Vikingarna

This band was formed in Arvika, Sweden in 1958, originally going by the name Ji-Coo and the Vikings with Jens Carlson, known as “Ji-Coo” on the saxophone, Gunnar Olsson on guitar, Egon Olsson on drums, Hans Axelsson on bass, Newman Alexander on trumpet and Svarite Valjestol on keyboards. Performing without a vocalist at first it wasn’t long before they took on Kerstin Larsson.

After achieving local popularity they recorded the Viking Boogie EP in 1961 which reached a Top 20 position on the Radio Luxembourg chart. Although becoming a chart record it didn’t reach the heights they had wanted and Ji-Coo resigned.

The band renamed themselves The Vikings and started to tour Sweden. They became popular but did not retain the same line-up over the next decade or so until the early 1970s, with 24 members coming and going during that time. It did, however, record a cover of “Tennessee Waltz” which got attention locally and sold in the region of 20,000 copies.

In the mid-1960s they began to play in a dansband style which was popular in Scandinavia and by 1973 they had a different and more permanent line-up of musicians which include the singer Stefan Borsch, the guitarist Jorgen Arnemar, the bassist Borje Gunnarson, the keyboardist Tord Sjoman, the drummer Per-Anders Carlsson, the trumpeter Christer Linde and the saxophonist Tony Eriksson.

After recording a demo tape they were signed to EMI Odeon for a series of records and they gained their first hit with the single “Pa varldens tak”, which was a cover of “Top of the World” by The Carpenters. During this time their name was changed once again to Vikingarna after it had been mistakenly translated. As their first album was successful they went on to record their second album Har kommer Vikingarna, but it didn’t achieve the same popularity and the band was released by EMI Odeon.

Within weeks the band was signed up again by Mariann Records and their single “Du gav bara loften” became their first No. 1 chart hit. The same year they received a gold record in Sweden and a silver record in Norway for their album Kramgoa Latar 1. This was the start of many chart hits and tours in Scandinavia during the remainder of the 1970s, although the drummer Per-Anders Carlsson left them in 1977 to be replaced by Anders Erixon. In 1978 they issued an unsuccessful English language album which had been recorded with the hope of gaining an international audience. They toured that same year to promote the Kramgoa Latar 6 and following that their singer Stefan Borsch decided to leave to pursue his own solo career. They hired the singer Christer Sjogren and recorded Kramgoa Latar 7 which included a cover of “Dschinghis Kahn” which had been an entry by Dschinghis Kahn in the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest.

When the 1980s came around Borje Gunnarsson departed, being replaced by the bass player Lars-Ake Svantesson who over the next 8 years was also the band’s co-producer but left in 1988 due to having a condition which affected his playing. He was replaced by Kenth Andresson. The band toured and recorded all the time during the decade, becoming the all-time best-selling dansband, as well as being more recognised in Denmark. In 1985 Jorgen Arnemar retired from performing on tour and in the studio and became a manager for the band. He was succeeded on guitar by Erik Lihm, who later took over the keyboards and was replaced by Lasse Westmann. They also released the album Kramgoa Latar 13 which made an impact in the Soviet Union, where it sold 40,000 and saw them venturing out as the first Scandinavian group to tour there.

From the period 1979 to 1992 they released an album each year with an accompanying tour. In both 1988 and 1991 they won Swedish Grammis awards and in 1992 they took a three year break after recording Kramgoa Latar 20. They got back together in 1995 to record Kramgoa Latar 95 which went on to gain platinum status in Sweden and Norway and become a hit in Finland. They went back to touring and recorded Kramgoa Latar 1997 two years later. That same year they were hit by the sudden death of their drummer Aders Erixon, who was replaced later on by Klas Anderhaal.

Into the new millennium and they were still performing sold-out concerts and making regular recordings, but in 2000 they started recording songs in German using the translated band name Vikinger. Before long they had become very popular in Austria, Germany and Switzerland and were even seen on television broadcasts. They recorded a further two albums in German before Klas Anderhaal left in 2003 and was replaced on drums by Johan Norgren.

They announced their farewell tour in 2004 and in January of that year the guitarist Lasse Westmann died following a battle with cancer. He was replaced for the final tour by Lasse Wellander. They appeared on the Swedish TV show Allsang pa Skansen in June of 2004 and it was stated to be one of the most watched episodes in its history. The band also released a compilation album of their greatest hits and appeared in a documentary concert film. It has been said it has been regarded as “the greatest dansband to have existed”.

Up until 2004 they had sold over 11 millions recordings and in 2008 a DVD and CD was released of their final concert. In 2011 it was announced that the band would perform a comeback tour and that a new album was planned, but the Vikingarna name was shelved at the time due to many of the original members having retired. It did however have a reunion in 2016 to appear on a TV show in Sweden and later in the year a new line-up and three former members got together using the name Nya Vikingarna.

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Vikingarna

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