Tages were a Swedishrock band fromGothenburg formed in 1963 by vocalistTommy Blom, rhythm guitaristDanne Larsson, lead guitaristAnders Töpel, bass guitaristGöran Lagerberg and drummer Freddie Skantze.[1] During their seven year tenure, they released sixstudio albums, threecompilation albums, fiveextended plays and 26singles in Sweden.[2] Between November 1964 and April 1968, Tages were considered one of the four most popular bands in Sweden,[3][4][nb 1] with 13 of their singles reaching the top 10 of the nationalrecord chartTio i Topp including two number one singles.[5][nb 2] The band also released a string of commercially successful studio albums, with two of them,Tages (1965) andTages 2 (1966), selling over 10,000 copies each in Sweden, enough for them to becertified gold.[6][7][8] Towards the end of the 1960s, Tages' popularity started diminishing, and they charted their final top 10 single in April 1968.[9] Lead vocalist Blom left the band at the end of theirfolkpark tour in August 1968.[10][11] The group continued on as a quartet, with the group's sixth studio album and final five singles being released under the name Blond,[12] a name which was chosen by the band's management who believed it to be more internationally viable.[13][14] They broke up during the summer of 1970 after several personnel changes.[15]
Tages' first 10 singles and three studio albums were released in Sweden byPlatina Records, anindependent record label founded by Evert Jakobsson.[16][17] The band had signed a contract with the label in September 1964.[16] Platina wasdistributed byEMI Records starting in 1965,[14][17] causing singles by Tages released in the UK during this time period to appear on several EMIsublabels, includingColumbia andHis Master's Voice.[18] Tages founded their ownpublishing company, SegatAB, during the spring of 1966,[19][nb 3] which ensured that "income reached the right [band members'] pockets", contrary to many other publishing companies during the 1960s.[14] Platina's contract with Tages expired onNew Year's Day 1967, upon which they opted to sign a contract withParlophone instead.[20][11] This caused Jakobsson to issue archival material by Tages on Platina concurrently to their new releases on Parlophone in an act of retaliation.[21] In preparation for a potential international breakthrough, Tages' new manager Richard-Reese Edwards got the band signed toFontana Records, negotiating an advance of $50,000 ($428,721 in 2024), a sum previously unheard of by a Swedish pop group.[22]
Starting with two unauthorized albums compiled by Jakobsson during the 1960s,[21] Tages' music has been collected on several compilation albums.[11] As the band'smasters were owned by three separate record labels, the band's early compilation albums were restricted to the material each label had the rights to.[23] In 1983, Jakobsson licensed an album's worth of his Tages Platina masters to EMI, who were putting together the compilation albumTages, 1964-68![24][23] Later during the 1980s, Sven-Åke Peterson of EMI negotiated with Jakobsson, purchasing the masters from him.[25] In 1994, the 3-CD career-spanningbox setThis One's For You was released, containing almost every recording by Tages under that name.[25] The Blond recordings are still owned byUniversal Music Group,[25] who issued all of their material with the band on the 2003 reissue ofThe Lilac Years.[26]
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. "×" denotes the chart did not exist yet.
Notes
^AlthoughTages (1965) andTages 2 (1966) sold gold in Sweden,[6][7][8] neither of them charted asKvällstoppen was largely aimed at single releases during the mid-1960s.[27]
^VG-lista published its first album chart on 1 January 1967.[29]
^Tages' debut album was reissued with a new catalogue number(PBLP 5001).[32]
^The album has been known as bothTages 2,[33][34] and simply2.[35]
^Shared compilation album with tracks by Tages, Hep Stars and the Shanes[50]
^abcdThis One's For You! is abox set containing 3 CDs and a booklet. The CDs were later released individually asDon't Turn Your Back (1964–1966),In My Dreams (1966) andFantasy Island (1967–1968).[52]
^Bonus EP that accompanied the bookBoken om Tages: Från Avenyn till Abbey Road.[63] Contains two live performances recorded on 11 November 1965 and two studio recordings that had appeared onTages 2 (1966) andStudio (1967), respectively.[64]
"—" denotes releases that did not chart. "x" denotes single not released in that territory.
Notes
^Most of Tages' Swedish single pressings were exported across theNordic countries, thus only pressings stemming from different countries will be noted.[66]
^Tages re-recorded "Sleep Little Girl" three times; the second recording was issued on a re-pressing of the single in January 1965.[69]
^"Sleep Little Girl" was eventually re-recorded for the albumTages.[14]
^"The Man You'll Be Looking For" was initially issued in Sweden on a freeflexi disc that came with the 2 March 1966 issue of teen magazineBildjournalen.[80][81]
^Also issued in the Netherlands in September 1966, West Germany in October 1966, and in Norway with "Dirty Mind" on the B-side in September 1966[83]
^Also released in Norway and Finland in November 1966[85]
^Also released in Finland in November 1966 and Norway in March 1967[85]
^abSandberg, Peter (27 June 2018)."Den svenska skivindustrin" [The Swedish Record Industry].Företagskällan (in Swedish).Archived from the original on 4 December 2024. Retrieved22 February 2025.
Hallberg, Eric (1993).Eric Hallberg presenterar Kvällstoppen i P3 [Eric Hallberg Presents Kvällstoppen on P3] (1st ed.). Stockholm: Drift.ISBN9-789-16-302-14-04.
Hallberg, Eric; Henningsson, Ulf (2012).Tio i Topp - med de utslagna "på försök" 1961–74 [Tio I Topp With The Eliminated On Try 1961–1974] (in Swedish) (2nd ed.). Stockholm: Premium.ISBN978-91-89136-89-2.
Nyman, Jake (2005).Suomi soi 4: Suuri suomalainen listakirja (in Finnish). Helsinki: Tammi.ISBN978-951-31-2503-5.
Wiremark, Kjell (1994a).Don't Turn Your Back (CD). Sweden:Parlophone Records. 7243 4751392 3.
Wiremark, Kjell (1994b).In My Dreams (CD). Sweden:Parlophone Records. 7243 4751402 9.
Wiremark, Kjell (1994c).Fantasy Island (CD). Sweden:Parlophone Records. 7243 4751412 8.
Wrigholm, Lennart (1991)."Tages: Makalös grej i Götet…" [Tages: Amazing Thing in Gothenburg...].Now & Then (in Swedish). No. 4.Archived from the original on 11 December 2024. Retrieved21 February 2025 – via Blaskoteket.
