"It's been as long as five years
Since we were face to face"
(Split Enz, "Kia Kaha", 1984)
The song came out of the speakers. The lyrics seemed appropriate since
it was now more than five years since Crowded House's previous gig in
Stockholm. But tonight, Tuesday 22nd October 1991, they were finally
going to play in Sweden again.
I first heard of the concert at the end of August, when Michael at EMI
Sweden had told me that Crowded House were to play at Melody on 22nd
October. Two things worried me about the date. First off, my first
exam (Algebra) at University was 23rd October - but it was not as if I was going
to miss out on seeing CH because of that. The other thing that was of
concern was that the age limit at Melody was 20 and from what I had
heard, Melody were very strict about it. None of us three - my friends
Niclas and Susanne and I - had reached that magical age
yet. Determined to get in anyway, we tried to find a solution to that
particular dilemma.
My idea was to write to Peter Green and ask him if perhaps he could
put us on the guest list. I thought that this might be pushing my
luck, but I needn't have worried. A couple of weeks later I got a
reply from Peter. He told me when the soundcheck would be and which
persons we should talk to and so on. Also, he provided me with his
phone number and asked me to call him and he would put us on the guest
list. Incredible! Not everyone would have been as nice as
Peter. I phoned him in early October and he took our names. Now we
felt sure we'd get in.
Back to 22nd October. I had a free day and contacted Michael at EMI
Sweden to find out which radio interviews Crowded House were going to
do.
There were four of us who would attend the concert: Niclas, a friend
since my early school days; Björn, a former classmate; Susanne, a
high school classmate (who became a fan after I made a speech about
Tim Finn in English class) and me.
The soundcheck was, according to Peter Green, going to be around 5-5.30
p.m., so the battle plan was to be there with time to spare. A few
minutes before 3 p.m. I left home and met up with Niclas, who lives
close to the train station. I was wearing the same sweater I had worn
when I first saw Crowded House in 1986, a sweater patterned after the
cover of Split Enz's "True Colours" album. (Beneath that I was wearing
a t-shirt from Split Enz' reunion tour of 1989) I also brought my
other knitted sweater, patterned after the "Corroboree"/"Waiata" album
cover, which Susanne was going to wear at the concert. I also brought
my Algebra book in the naive belief that I would perhaps be able to do
some studying, Peter Green's letter and a camera.
22nd October was a very chilly and windy day, but Niclas decided to
just wear a Crowded House t-shirt and a jacket. While we were waiting
at the train station, he realised just how cold it was and ran back
home to get a scarf. He returned just when the train rolled in at the
station.
We arrived to Stockholm at around half past three and took the subway
to Östermalmstorg. At four o'clock we were going to meet Susanne at
that nice Scottish restaurant (a.k.a. McDonalds...) at Norrlandsgatan,
not far from Melody. Before that, we sneaked into the record store
Skivfönstret, a very good record store just across the street from
McDonalds. They had some Crowded House window displays to promote the
concert. In the store we bumped into Susanne as well.
Following intake of the culinary innovations at McDonalds, we headed
for Melody. We checked the venue out from the outside and found that
it had two entrances - one at the front and one more "secret" at the
back. Which door would Crowded House choose? I decided to wait at the
back door while Susanne waited at the front door. Niclas - only
wearing a t-shirt and a jacket - paced between the two in a vain
attempt to keep warm.
A couple of hours went by. Nothing happened, except that Björn joined
us and that I too started to suffer from the cold. Niclas and Björn
went into the department store NK, just opposite from where I was
standing. A few moments later, Susanne came up to me, saying that
there were some guys on stage singing the Split Enz song "One Step
Ahead", but she didn't think it was Crowded House. At the same time, a
taxi stopped a few metres away from us. The first man who got out was
a real Nick Seymour-lookalike and the next guy looked a lot like Paul
Hester. The third person, a dark-haired man wearing glasses, didn't
look familiar to me. The three men headed towards the main entrance. I
decided to check them out and jogged after them and caught up with one
of them just by the door. "Excuse me, Sir, are you not Nick Seymour?"
I managed to say, teeth clattering. He said yes and I told him I had a
letter from Peter Green. Nick read the letter and gave me a piece of
paper to write down our names for the guest list. I mentioned that we
had actually met before, at Hard Rock Cafe five years earlier. Since
he had probably forgotten my face, I showed him my "True Colours"
sweater. "Ah yeah, I remember that one" Nick said.
Nick went into Melody for soundcheck and a few moments later my pals
arrived at the scene. I informed them we were now on the guest list
and would definitely get in. Niclas and I peered through the windows
to watch the soundcheck (during which they played "Never Be The Same"
and "Sweet Dreams", but neither were to show up at the real concert
later). Nick wore his scarf throughout the soundcheck. I guess he
thought Stockholm was a bit cold too.
The doors finally opened at 8 o'clock. We had been waiting outside for
four hours (if any penguins had been there, they would have given up
much earlier due to it being too cold for them... :-) ). I was sort of
looking forward to some arrogant chap at the entrance saying "You are
too young to get in" so that I could say I was on the guest
list. Sadly, he didn't even ask us about our ages and it was no
problem gettin in.
We went up to the merchandise stand. They had two different t-shirt
designs. I bought both, plus a few t-shirts for pen pals abroad - six
t-shirts in all. Niclas and Susanne also bought some t-shirts.
Melody has two floors. Upstairs there is the public closet, a bar and
toilets. Downstairs there is the stage, another bar and x tables. The
view of the stage is decent enough upstairs (after all we had seen the
soundcheck through a window upstairs), but we were of course planning
to be in the front row. We went downstairs.
Soon afterwards, I decided to try and find Michael at EMI Sweden. The
idea was that maybe he could help me to meet Crowded House after the
show, which I was keen to, especially since I had met them on their
previous visit to Sweden. I didn't see Michael anywhere, but I did
find something else... a door which said "Crowded House Dressing
Room". Logically, there should be a good chance of spotting a Crowded
House member here...
A minute or so later, Tim came out of the dressing room. He didn't see
me at first, as he was busy producing a cigarette, but as soon as he
looked up he would see me. He looked up, saw my "True Colours" sweater
and exclaimed "Nice sweater, man!". He came up to me and shook hands
and I mentioned we had met before, when he did a showcase gig here in
1989. "Yeah" he said but it sounded more like "If you say so"... I
showed him a couple of photos of me wearing my two knitted sweaters
(so he could see what the "Corroboree"/"Waiata" one looked like as
well). He thought both looked good. Tim asked me if I had a cigarette
lighter. I didn't, so Tim walked away trying to find one.
My mate Niclas appeared right after this and was disappointed that he
had just missed meeting Tim. We saw Nick Seymour reappearing (Crowded
House had left the venue after soundcheck) through the door. He
spotted me and asked if there had been any problems getting in and
sounded relieved when I said there hadn't. He went into the dressing
room and a few moments later, Tim passed us, now with his cigarette
lit. He nodded and smiled at me.
This was definitely a good place to be at. A couple of minutes later
we saw Neil coming our way. He stopped a few metres away to sign some
autographs. When he was done with this, I waved at him so he would
spot me (or rather, my sweater, which was probably more striking than
my face to Neil Finn). He came up to me, shook hands and asked who had
knitted this sweater. Co-incidentally, that was the first thing he
asked when we met back in 1986 too... I mentioned that I had been that
the Hard Rock Cafe gig five years before, and he actually seemed
genuinelly impressed by that fact. Neil was also shown the two photos
of me in my knitted sweaters... I hadn't cut my hair for about three
months when this concert was, and my haircut was degenerating into a
parody of Beatles circa 1965. Neil looked at the me and then at the
photos (where I had my "real" haircut). "Oh, you were young then!" he
said. I protested, saying the photos were just a year old. "What
happened after that?" he asked, his voice jokingly suggesting that it
had degenerated beyond belief since then... :-)
A teenage girl from Finland and asked Neil if she could take a photo
of him. Neil suggested she should let Niclas take the photo, so she
could be in the photo too. The girl from Finland seemed to assume that
Niclas and I were part of the Crowded House tour crew, as she asked
Niclas in English and with a lot of awe in her voice. Seeing how the
photo featured Neil and this girl from Finland, it can obviously be
described with the words "A Finn and a Finn"... :-)
Niclas and I were keen to meet Paul as well, but it was now nearly
nine o'clock and we had seen a note near the stage saying that Richard
Thompson, the support act, was going to start at 9 o'clock. So we went
downstairs again and took up spots in the middle of the front row,
between Nick's two amplifiers.
I had heard of Richard Thompson and was expecting he would be a very
serious artist who would play technically stunning stuff on guitar -
be a bit dull, in other words. I was definitely wrong about
that. Apart from a number of very good songs he also had a great sense
of humour. Jokes like "This is a song from my latest fabulous hit
album!" and about "Don't Dream It's Over" was mixed with funny
introductions to the songs ("This is a song about a convict being
released from prison and now he wants revenge. Gee, I wonder why I
always write about psychopaths!"). He also performed a song with Tim
on lead vocals. This track was "Persuasion", which later appeared on
"Before And After". Tim was introduced with the words "This is a young
boy. It's his first time on a stage". For the final number, "Valerie",
all Crowded House members joined Thompson on stage. They were
introduced as "A bunch of young boys who want to make a break in show
business. Personally, I don't give them much of a chance").
During the short break after Thompson's set, a few Australian girls
spotted Niclas's t-shirt, from a CH fan club concert in Prahran in
1990. They asked him where Prahran was located. Meanwhile, I heard a
couple of guys behind me discuss whether Crowded House are from
Australia or New Zealand.
Crowded House (Neil, Tim, Paul, Nick and additional keyboardist Mark
Hart) entered the stage at around half past ten. They started with
"Tall Trees" which sounded brilliant, and it was fantastic to hear Tim
and Neil's harmonies. The audience joined in and sang along, word for
word. It was followed by "Something So Strong" and "Weather With
You". The latter was another singalong favourite and one of the
absolute highlights of the evening. We had a very good position
between Nick's amplifiers. In front of us was Nick, Neil was on our
left (and behind him Mark Hart), Tim was playing an acoustic guitar on
our right and Paul was behind Tim and Nick. "Into Temptation" and a
superb rendition of "There Goes God" followed. According to the set
list (on Nick's amplifier), the next song was supposed to be "Love You
'Til The Day I Die". However, Paul messed up the intro so instead we
were treated to an impromptu cover of Led Zeppelin's "Dancing
Days". Neil's guitar playing was very impressive - I think he is
underrated as a guitarist. The audience responded enthusiastically to
all songs. "Love You 'Til The Day I Die" and "Hole In The River"
followed. After this, Tim stepped up to the microphone in front of me
and sang "All I Ask". Throughout that song, a violet spotlight shone
on Tim and straight into my eyes. I couldn't see a thing during the
song. Tim sang with great feeling.
"Kill Eye" was the next song. This isn't a favourite of mine and not a
concert highlight either. A superb rendition of "World Where You Live"
followed, getting a very good response and more audience
singalong. Then something unexpected happened...
"How many of you were at our last concert in Stockholm?" Neil
asked. "Nobody..." I heard him talk but was a bit too enthusiastic to
realise what he was actually saying. Niclas and Susanne did, though,
and were very vocal and pointing and waving at me. "...except this
guy", continued Neil, pointing at me, "who has a great sweater. Come
up on stage and show it!". Abandoning sense, I didn't hesitate and
climbed up on the stage, while Nick explained that in Australia
"jumper" did not only mean "sweater". I was on the stage and showing
everyone what my sweater looked like. The girls from Australia were
particularly enthusiastic (about the sweater, that is!). Tim informed
the audience that this design was originally conceived by Noel Crombie
while I walked around the stage like a mannikin (which probably looked
really embarrassing). Neil thought I should sing something. "Sing
something! Sing the Swedish National Anthem!" he suggested. I walked
to the microphone, but hesitated for a second. "You don't have to if
you don't want to" encouraged Neil. I started to sing (probably out of
tune...) "Du gamla du fria" (the Swedish National Anthem) and after
the first sentence the entire audience sang along (and I stopped
singing). The audience actually sang the ENTIRE anthem. Tim thought it
was some sort of football song and began chanting "Ole! Ole!
Ole!"... Paul finished the whole thing up with an extended drum roll
and I did some kind of primitive war dance (they must have put some
strange green pills in my drink at McDonalds earlier... :-) ). After
this, I left the stage and Paul said "He's an individual... what a
beautiful man!" (this can be heard clearly on the radio broadcast tape
from the show). An incredible experience for me - and it seemed the
audience thought it was a fun thing too (I am still waiting for the
record companies to offer me a recording contract, though).
After this amazing experience, Crowded House continued with "When You
Come" which sounded stunningly good, one of the concert highlights. It
was really full of life. "Don't Dream It's Over" was the next song and
it got a very good response with lots of audience singalong. Neil's
singing was eminent in this song in particular.
Tim got all the attention during "Chocolate Cake" with his energetic
dancing. I don't think any millimetre of the stage was left unused
during this dance.I have never seen anything like that. As a reviewer said the
next day, "Like a mix between Babar the Elephant and James
Brown". That says it all, I think... :-) When Tim sang "I saw Elvis
Presley walk out of the 7-11" Niclas imitated the "cow sound" from the
record. Tim heard this and was caught off guard and laughed (this can
also be heard clearly on the radio broadcast of the show). Tim also
got the audience to ask for chocolate cakes several times. Another
concert highlight.
Crowded House left the stage, but the audience definitely wanted more!
The group came back to enthusiastic cheering and the first encore was
"Fall At Your Feet" which worked beautifully live too. After this,
Paul produced an additional single drum which he placed just in front
of me and Richard Thompson and his guitar joined CH on stage. "Italian
Plastic" was a lot of fun, the band seemed to enjoy playing
it. Richard Thompson remained on the stage and Paul remained up front
for the next song, "Sister Madly", another superb live track. This one
also featured an impromptu part from "Hit The Road, Jack" and almost
an impromptu version of "Acquarius" from the musical "Hair". Only
almost, because Neil asked Paul (over the P.A. system) to sing it,
Paul asked (also over the P.A. system) what the lyrics were, Neil
rattled the words off and eventually Paul said "Since you know the
lyrics, why don't YOU sing it". Neil didn't and they continued with
"Sister Madly" instead. Then the group left the stage once
more.
The audience still wanted more and Crowded House came back again. Tim
grabbed an acoustic guitar and went up to the microphone and started
to sing the Split Enz classic "Six Months In A Leaky Boat". I don't
think most people in the audience had even heard it before, but it got
a good response anyway. Niclas waved a small New Zealand flag as it
was performed. Neil spotted the flag and smiled at him. "Six
Months..." really suited Crowded House, I thought.
Next up was a song which was not listed on the set list and I didn't
recognise it either. It was a melancholy, acoustic song with Neil on
lead vocals and he sang "You know exactly what I mean" several
times. I have since found out that this track is called "The Same
Language As Me".
Crowded House finished their concert with "Better Be Home Soon" and I
actually think the audience would have been happy for the band to
continue for another hour. A really fantastic concert!!!
Afterwards, people came up to me commenting on my stage appearance,
saying things like "A classic!", "Something to tell the grandkids one
day" and so on.
I was extremely thirsty but didn't have any money left, so went to
upstairs to drink some water. The toilets were located near the
Crowded House dressing room and several people were waiting there in
order to get autographs. Most of them left when CH manager Grant
Thomas announced that no-one would be allowed into the dressing
room. After this, only four of us remained: Susanne, me, one of the
girls from Australia and the girl from Finland (who was mentioned
earlier as having a photo of her and Neil taken). Michael from EMI
Sweden passed us. He nodded at me and said he would be right back. A
few minutes later, Crowded House members came out. First out were Nick
and Mark Hart. Nick was very nice and signed everything he was asked
to and took time to chat with us. Both he and Mark Hart commented on
my stage appearance (Mark Hart had looked very serious throughout the
performance, and in fact the only timed he smiled was when I did my
appearance). Nick mentioned that Crowded House would probably return
to Europe to play a number of festivals in the summer of 1992. The
Australian girl asked him how come Tim was now in the band, and Nick
explained this for her. Nick was really nice! The next person who came
out was Paul, who at first looked a bit angry and upset, but when he
spotted me he smiled. He also commented on my stage
appearance. Susanne and the girl from Finland (she must be quite a fan
to travel all the way from Finland to see CH) got his
autograph.
Finally, Tim and Neil came out together. They seemed very happy about
the gig and didn't mind signing autographs for Susanne and the Finnish
girl. They also complimented my "singing". After they had left,
Michael from EMI came out and we spoke to him for a while.
As we
were planning to leave, we bumped into Nick again and said we hoped it
wouldn't be another five years until the next show.
The girl from Australia came up to me and asked if I had ever been to
Australia. I said no, but that I hoped to go there in a few years
time. She wrote down her adress in my Algebra book and said "When you
visit Australia *next month*, please contact me. Just mention that you
are 'the guy from Helsinki'(sic) and I will remember you". So good to
hear that she had paid attention to my previous
sentence... :-)
Later, at the bus station waiting for the night bus home to Täby, I
reflected on an excellent concert and my astonishing stage
appearance. Across the road from the bus station was Hard Rock Cafe,
where it had all started five years before.
I returned home at three in the night and didn't feel tired at all. I
knew I would never forget this concert. To meet Crowded House and also
to be dragged up on stage seemed like unreal events, like things that
only happen in movies. "I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie
show" (The Kinks, "Celluloid Heroes", 1972)
Stefan Warnqvist,
October 1991 (adapted for this site 11th January 1998)
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