Caviare Days live at Beyond Retro London

Caviare Days outside Beyond Retro - Photo by Steve Worrall

It was great to finally get to catch Caviare Days live after just missing out on seeing them last December when they played at one of the last Soundtrack of Our Lives shows in Stockholm at the Södra Teatern. Today, they were appearing at the Beyond Retro store in Shoreditch as part of the London Fashion Week, which followed a live session and interview on BBC Radio, which you can still catch here. The band will release their next single "Who Deprived You Of Your Smile" very soon, in fact they are just finishing off the video now, so keep a check on their official web-site for news of the release date. The track is taken from their self titled debut album and has been produced by Mats Björke of Mando Diao and Jorge Elbrecht of New York based Violens.

Maja and Lina Westin - Photo by Steve Worrall

On the album, the band mix Sixties Californian Haight-Ashbury Psychedelia with a dash of melodic shimmering dance music to great effect, but live they are a slightly different prospect. With the addition of the excellent guitarist Boris Grubesic, they are far heavier than I was expecting, and the energy was quite electrifying. The band are based around the songwriting sisters Maja and Lina Westin, who share lead vocals and harmonies and of course provide quite a stunning visual impact, bouncing off each other, sometimes quite literally! But the good thing about seeing Caviare Days live is that you quickly realize that they are a "real" band, in fact the sisters don't appear until the guys run through an impressive swelling instrumental opening number. 

Boris Grubesic by Steve Worrall

We mentioned guitarist Boris, who really throws himself into his guitar playing, and with his hair flailing away he reminds me a bit of John Frusciante. Drummer Timmy Grim Fredriksson, who along with Lina and Maja, has been in the band the longest, keeps everything anchored down, he's one of those great drummers who plays along with the nuances of the music, rather than just bashing out a beat. For me though it's the virtuoso keyboard player Marcus Arborelius, who really impresses - switching effortlessly between numerous retro sounds, from Hammond, Vox, Farfisa to synth and piano, he also covers the bass in Ray Manzarek style. In fact it's The Doors that do spring to mind occasionally as the band have a real chemistry together when they lock into a groove which is more of a highly tuned Jazz outfit than an out and out Psychedelic Rock band. This style is pretty well summed up on the excellent new single "Who Deprived You Of Your Smile", which is one of the show's highlights, and the band provide a perfect backdrop for Lina and Maja to strut their stuff. Other stand out tracks include "You'll Qualify", "The Awakening" and of course the superb "When The Light Is Breaking", which was recently remixed by Ebbot Lundberg, the singer with the now sadly defunct Soundtrack of Our Lives.

Timmy Fredriksson by Steve Worrall

Marcus Arborelius by Steve Worrall

Caviare Days in action by Steve Worrall

Here's the video to the Ebbot remix of "When The Light Is Breaking".

We also play a non-album track from Caviare Days in Episode 6 of Retrosonic Podcast, which you can check out here. To keep up to date with news, info and tour dates, please check out the band's web-site. For more photos of the Beyond Retro show, head on over to the Retro Man Blog Facebook page and hit "Like" for access to the exclusive photo album. With thanks to Lina, Maja, Timmy, Marcus and Boris, it was a pleasure.

Nina Persson, Ebbot Lundberg and Magnus Carlson "A Tribute To The Velvet Underground" live at Stockholm Kulturfestival August 14th

Nina Persson by Daniel Eriksson

Two years ago Ebbot Lundberg, of the now sadly defunct The Soundtrack of Our Lives, and Magnus Carlson from Weeping Willows and The Moon Ray Quintet, were asked if they would like to do a performance of The Velvet Underground's third album for an HBTQ Festival event at Haga Church in Gothenburg. It worked out so well that they both wanted to do it again and they got their opportunity at this year's Kulturfestival in Stockholm. This time Ebbot and Magnus wanted to widen the set-list to include songs from the iconic debut album "The Velvet Underground & Nico", so all they needed was a "Nico", and who better than Nina Persson from The Cardigans. They gathered an impressive cast of experienced musicans around them including, on guitars and keyboards, Gunnar Frick, who has toured with Weeping Willows and also played with Ray Davies among many others, bassist Sara Edvardson Ehrnborg, drummer Johan Håkansson, who is currently playing with Mattias Hellberg's excellent band The Fur Heads and on guitar, Tommy Sahlin, who plays at the beautiful Slussens Pensionat on Orust, with Robert "Biggles" Sohlberg's band. 

It was the first time for me to see Ebbot perform live since The Soundtrack of Our Lives emotional farewell shows at The Södra Teatern in Stockholm back in December last year, and it was great to see him perform again. The band took the stage and Ebbot and Magnus appeared and shared vocals on a sublime "Candy Says", which was followed by the rest of the first side of the third eponymous album in running order. So we got a thumping run through of "What Goes On", "Some Kinda Love", a beautiful rendition of "Pale Blue Eyes" and then "Jesus". Then we were treated to "I Found a Reason" from "Loaded" and back to the third album for "I'm Set Free". Ebbot and Magnus compliment each other extremely well, their voices blend perfectly. Magnus has a smooth soulful croon which is wonderfully suited to Ebbot's slightly rawer more "Rock" baritone. But, still no Nina, and some of the crowd around me are getting a bit restless. Considering Nina's name is very prominent on the advertising, I'm beginning to wonder myself. There's a buzz as songs from the debut album "The Velvet Underground & Nico" start to appear with a gorgeous "Sunday Morning", which is followed by a powerful "I'm Waiting For The Man" with Ebbot on lead vocals. 

Ebbot Lundberg - Photo by Steve Worrall

Then it's "Femme Fatale" with Nina finally making an appearance, to a huge round of applause. I know Nico didn't actually sing on many songs, but I do think they could have planned the set or song arrangements to get Nina more involved from the start. For example, "Candy Says" and "Sunday Morning" would have suited Nina's lead vocals perfectly. "Venus In Furs" is next, with Gunnar switching to bass and Sara impressively taking on the John Cale viola part . "All Tomorrow's Parties", "There She Goes Again", "I'll Be Your Mirror" are all brilliantly performed, and Nina's smile lights up the stage. Then it's over to Ebbot to close the set with the slowly unravelling classic "Heroin". The encore is a bright and breezy "Who Loves The Sun" from "Loaded", which is followed by "Temptation Inside Your Heart", originally recorded with John Cale in 1968 but left unreleased until the "VU" rarities compilation came out in 1985. It's not a widely known song, but actually turns out to be one of my highlights of the night. They don't go down the easy option crowd-pleasing route for the encore, so there's no "White Light/White Heat" (in fact they skip the second album completely) and there's no "Sweet Jane" or "Rock 'n' Roll", which some in the crowd were shouting for. Instead they close the show with a slightly downbeat but nevertheless emotional and impressive,"Ocean". It's over, and the band are called out to take a bow and lap up the generous applause. It was an excellent show, considering it must be very difficult to please everyone, as there are so many aspects to The Velvet Underground's sound, I think they got the balance just right. So, I'm intrigued to find out what the next project Ebbot, Magnus and Nina have in store...

Magnus, Nina & Ebbot - Photo by Steve Worrall

David Liljemark, the renown comic book illustrator, film director and Wonder Boys main man, not to mention big Velvet Underground fan, gave me his perspective on the gig: "The "Ebbot Underground" gig with Magnus C & Nina P was most pleasant, but a bit too much focus on the third album and ballads, still no "Afterhours"...WTF?!...or "I'm Sticking With You" for that matter, a couple of songs should've been replaced by "I Heard Her Call My Name" and/or "White Light/White Heat" (or "Guess I'm Falling In Love"). I have never liked the song "Jesus" (with the exception of Smog's extremely good cover!) but here it got a heavier arrangement than the original, but "Hey Mr Rain" would've been a more urgent choice. The show closer "Ocean" was fantastic,  and very much in The Soundtrack of Our Lives style, but no one can top Lou's singing on "I'm Waiting For The Man" and "Some Kinda Love", but the evening's definite highlight was "Temptation Inside Your Heart"!"

 

Top to Bottom - Ebbot, Nina & Magnus by Daniel Eriksson

Here's a video from the gig, for more videos then please visit the Retro Man Blog YouTube channel.

We have set up a Soundtrack of Our Lives Facebook Group which encompasses all of the bands many off-shoots, collaborations, solo works, current projects and new bands - from Nymphet Noodlers and Union Carbide Productions to Free Fall, Tonbruket and beyond...please feel free to join the Group and contribute here...!

Ebbot & Nina - Photograph by Steve Worrall

Many thanks to Daniel Eriksson and Hans Selander for their excellent photographs, all are copyright 2013 as credited. You can check out more of Daniel's photos here...Also big thanks to David Liljemark. For more photographs please head on over to the Retro Man Blog Facebook page and "Like" for access to the exclusive Photo Album.

Johan, Magnus, Gunnar, Nina, Tommy, Sara & Ebbot - Photo by Hans Selander

Introducing: The Flight Reaction

We'd like to welcome Stockholm based band The Flight Reaction to the Blog and highly recommend you checking them out if you like your Psychedelia multi-layered and melodic. I saw the band when they played at the after-show party for one of The Soundtrack of Our Lives last gigs at Stockholm's Södra Teatern back in December and was mightily impressed. The Flight Reaction were formed from the ashes of The Giljoteens, The Maggots and Les Artyfacts, who all quit playing around the same time. Mats, Sebastian, Måns and Aron decided it was time to put together a new band and The Flight Reaction was exactly the band they had all wanted for some time. 

They describe their sound as "Pure 60's Garage-Beat with flashes of Punkadelic Psych". The first three 45's are now out on CopaseDisques and 13 O'Clock Records and are all well worth getting hold of. The band have a depth to their music, there's just so much packed into their songs, so much going on. There are echoes of The Hollies, 13th Floor Elevators, early Pink Floyd and "Their Satanic Majesties Request" era Stones, in fact they even do a great cover of "Citadel" on the B-Side of the "Mourning Light" single. I love the "Flying Colours" single title track which is a thumping good tune with swooping spaced-out Sci-Fi organ blips puncturing proceedings every now and then.

The B-Side "A Broken Heart" has a superb guitar and organ break that reminds me of The Stranglers take on "Walk on By". The single "Won't Give In" is a mighty fine track with a stand-out catchy chorus. But I think my favourite Flight Reaction song has to be its' flip-side, "I Lost You", with it's fabulous Mexican style guitar riff that conjures up The Stairs or The Coral's slightly skewed take on 60's Merseybeat, it's a sure fire classic. I am really looking forward to the band's debut album and of course will bring you any news as and when it happens.

The Flight Reaction are: Måns P Månsson - Guitar & Vocals, Sebastian Braun - Guitar & Vocals, Mats Bigrell - Drums and Aron Erstorp - Bass & Vocals.

You can order their singles at the CopaseDisques web-site and check out news on the band at The Flight Reaction Facebook page. Here's the great "Flying Colours".

With thanks to Måns and Alex from CopaseDisques.

The Fall - Live at The Strand Stockholm, September 02nd

The last time I saw The Fall was way back in 2007 at the Islington Academy, it wasn't what I would call a particularly enjoyable night out. Firstly, it was at my least favourite venue in London, the dreadfully soul-less Islington Academy. Secondly, we had to endure some awful wind-up merchant posing as a DJ, Safi Sniper, who stretched the crowd's patience to breaking point. I had never experienced any violence or aggression at a Fall gig before, well not off the stage at least, but the air was filled with screams of abusive language and flying beer glasses. Of course, I could imagine Mark E Smith sitting backstage having a good old chuckle at this and by the time The Fall took to the stage, the audience were primed and ready for anything. I was there with a friend from Sweden who certainly added a few more slang words to his English vocabulary. So, fast forward to the present, I was over in Stockholm when the same friend suggested we go along to see The Fall, I was in two minds. I mean don't get me wrong, The Fall were amazing when they did eventually take the stage that night back in 2007, but I was not in any great rush to see them again. With some trepidation I asked my mate, "That Safi Sniper isn't supporting is he...?". Laughing, he replied, "Oh, the effing get off the stage you w*nker Safi Sniper, you mean? No, there's no support and the band are due on stage at 8:30 I think". Now, that sounded more like it, life's too short for enduring shite support bands, so I agreed.

The Strand is a great venue, there's a good atmosphere and a sizeable audience, I can pick out a lot of English voices too so things are looking promising for a great show. The band take the stage, but although the keyboard is set up there's no Elena which is a bit strange. However, they go ahead and kick off with a brand new number that has a catchy guitar riff called "Defurbished". Mark E Smith appears and looks in pretty good shape, the stabbing, stop-start guitar leaves the drums to carry things, it's an excellent song. Still no Elena though, and there's no explanation on her whereabouts at all during the course of the gig. Then it's into their cracking take on The Sonics' garage rock classic "Strychnine". This is followed by "Nate Will Not Return" and then the ominous bass line of "Chino". In fact tonight, it's the bass of Dave Spurr that is the star of the show, I haven't felt such a punch in the guts sound since experiencing Scott Firth's crushing bass at Public Image Ltd's recent gigs. Talking of bass, next it's another stunning riff, "Systematic Abuse" from the "Reformation Post TLC" album. Tonight, The Fall sound is a pretty relentless assault, there is not much room for subtlety but it is certainly hypnotic and effective.

The band were in a tight groove and things were going well, but half way through "Systematic Abuse" Smith wanders off backstage leaving the band to continue without him. They go straight into "Cowboy George" with its rolling Rawhide style drums. Smith appears on stage again and continues singing, he deliberately steps on guitarist Peter Greenaway's effects pedals and approaches his amp, turning up the levels so there's a squall of feedback. He then fiddles with the vacant keyboard and they crash into a vicious "Bury", the rockabilly riff of oldie "Container Drivers" is well received by the crowd but during "Psykick Dancehall", Smith kicks over one of drummer Keiron Melling's cymbal stands and he's off again. There's a brief flurry and battle with the curtains that wouldn't have been out of place on the Morecambe & Wise Show, and he disappears backstage. The band finish and depart to loud calls for an encore and I am sure I can hear Smith's disembodied voice through the PA say "I'm not going back out there again". He doesn't, but the band do, the three musicians re-appear and we get a red-hot run through of "Hot Cake" then into the classic "Mr. Pharmacist", all the while Smith is singing from somewhere backstage.

The band depart again, there's a bit of a wait but they come back, spurred by the persistent calls for an encore, for "Wolf Kidult Man", then my favourite Fall track "Sparta FC", which certainly misses Elena's backing vocals. I don't really know what happened to upset Smith, some people reckon it was the laid back Stockholm crowd, but to me the reaction was positive throughout, and the calls for encores went on long after the house lights went up. The fact that they came back for two encores probably lays to rest that rumour. Was it something to do with Elena? Maybe Smith hurt himself trying to get backstage? You could certainly hear him saying  "thank you from the cripple behind the stage" as  "Sparta" drew to a close. Whatever the reasons, I suppose a straight forward, incident-free Fall gig would have probably been a bit of a disappointment!  Here's a video of "Container Drivers" - All photos and video copyright Steve Worrall 2012.

The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Live at Södra Teatern Stockholm, August 30th

Mattias & Ebbot - Photo by Steve Worrall

It's starting to hit home that this really is the closing chapter in The Soundtrack of Our Lives story. At the end of the year the band will finally call it a day and they will do so in some style. They have announced that they will run through each of their studio albums on consecutive nights, starting December 17th, here in Stockholm at this very theatre, the beautiful Södra Teatern. It's well worth mentioning the venue as it is stunning, situated high up on Södermalm's Mosebacke Square with breathtaking views over the City, it's Stockholm's oldest surviving theatre, dating back to 1859. It's also well known as the venue where Sparks performed for the recording of their superb "Lil' Beethoven Live in Stockholm" DVD. Tonight's gig however, is outside on the Terrassen, and it really is a beautiful setting to see a gig. Due to the proximity of local flats, houses and hotels - some lucky residents got a perfect view from their own balconies - the gig starts early, and the support act Mattias Hellberg actually plays indoors afterwards at an official aftershow. You can read about Mattias Hellberg's excellent show on the Blog here, and see a video of a brand new unreleased song, the excellent "Wait For The Morning".

Photo by Steve Worrall

Soundtrack take the stage at around 8:15pm just as the light is fading, Ebbot appears with an acoustic guitar and they open the set, somewhat surprisingly, with the slow burning "All For Sale", the last track from second album, "Extended Revelations...". In all the times I've seen the band they have rarely played any songs off this superb album, certainly not during their more regular "rock" shows anyway. I've always thought this was a big shame as the album is surely a psychedelic rock masterpiece, crammed full of fantastic songs, so it was a great to hear the opening chords of "All For Sale" ring out to start the show. Tonight Soundtrack play a pretty lean, stream-lined set, cramming in 20 songs that span their 16 year career as one of the greatest, and certainly most underrated, rock bands of...well...all time!  

Kalle - Photo by Steve Worrall

They play an eclectic pick of tracks from each of their albums, except, interestingly enough, "Origin Vol. 1", the rather patchy album that was meant to have built on the critically acclaimed, break-through "Behind The Music". We are treated to a handful of raucous oldies such as "Dow Jones Syndrome", "Confrontation Camp" and the ultimate TSOOL song, "Galaxy Gramophone". The band attack each number with a vengeance, guitarists Ian Person and Mattias Bärjed are a blur of frenzied energy. Then it's the classic "Instant Repeater '99", which could almost be Sweden's unofficial alternative National Anthem, the packed out Terrassen responds enthusiastically, singing along with every word, and the atmosphere is amazing. More early songs are played, with their very first 1996 E.P. title track "Homo Habilis Blues" and "Grand Canaria", which shows off Fredrik Sandsten's peerless drumming skills to great effect. "Behind The Music" is also well served with "Still Aging", bassist Kalle Gustafsson Jerneholm's stunning "Broken Imaginary Time" and the beautiful "Tonight", which features a solitary Ebbot singing to Martin Hederos' stunning Erik Satie influenced piano. Of course we also get the thumping "Sister Surround", probably the one track that made their name outside Sweden.

Photo by Steve Worrall

Following "Origin Vol. 1", the band had a real return to form with the release of the epic, sprawling double album called "Communion", and we get the mini-symphony of "Second Life Replay", another track that has become something of a classic amongst fans. The song was also to end up on the soundtrack of the American Television comedy/drama show, "Californication". "Just a Brother" is probably the only lull in the night's otherwise faultless set, but "The Passover" from "Communion", makes up for it, a stunningly simple but emotional and effective camp-fire singalong. From the latest, and last ever album, "Throw It To The Universe", the band play the superb Love-influenced flamenco styled "Where's The Rock?", the powerful "Faster Than The Speed of Light" and the slower paced "You Are The Beginning".

Martin - Photo by Steve Worrall

As one of the encores, the band return to the stage to rapturous applause and we get the storming title track of the new album, "Throw It To The Universe", which segues nicely into the early single, and probably the band's theme song, "Firmament Vacation". As a final encore, the ecstatic crowd are treated to that familiar Eastern influenced riff of "Mantra Slider", which slowly builds and builds until it degenerates into a crazed, Stooges style freak-out, with Ebbot leaping off the stage into the crowd. The song then mutates into the old Union Carbide Productions classic "Ring My Bell" and a fantastic gig is brought to a crashing end. What a performance, and it's just such a damn shame that there is not much time left to enjoy the spectacular live experience of The Soundtrack of Our Lives. Here are a few more photographs...

Gig Poster at Slussen

Soundtrack Soundcheck

A rare pic of all six members in one shot!

Side of the stage at the Södra Teatern Terrassen

Ebbot in the shadow of the beautiful Söder Teatern

All Photos above copyright Steve Worrall 2012. Here is a great video of a triple hit from the gig kindly contributed by bgrrrlie. You can check out bgrrrlie's excellent YouTube Channel for more videos of the show along with many others.

Mattias Hellberg - Live Södra Teatern Stockholm, Aug 30th

Mattias Hellberg & Nikke Ström by Steve Worrall

Following The Soundtrack of Our Lives storming performance on the terrace outside the beautiful Södra Teatern, we were treated to Mattias Hellberg playing a superb set at the official after-show party. The room was absolutely packed out and it was difficult enough to breathe, let alone push my way to the front to try and take photographs. In fact earlier, the slightly over zealous security guards blocked off one handy entrance and that meant by the time I'd made it inside, I'd unfortunately missed the two opening numbers. This was disappointing as one of them was the excellent single "Oh No", taken from his latest album "High In The Lowlands", and a particular favourite of mine. Luckily, I caught "If My Heart", which was one of the new demo recordings I'd been lucky enough to hear. This really is a great song, and live it came across really well, with it's fuzzed up organ sound and stabbing rhythm, it would make a classic single. Hellberg has assembled a fantastic new line-up around him, The Fur Heads, who feature the super-cool bassist Nikke Ström from Nationalteatern. This great band play brilliantly and do complete justice to Hellberg's music, and his eclectic influences, but the main thing is they groove! Hellberg has always oozed Soul, whether it be in a stripped down acoustic style for example, with "High In The Lowlands" album, or the rawer psychedelic funk of The White Moose. 

I was not familiar with the next song, "Flying" but I certainly was with the one after, the brilliant "Final Call" from The White Moose album "Out Of The Frying Pan, Into The Woods". This album is barely off the stereo, I love it to bits. In fact I think it must rank amongst the best records released by a contemporary Swedish artist, and I was so pleased to hear him play a track from it. "Where Did You Go?" from his self-titled solo album was then followed by another wonderful new track "Wait For The Morning" which is another perfect single in-the-making. It has a beautiful laid back rhythm, with it's bongo led percussion and soulful backing vocals, and I think it is destined to be a crowd favourite for years to come. The great guitar riff to "A Sight Supreme" heralded some wild and enthusiastic applause and the song went down a storm with the audience. New number "Minor/Major Me" was a blissful soul searching delight, and "Shine On" was followed by the storming "Mermaid Stomp" from the White Moose album. The encores consisted of another White Moose number, the crazed "Good Day", "Love Is" and "Moon" from the latest record. The new album has almost been completed and Hellberg is now considering his options on how to release it. From the demos that I've heard and the way the songs came across live this is shaping up to be Mattias Hellberg's defining album and I can't wait for the finished product to be released.

All Photographs Copyright Steve Worrall 2012

Here's a video of the superb new song "Wait For The Morning"

Don't forget you can check out the Retro Man Blog special YouTube Channel for many more exclusive videos of bands and artists featured on the Blog.

Stockholm Retro Part 3 - Record Stores and Music Shops

Probably my favourite record store, and also the biggest in Stockholm, is the wonderfully named Nostalgi Palatset, which is an amazing Aladdin's cave full of musical treasures. Racks and crates full of vinyl, music and movie posters, memorabilia and autographs. Not forgetting the second hand record players, toys and comic books of course. It was remarkably tidy and well organised since the last time I visited about four years ago, which in a way was a bit of a shame, as I loved the old ramshackle chaos. Anyway, It stocks thousands of records in all genres Rock, Progressive, Indie, New Wave, Soul, Jazz, Blues, Folk, Swedish 'Schlager', Eurovision, Movie Soundtracks and Exotica. It has been located at 101 St. Eriksgatan since 1997 and is open 11am-7pm on weekdays, 11am-3pm on Saturday and 12 noon to 4pm on Sundays. The closest Metro stop to the store is St. Eriksplan.

Right next door is Trash Palace which specialises in Punk Rock and Heavy Metal vinyl and rarities. It has a separate entrance oustide but the same address and opening hours as Nostalgi Palaset as you can also access it from the main store. They do not seem to have a web-site, but if you are after anything specific in those genres then drop them an email. The wooden crates full of Punk Rock 7 inch singles, weighed a ton and were crammed full of great stuff. The average price for something decent started off around the SEK 70.00 mark, which works out at around £6.50, but of course the prices can increase dramatically depending on the rarity of the record. They had a great selection of Punk and New Wave and only a lack of money, lack of storage space at home and lack of a huge suitcase, stopped me from going mental and buying up a large percentage of their stock!

Nearby, just a bit further down St. Eriksgatan at number 78, you have the excellent Atlas CD Börs, which is lined with excellent tour and gig posters. However, as the store's name suggests, this place concentrates more on CDs, but they do have a small selection of vinyl in stock too.

Record Hunter is at number 70 St. Eriksgatan and is a great old fashioned store crammed full of overflowing boxes and crates, in fact there's so much stuff that you can barely see the shop assistant behind the counter. There are two floors of the stuff too... 

Just over the road from Stockholm's mightily impressive Public Library, there is Serie & Skivhandel, which is located at 104 Sveavägen. Another great treasure trove with every inch of wall and ceiling covered with posters and memorabilia. The closest Metro to this is Rådmansgatan.

Pet Sounds is probably Stockholm's best known Record store, located in the trendy SoFo district at 53 Skånegatan in Södermalm, it's been established since 1979 and is so well known there has even been a book by Lennart Persson "Musik Non Stop" written about it. They sell mainly contemporary music with an emphasis on the alternative, they also stock music books, magazines and DVDs and there is a small selection of vinyl too. It's open 11am-6pm Mon-Fri, 11am-2pm Sat and is closed on Sundays. The closet Metro is Medborgarplatsen. There is also a Pet Sounds Bar and Restaurant at number 80 Skånegatan, where they put on a variety of club evenings and events in the cellar space with local and guest DJ's. The Bar is open from 5pm Tuesdays to Saturdays.

Also on Södermalm, at Götgatan 24, is the fantastic Hellstone Music store, selling all sorts of instruments but they also have a pretty decent vinyl selection. They also do some great T-Shirts, sometimes using familiar works of art, changed to incorporate the Hellstone logo. The walls are lined with posters and signed drum skins from a variety of local and visiting musicians and artists. In fact, in the documentary shown on Swedish TV about The Soundtrack of Our Lives orchestral shows at the nearby Rival Hotel, singer Ebbot Lundberg is filmed in Hellstone at one point. So, here's a little quiz, if you are a TSOOL fan and can tell me what instrument Ebbot bought that day, drop me a message and the first one to answer might get a little prize...!

All Photographs copyright Steve Worrall 2012