Hans Axel Wärmling (22 July 1943 – 12 October 1995) was a Swedish musician and songwriter, and was a founding member and

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instr ...

of the British

rock band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...

The Stranglers The Stranglers are an English rock band who emerged via the punk rock scene. Scoring 23 UK top 40 singles and 19 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are one of the longest-surviving bands to have origina ...

. He co-wrote their 1982 UK Top 10 release "

Strange Little Girl "Strange Little Girl" is a song by the Stranglers, originally written in 1974 and re-recorded and released in the UK in 1982 as their last single while signed to Liberty Records (part of EMI). By the time of release, the band had already dec ...

". He drowned in a boating accident in 1995.

Early years

The Jackie Fountains

Hans Wärmling was the guitar player in a

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

band called The Jackie Fountains, that formed in 1964 and played in the

Gnesta Gnesta () is a bimunicipal locality and the seat of Gnesta Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 5,562 inhabitants in 2010. Gnesta is located in Södermanland, on the border to Stockholm County. As situated near the county boundary Gn ...

area of Sweden until 1967. His brother, Peter Wärmling, became their manager and provided rehearsal facilities. In this band he was known by the

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

of 'Hasse'.

Johnny Sox

In 1972, a young

Hugh Cornwell Hugh Alan Cornwell (born 28 August 1949) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and writer, best known for being the lead vocalist and lead guitarist for the punk rock and new wave band the Stranglers from 1974 to 1990. Since leaving the ...

had travelled to

Lund Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...

in Sweden and took up a position in the local university hospital whilst studying for a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

.Cornwell 2004, p. 40. Cornwell became friends with Hans Wärmling who happened to be working as a nurse at the same hospital. Wärmling suggested that Hugh Cornwell could provide English lyrics to some of the 500 songs that he had recorded on a

reel to reel Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the ''supply reel'' (or ''feed reel'') containing the tape is plac ...

tape recorder and they quickly became close friends. Other musicians (Jan Knutsson, Gyrth Godwin and 'Chicago Mike') were recruited to form the band 'Johnny Sox'. In 1973, Cornwell decided to end his academic studies in Sweden and moved back to London, persuading the other members of 'Johnny Sox' to move with him although Wärmling chose to remain in his home country. 'Johnny Sox' continued to play in London pubs and clubs until mid-1974 with

Jet Black Brian John Duffy (26 August 1938 – 6 December 2022), professionally known as Jet Black, was an English drummer and founding member of punk rock/ new wave band The Stranglers. He last performed with the band in 2015, and officially retired in ...

joining the band to replace the original drummer 'Chicago Mike'.

Jean-Jacques Burnel Jean-Jacques Burnel (born 21 February 1952) is an English musician, producer and songwriter, best known as the bass guitarist and co-lead vocalist with the English rock band The Stranglers. He is the last founding member to remain in the band. ...

had also joined the band line-up after being given a

lift Lift or LIFT may refer to: Physical devices * Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods ** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop ** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobile ...

by Gyrth Godwin. Relations within the band deteriorated and both Godwin and Knutsson decided to return to Sweden. Cornwell convinced both Black and Burnel that they needed Hans Wärmling to fill the gap who, once contacted, came to London immediately.

The Stranglers

With the line-up of Black, Burnel, Cornwell and Wärmling the band renamed themselves 'The Guildford Stranglers' and began playing gigs again in pubs and clubs, mainly playing

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s of

MOR Mor or MOR may refer to: Names and titles * Mór (given name), a list of people named Mór or Mor * Mor (surname), a list of people named Mor or Mór * Mor (honorific), or Mar, in Syriac Radio and television * Middle of the road (music) genre * ...

pop tunes. Wärmling was far from happy with this musical direction; in particular, he objected to having to learn and play "

Tie a Yellow Ribbon Tie has two principal meanings: * Tie (draw), a finish to a competition with identical results, particularly sports * Necktie, a long piece of cloth worn around the neck or shoulders Tie or TIE may also refer to: Engineering and technology * Ti ...

" and he suddenly left the band in 1975, leaving the bus while they were travelling to a gig at a bar mitzvah in North London. "Hasse played for a month or so with new musicians after the split, but then the work permit expired and he had to leave England." Wärmling and Cornwell did not meet again until 1994. His position as keyboard player was soon filled by

Dave Greenfield David Paul Greenfield (29 March 1949 – 3 May 2020) was an English keyboardist, singer and songwriter who was a member of rock band The Stranglers. He joined the band in 1975, within a year of its formation, and played with them for 45 years ...

who had answered an advert placed in the ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

''.

Song writing credits and discography

Hans Wärmling is co-credited with writing the music for three early (1974) Stranglers tracks: "Wasted",Cornwell, Drury 2001, p. 343. "My Young Dreams", and "

". These tracks with Wärmling playing keyboards can be heard on the compilation album '' The Early Years '74 '75 '76 Rare Live and Unreleased''. Most notably "Strange Little Girl", re-released with revised lyrics and Greenfield on keyboards reached number seven in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in 1982. "Strange Little Girl" was later released as a cover version by

Tori Amos Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos; August 22, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She is a classically trained musician with a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Having already begun composing instrumental pieces on piano, Amos won a full ...

Death

Hans Wärmling died in a boating accident near

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

in 1995.Buckley 1997, p. 221.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Buckley, David. ''No Mercy - The Authorised and Uncensored Biography of The Stranglers''. London. Hodder and Stoughton. 1997. * Cornwell, Hugh, ''A Multitude of Sins''. London. HarperCollins Publishers, 2004. * Cornwell, Hugh and Drury, Jim. ''The Stranglers - Song by Song''. London. Sanctuary Publishing Ltd. 2001

External links

The Rat's Lair - Official Stranglers website- Band history
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Warmling, Hans 1943 births 1995 deaths Swedish new wave musicians The Stranglers Musicians from Gothenburg Accidental deaths in Sweden Boating accident deaths