Five Years Ahead of My Time by Seth Bovey

Author:Seth Bovey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Reaktion Books

The Monks, a group made up of American ex-servicemen, were one of the local bands that played the Star-Club in Hamburg. As Überbeat minimalists and proto-punks, they played up the monk gimmick by dressing in black, wearing rope neck-ties and sporting tonsured scalps.

The beat movement in Norway was similar to those in Denmark and Sweden. The most successful groups all went through a phase as ‘Shadow bands’ before imitating The Beatles. Of these, The Snapshots, The Vanguards, The Pussycats, The Cool Cats and 1-2-6 are the most recognized, with The Pussycats being the most influential. Their Pssst! Pssst! album of 1966 was the best Norwegian rock album to date, and they followed it by recording a second LP, Mrrr . . . Mrrr, in Hamburg that same year.76 However, the most interesting Norwegian band was an all-girl group called The Dandy Girls. Formed in Hønefoss by lead guitarist Inger Tragethon, the group began by playing ‘Shadow music’ as well as covers of songs by British bands.77 Record producer Thor Gunnar Norås heard about them and cast them in a movie called Broder Gabrielsen (1966); after that, Norås became their manager and prepared them for life on the road as professional musicians.78 The Dandys recorded two 45s for the Manu label in 1966; one consisted of two instrumental numbers and the other one covered two Norwegian children’s songs. Those would prove to be The Dandy Girls’ only recordings, for they spent the rest of their time together on the road.

First, the band toured the military bases of Norway and Sweden in a Volkswagen van nicknamed ‘Chaltrik’; they had fixed a horse’s skull to the top of it, and their fans would write messages all over the van.79 Word about this unusual beat band got around, so The Dandys toured Sweden and Switzerland next, driving a Chevy Bel-Air and pulling a travel trailer. In April 1967 they turned down an offer to open for The Rolling Stones in Zurich, mainly because the Stones demanded that the band pay for the privilege; Swiss groups The Sevens and Les Sauterelles opened for the Stones instead. Then Tragethon left the group to finish high school and was replaced by two Swiss musicians, Gaby from The Swiss Beat Girls and Rosemarie from The Ladies.80 Throughout 1967 The Dandy Girls played all over Switzerland, Germany and Italy, often at high-end hotels and nightclubs. As pretty teenage girls who could rock and roll, they also became very popular at the military bases in Germany, where they often played for soldiers who had been wounded in the Vietnam conflict. As their reputation expanded, agents from Asia began calling for bookings, and their management set up a tour there.81 Ultimately, The Dandy Girls won over audiences in Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan and Iran, often by singing meaningful local songs in the native language in addition to their exuberant brand of rock ’n’ roll. They were also supposed to tour Vietnam, but ultimately cancelled those dates because the war had intensified.

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