Trettioåriga Kriget
Trettioåriga Kriget (The Thirty Years' War) formed in 1970 in Saltsjöbaden, a seaside resort southeast of Stockholm. They were all at the time about seventeen years old and still in high school, back then they used the school's main hall for rehearsal. The initial lineup of the band was a six piece with two drummers, from the very beginning the band included Stefan on bass and vocals, Dag on drums and Olle on harmonica. In 1971 a few original members left the band and Robert joined on vocals and guitar. In 1972 Olle quit playing harmonica to concentrate on the lyrics, leaving only Stefan, Dag and Robert handling the instruments. At this point they decided that they needed a guitar player and the band opened up for auditioning, and it was during these auditions that they found Christer who joined the band in the summer of 1972. The band rehearsed intensively for a year and a half and developed a style of their own, quite unlike the common trends in Swedish rock in the 70's. In 1974 they got themselves a record deal and a new rehearsal room in Saltsjöbaden, an old underground disco that they called "Grunden", in which they would remain for a long time. An album was recorded that summer and released in august 1974 titled "Trettioåriga Kriget". The musical talent and originality of the group was duly recognized in various reviews, the band now started to tour extensively in Sweden and also did several live performances on swedish national radio.
Their second album "Krigssång" was recorded in the summer of 1975 (though it remained unreleased until early 1976), it is commonly regarded as Trettioåriga Krigets "masterpiece". The second side is totally devoted to the long suite "Krigssång 2". The band continued touring and gigging in -75 and -76 . In october -76 they left for an extensive English tour from Croydon in London, Cardiff in Wales to Sunderland near the scottish border. They were very well recieved and the english music magazine "Melody Maker" chose them as one of the most promising bands of -77, speaking enthusiastically of their "intense gripping songs" and "the tremendous power of the music".
However, back home again they got the boot from their swedish label, who apparently had not heard of their successes abroad. Trettioåriga Kriget then chose to sign for a small Swedish independet label called Mistlur. Their first album on this new label was called "Hej På Er", it was recorded in summer of 1978 in their rehearsal studio "Grunden", with mobile recording facilties. By this time Mats had joined the band on keyboards, and saxophone too. The album was very well received and was to that date their best selling release. The album was seeing the band moving to a more simple song format and is seen as the last album in a trilogy starting with the first album. The band continued to tour Scandinavia extensively.
In the summer of 1979 the band recorded "Mot Alla Odds", also in "Grunden". It is widely regarded the bands least successful album. This was the last album with Robert who left in the autumn of 1979, leaving the vocals to Stefan. In 1980 the band played at the Roskilde festival in Denmark. They also recorded their last album called only "Kriget".
In 1992 Stefan, Robert and Dag played an acoustic set at a release party for the release of "Krigssång"on CD. In 1996 they released a (mostly) live album called "Warmemories". In 2002 Stefan, Dag, Chris and Olle decided to start rehearsing new material, these rehearsals were so successful that the band decided to enter the studio once more and record a new album. At this time Robert and Mats also joined the band. The album was named "Elden Av År" (Fire of Years) and was released in january 2004. It was very well recieved, with many critics describing the album as the bands' best effort and even one of the best reunion albums ever released. Live shows followed in 2004 with the classic lineup of Stefan Fredin, Dag Lundquist, Christer Åkerberg, Robert Zima and Mats Lindberg.
In september 2004 the band made their US debut playing the Progday Festival in North Carolina, and for the first time in over 30 years they played a show in their hometown of Saltsjöbaden. Later that autumn their first two albums, "Trettioåriga Kriget" and "Krigssång" were rereleased with bonus tracks. In March 2005 the bands' third album, "Hej På Er" (Hello You) was also rereleased with bonus tracks. In June 2005 they played at Swedens biggest rock festival, Sweden Rock, and in March 2006 they played at the Baja Prog Festival in Mexico.
In August 2007 their 8th studioalbum, "I Början och Slutet" (In the beginning and the end), was released with overwhelmingly positive reviews. The band viewed it like a natural follow up to "Elden Av År", though with a more coherent atmosphere, and unlike "Elden" this album was written and recorded in a shorter space of time. Autumn 2007 also saw the band play in both France and Brazil for the first time as well as some Swedish shows to promote the album. In spring 2008 the band played in Spain for the first time as well as some shows in Norway, Sweden and France. In the 24th of October 2008 the band released their live album "War Years". Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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