After the break-up
of the Aarhus symphonic-rock band "Taurus" in 1979, TV-2 was formed at the New Year
1980/81.
The debut album
"Fantastiske Toyota" (Fantastic Toyota) was engineered and
mixed by Cy Nicklin, and it cost 30,000 Danish Kroner (3000
GBP), which they had borrowed, with no recording contract.
Five record companies were interested however, and it was
the then A & R boss at the Danish department of CBS,
Stig Kreutzfeldt, who won the battle. It was Jan Degner,
Kreutzfeldt's successor, who was assigned to sell the new
concept in partnership with TV-2 and it became something of
a milestone in Danish promotion campaigns - including the
widespread use of such new technology as fax! The press
puritans thought that the campaign was a bit exaggerated but
a journalist from the daily newspaper "Børsen" (a
very serious business and finance newspaper) turned up at
the press reception. He was not the only one who believed
that it was the launching of the second Danish TV channel
(TV2), which would not occur for a few years.
At the Roskilde Festival later
the same year the band's performance was a visual
bombardment - white boiler-suits, blue neon, white Venetian
blinds, and TV monitors. It was concept art that was really
going places, but not many people had a clue where it was
going.
The following two years and two
albums were used by TV-2 to perfect the concept - the rapid
tempo, the melodic tunes, the pop-rock style, use of
synthesizers, drum machines - and, of course, the lyrics.
Nicklin also produced "Verden er Vidunderlig" (The world is
wonderful), and Brandt was still quite concise and observant
and the music had a similar style to the first record. But
"Beat", released in 1983, accelerated the development. TV-2
had not yet captured the attention of a large record-buying
audience but modernising an old operetta melody was the
breakthrough! Steffen Brandt rapped his way through "The
Admiral's Song" from "Pinafore" (Gilbert & Sullivan
operetta), with the title changed to "Popmusikerens vise"
(The Pop Singer's Song), released as a single. In the
slipstream of this single "Beat" sold 50,000 copies and the
following tour was sold out.
The next three albums confirmed
TV-2's position which was first defined in 1983. "Nutidens
unge" (The youth of today) doubled album sales, and the
subsequent tour ".. just wouldn't end." The album was
produced by Michael Bruun from "Tøsedrengene" who,
with his sense of melody, made TV-2 accessible to an even
larger audience, and with the englishman, Greg Walsh (Heaven
17, Tina Turner, Pavarotti) as producer the concept was
firmly established when "Rigtige Mænd..." (Real
Men...) was released with several hits including the title
track. Phrases from TV-2 songs began to appear as news
headlines and in everyday language. "En Dejlig Torsdag" (A
Wonderful Thursday) confirmed the band's status.
Brandt had begun to set new
standards for Danish lyricists and had developed his lyrical
universe to include direct references to everyday language
among young people. Ironical, sarcastic, lovingly critical
but also speculative, sometimes almost giving up, he
observed the genders, the times, the generations and their
changes. Adults shown as being bitter and negative, the
lives of young people shown in contrast to those of their
parents who had been young in the sixties. The empty but
fascinating café life does not leave you with much
hope, but there is still a little, in there, "behind misty
windows" - (Bag duggede ruder) which is considered by many
to be one of Danish pop-rock's most beautiful ballads.
"Rigtige Mænd..." sold more than 250,000 copies, but
it was controversial because not everybody had the same
sense of irony as Brandt. The album could be - and was -
used to confirm or deny the opinions and prejudices of any
man - or woman!
At the same time the prizes and
awards poured in. Readers of the trend-setting music
magazine at that time, MM, voted the band "Name of the
Year", and the album "Album of the Year", and it also won
the award for "Cover of the Year". Brandt was voted "Singer
of the Year" and songwriter too! Two Danish Grammies were
also awarded, for "Album of the Year" and "Singer of the
Year". TV-2 were naturally the top-billed name on Europes
biggest out-door event, the "Grøn Koncert 86" (Green
Concert) tour. They were also top billed on this prestigious
tour again in 1997.
As a natural consequence of the
status which the group had attained on the concert stage,
"En Dejlig Torsdag" (Lovely thursday) was followed by "Fri
som Fuglen" (free as a bird), a live double album, which
gave great satisfaction to the band's "live" fans. In 1988
"Nærmest Lykkelig" (Almost happy) was released,
produced by, among others, Michael Bruun and Søren
Wolff. The press pronounced it the group's best album to
date. It had the character of a Steffen Brandt solo album
with very personal lyrics, almost
"roman-à-clef"-like. The title track and the
Shadows-like "Alt Hvad Hun Ville Var At Danse" (All she
wanted to do was dance) were great hits. The subsequent tour
was called "Guffelhorn på græs" (Guffelhorn on
grass) - A "Guffelhorn" is a grass harvesting machine which
resembles an animal horn, actually called a
"grønthøster" in Danish. The scenography on
this tour included a whole family of "guffelhorns" - father,
mother and children. One of the unsurpassed Danish rock tour
symbols.
When Degner left CBS to start
his own company, PladeCompagniet , TV-2 followed him. The
songs on "Vi Bli'r Alligevel Aldrig Voksne" (We'll never
grow up anyway) was produced by, among others, Anders
Glenmark from Sweden, Greg Walsh, the classical conductor
and composer Bo Holten, Thomas Helmig and also Lars
Overgaard, Søren Wolff and Michael Bruun. The title
gave Steffen Brandt rich opportunity to both play and
seriously satirize the world's unbelievable ability never to
learn. It was the band's fifth platinum album in a row and
on midsummer's evening 1990 TV-2 gave a concert in the
ruined castle, Hammershus Slot on the Danish island of
Bornholm. It was transmitted live on Danish TV2.
The group celebrated their 10
year anniversary in 1991 with "Slaraffenland" (Land of milk
and honey, or El Dorado) where TV-2 wanted to once again
play with the music and give "The Århus Horns" their
recording debut. "The Århus Horns", the horn section,
were Niels Hoppe - saxophones, Knud Erik Nørgaard -
trumpet, and Anders Christensen - trombone. The band call
"Slaraffenland", which they produced themselves, a
"catharsis", "a necessary album" but the audience were not
particularly impressed. TV-2 took a break, interrupted in
November 1992 by a Greatest Hits collection, "De unge
år" (The young years), which created space for a new
chapter in the band's career. A chapter that was written in
big headlines when the group achieved double
platinum sales of "Verdens
Lykkeligste Mand" (The happiest man in the world) in 1994.
Steffen Brandt sang "It's society's fault", and whether you
agreed or not you were convinced, again, by a band who had
come back to stay. A unanimous press welcomed the
newly-sharpened Brandt pencil and the band which was in top
form and had treated itself to a collection of tunes which
were fun to play.
The stage was set for yet
another national tour of triumph and preparations for the
13th album, "Kys bruden" (kiss the bride), which was also
their first album for EMI-Medley, produced by Greg Walsh,
Michael Bruun and last, but by no means least, Halfdan E.
The title song, "Kom Lad Us
Brokke Os" (Let's have a
good moan) and "Sån't Er Livet" (That's life) became
great hits. After the release of "Kys Bruden" in February
1996 TV-2 toured until August of that year, a tour which was
divided into a club tour and the obligatory main-venue tour.
Februar 1998 TV-2 released
their 14th album "Yndlingsbabe" (Favourite Babe) which went
platinum after 1 month. In april the very first Danish
live-internetconcert was transmitted from the bands concert
in their hometown Århus. Tv-2 is on tour most of this
year.
TV-2 has developed a
special relationship with Greenland. They were there for the
first time in 1988 in connection with a charity concert for
Cancer Research. They performed with the Greenlandic group
Sume at a televised concert at the Nuuk hall. During the
same visit they recorded the video for "En sommerdag
for alt for længe siden" (A summer day, far too long ago) way out
on the inland ice-cap, interrupted by a snowstorm! The
following year they had their first tour to "The land of the
people". On this occasion they wrote and recorded the two
new songs "Tikkiluaritsi" and "Takuss", which both were
later released by the Greenlandic company ULO.
"Tikkiluaritsi" is also included on the "Vi blir alligevel
aldrig voksne" CD. On the "Verdens lykkeligste mand" CD
there is a song called "Hundene over Jacobshavn" (The dogs
above Jacobshavn), and "Sæler, hvaler og solskin"
(Seals, whales and sunshine) is not released yet. In 1994
they completed the most comprehensive tour that a Danish
band has ever made of Greenland.
In 1982 TV-2 released an album
under the pseudonym "The
Beautifuls". It was called
"Om Sommeren Er Alting Anderledes" (In the summer everything
is different), which was released on Have a Cigar Records.
As the group explained "We did it as an attempt to take the
sting out of what we considered to be a rather exaggerated
indignation of the politically correct section of the pop
press. An indignation because we changed our name from
Taurus to TV-2 and changed our appearance and our playing
style. We thought that we would "make our point" if the
following year we changed our name, appearance and style of
playing .... again! So we did. The confusion was entirely on
our part but we felt that we established a sort of
understanding that our mode of expression was inextricably
connected to a particular and not entirely healthy sense of
humour."
In 1990 TV-2 released the single
"The Whole
World's Gonna Speak German Again.." produced by Greg Walsh and inspired by the
events surrounding the fall of the Berlin wall. "We heard
disquieting reports about Germans who, in an intoxication of
enthusiasm, saw themselves and the re-united Germany back in
the role of being a major power. It needed to be commented
upon".
There have been many
opportunities to see TV-2 on television. Among the most
striking occasions was their first performance for Her
Majesty Queen Margrethe at the inauguration of the
Århus Concert Hall in 1981.
Apart from this the group has
made a point of not simply delivering the stereotype video
product on TV. "Nærmest lykkelig - live", a concert
and road-movie recorded on tour. "De kom lige forbi" (1990)
(They just dropped in), a report from Greenland, which they
themselves described as ".. a sort of travel letter from a
touring rock band with social, political and cultural
perspectives." "10 år der rystede verden," (10 years
that rocked the world) .. a simulated documentary based on
the history of a pop band with the general emphasis on
delivering rock and roll, but creating havoc in particular.
It was screened in 1991.
In 1994 TV-2 received a pat on
the back from their colleagues in the form of the Danish
Musicians Union's Award (30.000 Danish Kroner - 3000 GBP).
Steffen Brandt received a particularly special award - the
Dan Turéll award, in 1996. The song "Kom Lad Os
Brokke Os" was used as an essay subject in a Danish
examination at Danish elementary schools in 1997.
