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Those
were the days my friends.
Memoirs of Cat Stevens by
Hans
Sidén
Swedish
Photographer/Journalist Hans Sidén
talks about meeting Cat Stevens in Gothenburg
towards the beginning of Cats career in 1967,
while he was touring with the Jimi Hendrix.
When
Cat Stevens arrived in Gothenburg on Friday
May 19th l967, I did a short interview and
took some photos of him at the
airport. He seemed rather quiet and low-keyed
and very nice. He was to give two shows in
the concert hall at Lisebergs amusement park
later that evening with Jimi Hendrix. Cat
was quite well known in Sweden after having
had a couple of minor record hits in the charts,
whereas Jimi Hendrix mainly was known only
for his 'Hey Joe'. When the first show was
about to start at 19.00 (and another scheduled
for 21.00) a big discussion started behind
the scene when Cat insisted that he was going
to go on last and Jimi Hendrix should open
the show. Jimi said, - Absolutely no, and
Cat desperately tried to build up his case
by saying "but my mother is Swedish,
so I really should go on last". But then
Jimi started to put his guitar back in its
case and proclaimed that he was going to close
the show or he would not play at all, that
was the end of the discussion. So Jimi did
close the show. (I have told about this incident
in my book "Pop in The 60´s in
Gothenburg in the chapter called "Meeting
of the gigants")
After
the show I had the pleasure of having Cat
and his older brother David as a guest in
my apartment together with various members
of "the in crowd in Gothenburg".
My wife offered Cat a pizza which he ate morosely
since he was convinced his part of the show
had been a disaster. This was based mainly
on the tremendous response to Jimi Hendrix
set. But Cat got quite good reviews in the
papers the next day, including the review
I wrote for my paper The Gothenburg Post.
But as I wrote in my book, if Cat had his
wish and come on AFTER Jimi Hendrix explosive
and very loud, not to say ear-shattering performance,
I think it would have been quite another story.
I
have found memories of this evening, and among
the souvenirs a photo I took of Cat that he
kindly signed "To Hasse" from Cat
Stevens. "Hasse" is my nickname.
Cats
brother David was in the garment business
and a very nice young man. And to close this
little trip down memory lane, I must tell
about something that happened about a year
later, when somebody rang at my door rather
late one evening. I opened up and to my surprise
there stood David. He had come to Gothenburg
on business, and said: I have only been in
this town once, but I remembered vaguely this
address where Cat and I had such a good time
and I took a chance that you were still living
here.
We
had a very nice dinner and got the latest
news on Cats progress as a popstar. You must
remember that in 1967 Cat still had not become
the big MEGA-star he was to evolve into later.
On
the wall in the hall to my apartment I had
a big white roll of glossy tapestry and everybody
who came to visit us was asked to sign their
names there. So, I have not only Cats autograph
on a photo but also on that wallpaper, together
with lots of other popstars, mostly local
Swedish names, but also for instance Jack
Hammer (the guy who wrote the lyrics to ‘Great
Balls of Fire’ and could live happily
ever after on the royalties from this, at
least that was what he told me when he also
came for a visit)
The
reason I was able to meet so many big popstars
was because I wrote for Sweden’s second
biggest morning paper, the ‘Gothenburg
Post’ as well as for various pop-magazines
and did a lot of radio shows.
To meet popstars this way today would of course
be impossible. In the 60´s many of these
stars arrived with just a friend or a publicity
agent, it was easy to get to talk to them.
Today popstars arrive with lots of managers,
bodyguards etc. and then maybe 10 to 15 journalists
can meet them in a room and ask questions
for 15 or 20 minutes. In my days it was possible
to spend an hour all alone with a big star
without interruptions. I met Cliff Richard,
P J Proby, Kim Fowley, Hollies, Kinks, Troggs,
Eric Burdon and many other artists this way.
Those
were the days my friends.
All the best from Hans Sidén
____________________________
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you interested in purchasing a high quality
12"x16" copy of the photograph above,
which is numbered and signed by
Hans
Sidén, then click here >>>>>
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