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Sky High Biography
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Sky High was formed in 1978 by Yngström
as a quartet, but lost it´s organ player early on and remained a core trio,
sometimes augmented with additional members for live or studio performances.
In the beginning, the lyrics was Swedish language with the
music drawing on Sixties influences. Sky High originals were
intermixed with coverversions of tunes by The Jimi Hendrix Experience,
The Who and the Kinks. Says Yngström
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"Back in the Sixties I played in bands doing covers but then in the early
Seventies, I started drifting towards jazzy sounds, like Miles Davies
and John Coltrane. I thus mixed the rock sound of my own
generation with modal influences and was for a few years involved in the
jazz/fusion scene.
After having done that for a while, I felt a longing for a more rootsy and
bluesy approach. One night in Gothenbourg our organ player stayed with a
beautiful girl in the audience while the rest of us got up and played - we
fired off a series of Hendrix tunes, stuff that I hadn´t
played for nearly ten years at that point: the place went hog wild and we
haven´t been looking back ever since!"
The band went on to record their first album in Swedish,
featuring a cover version of the Hendrix classic "I Don´t
Live Today" with translated lyrics. Clas
Yngström became a proficient Hendrix interpreter,
and has played many Hendrix memorials ever since their debut
in Amsterdam 1980, where they literally stole the show,
prompting the Experience´s drummer Mitch Mitchell
to leap on stage to jam and play drums behind Yngström -
a momentous event for Sky High.
In September 1981, Sky High went back to the studio, and
recorded their second album in Gothenbourg, their first in
English language. The album"Still Rockin"was produced by Lou
Stonebridge, known for his work with The Blues Band,
and completed at Nova Suite Studio´s in London
with John"Irish"Earl - tenor sxophone and Dick Hanson
- trumpet of The Climax Blues Band making a guest appearance.
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In 1983 Clas left Gothenbourg to return to his
backwoods in Borlänge, Northern Sweden. For a while Yngström
considered running a guitar workshop and putting Sky High on
hold for a while, but abandoned this activity as the band got signed and went
to the studio to record the follow up"Freezin´Hot". That album
contained what would be one of the seminal Sky High hits, the
frenzied and frantic"I Ain´t Beggin´", that made it
to Top 10 status on the chart propelling Sky High into the Big
League Of Rock. That song was selected for inclusion on the weird and whacky
underground movie "The American Way", starring Dennis
Hopper.
Yngström expands as follows:
"It´s a film about some anarchistic Vietnam vets who run an airborne pirat-TV
station on board of an old B-52 bomber over USA - we got some really nice
scenes for our video! - The album itself was a favourite with our fans, and I
must confess that this is the one of the old albums I also personally
prefer..."
The soundtrack connection came via Sam Taylor, vice presodent
of ZZ-Top´s production outfit Lone Wolf, and
Yngström explains further:
"I had met with ZZ-Top in Norway, back in
1981- we were playing the same venue as them, only they drew crowds 20 times as
big! Anyway, I gave some of my old albums to Billy Gibbons,
ZZ-Top´s guitarist. Imagine my surprise at receiving a phone call
a few days later from Billy, stating that "there´s some
serious guitarplayin´goin´on here!" - we have been in touch ever since". ZZ
Top asked Clas and Sky High to
play support on the European leg of the"Eleminator" tour, but
the idea was vetoed by the management and agencies involved, stating that ZZ-Top
couldn´t play together with such a competetive guitarist as Clas
Yngström .
With kind permission of Mr. Clas Yngström
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Discography
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Title: Sky High
Recorded: ?
Released: 1980
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Title: Still Rockin
Produced and mixed: in England by Lou Stonebridge
Released: 1982
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Title: Freezin Hot
Produced by: Frank Marstokk
Released: April 1985
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Title: Humanizer
Produced by: Frank Marstokk
Released: March 1987
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Title: Have Guitar, Will Travel
Recorded: San Francisco
Released: August 1989
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Title: Safe Sex
Recorded: Live Hogfjallshotellet, Salen, Sweden, January 1990
Released: November 1990
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Title: Fuzzface
Produced by: Frank Marstokk and Halfdan E.
Released: February 1995
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Title: Fat Guitar
Produced by: Frank Marstokk and Halfdan E.
Released: 1996
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Title: Purple Haze
Recorded: at Polar Studio in nov -96, and was mostly recorded
live at the studio
Released: 1998
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Title: Tracks From The Crypt
Recorded: 2 CD's, CD1 with Greatest Hits and CD2 with
unreleased demo material and outtakes
Released: 1998
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Title: Bluester
Recorded and mixed : at Studio Agnas, Falun Sweden. March -
August 1999.
Released: 1999
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Title: Freedom
Recorded: live at Norrhaga Studios 2002
Released: 2002
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Clas
Yngström at jazzclub Fasching, Stockholm, April 10 2004 |
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Sky
High Links
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Sky
High Official Site
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Clas
Yngström interview June 2004
by Claes Hassel
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General
Questions:
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How did you get into the
music business?
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'I have been a music nut since i don´t remember when.. My older brother, Jonas,
says i could manage the family´s old turntable before i learned how to walk.'
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Who has been your main
influences?
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'My first inluence was Little
Richard, with whom my sister Lotta had a disc. I
thaught the cover looked really cool - this black dude with pompadour hair and
a zoot-suite, he also had his foot on the keyboard of the piano - wow the guy
could play with his feet!! The music matched the cover - wo-bop-aluba.... a
couple of years later, I think it was 1960, I got an ep disc with the Shadows.
They really blew my mind and I stayed up all Christmas night playing the tracks
over and over. I still worship the Shads, especially the early
days, after -63 they sort of lost it - the new heroes, for me , were the Stones
and later the Kinks and of course the Who,
who i saw as a 12 year old kid in Uxbridge, north of London.
from Townshend I went to Clapton - I still
hold the Bluesbreakers album for super mega classic - it was the bible for us
young guitarslingers back home in Dalecarlia.
For sound i still think Hank B. Marvin´s , for Fender
Strat, and slowhand, for a Les Paul, rules!
Then along came Jimi - he is by far my biggest influence, both
as a guitarplayer, singer and songwriter. Jimi clerared tre
smoke for me - he still is the greatest, there will never be anyone to come
even close to what he did - ever!!' |
List five albums of the
bands/artists that you like the most and why!
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'1. "The Shadows greatest hits"
- from 1963 - it has all the old instrumentals classics of this fantastic
group. guitarrist Hank B. Marvin plays unbelievably clean.
2. "John Mayall´s Bluesbreakers" with Eric Clapton
- "The Bible" and probably the reason why you have to pay $150.000+ for an
original sunburst Les Paul Standard....
3. "Are You Experienced"
- Jimi´s first album - this album is nothing less than a
revolution, as opposed to many other albums from "The Summer of Love"
this gem truly offers some really wild and totally original things, my alltime
favourite! Dig for instance the mix of really hard guitar and the wild jazzy
drums on "Manic Depression" - pheew, it´s truly
mindwrecking..
4. "Born Under a Bad Sign"
- Albert King. Albert is my absolute Blues
guitar favourite. This is his best disc, acompanied by the great Stax
Studio band this is very "Get up and Go" piece - dig
especially "Born Under a Bad Sign"
- Albert is the deepest blue of all, he´s the KING!!
5. An early Chuck Berry collection, with all his great hits! -
hail, hail Chuck Berry the true inventor of Rock n Roll
guitar!'
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What time was/is the most
interesting for the rock music, in your opinion and why - 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s or
00s?
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'For me it was the 60´s, cause that´s
when I grew up and it was the time I was most open for influence. I believe all
generations have their own.'
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Your
dream band(living or dead ;), who would they be, vocal/bass/drums/keyboard/lead
guitar/rythm guitar/producer?
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'Jimi Hendrix - guitar
Tony Williams - drums
Dave Holland - bass
Stevie Wonder - vocals, keyboards & harmonica '
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What kind of equipment/gear
are you using on the road and in the studio?
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'Marshall Super Bass - 73, modified by Tommy Folkesson.
I use one or two 4x12" cabs with old 25w "greenback" celestion speakers.'
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The
songs that you have composed which of them are your favourites?
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'I Ain´t Beggin´
Stop The Wars
A Prayer For Peace'
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What
are you doing in your spare time outside of music?
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'I like to cook -
mostly for my wife, i like travelling - seeing new places and meeting new
people, I also enjoy fishing '
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If you
dont have been in the music business what have you been doing then?
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'Might have been a Baker or maybe a Fisherman. '
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What are you currently up
to?
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'We've just
completed the recordings of a new live album at Jazzclub Fasching
in Stockholm, after this i will chill for a while and
then get back to working a few club dates before the summer season with
festivals etc.. '
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Artist
related questions:
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The Beginning
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- Your first guitar?
'A baby-blue Hagström Kent which i got for chritmas 1962'
- Your first band, name and when did it began??
'The Clifftones, started in -63'
- The Music, the sort of music?..Influences?
'Instrumental - influenses were the three great: The Shadows, The Spotnicks and
The Ventures'
- Any gigs?
'Not really, my first gigging band were called the Kids and involved amongst
others Pierre Swärd on Rhythm Guitar - Pierre is now mr B3 in
sweden!
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Tell
us about the Yngstrom Seventies, sort of music?..influences?
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Paraphernalia, Soffgruppen, Dovra,
Västanvind and Schnabel
I bought my last rock album - Deep Purple in Rock - in 1971,
after that i was totally into Jazz and Jazzrock/Fusion etc...
Late sixties i started Paraphernalia with badass Jazz-drummer
Mats Hellberg, due to lack of gigging opportunetiesi moved to Gothenburg
were I hooked up with cousins Matz Nilsson - Bass and Anders
Kjellberg - Drums. We started Soffgruppen which
was a pretty free Rock/Jazz thing, later on Pierre Swärd joined
on keys - we also had occational horn players - we made one record - Soffgruppens
Greatest Sits , in 75.
I got to work as a guitar teacher at the music conservatory in Gothenburg
and there I met a lot of young and great players, that´s how Dovra
and Västanvind came about.
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