Gasolin'

Being associated with Gasolin was a pain in the beginning.

I´`m not in Gasolin anymore. I´`m on my own or with somebody else.

Why keep talking about Gasolin, when I play with another band?

It was five years ago, and then it was ten years ago, and time went on.

People kept talking about Gasolin, which is also why we´`re here.

Well, let´`s have some documentation then.

Let´`s get it over and done with, as much as we can.

But as I became more mature, or older, if you like.

More decrepit ...

The more I realized -

- that it was also a great time for me. It was my youth!

And in those important years, when you change from a young man -

into an adult -

- I was fortunate enough to make my best friends ever.

I am a ... I was born in 1942.

I´`m one of those ... to use a disgusting expression -

- who should have been a stain on the sheets.

I can´`t remember my father. He disappeared very quickly.

So I was alone with my mother for the first seven years.

At the beginning we stayed at my mother´`s parents home.

And somehow I became a thing that she had to get over -

- without too much fuss and too much trouble.

When I came up to my grandmother to get a hug or whatever -

- she would indulge me and say: ´`´`Okay, you´`ll get your five minutes.´`´`

Hell, no. That I didn´`t want.

During all those hours to myself -

- a quest for something arose in me -

- and I developed an early interest in various religions.

Noise and silence alternate in Japanese religions.

Not far from the Yamabushi drums lies the temple garden -

created of stone and sand.

Here you may quietly observe the simplified beauty -

- and you may find that the monks rake creates the waves of the ocean.

Yes, I was probably what you´`d call a loner.

School was no success. I was one of the roughs, you know -

who didn´`t take to the place -

- and sat in the back rows, making trouble.

But one day we were allowed to play our own records for each other -

while eating our lunch.

And Wili Jønsson, who was my class-mate -

- played Louis Armstrong´`s Basin Street Blues.

And when listening to that -

- I chewed my sandwich to the rhythm -

of Basin Street Blues.

of Basin Street Blues.

We soon became very good friends and shared the music.

And there was a warmth to his home that I sucked in.

I only have tender memories of my childhood.

There are no sticking points.

My first memory image is of the yard.

It was spacious and pleasant.

And my dad was crazy about opera.

I remember them playing opera records with Benjamin Gigli -

- and Jussi Bjørling. He couldn´`t decide who was his favourite.

I think he ended up saying that they were equally good.

We established a spirit of solidarity -

- which lasted till we got our lousy O-levels.

Music became a way out of ...

... out of the cold place I came from.

I got an appenticeship and met others who played music -

and we started playing together -

- and became the talk of the town in a certain sense.

We were the advance guard, playing inaccessible music ...

... until the Beatles and the Rolling Stones appeared.

Then all attention was focused exclusively on electrical music.

At the beginning we didn´`t care much for it.

Three-four chords, that was all.

At the same time we were attracted to it, because it had something to it.

The most recent stuff was found on Radio Luxembourg.

It was a night show, and there was interference from a Danish station.

It was on one of those nights I first heard Jimi Hendrix´` ´`´`Hey, Joe.´`´`

There he was.

He played the guitar in a way that had never been heard before.

He took you flying!

I had no doubts that this was the way -

and I was hooked as hell.

I was born in Copenhagen, and we soon moved to the northwest district.

From Nørrebrogade you enter Frederikssundsvej -

- and we lived about a mile out at Mågevej.

My parents were divorced when I was five. I hardly remember him -

because he left when I was five.

We had a lot of freedom. My mother was a clerk.

She was also a merry woman.

She bought a cheap red wine once a month.

Then she made a salad and put Los Paraguayos on the grammophone.

And she said: ´`´`Well, I´`m off to Spain.´`´`

I got money for the cinema, and that was great.

´`´`Ulysses´`´` starring Kirk Douglas had just come out.

And we watched Kirk Douglas as Ulysses on the screen.

This was really ground-breaking for me.

A free man.

A man, who is scared, and yet summons up his strength.

When they get to the island of Polyphemos, the cyclops -

- one of the men suggests that they go back to their ship.

´`´`We shouldn´`t be here, for these are the footprints of a god.´`´`

And Ulysses says: ´`´`Or a man with big feet.´`´`

In that way he´`s fearless, or rather, he´`s scared -

- but he needs to see what´`s around the corner.

It´`s something that stays in my mind as some kind of an ancient tale.

You´`re not free, if you never take chances.

We played ´`Ulysses´` all summer.

After school I played music and yearned to play with others.

I moved into ´`Sofiegaarden´`, a row of ramshackle houses -

- which we had been given access to. And the place was alive!

Here I started playing in ´`Exploding Mushroom´`.

The name says it all.

We tried all the halucinogens we could get.

It was an incredible melting-pot.

And it was great fun.

I thought it was horrid. I didn´`t like it.

In 1965, when I started teacher´`s college, I moved into ´`Sofiegaarden´`.

The houses were condemned, with three backyards and everything.

And the centre for alcoholics was right opposite with all the drunks.

I was looking forward to becoming a teacher in a nice, posh house.

And buying myself an MG sportscar.

One autumn evening I was talking to a guy I knew from folk high school -

- and we we´`re drinking a beer, And this lean guy came walking by.

And he said: ´`´`That´`s Eik Skaløe´`´`. And I said: ´`´`Who?´`´`

´`´`Don´`t you know Eik Skaløe and Steppeulvene?´`´`

´`´`It´`s a beat band, singing in Danish.´`´` ´`´`In Danish?´`´` I said.

From that moment the hippies appeared.

I thought: ´`´`What the hell is that?´`´` They hung out at ´`Sofiegaarden´`.

Long hair, looking like this, and ´`´`Hey, man´`´`, and ´`´`Cool, man.´`´`

I thought: ´`´`What the hell is all this about?´`´`

They were playing music, and it wasn´`t all that bad.

And their philosophy about doing without money and so on -

- reminded me of the Bible, when Jesus said to his men:

´`´`Drop all that and follow me.´`´` I could buy that, you know.

I got a teaching post at Amager.

One day, when I was examining the kids -

- one of them suddenly said: ´`´`Mr. Larsen, where are you, sir?´`´`

I was playing the guitar somewhere else, you know. In my dreams.

One day I came home after a tough day at school with rotten lessons -

- and suddenly I saw Jønsson, whom I´`d seen a few times before.

He had just had a shower, and I asked him where.

´`´`At the public bath, you know. It´`s free.´`´`

- Well, some people enjoy life. - ´`´`I´`m a postman,´`´` he said.

´`´`And the rest of the day?´`´` ´`´`I play music and have a good time.´`´`

That´`s the way, I thought. If he can do it, so can I.

One voice kept saying that, and another voice said: You´`re a teacher.

You have a study loan -

- a wife and a child. Be responsible. But still ...

Well, come Christmas I quit. ´`´`I need a change,´`´` I thought.

First I need an electric guitar plus an amp.

I´`d moved away, and the wife said: ´`´`You look after the baby then.´`´`

´`´`Fine,´`´` I said. I didn´`t want any kind of job.

I packed the pram with four bottles and our baby-carriage -

- and steered towards Christianshavn at express speed.

I had a squeeze-bulb horn on the pram. Out of my way!

Now I was one of the guys in the street with an electric guitar.

Long hair and a guitar. Fantastic!

I knew ... Well, I knew 7-8 chords.

What happens then is that ...

I happen to meet Wili Jønsson again.

He now lives at Christianshavn, and he plays electric bass.

That was funny, as I had started playing electric guitar.

So how about it? Let´`s get together and form a band.

The preparations are being made. The moon walk is tonight ...

In 1969, the year of the moon landing, Jønsson came to see me.

´`´`Hi, what do you want?´`´` I said.

He and a friend had a band, and they wanted me to be lead singer -

- but not a guitarist. They wanted me to sing.

´`´`But who plays the guitar then?´`´` ´`´`It´`s somebody called Franz.´`´`

´`´`Is he any good?´`´` I asked. ´`´`Well, he just started playing,´`´` Wili said.

I had an oblong table, an oak plank with legs. And some chairs.

We sat around it practising, Kim, myself and Franz -

and slowly tuned in to each other.

This guy came along and played a role in my life -

- and otherwise I´`d never have connected with him.

First of all he was very inexperienced in music.

Of course he pretended to know everything about it -

which he didn´`t.

But he exuded a powerful intensity.

Here is the official announcement: The Eagle has landed!

It was never ´`´`See you on Friday´`´`. It was always tomorrow.

We needed a drummer, and here came Bjørn Uglebjerg.

And he fell in immediately. ´`´`Bjørn, you´`ll do fine -

- and now we have the quartet we want. Like the Beatles.´`´`

You can ask yourself why we suddenly jumped into it.

In my own case it was heartfelt.

It was something I had longed for so badly. To play music.

It was the only thing we wanted.

From early morning till night.

We talked of nothing else.

Kim´`s and my marriages went down the drain because of that.

And it wasn´`t that we had a chance, even though it sounds odd.

We couldn´`t help it. This was something we had to do.

The first time I heard them was at ´`Revolution´`.

They had a lot of power.

They obviously wanted to get there.

And the energy they emitted was catching.

I began taking pictures of them. They were so sweet and charming.

Nice picture of Franz. Very encapsulated. Very cool.

Franz was an authoritative person that made you listen.

He was an experienced jazz musician and music producer.

So he definitely had a say in the band.

Here´`s a nice picture of Kim.

Singing and playing all the time.

With his big mouth and a beard and all sweaty -

- in his T-shirt and jeans, talking incessantly. ´`´`Give me a fag!´`´`