Let’s begin things by recalling this #13 hit single from 2006
mp3: Peter Bjorn and John – Young Folks
One third of that trio is in the above picture, playing acoustic guitar. He is Peter Morén, and together with Jonas Thorell on bass and Magnus Olsson on drums, they are The Swedish Band who have just played an 18-date European tour with Robert Forster which took in Stockholm, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, Linz, Landsberg, Frankfurt, Cologne, Brighton, Cardiff, London, Manchester, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Leicester.
The Glasgow venue was St Luke’s, a converted church in the east end of the city which is now up there with the Barrowlands as my favourite location in my home city, and the gig took place last Saturday. And in a year when I’ve been at numerous live shows, with a few more lined up between now and the end of December, this will prove to be the most enjoyable and fun.
Fun? At a Robert Forster gig? Surely not, given this is a man who over the decades has regularly had the word ‘aloof’ used by numerous writers and journalists to describe his personality. I prefer to look on him as being an intellectual with a dry sense of humour that often borders on the deadpan to the extent that you can’t be sure if he is being serious or satirical, all of which was very much on display during a show that lasted not too far short of two hours.
Robert Forster is now 68 years old and has been making great music since 1978, when the members of his Swedish Band were either not born or were mere infants. The Australian is no stranger to Glasgow, having come here back in 1980 to stay for a short time and release a single with the Go-Betweens on Postcard Records, and he repeatedly expresses his love for the city. As such, he always seems to come here whenever he goes out on tour, whether he is playing solo, as a stripped down duo with his son Louis, or with a fully fledged band. And even though there was the occasional moment when the great man, who doesn’t use any sort of prompts, got a line or two wrong and, in one instance, forgot the lyric altogether, I will not hesitate in saying that this time round, it was as good as it’s ever been,
This is down to a couple of things. One being the quality of songs that were played and the other being how tight and talented the backing trio were.
The Swedish Band came together in 2017 when Peter, Jonas and Magnus played five shows, as Robert’s backing band, in Scandinavia, the idea having been hatched by Peter. The shows were a huge success, and Robert has since said that it gave him a whole new impetus for recording and touring in the future. Then came COVID….and then came the diagnosis of cancer for Robert’s wife, Karin Baumler. The cancer was beaten, and while Karin was recuperating, Robert wrote and recorded a new album, The Candle and The Flame (2023), with many of its songs reflecting on that difficult time for his family. As part of the tour for the album, Robert was looking to return to Stockholm in August 2023 for what would be a solo acoustic show. Peter got in touch and suggested that the 2017 band get together again as a one-off. The show proved to be such a success and such a memorable experience for Robert that he flew home to Australia with a new plan hatching away in his head.
In September 2024, he returned to Stockholm, this time to record a new album with The Swedish Band, and a handful of other locally based musicians on keyboards and wind instruments, while additional vocals would be added later by Karin Baumler in a studio in Brisbane.
The fruits of their labours were released as the album Strawberries earlier this year, with this September/October tour being part of its promotion. Robert had said prior to going on the road “I am enormously excited to be touring with a rock band again. The first time in six years. And not just any rock band – these are the genius Swedish players from my new album ‘Strawberries’, recorded in Stockholm. I love the album and I wanted to bring the group with me out on the rock and roll highway. We are wanting to impress.”
Well, Robert (not that you’ll be reading this!!), as a collective you most certainly did.
The set consisted of 21 songs, of which six can be found on the new album. Five others were from earlier solo albums, while the remaining ten came from the Go-Betweens era – four from 16 Lovers Lane (1988), one from Spring Hill Fair (1984), two from The Friends of Rachel Worth (2000), one from Liberty Belle and The Black Diamond Express (1986), one from Bright Yellow, Bright Orange (2003) before finishing the night off with a magnificent rendition of 1978 single, People Say.
It was everything that a long-time fan could ever have hoped for. The Swedish Band were, as you’d expect, magnificent on the songs you’ll find on Strawberries, but they more than did justice to the past members of The Go-Betweens throughout the night, as well as bringing a fresh energy and vibrancy to Robert’s other solo material. It all added up to a night that will live long in the memories of those of us lucky enough to have been there, including quite a few members of the Glasgow indie cognoscenti who came along to pay tribute to our rock and roll friend.
Highlights? All 21 songs. From the new album, there’s this near eight-minute opus, whose origins were revealed to be when Robert last came to Glasgow, arriving on a train from London….and then the next day finding himself in Edinburgh while an international rugby match was being played between Scotland and Ireland.
As for the ‘cover’ versions….an impossible task in many ways to narrow it down to one, but when I closed my eyes during this one, I could have sworn The Go-Betweens had, by way of a miracle, reformed for a few minutes.
mp3: The Go-Betweens – Spring Rain
I took my leave of the venue and offered up a silent prayer to a non-existent god that Robert Foster and His Swedish Band will be working together and touring again next year. Fingers and toes are crossed.
JC
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Very similar impressions to my own experience seeing Robert and the Swedes at the Union Chapel (converted churches really make great venues) last weekend. Third pew from the front gave great views of the interactions between the band and Robert, who was clearly loving every minute. The new album is pretty fine, although the meandering saga of Breakfast On The Train might be the weakest track. The driving, Dylanesque Tell It Back To Me is my highlight. Band was excellent, although maybe Peter plays a few too many notes on the guitar solos (noticeable on the classic Clouds). It’s telling that we came away from the show totally impressed even though Forster did not play Part Company or Head Full Of Steam, two cast-iron masterpieces in his repertoire, or anything from his great debut solo LP. He ended with People Say, still sounding fantastic 47 years after release.
I’m not overly familiar with Forster beyond his time with the Go-Betweens, but I was very kindly offered a ticket for the Cardiff show by our mutual friend Khayem. Sadly, it was during a 5 day period that we had 3 other gigs booked, so I had to decline based on being too busy and knackered to take on a fourth. A shame, as it sounded like a very decent night out.
Sounds fantastic and sorry I missed it. Saw him perform with a band including Karin at the closing night of the Andy Warhol/Ai Weiwei exhibition in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne in April 2016. We didn’t know it was happening; just saw a poster for it as we walked past and blagged our way in! Great night and had a chat with Karin afterwards. She was really friendly.