Aware of the importance of the business end of things, Peter decided that he'd become
the group's manager. Soon afterwards, they teamed up with another Lasse (Lars Kjellström)
who already had good contacts in the music business. It was Lasse's idea to name the group
"The Jackie Fountains". As Lasse had been a sailor, he spoke English well. He was a good
singer, who, luckily, knew the lyrics to a lot of English pop songs. In September, 1964,
The Jackie Fountains performed their first gig. They ditched the Shadows' repetoire in
favour of covers of, amongst others, Elvis, the Beatles, the Stones, Chuck Berry, and the
Kinks. At this time, the band bought its own white Volkswagen van and painted THE JACKIE
FOUNTAINS on its sides in red print! A friend of the group, "Janne Trötter" (Jan Carlson),
became their roadie and one man stagecrew. They became a staple of school dances and local
social events. About this time, they decided to add a fifth member to the group, and
recruited a fellow from Södertälje called Andy (Anders Eklöv).

The band made their first demos recordings in a home-studio owned and run by Dr Sixten
Albertus. Dr Albertus, an ear-nose-and-throat specialist, was a sound enthusiast if there
ever was one! In 1963, he opened his first recording studio, Biographen Grand, housed in a
cellar at Allhelgonagten 3, Stockholm. All of the original Jackie Fountains demo recordings
were made here. In 1965, he changed the studio (and label)'s name to Euphonic and moved
house to Bellmasv 1, Sodertalje. Here he engineered all subsequent Jackie Fountains records.
Dr Albertus was quite the dedicated enthusiast! He engineered the groups' recordings on
reel-to-reel tapes, and then issued them as official releases on Euphonic. He later mastered
the vinyl releases. Euphonic folded in 1968, but as of this writing, Dr Albertus is alive
and well!

Hasse was accidentally injured whilst repairing cars for a small company in Gnesta, and
he nearly lost his thumb. So the band asked Ingemar Darsell from the small village Järna if
he could play guitar with them, for they knew him to be a kind person and skilled guitarist.
Hasse's thumb-injury lasted for about two or three months.

In the summer of 1965, Lasse had to leave the group to serve a prison sentence. He was
not a criminal, but had had some very bad luck; he never returned to the band. Soon after
Lasse's departure, they found a new singer to replace him: The group's singer, Bob Yell
(Boris Jelovic), was born in Zagreb, Croatia, Yugoslavia. Bob, a former member of the
Yugoslavian pop group, The Lonely Ones, had studied international law after school, but he
got fed up with it -- so off he went, hitch-hiking, his guitar slung over his shoulder.
After stops in London, Paris,Germany, and Stockholm, he settled down in Gnesta where he
joined The Jackie Fountains. After Bob signed on, the group became more blues oriented.
They grew their hair long. And then in 1966, "Mimi" (Mladen Matisic), another former member
of The Lonely Ones, joined The Jackie Fountains.

As Bob and Hasse wrote new tunes, their style evolved and changed, influenced by the
creative, adventurous spirit prevalent in the recorded music scene of the mid '60s.
Thrilled by the growing number of bands that epitomised this new sound -- Bob and Hasse
added groups as diverse as the Yardbirds and The Lovin' Spoonful to their catalogue of
revered musicians. Because of this influence on the band, later journalists wrote that The
Jackie Fountains were ahead of their time in amongst the pop art scene.

One of the highlights of their career, Peter recalls, occured in a small Swedish country
town when The Jackie Fountains opened for The Who - a performance well received not only by
the audience, but by The Who themselves. In fact, later that night, Keith Moon gave his
high commendation to the band, told them that they were excellent -- and he presented his
drum sticks to Sören! Another significiant event in their career occurred in 1965, when the
band nearly reached the finals in the 'Sweden's Rolling Stones' competition.

When not rehearsing, The Jackie Fountains all but lived in an old damp mill outside of
Gnesta. Most of their gigs were bookings at pop clubs in the Stockholm area. For example,
they played in the famous "Pråmen" ('The Old Barge') in the "Nalen," the district where
rock 'n' roll began in Sweden.

Some of the clubs, like the Club Bobbadilla and the Club Nette, were operated deep in
the cellars of Stockholm's mediaeval Old Town district. The Club Nette, a very small, dark
and smoky place, was a favourite venue for the band.

Every member in The Jackie Fountains got paid very little, and they put almost all of
the money from their gigs into paying off the amplifiers and the Volkswagen. It was only
in their last six months as a band that they had extra gig money for coffee and cigarettes.
Only Bob was paid more than the others: As he had no parents or relatives who could help
or support him, he asked for, and received, a greater share of the money.

Then in 1969, M. Swingberg, an eccentric farmer from Sweden (he once paved his fields
with concrete to create a private airstrip) recorded 'Spex & Pengar,' a rambling spoken word
album on Dollar Records. The owner of Dollar Records, Åke Söhr, rang Peter Wärmling, former
manager of the group, and asked Peter if they could use some old Jackie Fountains tracks to
pad Swingberg's chat. Wärmling agreed, and four previously unreleased tracks from 1966 were
used. As a consequence, the Swingberg album cannot technically be classified as a spoken
word album. This mix of word and song made for an unusual, if not unique, record for the
time! Because of The Jackie Fountains' songs, this album is considered one of the rarest
extant Swedish beat group records!

All in all, The Jackie Fountains performed about one hundred live gigs. Most of their
shows lasted up to 4 or 5 hours -- mere one hour shows were rare! Hasse and Hangry jammed at
length onstage, demonstrating their formidable improvisational skills to the people who came
to see them in concert. Perhaps these lengthy, exhaustive sets began to take their toll on
the group as a whole.and also, perhaps, they were getting older, and life began to draw them
away from the group.although their interest in music continued.

Hangry wanted to spend more and more time with his girlfriend, and this was the main
reason he left The Jackie Fountains. They finally married and still are. So in August, after
Hangry's departure from The Jackie Fountains, Bob would take over on bass, tutored
extensively by Hasse.

Since Peter was spending more and more time on his studies, his interest in managing
slowly waned. So, Peter lost authority, and, as a consequence, his interest in continuing.
Sören had met a girl, Hangry had met a girl and so did Peter. Bob and Mimi wanted to play
more dance-music, but Hasse wanted to develop a Jimi Hendrix-style band. Then Bob moved to
Stockholm in early spring1967, and so the group finally disbanded.

Soon after Sören married and became a family man, he became an woodwork teacher. He
started to build hurdy-gurdies and became an accomplished hurdy-gurdy player. He still
plays Swedish folk-music.

Occasionally, Hangry gets together with his sons to play rock'n'blues -- that is, when
he´s not participating in their motor-boat competitions! They became world-champions in
1996.

Bob moved to Toronto, Canada , where he married andstarted an advertising agency
including music-making for commercial advertising. He named his first daughter Nadine -- in
tribute to his admiration for Chuck Berry. Unfortunately, in 1996, we received the sad news
that Bob had died of a brain tumour.

Mimi, who joined the band in 1966, also married, and he is now a taxi driver in Stockholm.
His son Nicolas is an opera singer in England and Holland.

Then there is Hasse, 'Strange Little Girl,' and the Stranglers. After The Jackie Fountains
broke up, Hasse played guitar for a year for Barabas, a band from Södertälje, Sweden. Then he
moved to Lund, where, together with Janne Knuda and Hugh Cornwell (the latter from England),
he founded the group Jonny Sox. After a few years, they moved to Guildford, England. At that
time, 1974, everyone was talking about a serial killer in America known as "the Boston-
Strangler". Struck by the'strangler' bit, they incorporated into their new name, The
Guildford Stranglers. Peter Wärmling warned them, "You'll never make it with a name like
that!' Fortunately, Peter was wrong! They shortly dropped 'Guildford' and, in 1975, became
simply known as "the Stranglers". Aftera year, Hasse Wärmling grew impatient that Cornwell´s
new band wasn't going anywhere fast enough, so he moved back to Sweden.
Back home, Hasse joined the group Kal P Dal which was quite well-known in Sweden. How well
known? Well, in Sweden, railway trains have names, and in 2000, the authorities christened one
train Kal P Dal in honour of this rock-group! Kal P Dal recorded some vinyl LPs, and they made
a couple of appearances on Swedish TV. And then, in 1977, the Stranglers made their record
debut with 'IV Rattus Norvegicus,' and they became a great success. Nevertheless, Hans
Wärmling's the spirit was still with the group well into the 80's, because he'd written the
music to their big hit, 'Strange Little Girl" back in the 60's! Unfortunately, Hasse drowned
accidently in 1995, and he did not live to see the triumph of his work: His song was
performed in The Royal Albert Hall, London by the Stranglers in 1998, and Tori Amos covered
"Strange Little Girl" on a new CD which went to Number Four on the American top-selling list
in October 2001.

Above text was written by Peter Wärmling as for the linernotes to the Jackie Fountains LP
(and upcoming Jackie Fountains CD) released by Feathered Apple Records in February 2004.
Edited by: Carey Fleiner
Copyright 2004: Feathered Apple Records

For loads more insane facts, infos, photos and of course for the Jackie Fountains wild 60s beat,
r&b, garage sounds, better get a copy of the brandnew and exciting Jackie Fountains album on
Feathered Apple Records NOW!!!!

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