BO:
Rock-Teddy and the Blue Caps. We came up with that name when we were going to perform at a rock band competition in the Concert Hall in Gothenburg.
And then we went up to a company that sold caps to get four caps – or five – I don’t remember.
And they said up there that, well, but if you don’t win then?
Yes, but we certainly do. The others are probably not ery good.
And, yes, we won and we got to keep them there.

GÖSTA:
And what competition was it?

BO:
It was Bildjournalen that arranged it. Would choose a rock king in the city.

GÖSTA:
Björn was then renamed Rock-Teddy. Where did you get that name?

BO:
He used to be called Teddy.
The intention was that Bob would actually sing, but then it was in order to look a bit tough-ish and he (Björn) did that.
So it was decided the day before that, no, you (Björn) sing instead.

GÖSTA:
Down in this music store that has a recording studio downstairs, did some stuff happen there to do with Spotnicks?

BO:
Yes, Bob and Björn practiced together there and I knew them that way – or we had played together before – but they didn’t have amplifiers.
They had electric guitars, while I had built an amplifier.
So I got in (laughs) that way.
And then there was this man who owned this, a nice man, so I got to live with his studio-quality tape recorder. There are actually some of those left in this house too, I’ve seen.

GÖSTA:
You built your first amplifiers for the orchestra.
How did you get into this amp building thing?

BO:
Yeah, it was pretty easy with the amps.
There was nothing to buy that was good and because I worked in the radio business and knew that, I could build stronger stuff than other bands could, huh.
And get the kind of sound I wanted because what was there was too jazzy and more grumpy.

GÖSTA:
Tell us about your first record The Old Spinning Wheel.

BO:
The Old Spinning Wheel, it was made in a plastic factory where we were rehearsing.
Made on two ordinary home tape players and then I had built a mixer for this and a somewhat strange echo machine. It was also not available to buy at the time.
And then I mixed, worked with this and then I went down to this music store and then copied to a master tape that then went with 15 inch full tracks.
Because I had been told by the gentlemen at the record company up in Stockholm that it was not possible to make professional recordings on home machines, but if they got a real master tape, they would go for it.
That’s how it happened.

GÖSTA:
You were called Frazers when you did this recording.

BO:
Yes.

GÖSTA:
How did the switch to Spotnicks go?

BO:
It happened in such a way that when we got the record contract, we were up in Stockholm and got to watch them engrave, and it was quite fun.
So said one of the technicians there ”Frazers, that sound riduculous”.
And at that time this Russian Sputnik was up and he came up with the name Spotnicks.
It was probably more international and original. And I agree with that.

GÖSTA:
Then we jump to Germany, where you went to, according to your manager, get some stage experience. Tell us a little about the first Germany gig at Casa Leon.

BO:
Yes, it was a hard time.
We played from eight o’clock in the evening until four in the morning and had a salary of 25 marks a day and lived in a boarding house.
On Sunday it was tea dance then we played between five and seven. Then a break and then eight to four.
And our manager went there with ”people in the bransch” as they say.
Then they came up to us there, we were playing dance music and said ”Yes, now guys it’s time for the show. Get down and change your clothes”.
And it was hot as hell there but…
It was useful in that way that you had to learn that there were steps and a lot of nonsense like this waving guitars.
But we got along very well, so it was an awfully useful time. But very tiring…

GÖSTA:
Then came this with spacesuits. Can you draw the story behind them?

BO:
The spacesuits came about in this way so that we would be on TV.
And since we had the name Spotnicks, a gentleman here on TV came up with the idea that it’s a very fun name, but then we get to put spacesuits on the boys.
So some spacesuits were hired and we got to wear them in this TV show.
Then pictures were taken, so it ended up on an EP cover, as I remember, which then came out in different parts of the world and then it haunted us.
Because when TV was to be made elsewhere, it was ”well they take the spacesuits with them” as we didn’t have any. So we had to sew that up.
And in them we stood well and sweated for 7-8 years before we got rid of them.
So I didn’t think those were very funny.

GÖSTA:
Can you tell us a little about the first visit to England?

BO:
Yes.. it was (pause). It was quite tough because you didn’t have any better touring vehicles and in England it was cold.
And it was TV. Quite a lot of TV because we were on the list.
And the memory I have of this was that it was a hell of a ride up after this M1 and A1 so…
I was probably not aware of what it meant to be on this English list and not used to that kind of touring life – so we had been in Germany in one place and then it’s hux flux a new hall every day.

GÖSTA:
You did an LP in London. Tell us a little about it.

BO:
To record an LP in London was something quite amazing because then the English were so far ahead. Almost all records in Sweden came from England or America.
So it was great fun to get into a big, big studio and lots and lots of buttons and lots of equipment, but stressful.
We got into the studio in the evening and were going to make a whole LP in one stretch. Back then, you only recorded the entire background on two channels, and then any vocals or solo guitar were added afterwards, so it wasn’t like today.
But it was a rather unusual situation for me at the time, who had been working and putting together recordings myself, that there was a producer and a technician.
But it sounded… To our ears, it was fantastic and great fun, huh.

GÖSTA:
Then we jump to Olympia in Paris and now I want you to tell the truth about the headlines in the newspapers about the wireless transmitter at Olympia. The plain truth.

BO:
The wireless transmitter is true, but that it was at the Olympia is not true because we were sitting in a recording studio doing a French LP and of course there were a lot of press people.
There was no power switch for this transmitter, it was on a volume control and there was a guy there from the press who tried my guitar and had the transmitter on. Then the police came in.
That wasn’t a particularly good transmitter, it was buzzing around on a lot of frequencies at once.
And with these policemen coming in and there being press there and (the French gramophone company boss was a fan of lying…) so I know how things work in the press and so on and how to do PR then.
Finally when it came to Sweden it was Olympia and k-piste.
And then I’ve tried to edit this story and I’m now quite tired of it.
I have been asked this question ever since so this is the truth.

GÖSTA:
The experience from the visit to Japan?

BO:
Yes, it was a great experience.
So we had been sitting and were late at Kastrup because it was fog and snow. So we arrived half a day late.
And when this plane rolled in, a lot of people are standing up on this balcony where you can look at the planes with huge banners and signs and Japanese characters.
We didn’t understand anything.
And when we entered through customs and passports. It went as quickly as the eye and then into a VIP room, it was full of photographers, TV, radio and champagne, as I remember.
So we had no idea that it was such a big deal, it was the biggest gathering I’ve ever been part of in my entire life.
And then the next day there was a press conference at the hotel with several hundred little gentlemen who sat and asked us questions and we sat at a few tables in a large congress hall.
It was an experience. I must never be a part of that, sooner or later.

GÖSTA:
From the stage performance, what do you remember there?

BO:
Yes, standing on a Japanese stage, there is nothing like it.
Yes, the closest would be Olympia in Paris, although the Japanese stages are even bigger and they are perfectionists. They arranged everything. Lights and backgrounds. And everything was so well organized that…
Yes, it was absolutely incredible.
You have to go there for that, stand on a stage to experience it. And I can’t compare it to anything else.

GÖSTA:
Why aren’t you bigger here in Sweden?

BO:
That is a difficult question. If I could answer that, I would have played more here at home, but there has always been less publicity.
And also with the kind of lists that existed in the past, so with instrumental songs it was very difficult to get in.
Ideally, you would sing in Swedish, which we consistently refused to do.
But there we have also been lucky in such a way that if you play instrumental music to get out, for example, in Japan or in France or whatever country it is, and I think it was probably more that Sweden was probably a little behind what they did abroad with whole PR stuff, etc, etc…
And things went a bit briskly there, so we were more abroad than at home.

GÖSTA:
So can you tell us a bit about the jam (with The Shadows) up at your home on Kopparslagargatan?

BO:
We met in a music store.
And we were, so to speak, colleagues, and then it was decided that we would meet at my house.
And we did and as is natural then as when musicians get together, there were instruments and there were amplifiers, it jammed long into the night.
My neighbors on the second floor came down and complained and I said ”do you know who’s here”?
No, they didn’t know that. ”It’s The Shadows and now we’re going to play here. I’ll pay, you can go to a hotel”.
They actually did.
Then at five o’clock in the morning the police came because then it was hot in there and we had opened the windows and they also thought this was funny, but said: ”Close the windows, because it can be heard all the way to Mölndal”.
We jammed until seven in the morning. It was very nice.