Tommy Körberg plays the drums in “Jehu.” Helen Sjöholm is using the megaphone in
“Skenbert” and Benny Andersson tie his hand for a rocking “Cadillac” in Karlstad.
Aftonbladet 110729
By: JENS PETERSON
Photo: JENS PETERSON
Benny Andersson Band celebrates its 10th anniversary on tour. Playing new and old, Swedish and international, on and off stage. Sold-out parks and happy dancing couples around the country. Jens Peterson from Aftonbladet joined the tour bus.
The pause is over. It’s time to enter the stage. Benny Andersson brings all of the orchestra from the dressing room next to the stage. But wait. Some people missing. Where is Helen Sjöholm and Tommy Körberg? The first song in the second act is “De ljuva drömmarnas orkester” with all on stage. The singers don´t appear. Benny Andersson is thinking. The audience should not have to wait.
– We play “Cirkus finemang” instead.
A quick order to the audio manager Bjorn Lehnberg and the other technicians that reset. A minute later, the band enters the stage for the instrumental song.
At the same time in a beautiful wooden house Tommy Körberg and Helen Sjöholm are getting ready in panic. They have just realized that on this tour, they join right after the break. It was the last time, in summer of 2009, as the band opened with several numbers without vocals. When “Cirkus finemang” is over, the singers are there and join the other, singing “De ljuva drömmarnas orkester”.
Five crowns in the bum
There are many songs to play for four hours. There will be mistakes sometimes. Mistakes can be fun. Helen Sjöholm tells the audience how to practice singing strongly, using all the muscles. In particular, the muscles below the waist. She recommend the method to put a Swedish 5-crown coin in the back. Sing scales powerful and the high notes with tight muscles. When you are finished, it shall be only 50 cents left of the 5-crown. Audience laughs.
Benny Andersson plays the first notes of the ABBA song “Kisses of Fire”. Helen Sjöholm begins to sing. Something is wrong. She feels that the pitch is wrong and looks at Benny, who looks uncertain. He stops. Benny has started in the wrong key. Too high. Helen Sjöholm finds herself quickly. She tells the audience how she imagined that “Kisses of Fire” would swindle towards the higher tones.
– What is it then? The entire 5-crown gone, I thought.
It’s such a perfect rescue of the situation that it seems like it’s rehearsed. But in BAO (Benny Anderssons Orkester) very much happens spontaneously. Sometimes magically. Sometimes by mistake. Never the same.
BAO starts this year’s tour in Örnsköldsvik and continues in Järvsö. After that show they will get on the bus and go to Leksand through the summer night. It’s dark when the bus gets moving. When it arrives just after three in the morning there is sunrise in Dalarna. Sleep and then concert in Leksand. The next morning they drive to Karlstad. None of the four nights is the same. In the bus on the way to Järvsö Benny Andersson and Lars Rudolfsson are reading through the song list, deciding what to change.
– I think we are moving “O Klang and Jubeltid,” said Benny. It fits better in the ending. They also put a couple of ABBA songs next to each other in the program.
“The band’s hairdresser”
When the musicians are presented Benny says that Lars Rudolfsson is the band’s hairdresser. When Rudolfsson isn’t playing the accordion in BAO, he is one of the best directors in the country. BAO can benefit from his experience when their performances are put together.
Two hours before each concert they have soundcheck. Benny Andersson also uses the soundcheck for adjustments. He asks Janne Bengtson to remove some flute tones in “Jag hör”. They play through “Lyric waltz for variety orchestra”, which is called Shostakovich as it’s the Russian who wrote it. The others think that the drummer Jorgen Stenberg kicks off the waltz too fast. He reluctantly changes the speed.
– We can play that tempo, but I think we will regret it, says Jörgen Stenberg.
Benny shows how he thinks it should sound, and usually he does in other versions of the song.
– I don´t recognize what you are playing, says Göran Arnberg to Benny. But the justice will judge.
From Orsa to Hawaii
Dance floor is waiting empty below the stage. The audience is admitted only when soundcheck is over. BAO must be the only band in the world who brings their own dance floor and build it on each venue. Red wooden house with white corners on summer meadows where flowers of all colors grow knee-high. Wooden pallets with old milk jugs at the gravel roads. Benny Andersson Band plays Swedish folk music that sounds like fences around Lake Siljan. But also tones and beats that traveled from Russia and Hawaii, New Orleans and Italy.
Hearty workout
Most of the musicians master several instruments. Tommy Körberg plays the drums when Jörgen Stenberg leads “Jehu”. Perra Moraeus runs between violin and alto sax. Kalle Moraeus plays everything that has strings. There used to be a school subject called Gymnastics with games and sports. This is Music with games and sports. It becomes much jumping and running. Hearty workout.
Calle Jakobsson’s tuba playing as many notes in an evening with BAO as in a full season at the Opera house. No wonder he’s bleeding in the mouth after the first rehearsals. They laugh a lot, and they are without prestige and secure in their musicality.
Lunch at a country house in Värmland. Coffee is served in the lounge. There is an electric piano. Benny sits down after dinner and plays “Tea for two” and Gershwin’s “Someone To Watch Over Me”. People who are having Sunday lunch are surprised to see who offers music with their coffee.
They are often playing during the tour, far from people’s park scenes. At the railway station in Karlstad a fan hits a rhythm that leads Janne Bengtson and Pälle Grebacken to blow a few tunes on the platform. They are always ready with a flute in the pocket. One night in a hotel almost all the instruments are picked up and it becomes a spontaneous concert at the late meal. Taube and Koppången.
Helen doesn´t want to hear Helen
Everyone wants to listen to Helen Sjöholm. Except Helen Sjöholm. When it’s time for the Swedish charts on the radio, they listen to an interview with Helen in the tour bus. She screams No! and turns up the volume of the music in her headphones so she will not hear herself. The others in BAO applaud when the interview is over and the band´s candidate to the Swedish charts “En dag i sänder” is played. Benny Andersson is very happy. Helen Sjöholm shudders and holds her hands tightly over her ears. Helen Sjöholm doesn´t listen to herself. She doesn´t read about herself. She doesn´t watch herself.
Different singers profiles
The two voices in BAO have very different profiles outside the headlights. Helen Sjöholm´s model seems to be the sparrow. She melts into the background and makes no noise. Tommy Körberg is more like a peacock. He doesn´t mind being seen or heard. He is full of funny stories and thoughts. On stage Tommy Körberg is … yes, he is still a peacock. And there Helen Sjöholm has at least as strong charisma, sparkling eyes, humor and drama. Scene-Helen is doing a crazy dance when the band is jazzing up the tempo of “När tvenne hjärtan slå samma slag”. The contrast between the invisible Helen Sjöholm and the star on the stage is amazing.
A band of contrasts
The BAO-world has several contrasts. Some of the music has hundred years old root fibers. Such as the dance after the herring catcher Byss-Kalle, who was born in 1783 and played nyckelharpa. But they are also using the latest technology. The delicate acoustic instruments are joined by computers on stage. On monitoring, which allows the musicians hear one another, is superb with the last speakers. Which means that everyone is playing safer. Benny Andersson and Mona Nörklit can sit in the tour bus with a laptop, looking at races where their horses won earlier in the evening.
When Helen Sjöholm has problems with her voice one day the song list is changed. Tommy Körberg may sing more and a couple of old songs are picked up. The technician Micke Lindström is on the stage, looking for the lyrics on the computer, and printing them to Körberg.
Many of the BAO members are abusers of apps on their iPhones. One day it´s iSwap Faces, where they take portraits of each other and exchange faces. The next day it´s the game VS racing where they compete via bluetooth iPhones against iPhones. Janne Bengtson and Jörgen Stenberg are early champions. Perra Moraeus gets curious and learns the game. First, wiggling his iPhone in hysterical gestures, but still he´s defeated.
Yes, of course you are allowed to have fun
The children participating in the bus make fun of musician parents who say “connect to the game”.
– What, is it not allowed to have fun when you’re 61, says Perra Moraeus?
Well Perra. It is. Benny Andersson Band plays further. People of all ages have fun evenings in summer Sweden.
THIS IS BAO:
Benny Andersson – piano, accordion, ukulele
Goran Arnberg – keyboard
Janne Bengtson – flutes, baritone sax
Jogga Ernlund – bass
Pär Grebacken – saxophone, clarinet, flute
Leif Göras – violin
Nicke Göthe – violin
Calle Jakobsson – tuba, trombone
Helen Sjöholm – vocals
Tommy Körberg – vocals, guitar, drums
Leif Lindvall – trumpet, cornet
Kalle Moraeus – guitars, violin, banjo, vocals
Olle Moraeus – violins
Perra Moraeus – violin, alto sax
Lars Rudolfsson – accordion
Jörgen Stenberg – drums, percussion
BAO ON TV
Those who didn´t get tickets for this summer may see BAO at Christmas. SVT (Swedish Television) has filmed the concerts in Helsingborg and Gothenburg. Two hours will be transmitted at Christmas, which is about half the show. Benny Andersson Band plays for four hours each night. It tends to be 52 songs, including a potpourri.