Bradshaws

Beskrivning

In the late 70’s many punk bands were formed by youngsters with no prior experience. In DIY fashion they learnt as they went along, requiring only a few chords to form a band. Techniques were shared in opposition to previous hegemony

However by the early 80’s few of those bands remained and even fewer emerged to bigger stages. Many had instead honed their playing skills and moved on to bigger challenges in more advanced styles.

In the 80’s through early 90’s groups from the whole of garage-lands blended across previous borders. It was a good time for live music with many stages to play. The way to bigger stages went through managers and record companies all too eager to sculpt their artists in spe in their own mold. This is however a story of a band the members of which started out in various punk bands in the late 70’s to some 16 years later return to their roots.

And so it was that in the spring of 94’ three temporary out of band musicians met at the legendary Pet Sounds record shop and decided to form a band. They were Jan ”JP” Edin guitar/vocals, Magnus ”Manx/Mankan” Magnusson drums, and ”Zeke” bass. They called their new band Shooting Dirty Pool as they were not necessarily going to play by the rules. From the initial rehearsals they concluded they needed another guitarists that could play more than basic chords.

By the fall of 94’ Manx told the others they needed Björn ”BJ” Juhl on guitar. BJ, that in 1977 started playing guitar after hearing Pretty Vacant, was at the time playing with a Sex Pistols tribute band but got timely sacked from playing Beatles chords. The band auditioned BJ and was shortly after fully formed and started developing their style that emerged from the symbiosis of JP’s songwriting with power chords and vocals and BJ’s melody/feedback guitar. Manx often suggested how to align and make little things swing. The result is arguably punk seasoned by experience. They now also changed name to Bradshaws as Zeke, who disappeared into the void, was replaced by Magnus ”Monster” Lindén, a biker from the far south woodlands.

In November 95’ Bradshaws made their first gig at Cafe 44 but their performance was below what they had set out for. Back at the rehearsals they worked hard on that all following gigs should hold desired professionalism.

As they returned to live gigs they not only were exceptionally tight but also regulated their total power by the limit of the PA for vocals as loudest level and drums at lowest level and fitting string instruments inbetween making a composite sound where every instrument would be clearly heard.

Through 1996-97 the band made gigs they could get without promoting.

J.M.N. ”Hellman”, close friend to the band from previous bands, often hung out at rehearsals and at times showed some of his songs as something Bradshaws could play.

In order to get the band live ready and eventually studio ready, BJ arranged all songs on an acoustic guitar so that string instruments throughout songs made a composite chord. Allthough this allegedly made all songs sound like lullabies it is hardly noticeable through the wall of massive distortion. This led to a joking suggestion of Bradshaws Acoustic with lyrics translated to Swedish.

In early 97’ there were internal struggles that also as with many bands involved a temporary girlfriend, and that also brought on ambition issues. Because of this BJ suggested they’d make a great quality CD that could serve as a time capsule. At the time there were few studios that could allow live recordings but there was one that dominantly recorded blues combos relying on interaction between musicians that was recommended by friends of BJ. So it was that the whole album was recorded live as if it were a gig while instruments slightly isolated by baffles, with just minutes between songs.

To make the material listenable many times, lead vocals were rerecorded replacing the first take. BJ’s guitar was rerecorded for an extra track to allow panning both tracks hard left/right creating a slight chorous effect on guitar. On the intro of Fake a Smile there is one track live and one added track played with 40ms delay. There was also a track with additional feedback guitar. A 70’s stereoamplifier was used to degrade sound quality to more vintage on both bass track and the final mix. Manx wanted piano on the last track to which the band reluctantly agreed. Mats Sjöblom gracefully laid the piano track.

In the fall of 97’ Bradshaws broke in half leaving BJ and JP that continued with new bassists that have changed a couple of times up until today (2022) and drummer Matte, while Monster and Manx joined Hellman for a USA tour.

Björn Juhl, Åkersberga, May 2022.