Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.06.2009, Page 32

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 8 — 2009
The History of Icelandic Rock music: Part 5
Dátar – Iceland’s
most tragic band
The Beatles had completely changed the
landscape of the pop scene and therefore,
by 1965, every Icelandic garage was full of
young boys (and way too few girls) belting
out Beatle covers and other hits du jour.
The Swinging Blue Jeans, The Searchers
and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes – all
second division beat groups from Britain
– had already visited Iceland when The
Kinks came in September 1965. By now
The Kinks were highly popular thanks
to their megahit, You Really Got Me. The
band wasted no time and started their set
with that song, making the crowd of 800
in Austurbæjarbíó cinema break out in a
frenzy. Kinks played four nights in a row,
eight shows total, and Ray Davies alleg-
edly wrote his semi-hit “I’m on an Island”
while holed up somewhere in Reykjavík.
Footage made by a Swedish TV crew from
one of the shows can currently be found
on YouTube.
The Beatle-craze took Iceland by
storm. After Kinks came Hollies and
Herman’s Hermits, and The Beatles film
A Hard Days Nights was a smash hit. Mi-
nor league beat-groups Tempo and Bravo
from Akureyri had supported The Kinks.
They never crossed to the major division
by releasing a record. Other minor league
beat-groups of the sixties had names like
Tónar, Fánar, Ómar and Sómar, all echo-
ing the main band’s name, Hljómar.
While Hljómar were busy getting
their wild fuzz beat rock heard abroad
(as Thor’s Hammer), other Icelandic acts
grasped at the beat pop crown. Óðmenn,
Toxic, Sóló and Tónar blossomed in Hljó-
mar’s absence, but Dátar (The Soldiers)
soon became the ruling beat band. De-
cades later, the tragic fate of all the mem-
bers but one has wrapped the band in
cryptic aura.
Immediately after forming, Dátar
began playing a lot and soon gained
popularity with their trustworthy covers
of the newest hits by groups such as The
Who and The Kinks. Their first EP was
released in February of 1966. It had three
songs by the band’s mentor and organist
Þórir Baldursson, plus one cover song.
During the summer of 1966, Dátar ruled
the ball scene. Their singer Rúnar Gun-
narsson, then only 18 years old, started
to write songs and on the second EP that
came out in 1967, all the songs were writ-
ten by him. Of those, Gvendur á eyrinni
– a song about a lonely old sailor – was a
huge hit. It has lived on to this day as an
Icelandic pop classic.
The original guitarist and the band’s
founder Hilmar Karlsson left in 1966,
and was replaced by a guitarist called
Magnús Magnússon. Dátar were very
popular during the summer of 1967. The
band toured fiercely and by all accounts
there was a lot of drinking and partying
involved. Karl Sighvatsson – a legendary
musician that later played with bands
such as Trúbrot and Þursaflokkurinn –
had joined, and the band was the island’s
tightest beat combo.
In the autumn of 1967 Hljómar re-
turned. They wanted their throne back
and news spread that the band was work-
ing on an album. Dátar had no other op-
tion but to make an album too. That was
not to happen, unfortunately. “The gui-
tarist Magnús had never been a part of
the band,” says Þorsteinn Eggertsson, the
bands lyricist and friend. “He never came
to parties and always vanished quickly af-
ter gigs. He seemed almost like an alien
to me. He was the first of those guys to
commit suicide. There never was another
guitarist in Dátar.”
Magnús’ suicide in 1967 was a blow
to the band, and when Karl left to form
Flowers, Dátar were over. Rúnar joined
Sextett Ólafs Gauks, a very popular but
not very hip “oldies style” pop combo.
He wrote few songs with the band but
left in 1969 to form Tilvera, a band he
stayed with for a short time. Rúnar’s
trip to the top of Icelandic pop scene had
been quick, but his way down was slow
and drawn out. He grappled with mental
and drinking problems and lost the battle
late in 1972, when he committed suicide.
This was only few months after he had
released two new original songs on a solo
single. Rúnar Gunnarsson was only 24
years old. The original guitarist Hilmar
clocked off in 1978, Karl Sighvatsson died
in a car accident in 1991 and Stefán the
drummer died of cancer one year later.
This left bassist Jón Pétur the only sur-
viving member of Dátar, Iceland’s most
tragic band.
- DR. GuNNI
By Dr. Gunni, based on his 2000 book Eru ekki
allir í stuði? (Rock in Iceland). A revisited up-
date of the book is forthcoming in 2010.
1. Life is a tug-o-war
The record sleeve for Dátar’s first
EP: Stefán, Hilmar, Rúnar, Jón Pétur.
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