Coca Carola is Curre Sandgren (vocals & guitar), Jonas Winberg (guitar & backing vocals), Jonas Mellberg (bass & backing vocals) and Mårten Tolander (drums). They formed in the summer of 1986 in Åkersberga, a suburb to Stockholm. The members of the band back then, Curre, Mårten and Ostron had quit or got kicked from their earlier bands and decided to show them what they could do. They managed to get Björn Gullberg, who knew how to play the guitar, with them. A good description of their sound would probably be "lively punkpop" and that description is still valid today. Full speed, easygoing melodies and a smile.
Early single
A single was made way too early and Gullberg quit the band to pursuit his bridge career instead. The rest continued with help from Conny Melkersson from Rolands Gosskör, who had kicked Curre from the very same group three years earlier. Conny stayed with the band for a couple of gigs and the recording of the split album with 23 Till called "Anabola Melodier". Putte Strand was the next one on the solo guitar, but got tired of it all too soon and Conny had to come back. At this time, the band recorded a single in english to check if they could get gigs outside Sweden. If that was not enough, they had a load of gigs in Sweden, even outside Stockholm and a couple of fun offers from Europe and the U.S. appeared in their mailbox. That meant that Conny played more often with Coca Carola than with his own band, and had to quit Coca. Unfortunately he decided to do so only two days before a gig where live tracks for a planned live album were to be picked.
1991 - 1993
In two weeks, late autumn 1991, Jonas Winberg was found and the plans for a CD started to take form. After some discussions, they decided on going for the Swedish language. English was too hard and it easily got silly. Until 1992, they had about 20 gigs / year but in november that year their debut CD was released and they put in a higher gear. About 50 gigs were played between november 1992 and november 1993 with highlights as Hultsfredsfestivalen 1993 (at 2.00 am, saturday, the last band to play at the festival and on the smallest stage), Arvikafestivalen 1993 (the first big gig, which of course made them pretty nervous, but everything went fine) and a 10 day tour with De Lyckliga Kompisarna. They also went on a mini-tour of Germany. A pretty tough program for the members who had regular jobs to take care of as well.
Ostron leaves...
In february 1994 their next CD was released and the band continued to play around Sweden every weekend. Ostron, who had been there from the start, playing bass, did not feel like continuing in that pace anymore and made his last gig in Falkenberg on August 27th that year. During the summer, Curre found time to do the "Krymplings" album
and a two-week tour of Sweden with that band as well. Mårten went with them on their tour in charge of sales and "daddy".
To be able to play, Coca Carola had to find someone who could take Ostron's place and Åke Noring from Rolands Gosskör joined the band temporarily. They made a CD single, in november that year, that had been planned for a while, and about that time, Jonas Mellberg offered his services as bass player. He got about a week to rehearse all their songs, which was needed for them to be able to continue to play weekends like before.
During the summer of 1995, they kept a low profile to write new songs for a CD. 1996 marks the band's 10 year anniversary. This was celebrated with the CD "Dagar Kommer", containing fourteen strong songs that show signs of a more varied and mature band. The use of producer Tomas Gabrielsson resulted in the fact that the band now sounded better than ever.
It's 1996
So in the spring of 1996, the band went on a weekend tour together with label mates Radioaktiva Räker. They also tried to play five times during two days, but the heavy rain on one of the days was enough to cancel one of the gigs. The plan was as follows: Solna + Finspång + Örebro on May 25th, twice in Rättvik (with none other than Kent as opening act) on May 26th. The third gig this period was at the Arvika Festival, a performance recorded by the Swedish National Radio channel P3 and broadcasted during the autumn. The summer also brought a debut performance at the Dalarocken festival as well as gigs at the Tullakrok, Mera Hitlåtar and Kamikazerocken festivals.
Suburb tour
In the beginning of the 80's, the bands Ebba Grön and Raketerna made a joint tour of the Stockholm suburbs. A brilliant idea which Coca Carola and their friends in Dennis & Dom Blå Apelsinerna brought into the 90's during the autumn. The tour was called Förtur -96, and they visited music gatherings and youth centres on the outskirts of Stockholm. Always with a local band as opening act and always with a low entrance fee.
They're actually good...
To summarize Coca Carola's first ten years, the band released the album "Fem År Till Moped" in November. Five completely new songs were recorded and for the first time, their ever present technician actually complimented them! -Damn guys, this is actually good. The record is also filled with old stuff which have only appeared on vinyl and other hard-to-get records, plus one song from each of their earlier albums.
The big party
The last saturday in November marked the day when the band invited everyone to a huge ten year anniversary party in their hometown Åkersberga. A quiz competition, Coca karaoke, a gig with almost all of their old members gathered and a crazy Mongo from Köttgrottorna as toastmaster entertaining the guests with a megaphone. During the night, one could also become a member of their fan club "Kisseklubben". If you are interested in learning more about the club, please contact the band! A couple of gigs in December with a tombola with 40 song titles on small pieces of paper, and yes, you guessed it, the audience decided what songs were played by drawing the notes from the tombola, resulted in a couple of pretty strange live sets! As the extra number, the band played whatever the audience wished.
Relaxed 1997
After nearly playing themselves to death during 1996, they decided that 1997 was to be a much more relaxed year. So they only played 16 gigs and didn't record anything new during these twelve months. The song "Öl" from "Dagar Kommer" did get
added to the Röjarskivan 3 (Sista Spyan) compilation - released on Ägg Tapes & Records, and "Dansa Med Mej" from "Fem År Till Moped..", was included on the compilation Definitivt 50 Spänn 6, making Coca Carola the only band ever to appear on all Definitivt 50 Spänn compilations. The gigs then. Well, during the summer, they played at a couple of festivals. Mera Hitlåtar in Handen. - You're chief ideologists, so you have to come and play. was Tompa Eken's comment when the band tried to point out that maybe people would get mad at them because they had played at every Mera Hitlåtar festival to date! A small but pleasant festival in Trelleborg at the end of July together with, among others, Ossler, Favorita and KKPA, another festival in Mora with Teddybears, Monster and Dismember (etc.) must also be mentioned. They also played at the coldest summer festival - Raj Harder - at the end of October. Then came the autumn and it was time for a change of rehearsal place, which means that the band, for the first time ever, now have their own place!
Dry summer of 1998
At the end of January -98 the band recorded the songs which ended up on "Så fel som bara vi kan ha". The recordings were made in Tumba at the Studio Lagret with the help of Stefan Söderberg. The album was released at the end of March and as usual the band invited their friends to a party. A knock-down tyres contest, food and beverages, arranged take-your-picture- with-the-idols-in-the-band, a quiz, etc.
We went on the road together with label mates Radioaktiva Räker during the week of Easter. The spring brought another tour, this time a shorter one together with Troublemakers and Charta 77. One gig at a hot-dog stand, one at a student party, and so on.
The band got to play at the Mera Hitlåtar festival again this year. Apart from that gig, the festival summer was weak, though both Högsby and Leksand were visited. The band also dressed up in order to be the opening band for Dee Snider when he played in Åkersberga in the middle of July.
A self-organised gig at Sergelstorg in Stockholm became the perfect end to the summer. To arrange things yourself, and not just sit around waiting for things to happen, is something every band should learn to do.
A new suburb tour rolled out in October. The 1998 version included Ohlson har semester production and us. It wasn't as successful as last year, mainly due to people getting sick and general mixups. The autumn also brought two gigs at birthday parties for people turning 30 as well as a gig as opening act for Ohlson har semester production at their release party at a loaded Tre Backar in Stockholm.
The season ending with fireworks and Charta 77 was held at a filled-to-the-limit Kafé 44 in Stockholm.
1999... going for 2000
The band was contacted by Djurgårdens IF about recoding a couple of songs for a record in the making for the team. This was in December 1998. They said yes, and spent the time around Christmas-New Years writing nine new songs. These were recorded in the Traxton studio in February with Christian Edgren as technician and producer. A couple of members from the team's fan club helped out creating the football (soccer) background quires. The album was released between March/April - just in time for the premiere of the Allsvenskan series. Apart from Coca Carola, other artists participating were Thåström & LG Petrov, Gurra G & Pedda from Just D, Svante Thuresson and Jack Wreesvik, all with one song each. The release party, where Coca Carola played of course, was held at Studion in Stockholm, and as expected, it was filled to the limit with football fans. It became somewhat of an odd concert, where the 350 people strong audience sang and screamed cheering rigmaroles between songs, and
sang along with the choruses loud enough to make the music hard to hear. Amazing!
Throughout April, the band played every weekend, and finally they got the chance to go up north. Their 300th concert was held in Umeå at the Hamnmagasinet venue. And of course they also played at the cool Mera Hitlåtar festival this year, which was held at the beginning of June. Before the rhythm section went to the Roskilde rumble, the band recorded a song for the Beat Butchers 15 Year Anniversary album, which is to be released this autumn. And the last week of July was filled with a whole-week tour around Sweden, which included, for the first time in the history of the band, a gig in Malmö!
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