Hep Stars - The Beginning

The Beginning

Origianlly, the band called themselves Quartet Yep. Their repertoire included various styles of music from Latin-dance to rock in order to get as many gigs as possible in varying venues. Influenced mainly Frisk, their music started to veer towards rock 'n'roll and pop. The band decided a more intriguing name was in order and on Frisk's suggestion Hep Stars was chosen. The idea came from a line in the Bill Haley song "Razzle Dazzle" - "It's the hipster's dance" - with a slight alteration on written form. They started to get support gigs also closing in after the headline act. A typical gig had them playing for around four hours with one set of rock.

Hegland called Hedlund to fill the singer's slot for Frisk who had temporarily joined a tour backing band for some extra money for a new guitar amp. The band quickly noticed Hedlund's abilities as both a singer and a frontman. On Frisk's return, they shared lead vocal for a period of time with Frisk singing the more straightforward rockers and Hedlund singing with the ballads.

By summer 1964, they were performing to audiences of 2000. The rock-scene took note of them after one evening in Nalen, the most important rock club in Sweden during 1960s. The main act failed to appear the Hep Stars, the support act, filled in to great acclaim, especially among rockers (or raggar as they were known in Nordic countries). Their reputation started to spread through word-of-mouth.

At this point Hegland managed to persude the music businessman and Olga-record label owner Åke Gerhard to be their manager.

After the group's first single ("Kana Kapila", 1964) the original keyboard layer, Hans Östlund, was asked to leave because of relations growing sour, especially with Hedlund and founder member Pettersson, who left the band fed up with squabbles. He was asked to rejoin and the band continued as a four piece for a short time in autumn 1964.

Hedlund owed a van and occasionally drove other bands to gigs. One of these bands was Elverkets Spelmanslag so Hedlund saw Benny Andersson performing, making an impression with his quick runs and fill-ins. On Hedlund's suggestion Andersson was called for audition. In turn Andersson had earlier read a tabloid article about the camping car Hep Star used when touring and which could hold both band and the equipment. This assured him that Hep Stars had it going along with their assuring comments on the current scene.

The band had become what is considered to be the classic line-up: Sven Hedlund (vocals), Jan Frisk (guitar/vocals), Benny Andersson (keyboards), Lennart Hegland (bass guitar) and Christer Pettersson (drums). The fans were soon to absorb their nicknames Svenne, Janne, Benny, Lelle and Chrille.