My chronicle has a tendency to be an annual event, if event is the right word for it?. However I will not focus so much on records this time. More about why I am still in this movement? I know it started for me the summer of 1979. I was working over the summer holiday and really hated it. My radio played Ebba Grön and it touched a string I didn’t know existed. My older brother had brought home loads of punk records. But nothing had struck me before like that song on the radio. Every long summer night after that day,  did I spend on the floor listening to Sham 69, Clash and S.L.F. That summer changed my life more that anyone could foresee. As a 14year old boy full with hormones and testosterone I found  way to canalise my growing fury and agony. More so I got an addiction, music.

Music had never taken much room in my life before Punk. But in 1980 we started a band. We had three chords and a wish to not be like our parents. I sounded awful but it was fun and we annoyed a lot of people. During that period it was enough to have a short cut and buttons to get in a fight. We learned to shout louder and run faster than our opponents.

We saw shiploads of good bands, Black Flag, Zäpo, SLF, Clash, Slobobans Undergång, Theater Of Hate etc. These bands plus 100 of less known combos that was the heart and core of the movement.  I moved to Gothenburg and played in different constellations. Most of them both untalented and unmusical. During this period the scene got more political, militant and uniform. It lost some of the “for the hell of it “ feeling. In 1983 we formed a band there three of four could play an instrument, I was the fourth guy.  We were fairly good and was on the edge to record a seven inch. Two years later we did our last gig and my “career” as musician was over.

This was the year I turned twenty. If I don’t recall wrong I did my first reviews in a fanzine called Skrutt. Peter have to correct me if I am wrong. Never the less, I quit my work at Volvo and went out from the assembly line and never looked back. I started at the university the same autumn. We were very political correct and was against everything and everyone. Was it not against Nato, was it against animal exploration etc. We had the answers to all the questions. We were a sorry self-righteous bunch of world saviours.  The years went by and the world did not listen to us. I travelled round the world with good friends and a backpack. Got new views on myself, my world and my life.  Under the same time period the late 80´s. Punk rock had gone underground and been dull. It was so bad that we looked forward to records by likes of such as The Alarm.  And one day I woke up realising I couldn’t change the world, but I could change myself.

To be continued........

In these last trembeling days of 2004 i will pick the best music from the past year.

No particular order after #1.

#1.                 Rise Against – Siren songs of the counter culture.

Wipes out all competitors. A classic album, trust my words.

#                    Bad Religion – Empire strikes first

The first seven songs is damn good.

#                    Mimikry – Kryptonit.

Swedens best band at the moment.

#                    Jello Biafra with the Melvins – Never breathe what you can see.

Biafra is still angry and makes decent music. It´s enough for this list.

#                    Social Distortion – Sex, Love & Rock´n Roll.

This record was the strongest competitor to #1. Can we have next record on this side of

2010 please.

#                    Flogging Molly – Within a mile of home.

“Folkpunk” with heart and frenzy. And a damned good live band too.

#                    To all “Rock against Bush bands”.

Pity it didn´t make a difference. But have relief, he can´t be re-elected the next time.

Happy New Year! 050101

Brollan