Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.11.2009, Síða 22

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 17 — 2009
12
The History of Icelandic Rock music | Part 13
The spontaneous
brilliance of Stuðmenn
The same core players are involved in
three of the best Icelandic bands from the
seventies, Stuðmenn, Spilverk þjóðanna
and Þursaflokkurinn. All are veritable in-
stitutions of Icelandic rock history. In the
newest ‘Best Icelandic albums list,’ pub-
lished in 2009, those three bands have a
total of thirteen albums on the top 100.
While Spilverk þjóðanna (‘Plaything of
the Nations’) and Þursaflokkurinn (‘The
Band of Titans’) are kind of serious, Stuð-
menn (‘Funmen’) are anything but.
Like many good bands, Stuðmenn
were conceived as a joke. In locally infa-
mous artsy college MH, guitarist/singer
Valgeir Guðjónsson and keyboardist
Jakob Frímann Magnússon, along with
two friends, decided to form the corniest
band they could imagine. The year was
1970, and their sole objective was to en-
tertain their classmates at an upcoming
dance. In the age of long hair, astrology
and 20 minute guitar solos, Stuðmenn
was the corniest band name they could
think of. The band dressed accordingly
in old black suits and skinny ties, slick-
ing their hair back with brilliantine. This
was some years before American Graffiti,
so looking like it was 1959 was a spunky
move.
Their fellow students got the joke and
the first gig was a hit. The Stuðmenn joke
lingered on, but the members wanted to
do more contemporary music. Valgeir
formed the folk group Spilverk þjóðanna
with Sigurður Bjóla and Egill Ólafsson
(later to be the front man of Stuðmenn),
while Jakob went to London with his pals
in the heavy rock group Rifsberja. The
idea was to check out all the possibili-
ties the big city had to offer. Alas, noth-
ing came out of Rifsberja’s London trip
except poverty and near-hunger. Jakob
got a gig, though, playing with old blues
dog Long John Baldry, while the rest of
the group had to leave when their visas
expired.
Fast forward to 1974. For some rea-
son, a label named ÁÁ records saw
commercial potential in Stuðmenn and
ordered two singles from the group. Thus
Valgeir met Jakob in London to record
four songs with Cliff Richard’s rhythm
section on hire in the studio. The singles
did OK in Iceland, and thus Stuðmenn
were on the agenda again. Next up was a
whole album recorded in London in early
spring 1975. Valgeir’s Spilverk friends
came along, and Icelandic musicians liv-
ing in London at the time (and playing
with Change, an Icelandic band trying to
break through) put in their share. Famous
musicians like Chris Speeding and Bill
Bruford dropped by as well. The resulting
LP, Sumar á Sýrlandi (‘Summer in Syria’),
became an instant classic when it was re-
leased in Iceland in the summer of 1975.
“For the first time,” reviewers would
say, “a truly original Icelandic pop tone
has been found.” The album contains
songs that have lived with the nation ever
since, and the lyrics are funny in a clever
and tongue-in-cheek kind of way. The
band played wearing masks, as it initially
presented itself as a secret group (like
KISS). All the members were unknown,
though, so nobody thought much of it
when the masks eventually came off.
Stuðmenn followed suit in 1976 with
a nostalgic concept album about an
amusement park that had been a Reykja-
vík attraction in the fifties. The band pro-
moted the album with an outdoor gig in
the centre of Reykjavík. During the con-
cert’s climax, an aeroplane flew over and
showered caramels over the crowd. The
Tívoli album was considered another pop
masterpiece and sold well. However, the
members weren’t interested in making
further Stuðmenn albums. The Spilverk
þjóðanna people were to make few mas-
terpieces in the years to come and Jakob
Frímann concentrated on his solo career,
playing fusion influenced synth pop.
The third and last Stuðmenn mas-
terpiece happened in 1982, when an old
dream of the members, of making a film,
finally came true. Originally, the idea had
been to make a film based on either of
their first two albums, but when it was
finally made, the storyline and dialogue
was mostly improvised on the spot. “We
try to stay true to the modus operandi
that worked well for us making music, to
let the moment take over, to be spontane-
ous. We do not rehearse a lot, and we try
to get the Stuðmenn humour and mirth
on film,” said Valgeir at the time of filming.
That’s exactly what happened. The
film, Með allt á hreinu (aka ‘On Top’),
was premiered to glowing reviews right
before Christmas in 1982. When the film
finally left theatres, almost half the nation,
115.000 people, had seen it. Long since
a classic and one of the most loved Ice-
landic films, Með allt á hreinu follows the
antics of Stuðmenn whilst on tour in Ice-
land, and the band’s on-going feud with
real life girl group, Grýlurnar (appearing
as ‘Gærurnar’ in the film).
Fired up with this wondrous suc-
cess Stuðmenn went into overdrive—and
somehow the band is still running on that
tank. Stuðmenn have long since hit pay
dirt with various monster hits and played
gigantic concerts for large portions of the
nation. The band has also had various
flops on their hands, including two poorly
received sequels to the Með allt á hreinu.
Tellingly, the youthful magic of the band’s
earliest work has never been matched. In
their most tiresome moments, the group
has been accused of severely flogging a
dead horse.
Jakob is the only original member of
Stuðmenn – “Every Icelander’s group,”
as the band is fondly nicknamed. Stuð-
menn’s last moderate hit came recently,
when they went for milking the Icesave-
debate with a song called... “Icesave”.
Next up: Spilverk þjóðanna and Þur-
saflokkurinn. - DR. GunnI
By Dr. Gunni, based on his 2000 book Eru ekki
allir í stuði? (Rock in Iceland). A revised update
of the book is forthcoming in 2010.
1. Stuðmenn promote Tívolí in 1976
3. Stuðmenn’s core members Val-
geir, Egill and Jakob in 1984, promot-
ing their second movie, Hvítir mávar
(aka ‘Cool Jazz and Coconuts’).
4. Stuðmenn in 2005: During
the heights of the “good years”
(“góðæri”), Stuðmenn performed
at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
The place was full of Icelanders—
no doubt getting ready to take over
the British Empire—and a Queen
Elizabeth look-alike was brought on
stage for fun.
5. The Sumar á Sýrlandi and Tívolí
albums
nicelanders | Elo Vázquez and Óttar Norðfjörð