Nina Persson & Martin Hederos at Ystad Teater, Sweden, Thursday September 18th

Nina Persson & Martin Hederos at Ystad Teatern

It’s a treat to be here in the Ystad Teater and not just because it was a nice bonus to be able to tick off another "Wallander" filming location. Dating back to 1894 the theatre is ornate but not too over the top and its capacity of just around 350 people exudes a warm and intimate feel, perfect for tonight’s performance. The concept of the show is somewhat similar to Sparks superb stripped-back “Two Hands, One Mouth” tour, with just Nina Persson singing accompanied by Martin Hederos (The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Tonbruket, Nymphet Noodlers etc.) on keyboards. The pair are introduced by genial theatre manager Thomas Lantz, who also runs the town’s prestigious yearly Ystad Jazz festival. Nina and Martin take to the stage which is set with heavy black drapes and a back-drop featuring a forest scene with warm candlelight illuminating the darkness with an intimacy that really suits the music to follow. At first I am a bit concerned about Nina’s voice as she whispers an introduction and as I don’t speak Swedish I can’t figure out if she is suffering with a cold or sore throat. Martin hits the keys of the grand piano, there is a brief false start and I really hope Nina is OK to sing tonight. But when they get started with “Heavy Metal", a beautiful ballad taken from Nina’s new solo album “Animal Heart” my early worries about her voice are soon dispelled. Despite a noticeable huskiness at first, she then goes on to put in a quite remarkable performance, proving that she has grown into one of the best female vocalists around today. Martin then crosses the stage to take his place at what I guess is a Pump organ or a large harmonium, its church organ like sound highlight the gospel roots of Connie Converse's achingly beautiful "How Sad, How Lovely". 

Nina Persson & Martin Hederos at Ystad Teatern

Next up is "Lead Me Into The Night" from my favourite Cardigans album "Long Gone Before Daylight". I always felt that this album was a turning point for the band as it was a marked progression from the slightly twee Indie Pop of "First Band on The Moon" and the rawer "Gran Turismo" to a warmer, more orchestral sound. Unfortunately, my lack of Swedish language skills means that I can't follow the between song chat but judging by the polite laughter around me people seem to be enjoying the interaction very much. However, despite being in the dark as far as her comments are concerned, I certainly warm to Nina's delightful smile which breaks out at the end of each song as the applause rings out. Martin plays some quite breath-taking piano throughout the set tonight. It’s more of an embellished style than the Erik Satie minimalism of the similar acoustic set-up with his ex-Nymphet Noodlers band-mate Mattias Hellberg. The first set draws heavily on an eclectic selection of cover versions including Rufus Wainwright's "Going To a Town" with its biting refrain "I'm so tired of America…" Martin is then on the move again, crossing the stage to take his place at the electric organ he stabs out some harsh ringing notes over a sinister humming undercurrent. This evolves into a version of Robert Wyatt's "Free Will and Testament" highlighting his more Avant Garde side which becomes even more apparent on the surprising choice of Sparks “Angst In My Pants”. Surprising, mainly as they didn’t go for one of the Mael brothers more orchestral numbers but instead plumped for the discordant, clattering drum machine driven original "Angst In My Pants". Songs by Leonard Cohen and Kate & Anna McGarrigle follow and the first set draws to a close with "The Crowning" from Nina's side project A Camp with its "We're gonna party like its 1699..." refrain. 

Nina Persson at Ystad Teatern

The second set starts off with a familiar piano motif from Martin, it's "Tonight" a song he composed for The Soundtrack of Our Lives and whereas over the years he had the six foot something kaftan clad and bearded Ebbot Lundberg standing there next to him singing it, tonight it's the delicate form of Nina perched on a stool. It really sends a shiver down the spine to hear her sing such a beautiful song and I was deeply honoured to get a birthday dedication, a moment that will live long in the memory! Yet more unusual covers are tackled including "Real Life" by Joan As Policewoman, a great Bluesy "Old Fashioned Morphine" and a superb duet of "Sand" with Nina as Nancy Sinatra and Martin chipping in on the Lee Hazlewood lines. "Don’t Blame Your Daughter (Diamonds)" from The Cardigans last album "Super Extra Gravity" is another stunning jewel in the set, I love this track and to hear it performed tonight was really something special. Martin then gets a violin and plays it like a guitar, picking out the slow ominous riff to PJ Harvey's "Teclo". A nice Bossa Nova sung in Swedish segues into The Cardigans “Lovefool” which is probably the most recognisable moment of the night and we also get treated to "Junk of The Hearts" and "You're The Storm". However, the lack of any of the other more familiar “hits” was never an issue tonight, the choice of material was spot on. It was illuminating that the self-penned numbers stood out as personal highlights even amongst tracks by such song-writing luminaries as Wyatt and Cohen. It makes me think that Nina and The Cardigans deserve a far more serious appreciation and recognition of their talents in the U.K. As the encore ends the audience rise to their feet, Thomas appears on stage and presents the duo with large floral bouquets and Nina and Martin bask in a warm, enthusiastic and well deserved standing ovation. 

Nina Persson & Martin Hederos at Ystad Teatern

Nina Persson has been busy playing some solo shows dates in Sweden to promote “Animal Heart” with a backing band that includes Ian, Kalle and Fredrik of The Soundtrack of Our Lives. She has even played a couple of festival shows with The Cardigans, although there still doesn’t seem to be much news on a more permanent reunion just yet. Martin is busy with Tonbruket and many and varied collaborations as usual. You can read a review of Martin's gig with Ane Brun and Tonbruket at the Kentish Town Forum in London here. Check out Retrosonic Podcast for our interview “specials” with Ebbot, Ian, Fredrik and Mattias from The Soundtrack of Our Lives and other episodes which feature various Swedish bands and TSOOL related acts. With sincere thanks to Thomas, Martin and Nina. For more photos of the evening please head on over to the Retro Man Blog Facebook page and hit “Like”, if you are not already following, to access the photo album. 

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