Tagged: hard break
The long and the short of it [About me]
When I launched this blog I pretty much thought that most of my readers would be the loyal people who have been following me for years.
Some of you have been with me since the “pre-internet”-days, when I wrote for various newspapers and magazines and had my radio-show and everything else.
Or maybe you’ve been reading Sweden Rock Magazine the past 10 years, then you’ve probably read my articles and reviews there.
Some of you joined back in 1996 when I got my first website online, and some of you discovered and rediscovered my writings through my very active MySpace-blog 2006->.
If you’ve been with me that long, you have a pretty good idea who I am and what I do.
But when I see the blog-statistics for this blog, my jaw drops! Hundreds of new people end up here every day and the number of regular readers is increasing day by day. It’s such a great feeling to see that people like it,
However… maybe an introduction of the person behind the blog might be appropriate.:-)
So….here’s the “About me”-section, the long and the short version.
THE SHORT VERSION:
I’ve lived for music for as long as I can remember. I’m still a dedicated fan of bands and the whole rock’n’roll lifestyle.
You will find me anywhere in the world where there’s a good band playing – or somewhere at a local joint checking out an up-and-coming new act. I believe in doing things passionately and I love music and writing as much now as I did when I was 18. The blog is a way to share some of my memories with everybody who live and breathe music– whether they’re fans, musicians or managers, from across the globe.MY RESUME:
1988 – Started out as a hard rock reporter for Swedish newspaper Kvällsposten.
I was 18.
1990-1995 – Editor of FICK-Journalen, music pages of weekly Hemmets Journal (while still working for Kvällsposten and freelancing for other magazines).
1989 – Hosted my own hard rock radio show at Radio MCB.
1992 – TV-hostess for RockShow.
1991-2000 Free lancer for Metal Zone, Heavy Mental, Zero, Kool Kat News, Arbetet, OKEJ and many other music magazines and newspapers.
1998-2000 – Launched and managed hard rock club Hard Break. Bandbooking. PR, DJ, hostess and more.
2001->(current) Sweden Rock Magazine
Managed female rockers Modesty Blaise and Seventeen (whose frontman Chris Laney has become a succesful producer at Polar Studios in Stocholm as well as a great songwriter, guitarist and singer for various hard rock acts). Featured in Neil Daniel’s book about hard rock journalists “All Pens Blazing” vol.1. Also credited in the unofficial Judas Priest-biography “Defenders of the Faith” for contributing w. info. Currently writing for Sweden Rock Magazine and hosting my own blog In The Rearview Mirror – found at www.lita77777.posterous.com
THE LONG VERSION…..
I was 18 and bursting of ideas, dreams, expectations, energy – life was ahead of me and I knew where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do. I had a dream and I was aiming for it.
I used to write to one of Sweden’s major evening papers, Kvällsposten, on a regular basis, just to get noticed. I had been writing letters to the editor since I was 10 years old and back in those days, it wasn’t easy to get published. So many people had something to say but space was limited. (Yes, how did we ever survive the pre-internet era??)
But I got used to having my letters published almost every time. It made me confident at an early age, that if there was anything I was good at, it was writing.
That’s what I wanted to do. Write about music – my greatest love of all. :-)
In 1988 I sent a letter to Kvällsposten, again, asking them to bring me along if they had any plans to interview Yngwie Malmsteen, who was playing at Olympen in Lund that year. I wanted to see a music reporter in action, learn from him/her, then go to the University and get a degree in journalism, and then start my career as a music journalist. I had it all figured out.
It was like walking into a temple when I walked through the doors to Kvällsposten’s impressive building that day. I saw the editorial staff all busy writing, there were records and press-releases everywhere, stuff from record companies, info.. All the stuff that would end up in the paper eventually. Holy shit. It was a big deal to an 18-year old who was nursing a dream to do exactly what these reporters were doing.
When they saw me walking in with my Yngwie Malmsteen t-shirt, I heard one of the reporters, Pär Hägred, go: Hello Daniela! You’re the one who’s been writing to us, right?! Apparently, they loved reading my letters. Everybody up there had read them, I was somewhat of a “celebrity” and I didn’t even know.
Will be updated.
Check my Twitter, MySpace and Facebook pages for updates!
You can’t stop rock’n’roll
You can’t stop rock’n’roll – classic words from Twisted Sister dated 1983.
Rock has managed to rediscover and reinvent itself, I see it everywhere I go.At least here in Sweden it’s very evident. And it’s such a relief, cause I still remember the identity crisis that rock’n’roll went through in the mid- and late 90’s. I came home to Sweden after having lived in NY for a year and was bummed that there were no rock-clubs anywhere. It was The Great Rock’n’Roll Depression if you ask me – the post-Nirvana and pre-nothing period.
The golden era of rock died over night. They all just disappeared – all those bands who sold out arenas worldwide, had those huge over-the-top stage-productions, topped the Billboard-list…
It was the exclusive time when hard rock actually had its own show on MTV (remember MTV when it actually WAS Music-TV??).
Europe had Headbanger’s Ball with Vanessa Warwick. The US had Headbanger’s Ball with Adam Curry and later Riki Rachtman. I loved that era. You can laugh about the hair, the spandex, the glitter and the lipstick today, but rock’n’roll was alive and kicking!
Then came Nirvana and everything just went downhill. I’m sure there are people out there who beg to differ, but that’s my humble opinion. Rock clubs closed, there was nothing nowhere… Rockers cut their hair and stayed at home in their flannel shirts being depressed. It was a nightmare.Something had to change, and eventhough you can’t change everything – you can always change something.
I decided to do something about it.
I wrote to my favorite nightclub at the time, Heartbreak Hotel, and tried to convince them to open a hard rock club.
To make it easier for them, I included a bunch of ideas, probably two pages full of brainstorming – and sent it to the owner. He called me the next day and next thing I know, I was in charge of the rock club Hard Break at Heartbreak.That hadn’t been my plan, I just wanted a place to go to, not run it, but what the hell – I took on the challenge.On the day of the premiere there was no doubt that people had been STARVING for rock’n’roll! The owner couldn’t believe it – he had been struggling to stay in business and figured that my idea at least couldn’t make things any worse…
The opening night of Hard Break – there were people lining up, rockers as far as the eye could see! People couldn’t even get in – an hour or two after we had opened the doors it was already crowded! A club with a 800-guests capacity, nobody really believed me when I said that it would work.
I knew it would.
But you can’t stop rock’n’roll – it’s an undefeatable force! This clip is from a TV-interview after the premiere of Hard Break:
Things have changed a lot since then. When I look around now, there are rock clubs and rock pubs/bars on every corner. You can even choose your particular niche – from AOR to death metal. Take a pick. It’s all there.
Even fashion is now rock’n’roll. The catwalks are hailing black clothes, chains and studs. Shoes are cool again, high heels, straps, studs, just very metal in general. Hard rock is “okay” now. It’s the first time in 30 years I think, that I can say that rock has finally been accepted.
Since Finnish rockers Lordi won the Eurovision Song Contest with “Hard Rock Hallelujah” a few years ago, you suddenly have rockers competing in mainstream music competitions (such as the Eurovision), which was totally unheard of ten years ago. Hard rock never really died. It was more like a sleeping grizzly in its den. And it’s just such a kick to see it back on track with full force!Bands are out touring again, clubs are up and running, rock radio is getting just as many listeners as regular mainstream stations. Years ago people would have laughed and said that that could never happen. They had another thing comin’…!
IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR 