Göran Bertil Lagerberg (; born 20 September 1947) is a Swedish musician and singer-songwriter, best known as the bass guitarist and co-lead vocalist in Swedish rock band
Tages and later
progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...
act
Kebnekajse. In the 1990s, he was a member of
supergroup Grymlings together with
Magnus Lindberg,
Pugh Rogefeldt and
Mikael Rickfors.
Lagerberg initially joined Tages in 1963 when they were named Alberts Skiffelgrupp and played
washboard. The group quickly abandoned their
skiffle
Skiffle is a music genre, genre of folk music with influences from American folk music, blues, Country music, country, Bluegrass music, bluegrass, and jazz, generally performed with a mixture of manufactured and homemade or improvised instruments. ...
roots in favour of
beat music
Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat is a British popular music Music genre, genre that developed around Liverpool in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The genre melded influences from British rock and roll, British and Music of the United St ...
, with Lagerberg picking up bass guitar. Upon becoming a professional band in 1964, Lagerberg competed with lead singer
Tommy Blom as the group's
d''e facto'' leader. Starting in 1966, he composed a huge output of the group's music, penning most original songs they recorded. Lagerberg was the group's only consistent member and stayed with them until 1970 when they had changed their name to Blond. The group has repeatedly been cited as one of the best Swedish groups of the 1960s due to their later work including the studio album
''Studio'' (1967).
After a brief stint as a
session musician
A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...
, Lagerberg joined
progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...
band
Kebnekajse, playing on two of the group's studio albums, ''Kebnekajse II'' and ''Kebnekajse III,'' but did not write songs for these. He left in 1975 for further studies. In 1990, Lagerberg co-founded Grymlings, who became both commercially and critically popular in Sweden. All three of their albums reached the top-twenty on
Sverigetopplistan
Sverigetopplistan (, lit. "the Sweden top list") is the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from IFPI Sverige. It was formerly known as Topplistan (1975–1997) and Hitlistan (1998–2007) and has been known by its current name si ...
. He has also collaborated with several other Swedish artists, including Fläsket brinner, Egba, Feta Heta linjen and has participated in several re-unions of Tages.
Early life
Göran Bertil Lagerberg was born on 20 September 1947 in the Swedish city of
Gothenburg
Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...
to parents Bertil Lagerberg Svensson (1916–1990) and Maud Lindell (1915–1998). As a kid, he was interested into music and started attending piano lessons at the age of six, attending the same school as
Danne Larsson
Dan "Danne" Tage Bexér (né Larsson; born 11 January 1948) is a Swedish singer-songwriter, guitarist and businessman who is best known for being the rhythm guitarist in the Swedish rock band Tages, and subsequently Blond, between 1963 and 1969. A ...
. He quickly took up playing guitar on the side, which he found much more interesting than the piano. During the late 1950s, the
skiffle craze was storming through Europe, particularly Sweden, and affected many young people, including Lagerberg, who began playing the
washboard". This eventually led him to get invited to his first band, Limmericks, where he assumed that role. Following his stint in that band, he began playing guitar with a group called the Sharks who was quickly noticed by future members of Tages. He did this while still in school, attending the Gothenburg Läroverk.
His work with the group would be postponed until he graduated in June 1965.
Music career
Tages
Lagerberg was only invited to Tages, then named Albert's Skiffelgrupp, because according to Larsson "he was the only guy insane enough to play the washboard." The group then consisted of Larsson,
Tommy Blom and
Anders Töpel
(Per-Inge) Anders Töpel (16 January 1947 – 10 April 2014) was a Swedish guitarist, best known for being the lead guitarist of the Swedish rock group Tages.
Early life
Töpel was born in Gothenburg, Sweden. He befriended Tommy Blom as a child. ...
. He was invited during the summer of 1963 the year he would turn 16.
His middle name,
Bertil, was initially considered to becomes the band name, but this idea was ultimately rejected once Larsson's middle name
Tage was chosen instead. Lagerberg would continue playing washboard with the group until his parents bought him a bass guitar as a
Christmas present in December of that year. The other members followed suite, purchasing electric guitars.
After recruiting drummer
Freddie Skantze during that month, the group set out to become a
beat group.
Unlike many other Swedish groups, who only had one lead singer, the members of Tages were each allowed to lead the vocals at least once per one show, often harmonizing. Lagerberg was often chosen as the lead singer on multiple songs as his voice was considered quite good.
Much of Tages stage repertoire came from Lagerberg, who was passionate about both
rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...
and
soul music
Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in African-American culture, African-American African-American neighborhood, communities throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps ...
, and as a result, he would scover records stores and find material by
Muddy Waters,
Wilson Pickett,
John Lee Hooker and
Otis Redding.
During the Västkustens Beatles (West Coast Beatles) contest, Lagerberg sang most of the songs as Blom wasn't present. They won the contest and as a result became idols in Sweden overnight.
Lagerberg had also turned to songwriting at around this point as well. His first published song with Tages was "Tell Me You're Mine", co-written with Töpel. It was released as the B-side of their debut single "
Sleep Little Girl" in October 1964 and was also the first time Lagerberg's voice was committed to tape. The group's two following singles "
I Should Be Glad" and "
Don't Turn Your Back" were also penned by Lagerberg, with Larsson and Töpel as co-writers respectively. Lagerberg also harmonized on both songs together with the respective co-writers, which at the time was his primary role in the group. His first solo vocal was a rendition of "
Dimples" released on their debut album
''Tages'' in November 1965.

On 19 January 1966, Tages entered
Europafilm Studios to record two Lagerberg compositions; "The Man You'll Be Looking For" and "
So Many Girls". The first of which, a high tempo rock song, would eventually find its way to a
flexi disc. This was in Lennart Wrigholm's eyes the first time a good composition could be used on a flexi disc, thanks to Lagerberg's talent. "So Many Girls" on the other hand a slower,
ballad-like song which greatly contrasted from their previous material. It was released as a single in February and nonetheless received a respectable number five on
Kvällstoppen and four on ''
Tio i Topp''.
''
'' This was the first time Blom's ''de facto'' leadership of the group was questioned and the first time the group actually tried branching away from contemporary rock and roll, thanks to Lagerberg.
Lagerberg also greatly contributed to the group's studio albums at the time. In August their second album ''
Tages 2'' was released. It saw Lagerberg's role in the band further expand, as he sang lead or co-lead vocals on eight of the twelve tracks present. He also greatly contributed to the material found on the album. In November, Tages third studio album
''Extra Extra'' was released. This saw Lagerberg further expand his creative influence over the band, reflected with
baroque pop
Baroque pop (sometimes called baroque rock) is a fusion genre that combines rock music with particular elements of classical music. It emerged in the mid-1960s as artists pursued a majestic, orchestral sound and is identifiable for its appropria ...
on tracks such as "Gone Too Far", one of two of his compositions found on the album. His voice can further be heard on six different tracks on the album.
In 1967, following signing to
Parlophone
Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parloph ...
records, the group was allotted more studio time and as a results their music became more lax. Together with Blom, Lagerberg composed "
Every Raindrop Means Alot", which he also sang the chorus of. Following "Every Raindrop Means Alot", no more singles would be sung by Blom, instead that role was substituted by Lagerberg. He led the group into psychedelia for their next album
''Contrast'' in April 1967. Following that release, Lagerberg became obsessed with
Swedish folk music
Swedish folk music is a genre of music based largely on folkloric collection work that began in the early 19th century in Sweden. The primary instrument of Swedish folk music is the fiddle. Another common instrument, unique to Swedish traditio ...
and as such, adapted elements into their fifth album, simply titled
''Studio''. According to Wrigholm, ''Studio'' is an early "Swedish masterpiece" and the closest thing Sweden has to ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''. However, not everybody was keen on these ideas. Blom, who was disillusioned by his reducing popularity and place in the group owing to Lagerberg left in August 1968, reducing them to a quartet.
Blond
The quartet (consisting of Lagerberg, Larsson, Töpel and drummer
Lasse Svensson) nonetheless carried on without Tommy Blom, performing as Tages for the remainder of 1968. With Blom out of the band, they decided to attempt reaching commercial success abroad, with Lagerberg in the lead. For this, the group developed a much more vocal stage-set, similar to that of
the Move
The Move were a British Rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1965. They scored nine Top 40, top 20 UK singles in five years, but were among the most popular British bands not to find any real success in the United States. For most of ...
.
[Brumbeat: The Move](_blank)
. Retrieved 11 November 2009. This diminished Lagerberg's role as a singer substantially, as all three final Tages singles had been sung by him solo. Nonetheless, the group carried on as Tages, allowing their contract with Parlophone to expire, upon which they signed with manager Richard Reese-Edwards, who had previously worked with
the Hep Stars. He managed to get them a contract with
Fontana Records.
The $50,000 advance (equivalent to $372,707 in 2021) by Fontana only had three requirements; one album, two
singles and a name change which would work internationally. In May 1969, the name Blond was suggested, due to the association of the
hair colour with the country of Sweden. The band had already previously in March of that year went to London to record their sixth album. Together with
Anders Henriksson, who had recorded with Tages since 1965, the group recorded twelve songs during their visit to London. Nine out of these tracks were co-written by Lagerberg, who also assumed lead vocal duty on every track recorded during these sessions. The album was issued during the autumn of 1969 as ''
The Lilac Years,'' and could be considered to be Lagerberg's
magnum opus.
Shortly before the release of the album however, both Larsson and Töpel left the group, due to the
conscription the country had. The group nonetheless carried on without the members, instead substituting them with rhythm guitarist Anders Nordh and lead guitarist Björn Lindér. These two were featured on the album cover once ''The Lilac Years'' was issued in the US in November 1969, under the name ''Blond.'' That same month however, Nordh left and was replaced by Anders Töpel's brother Björn along with keyboardist Mats Landahl. The following month the group debuted on scene as a quintet but these performances led to nowhere, and the group toured
West Germany
West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
the following year. After this went nowhere however, the group members called it quits, and in August 1970, they played their final gig together.
1970s and 1980s
Lagerberg was the only former member of Tages to continue working as a musician, as the other quit in favor for
blue- or
white-collar jobs. Following the dissolution of Blond, Lagerberg suffered from
writer's block for a while after the Blond single "I Wake Up And Call" received negative reviews in the press.
[''The Lilac Years'' (liner notes pg. 2). Svensson, Ronny. Hultman, Robert. Blond. ]Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...
. 2003. Instead, he became a
session bassist.
During his tenure as one, he played on several recordings, including
Claes af Geijerstam's ''Out of My Hair'' and
Lalla Hansson's ''Upp Till Ragvaldsträsk'', which became critically acclaimed in the Swedish media. He also worked with a studio group called Jason's Fleece together with
ABBA
ABBA ( ) were a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the List ...
session musicians
Janne Schaffer and
Ola Brunkert.
This produced an LP along with two singles.
Following the recording of
Doris Svensson's ''Did You Give The World Some Love Today Baby,'' in 1971
Berndt Egerbladh invited Lagerberg to jam with the backing group, consisting of Egerbladh,
Janne Carlsson, Bengt Karlsson,
Berndt Egerbladh, Ulf Andersson and
Olle Holmquist.
Lagerberg accepted, as he wanted to further develop his bass playing.
This group became known as Feta Heta Linjen, alternatively Feta Heta Linjens Supershow.
The group put out one album in 1971, ''Med Kisa, Brass & Brudar'' which features one composition by Lagerberg, titled "Mama".
[''Med Kisa, Brass & Brudar'' (liner notes). Feta Heta Linjen. ]Polydor Records
Polydor Limited, also known as Polydor Records, is a British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in ...
. 1971.
Shortly thereafter, Lagerberg turned back to Swedish folk rock, and joined
Kebnekajse as a bassist.
The group came out of the
Mecki Mark Men and initially had a
progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...
sound. However, leader
Kenny HÃ¥kansson called and asked him to join,
upon which Lagerberg soon showed his influence on the band by incorporating more Swedish themes into the music, and made his record debut with the group on ''Kebnekajse II''.
In 2013, Sonic Magazine voted the album to be 74th best Swedish album of all time. Unlike his previous groups, Lagerberg did not write songs while in Kebnekajse. He stayed for one more album, ''Kebnekajse III'' and left shortly thereafter, but did find his time with the group to be extremely interesting.
According to Lagerberg, he left Kebnekajse to join Egba (short for Electronic Groove and Beat Academy),
who were relatively big on the Swedish progressive rock scene.
Led by Ulf Adåker,
Lagerberg made his studio debut with the group on the album ''Jungle Jam'' and with this his bass playing became fundamental for the group's sound.
Egba became the only group (excluding Tages) that Lagerberg became a permanent member for more than four years, playing on their albums ''Amigos Latinos'' (1978), ''Bryter Upp!'' (1979) but did not write for these albums. Fed up with the constant touring for the past 17 years, Lagerberg decided to quit Egba in 1981,
playing on roughly half of their album ''Omen'' (1984) He was replaced by
Bruno RÃ¥berg. He settled down and started playing
theatre music at Pistolteatern at
Mälartorget in
Gamla stan, Stockholm.
During the 1980s, he primarily composed
film music
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...
to Swedish movies, most notably ''
S/Y Joy'' (1989)
Grymlings
In 1990, Lagerberg formed Swedish superground Grymlings together with
Mikael Rickfors (previous lead vocalist in
the Hollies between 1971 and 1973
[ Circus Magazine, May 1973. – "Romany – The Hollies Hop Over Disaster" by Janis Schacht.]) on guitar, keyboards and vocals,
Magnus Lindberg on harmonica and vocals and
Pugh Rogefeldt on guitar and vocals. The name came from a farm in
Eksta on southern
Gotland
Gotland (; ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a Provinces of Sweden, province/Counties of Sweden, county (Swedish län), Municipalities of Sweden, municipality, a ...
, which Rickfors owned starting in the late 1980s.
Rickfors invited the members to the farm for the first time in August 1990 just "for fun and meeting family", estimating there to be roughly 40–50 people present.
The idea to record together came as the farm was used as a professional
home studio by Rickfors, upon the other members thought it would be fun to also record music at it.
Their eponymous debut album was recorded at Grymlings Studio and released in 1990 through
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational entertainment and record label Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the "Record label#M ...
.
It reached number three on the
Swedish Albums Chart during that year, a position it would hold for two weeks.
It sold an estimated 170,000 copies in Sweden alone, Rogefeldt's "Mitt bästa för dig" was released from the album as a single and managed to chart on
Svensktoppen
''Svensktoppen'' () is a weekly record chart airing on Sveriges Radio. Until January 2003, the songs had to be in the Swedish language. Svensktoppen has aired since 1962, except for the years 1982–1985. In the years leading up to the January 20 ...
, staying at number one for 14 weeks between 1990 and 1991.
It was so positively reviewed that
Kent Finell in 1992 chose it as "one of the 50 best Svensktopp-songs of all time".
Rickfors and Rogefeldt's "Där gullvivan blommar" was also a chart hit, reaching number two on Svensktoppen in 1991 and 1992.
The group's second album ''Grymlings II'' was released in 1992, and also became a chart success, reaching number 11 in the albums chart.
Two singles were extracted from the album; "En glädjesång" and "Väntar på en vän", peaking at number nine and five respectively on Svensktoppen in 1992 and 1993.
''Grymlings II'' featured the first song Lagerberg wrote together with the band, "Lysa" ("Shine")
[''Grymlings'' (liner notes). Grymlings. WEA Records. 1992.] Shortly after the album was released, the band broke up following a shorter tour of the country.
In 2004, the group reunited, albeit without Rogefeldt, who was replaced by
Mats Ronander.
The reason Rogefeldt left was that "he was too occupied to participate", however, he himself disputed this a few years later, stating "ten years later the boys wanted to do a revival and we had a meeting. But I felt we could not repeat it in a dignified way, so I said: 'Sorry guys, I'm not in'". Nonetheless, the reunion produced one album, ''Grymlings III,'' released in 2005, it spawned three singles, including "Det är något särskilt med dig" along with one by Lagerberg with lyrics by
Peter LeMarc, "Där går min älskling".
It failed to chart, but Rickfors composition "Moder Svea" managed to enter Svensktoppen, peaking at number seven in May of that year.
The album garnered almost universal negative reception, after which the band broke up without reuniting again. Lindberg died on 26 February 2019.
Later and personal life
After his brief stint playing studio music, Lagerberg studied at
Komvux for three years before once again returning to music.
With the money he earned during his time in Grymlings, Lagerberg bought a personal computer, taking lessons on it before becoming an
information systems technician,
which he worked with for many years.
He was employed by
Scandinavian Airlines as a
network administrator in the 1990s, before the reunion with Grymlings.
Following his time in Grymlings, Lagerberg briefly fronted an eponymous band in which he played songs from the Tages and Blond eras, sometimes with the inclusion of both Anders Henriksson and Björn Lindér.
Lagerberg has stated that he prefers to write lyrics in English, as it "is the language of rock and roll,
but has written songs in Swedish, most notably for Grymlings.
One of his earlier Swedish compositions was named "
Balladen om killen" ("
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...
about the guy") which he wrote to
Örjan Ramberg in 1969, while still in Blond. He also sang on part one of the recording, which due to length was split into two sections, with Ramberg taking the lead on part two. Despite his massive works in various groups and as a studio musician, Lagerberg has yet (2021) released a solo album.
Lagerberg has become known as one of the best Swedish vocalists of the 1960s and dominated Tages vocal output for most of their career.
Vocally, Lagerberg tended to emulate several of his heroes, including
Otis Redding,
Wilson Pickett and
Sam & Dave.
He is an enjoyer of
soul music
Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in African-American culture, African-American African-American neighborhood, communities throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps ...
.
Lagerberg has cited
Stanley Clarke,
Paul Jackson,
Jaco Pastorius
John Francis Anthony Pastorius III, also known as Jaco Pastorius (; December 1, 1951 – September 21, 1987), was an American jazz bassist, composer, and producer. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential bassists of all time, ...
,
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...
and
John Entwistle as primary inspiration for his bass playing.
References
NotesReferences
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lagerberg, Goran
1947 births
Living people
Musicians from Gothenburg
Swedish bass guitarists
Swedish male bass guitarists
Swedish male musicians
Tages (band) members