Back on Track

It´s been a while since I wrote something, and that´s mostly because I haven´t had any good stories to tell. Last year was pretty slow for me, but now I´m back on track.

The holidays were nice and calm, just like I wanted them to be, spending time with family and friends. I always thought New Years Eve was kind of over-rated, so I just invited two of my girlfriends to my place to drink some champagne and hang out. We didn´t have a white christmas this year here in Stockholm. It´s actually been a long time since we did. A lot of people think Sweden is always cold and that we have ice bears and penguins walking down the streets (haha)! Well, that´s not the case. The winters don´t get as cold as they once were, and summers get really hot.

January has been very slow for me the past couple of years because a dear friend of mine, Dave Lepard (former singer of Swedish sleaze band CRASHDÏET www.crashdiet.org) decided to leave this world on January 20th 2006. It not only shocked his friends and family, but it shook the entire rock scene.

Last year, his ex girlfriend and his mother decided to put on an annual festival to honour him. The result was ’REST IN SLEAZE’ www.rest-in-sleaze.com (named after the band´s debut album which came out in 2005). That night, I was playing with my old band, STARLET SUICIDEwww.starletsuicide.com, and it was an awful yet beautiful night. I have never felt that anxious before a show, and I guess I never will again. Everyone was crying, but at the time, it still felt like we were doing something good. It was a tribute to our guiding star who left us far too soon.

This year was a completely different story. There were different bands, but most of all, different feelings. I never believed that time would heal the wounds. Even though there are bruises and scars deep in my soul and heart, and even though I will always miss him, it feels easier now. Everyone seem to agree that the feeling at this year´s ’REST IN SLEAZE’ was more calm, and it felt more like we were celebrating him, instead of mourning him.

The bands that played were SLEAZY TRASH (myspace.com/sleazytrash), T.I.T.S., DYNAZTY (myspace.com/dynaztyband), THE INITIATED (the-initiated.com), ALTER EGON (myspace.com/thealteregon) and GEMINI FIVE (geminifive.com). The first three mentioned are new and upcoming bands here in Sweden. THE INITIATED is Dave´s sisters band, ALTER EGON is the side project of CRASHDÏET bassplayer Peter London (who is also my dear ex boyfriend), and GEMINI FIVE has been going for a long time, and rock harder and harder as time goes by.

All surplus from the festival goes to the Dave Lepard memorial fund, which every year hands out a scholarship for young bands. Last year, STARLET SUICIDE got it, and this year it was SLEAZY TRASH who were rewarded.

Dave was someone who had the rare ability to sense exactly how you were feeling, and I think he is one of the few people who truly understood me. It is a horrible loss to not have him around. He was a crazy, intelligent, beautiful, fucked up musicial genius. There are no words to describe how empty the world is without him. In a way though, I am happy because this horrible change in our lives has turned into something sweet. We´ve become a big family who comforts and pushes each other, and I don´t know how I lived my life before, without his wonderful family in my life.

I am looking forward to next year´s festival. I have the feeling that this can only get better and better, and I have the feeling that Dave´s restless soul is finally looking down on us, smiling.

Rest In Sleaze my dearest Lepard man.

You will always be in our hearts.

Last weekend I was out clubbing at one of the regular clubs here in Stockholm, called Rocks (myspace.com/clubrocks). It´s one of the biggest rock clubs in town, and it´s open Fridays and Saturdays between 9pm-3am. I used to be there every weekend some years ago, so I feel right at home there. They play all kinds of rock music, from old punk bands, to Iron Maiden, to Rammstein, to Mötley Crüe and Guns N’ Roses. It´s a good mix!

I went there with a dear friend of mine who was visiting from Gothenburg (down on the west coast of Sweden). It was awesome to hook up with her because it had been some time since we last hung out. We had a great night, drinking just enough and talking with a bunch of cool guys and grrrls that I haven´t seen for a while.

I´ve been thinking about how everyone says that Sweden (and I guess Stockholm in particular) is the new Sunset Strip. I think they´re right. I always thought that the scene over here was not THAT big, but I guess it is. It´s just that I didn´t compare it to anywhere else. And besides, I think Sunset in the 80s wasn´t as big as we think over here. It´s pretty cool when you think about it. I get to take part in what every rocker will talk about in the coming decades… And I´m enjoying it!

CRASHDÏET was one of the bands who got the glam scene going again in Sweden, about five or six years ago or so. At that time, I was the bass player of a glampunk band SWINDLE-A-GO-GO (myspace.com/swindleagogo). It was not the same back then. Not as many people were interested in that kind of music. It´s pretty crazy how things can change so fast.

This is it for this time, until next… ROCK ON!

xoxoxo

/jennyfer