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Formation (1963)
Several members of what would eventually become Tages knew eachother throughout their childhood in the 1950s. Some of them were aquainted with eachother, while others, such as Tommy Blom (born 3 March 1947) and Anders Töpel (born 16 January 1947) were close friends, having grown up in the same neighborhood in Gothenburg. At the time, skiffle was an extremely popular genre of music in the city, being imported by English sea men through the Port of Gothenburg which was at the time one of Sweden's biggest. Nonetheless, as it was a primarily an acoustic genre, it primarily appealed to teenagers who had a smaller budget. Many of these teenagers connected during summer vacations in smaller villages around Gothenburg including eventual members of Tages. During one such night in May of 1963, the two then 16-year olds Blom and Töpel played skiffle together during a regatta in Hovås to a primarily positive reaction from the audience.This came as a shock for them both, as they generally considered this performance to be a one-off occasion, and they now seriously considered forming a group. They recruited another guitarist, the then 15-year old Danne Larsson (born 11 January 1948), who previously had performed together with Töpel in the summer months and began performing as Alberts Skiffelgrupp (Albert's Skiffle Group).' As the group had three guitarists, Larsson almost immediately stated that "only one man was insane enough to play the washboard", that being Göran Lagerberg (born 20 September 1947), whom Larsson knew through his stint in another band, Limmericks.' Lagerberg was the only one of the quartet to have previously played semi-professionally in a group, having previously played washboard in a band called Limmericks, and guitar in a band named the Sharks.

During the summer of 1963, the band was still performing under the moniker Alberts Skifflegrupp, which soon would change. In a boathouse on Särö south of Gothenburg, they were undergoing a name change. During this time, most Swedish bands had their names derived from primarily British Invasion artists, such as the Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers. Almost all bands took a prefix (most often "the") in front of their names in order to create the illusion that they were a British band. However, Alberts Skiffelgrupp wanted to stand out, and in order to do so they decided to chose another one of their own middle name s to use as their group name. Blom was disqualified as Albert was his middle name. Töpel was similarly also ruled out because his middle name, Per-Inge, was considered "too lame". Larssons middle name was Tage which was considered "perfectly lame", and the group immediately adapted the name Tages Skiffelgrupp.

Change in genres (1963–64)
The band virtually never performed during this time, as school was still top-priority for them. During the summer and early autumn they did however play private gigs at parties, and sometimes even venues and smaller clubs. October of that year marked probably the first time Tages Skiffelgrupp became a serious quartet, as they signed up for a talent show known as Västsvenska Orkestermästerskapen (West-Swedish Band Championships), but was referred to as Oktobersmällen (The October Bang). According to Lagerberg, the group only continued because they wanted to participate in the show, otherwise they probably would've broken up. This show consisted primarily of electirc groups, compared to Tages Skiffelgrupp who were still performing acoustically. On 4 October, the group performed infront of the audience and judges to an almost unanimously negative reception, most likely due to their scene costumes and genre; they placed last in the entire competition. It did, however, give the group some publicity and they soon received their first paid gig for a sum of 5 Swedish kronor (equivalent to 55 kronor in 2021) at a youth centre on Hisingen. That was soon followed by their then biggest performance, where they played in front of hundreds of people at a dance hall in Kungälv. However, following this, the group almost split up due to lack of gigs, and once again acted as an amateur band, being reduced to playing at private gigs once again. At certain performances, they played as a trio because members failed to show up. A primary reason behind them wanting to quit performing was due to the fact that they were a skiffle group, which began to become unfashionable. Additionally, the acoustic instruments became increasingly quieter without amplifiers, which made it hard to play on scene; a temporary solution was made by purchasing cheap microphones and borrowing equipment from electric bands.

By Christmas 1963, Tages Skifflegrupp made the decision to play beat music instead of skiffle music; this was largely fueled by the fact that Lagerberg's parents had purchased an electric bass for him, but also the Beatles increasing influence and popularity on the Swedish charts. The other three members signed contracts on electric guitars and amplifiers upon which Lagerberg switched from washboard to bass. However, the band still lacked a drummer, and because of the group's poor reception many were unwilling to play with them. However, Blom knew a drummer in Hovås by the name of Freddie Skantze (born 10 September 1945) who owned a complete drum kit, which was the requirement the group had. After a test which was met with extremely great critical reception he was accepted into the group and because he was two years older than the rest, he acted as their Kapellmeister; he debuted on scene with the group on 23 December 1963, and with Skantze's arrival in the group no more lineup changes would occur for almost three years.

Increasing popularity (1964)
A great influence for the group occured with a festival that occured in 1963. It was named The American Blues & Folk Festival which was hosted by blues legends such as Lightnin' Hopkins, Sonny Boy Williamson II and Howlin' Wolf. Additionally, Blom took a trip to London during this time, where he frequented several clubs and saw some of Britains most popular bands at the time; he liked what he saw so much that he brought several records back to Sweden to play for the band. The other members meanwhile picked out several rhythm and blues records they found while crate digging at local record shops; this led to the band incorporating obscure blues covers into their repertoire. The Skiffelgrupp moniker was also dropped during this time.

Additional fame came to the group when they acted as an opening band for the Spotnicks, who were one of the first internationally famous groups from Sweden. Ironically, they once again received negative feedback for the performance, with the audience allegedly booing them off the stage. Lagerberg stated that this was one of the final times the group received a negative concert reception. In February 1964, the group were admitted into Sveriges Radios "pop group contest", but did not make it to the finals; this experience did however garner them some positive reputation as their audition was generally considered to be good. The amount of paid gigs increased following this audition, which led to the group affording better clothes and instruments and increased their popularity in and around Gothenburg. Additionally, the group began to grow their hair, emulating their idols in the Beatles who they also took songs from.

West Coast Beatles (1964)

Tages turned into a professional band during mid-1964 when they came into contact with a man named Lars Fryklund who was some years older than the group, but generally well liked and idolized. Though not impressed by the group's sound, he eventually became their manager when his girlfriend stated that the members were cute, which added to their appeal. Tying in with the Swedish premiere of the Beatles film A Hard Day's Night, the Gothenburg newspaper Göteborgs-Posten hosted a contest named Västkustens Beatles at Liseberg. (West Coast's Beatles). The concept behind this was for bands to emulate both the look and sound that the Beatles had; the prize was a trip to London along with a pre-paid recording session. A requirement was that only four members were allowed on stage.However, this was quickly solved when Blom once again took at wo-week vacation to London in order to scower clubs and record shops, but also to improve his English skills, while connecting with other people at a Youth Hostel. This led to them applying for the contest, and they thought nothing of it, as they didn't expect to qualify. Much to the surprise of the band, they were accepted into the contest without an audition. The reason behind this was that the Sveriges Radio audition was enough for the jury to bring the band into the contest. Tying in with the contest, the group's stage clothes (consisting of brown corduroy jackets, white shirts with black ties along with black pants and chelsea boots) were sewn by Töpels mother as they couldn't afford to purchase them in shops; this would be their stage outfits for the coming months.

The initial contest was held on 13 August 1964, together with eighteen other groups. Unlike traditional contests, where a jury or a judge are in charge of choosing the winner, this honor was instead given to the audience of roughly 1300 individuals in the audience. Tages performance on this day was more than satisfactory, after which the audience chose them along with five other groups to the final. This occured on 17 August to an even wilder audience; the group had difficulties hearing themselves play. The group performed only three songs: a rendition of the Beatles "A Hard Day's Night", a rendition of the Rolling Stones cover of "It's All Over Now" along with a rendition of the Beatles cover of "Twist and Shout". Though none of these were original compositions, the group still became the most popular and amassed almost half of the votes, receiving 600 out of 1300 possible, which meant that they won, much to the surprise of the members.

Teen idols (1964–65)
Despite winning the content, the group still received primarily negative attention. This time criticism came from both audiences and the media. In a review of the show, Hans Sidén wrote that the contest had the wrong winner, instead preferring the band who won silver, the Jackpots. Similarly, the other bands on the bill such as the Spacemen and the Strangers also directed criticism towards the group, stating they only won due to them being "cute". According to Lagerberg, these bands were idolized by the members of Tages and were veterans, having played the Hamburg circuit just like the Beatles did three years prior. However, it also introduced him to certain members of these groups, who instead expressed sympathy and helped Tages musically.

The band returned to stage at Liseberg to a record audience, which was wild and comparable to Beatlemania. Sidén commented that he had never seen anything like this before, not even rivalled by the Beatles themselves when they visited Gothenburg. Töpel commented on the situation, stating that "following this night, there was no turning back for at least four years." Similarly, when Blom returned from England, he was greeted at the airport by fans, resulting in him becoming extremely confused and perplexed at the sheer mania and popularity the band had received. The band finally got a break when they by the end of August took their won trip to London, where they bought records and actually managed to play for the English people for the first time at the Beat Club to an indifferent audience. Blom stayed in Sweden.

Contemporarily to these events, Lars Fryklund got contacted by a man named Evert Jakobsson, who worked at SKF and ran an independent record company called Platina, that had only released one previous single. Jakobsson had read about the group's victory in the contest, and as a business strategy, wanted Tages on his rooster owing to their explosive increase in popularity. Jakobsson expressed shock upon hearing that Tages agreed to sign a contract with Platina, stating that "it was strange that they agreed to one release, not mentioning several years on my rooster." According to Företagskällan, Tages was part of a trend in which popular Swedish bands signed independent record labels, cited together with the Hep Stars (Olga Records) and Ola & the Janglers (Gazell Records). It is cited as one of the primary reasons independent labels could afford to survive in Sweden amidst larger international labels.

"Sleep Little Girl" (1964)

Their second prize, a recording session, was also financed. On 20 September 1964, Tages along with Jakobsson entered a youth centre in the suburb of Nylöse where the "studio" was located. To their collective disappointment, it turned out that a boxing room in the basement had temporarily been re-arrange to allow for a recording session, with the boxing mats being hung up on the walls as isolation. The recording equipment was virtually as primitive; it only consisted of two amateur tape recorders. According to Blom, the process of the recording was went simple: "With a couple of tape recorders and a couple of microphones we just played and recorded two songs." Lagerberg agreed, stating that the session was "between one and five a'clock during the afternoon". Brandels and Wrigholm note that all songs recorded that session – Blom's "Sleep Little Girl", Lagerberg and Töpel's "Tell Me You're Mine" along with a third unknown song – were all band compositions, something highly unusual for a first recording session. Jakobsson, who produced it, then sent the tape to EMI in Stockholm for pressing; a process which would eventually take over a month.

The initial copies of "Sleep Little Girl", which bore "Tell Me You're Mine" as it's B-side were pressed in only a volume of a thousand copies and released on 16 October 1964. The band initially saw the single as a gift for their dedicated fanbase; this would ultimately prove to be untrue as teenagers from across the country wanted the single. On 21 November 1964, "Sleep Little Girl" was voted into Tio i Topp at a position of number three; the following week it would peak at number one. It would stay on the chart for 17 weeks. Being voted in on Tio i Topp led to it being mass-produced which eventually led to it performing similarly well on the sales chart Kvällstoppen where it peaked at number three on 15 December.

The success of the single was largely unknown to the band in general, who thought the single would stay local in Gothenburg. On 21 November they were driving to a concert in Trollhättan when they heard about the single's success on Sveriges Radio P3. The success caught the band by surprise, with Fryklund being forced pull over the tour bus for the band to celebrate. Blom stated that the celebration included "dancing on top of their Volkswagen tour bus" In retrospect, Dagens Nyheter wrote "amidst of all English and American pop, a Swedish voice could suddenly be heard, repeating the phrase "Sleep Little Girl" to a highly rudimentary backing."

Critically however, the single was almost unanimously frowned upon, with Blom even denouncing it retrospectively. Critics denounced the "ridiculously bad grade school English" along with the lyrical content, which was about a visit Blom had to his girlfriend. Nonetheless, the popularity of the group had skyrocketed by now, which once again was comparable to Beatlemania. Shortly before "Sleep Little Girl" was noted in the charts, Tages "un-officially" debuted on national television, being featured as an example on 8 November 1964's episode of Aktuellt where the long-haired fashion of men got discussed in a brief reportage. However, according to Magnus Englund, the popularity was due to the fact that the Swedish magazines directed towards youth, including Bildjournalen and Kamratposten, needed a Swedish equivalent of a British Invasion-band to write articles about.

"I Should Be Glad" (1965)

Throughout the final months of 1964 the band had substansially grown in popularity which led to Fryklund having to book engagements for the group; reportedly over a hundred requests came in which meant that the group couldn't fit it into their schedule. Additionally, their popularity was spreading to other sources outside music; Göteborgs-Posten allegedly would sell significantly more copies when the band was mentioned, which led to an article of the band being featured in every new issue. This in turn led to free publicity for the band. Wrigholm adds that the group's fashion also added to their appeal, stating that "when other groups opted for stage costumes or looked like cheaply fitted haybags, Tages opted for a smart and stylish style of clothing without looking uniformed for that reason". Though they weren't as focused on clothes as they later would be, this statement on fashion led the group into the mod subculture.

A focus of unique and different personalities between the members were also established for the press around this time. As a testament to their popularity, they could no longer walk the city streets without being interrupted. On 6 December 1964 the group was scheduled to play during the start of Christmas shopping at Kungstorget in Gothenburg. This ceremony, which usually attraced a large amount of people now broke attendance record; over 25 000 people came to see the band play during the show. It was a revelation for the group, who reportedly "broke the sound barrier with their playing" and who's performance almost culminated in a wide-scale riot.

Although they had been to Stockholm in November, playing at the famous club Nalen and at several youth centres, demand for another tour of the capital city had began rising, and Fryklund began co-operating with Platina when scheduling and booking gigs. Jakobsson and Fryklund booked a visit for the group around New Year's Eve 1964 which also included a trip to Metronome Studios, owned by Metronome Records. Shortly after celebrating Christmas Eve with their families, the group traveled to Stockholm during the final week of 1964. On 30 December, the group entered Metronome to cut four tracks; "I Should Be Glad", "I Cry" along with re-recordings of both sides of their debut single. It was produced by the Violents guitarist Rune Wallebom during spare time from the group and marked the first of two sessions he would work with the group.

After touring Stockholm and Gothenburg throughout January, Fryklund managed to get the band a booking on the television show Drop-In on 14 February 1965. Drop-In was at the time a show famous for featuring the Beatles in October 1963, and was virtually a guarantee for a group to get successful if they managed to be on it. The television show was deliberate for two reasons, one was because "Sleep Little Girl" had started dropping off the chart by February 1965, and the other being to plug "I Should Be Glad". Tages took advantage of this and on the show performed both "Sleep Little Girl" and the unreleased "I Should Be Glad". Sweden only had one television channel at the time which meant that the show was potentially seen by up to four million people in the country, adding to their popularity. It nonetheless was praised by both fans and critics alike, and introduced Tages to an older generation through the show. Platina released "I Should Be Glad" as a very awaited follow-up to "Sleep Little Girl" the following day, on 15 February. Both the A-side and the B-side "I Cry" were written by Lagerberg and Larsson, and unlike the musical ambiguity of their previous single it drew clear inspiration from the Searchers and Gerry and the Pacemakers. The single shot up both Tio i Topp and Kvällstoppen only two weeks after "Sleep Little Girl" dropped off. It reached number two on both charts on 27 February and 9 March respectively. With "I Should Be Glad" a chart success it killed rumours that Tages would become a one-hit wonder band.

Their second single was much more positively reviewed in the press and established a distinct sound which lasted during most of 1965; distinct vocal harmonizing, a softer backing track driven prominently by acoustic guitars along with optimistic lyrical content that mostly revolved around the theme of love. The latter was to ensure a constant female audience while posters and pictures of the band from the time portray them as cute as possible, once again a marketing taktic by both the group's management and by magazines. The stage costumes that were in use since August 1964 had also now been dropped; with two self-written singles, the band had enough money to aquire new fabrics; they now started dressing more fashionably like British mods.

"Don't Turn Your Back" (1965)

With two hit singles on the market, the group once again embarked on a tour Starting in February with a performance at Puttes in Stockholm. On 27 February, Tages did their second performance internationally, playing at an engagement in Helsingør, Denmark. Like many Swedish bands at the time, the touring never had a specific pattern, instead, they performed across the country, being driven there by Fryklund and could lead to gigs in different regions of Sweden all during the same day. Owing to their success, Tages had the honor of opening for the Rolling Stones on their tour of Sweden. Being the first time the group visited the country, this led to significatn attention for Tages, both from Swedish newspapers and international media. Blom recalls that he had the chance of talking to Bill Wyman while Skantze stated that "while they [stones] were in a bad mood, the crazy habits of Tommy eventually led them to burst out in laughter."

During roughly the same time, a feud with fellow Swedish rock band Hep Stars began in the press. They broke through in March which led to several magazines writing that "Tages period on the throne is soon over." However, Blom stated that this was fabricated in order for magazines to sell, saying "it was not an unfriendly raivalry. We actually didn't meet the Hep Stars very much during those days, not much more than one or two times".Shortly after concluding the tour with the Rolling Stones in early April, the group began once again writing material for their next single as "I Should Be Glad" had begun dropping of the charts. Lagerberg teamed up with Töpel and wrote "Don't Turn Your Back" during that period of the Tages career. Evert Jakobsson had signet a contract with EMI Records Sweden, which made them partners with Platina and as such they got access to the EMI Studio in Stockholm. Tages held an almost 72 hour marathon at the studio between 4 and 6 May that year, once again produced by Rune Wallebom. These sessions produced a handful of songs of which almost all were released.

Mod era (1965–66)
On 4 March 1966, Styrbjörn Colliander and Fabian Carlsson opened Cue Club in central Gothenburg. Colliander, who was active on the city's music scene appropriately invited Tages to play at the club. Eventually, they, along with the Shakers began a residency at the club for several months during 1966, with Tages becoming a permanent fixture, performing there throughout the rest of their career. Being Gothenburg's most important club on the pop scene, several prominent artists were attraced to it. This gave Tages the rare opportunity to interact with world-famous stars, including the Animals and the Spencer Davis Group. Their performances at the club quickly further cemented the city's status as Sweden's answer to Liverpool, with parallels being drawn to the Beatles residency at the Cavern Club. The residency also proved important for the Swedish mod scene, with hundreds of teenagers and young adults queuing outside to catch a glimpse of the band.

Reunions
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Legacy
Acccording to Dagens Nyheter, Tages were the first Swedish pop band to "outclass their foreign colleagues on the charts", following the success of "Sleep Little Girl.

Studio albums

 * Tages (1965)
 * Tages 2 (1966)
 * Extra Extra (1966)
 * Contrast (1967)
 * Studio (1967)
 * The Lilac Years (1969)