sax player had this Flemish family name. They had a hit with the Joe Meek-produced Green Jeans, a version of Greensleeves.
Gothenburg:
The Spotnicks came from Gothenburg, “The Liverpool of Sweden”.
Bergman summer nights:
Ingmar Bergman is Sweden’s, (and one of the world’s) most famous film directors. Smiles of a Summer Night is one of his films.
Bo Winberg:
Guitarist and leader of The Spotnicks (RIP 2020)
Spotifying:
wordplay on “Spotnicks”, “spot” and “indentify”, while also referencing the Swedish-produced media platform.
Yuri’s flight:
The USSR’s Yuri Gagarin was the first cosmonaut, orbiting the Earth in 1961, the year the Spotnicks were founded.
Abba, Roxette: world-famous Swedish music groups.
Odyssean helmets:
Tangential reference to the pioneering exploit of Gagarin.
Salomon August Andrée:
A Swedish explorer whose three-man expedition to reach the North Pole by balloon in 1896 disappeared. Their last camp was discovered in 1930, and there has been much speculation as to the cause of its failure, but most agree that the attempt was almost certainly doomed.
Cleft lands of Alan Freed:
wordplay on Cleveland, where the pioneering rock’n’roll deejay Alan Freed began his career.