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O.K Corral was formed in November 1984 when Fredrik Hagblom told Beatrice Rothstein about his plans to leave his current band to form a laid back wild west inspired alternative rock outfit. |
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 Beatrice Rothstein |
| Hagblom started his musical career back in the punk rock circuit in Lund, Sweden. Originally he played the drums but later became lead singer and front man of the punk rock group Sterila Stenciler, together with Poppe Berglund and Mattias Gorton. He later played lead guitar in various outfits such as the R.P. Savoy of Malmoe. |
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| In the middle of the eighties glam rock era he formed a band together with the former front man of The Black Uniforms (legendary hardcore punk group) Anders Nellander, called The Butcher Club. The band had a few very successful gigs and made a couple of recordings in Malmoe. Nellander was a talented but dominant band leader and |
 Fredrik Hagblom with Sterila Stenciler around-82 |
| Hagblom felt he was held back. It resulted in a break-up of the band towards the end of 1984. At this time the 18-year-old Hagblom was working professionally with a semi legal project called “Kulturmejeriet” set on creating a center for alternative music in his hometown of Lund, Sweden. Beatrice Rothstein was a co-worker within the project and the two had met previously within the punk rock circuit of the city. Hagblom knew that Rothstein played the guitar, all though not very well, but neither did he. He asked her if she was willing to pick ut the bass and try it out with him to see what it might lead to, and so they did. After a few late night sessions between the two of them they felt that they really had something and started to make plans to create a band. |
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In the mid 80s the youthful university town of Lund was more lively than ever. Places like Crougen, Smalands nation, Oves along with the legendary alternative rock clubs Zappanane and Appatappa had turned the town into the center of south Swedish alternative music. |
| One of the many attracted to the city during this year was Joakim Olsson from Kalmar, Sweden. He pretty much came to Lund to “hang out” since he had quite a large group of friends from his home town that had done the same. Olsson and Hagblom met at the legendary club “Oves” and immediately hit it off. It turned out Olsson had played the drums in a few bands back in Kalmar and straight from the start, as they played a few tunes together, Hagblom and Roithstein felt that he was the kind of minimal hard-driving powerful drummer that they were looking for. Olsson was picked up as a permanent member of the newly formed three piece. |
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Hagblom and Rothstein at this time had three or four original tunes on their minds. At this point there was absolutely no country influences to speak of. It was pure garage style dirty rock but the name O.K. Corral was there from the beginning and so was a western content regarding lyrics. A few pretty bad excuses for gigs were made in january and February of 1985 and Hagblom was determined to go into the studio as fast as possible since he felt it was a good place to get to know each other as musicians as well as as sorting out the sound. |
 Joakim Olsson, hard-driving drummer from Kalmar. |
There was no real enthusiasm among the three as they recorded the dirty garage inspired tunes Hagblom had put together. It was clear that the band had potential but lacked material and direction. But inspiration was soon to come from the other side of the atlantic. On a Friday afternoon Hagblom steps into his local record shop/hangout as usual and is handed his weekly small pile of "records of interest" by shop attendant Rickard Swardh. Among the records there is a debut vinyl LP by a Los Angeles quartet called Blood on the Saddle and while listening to it Hagblom is flabbergasted. It´s a fast riding punk rock/bluegrass fusion that hits him as a hard blow to the gut. His immediate idea is that this is what we are all about, this is what I feel inside. With the determination "not to copy but to make it his own" in his mind, Hagblom took the parts he liked the best and sat down alone with his guitar set upon making a song along the lines of what was later to be called Cow-punk. The parts he was mostly into was the dry one-string-melody-drive and the speed. The tune he presented to Rothstein and Olsson the previous day bore the somewhat naive and overclaryfing title Texas Rose. It was the beginning of a totally new approach to guitar playing for Hagblom as well as a brand new way to arrange the material. |
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 Texas Rose 4 track vinyl single. Released in january 1986. |
There were rapidly a few more songs made in the same style and it is fair to say that they were all a bit to similar since they were made in such a hurry. The standard procedure at this time was to send out demo-tapes in cassette form to record labels, but in order to avoid ending up in a huge pile of cassettes that were never listened to, the band decided to make a record at their own cost. |
| To give the new sound more of an elegant touch Hagblom was considering yet another solo element for the arrangement. Accordion or fiddle would work but slide or even steel guitar would of course be amazing. Hagblom had experimented a little with slide guitar but didn't really like it. Steel guitar was, and still is, an almost non existent instrument in Sweden but as luck would have it the only steel player in the region, Hans Nordin, was actually living in the very town of Lund. |
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Hans Nordin had a background playing with the 70's pop band Florida Fun. He had after that gone on to play with one of Swedens few real Country bands, Tractor. When O.K. Corral had a gig at Smålands Nation on the 10th of august 1985, Hagblom has a discussion with Nordin about sitting in on a recording session for the upcoming single. |
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| Nordin agrees and soon after the recording in november -85 he starts rehearsing with the band on a regular basis and is taken up as a permanent member. Later on Hans Nordin becomes the driving force regarding the bands own material when he writes the songs Joe Gun, Run For Your Life and Dead On Arrival. This material has a more dynamic sound, perhaps more related with the early Cow-Punk groups such as Rank and File and The Lonesome Strangers. Apart from pedal steel guitar, Nordin plays a Fender Telecaster with a "string bender". This is soon to play a key role in the sound-structure of the band. |
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The single Texas Rose was mainly sent out to promoters, record labels, clubs and the press. Amazingly 200 copies were ordered from a record store in Berlin where someone obviously liked it. The single was also presented to a few distributors in order to get a distributing contract, but it was turned down. |
| However, the single did a good job getting gig offers and the band had a short hectic time doing gigs all over southern Sweden. There are a few gigs worth mentioning. On the 6th of May 1986 O.K. Corral plays the first gig ever with Hans Nordin at a youth festival sponsored by the health care board of Lund. Other bands at the festival are Black Ulster and Monotones. On the 7th of may 1986 The band plays the legendary annual party of Håkan Flücht at the club Sodom. On the 24th of may 1986 O.K. Corral does a gig at Musikforum in Karlshamn. On the 11 of june 1986 O.K. Corral plays at the famous Fuzz Bar in Malmö. On the 31 of july 1986 the band finally goes to play in Copenhagen, Denmark. The rise of the band Disneyland After Dark (D.A.D) has turned Copenhagen into the scandinavian capital of Cow-punk and expectations are high. The trolley carrying the bands equipment is to high and can't enter the ferry at Malmö-harbour. The band is forced to wait until the next boat and misses the live radio broadcast team that is waiting to interview them in Copenhagen. Tony Olofsson is brought over as sound engineer. D.A.D are there and the gig goes very well. Jesper Binzer and Stig Pedersen from D.A.D comes backstage after the gig to celebrate the occasion. They are impressed by the steel guitar and say that they also had plans to include the old Terry Fell song "Truck Driving Man" in their set. On the 23 of August 1986 O.K. Corral plays a biker party at Ulriks MC in Sextorp outside Hörby. People ask them to play Smoke On The Water and at first the band gets a feeling that they are in the wrong place. After a few songs the whole place is bouncing and it turns out to be one of the greatest gigs. On the 2-5th of September 1986 O.K. Corral goes into the studio to record 10-12 songs. Right now the band is so tight that the members decided to record live in the studio to capture the real feeling. Again they are using BP as engineer. This recording came out truly amazing. The band is in the middle of it's most hectic period and the stiffness that was present at the Texas Rose recording session is all gone. Country sounds natural now and not as something brand new. Yet everything is simple and not as fine and polished as it is to become in the Joe Gun session. Sadly the original tapes from this recording is missing
and the music is today only available from a cassette tape. |
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On the 5th of September 1986 O.K. Corral take part in a video recording for a movie about the multi cultural center Kulturmejeriet. Other bands involved are The Sinners, Jiving Jake, Black Ulster and Pojken Med Grodan I Pannan. On the 27th of November 1986 O.K Corral plays the club Ove's in Malmö. Sadly not a very inspired gig. |
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On the 31 of January 1987 the band plays a supporting gig for Joe Ely at Pub Sparta. Very good gig and a good audience. The sound is great. On the 27th of March 1987 O.K. Corral plays at the Club Sodom. On the 9th of May 1987O.K. Corral plays the birthday party of long time supporter Chrille Havung. The party is held at Kalmar Nation in Lund. On the 12th of February 1988 O.K. Corral does a celebrated performance at the legendary club Sapanåneh at Crougen in Lund. There are between 800 to 1000 people in the audience. The club is absolutely packed and as the band open with the Johnny Cash cover "Wreck of ol' -97" the whole place explodes. Everybody is dancing and the sound is warm and dirty. This is what club gigs are all about. This is the gig everybody remembers and if O.K. Corral is talked about around Lund today, this is the gig that they talk about. On the 27th of February 1988 O.K. Corral plays Club Penthouse at Lunds Nation. On the 27th of April 1988 the band is supporting act for The Mekons at Chrougen in Lund. On the 21st of May 1988 O.K. Corral plays its best ever gig. The place is Värmlands Nation and it's a western theme party with two bands. The other being the more traditional country band Ned Pepper. The place has no stage and a very low ceiling. It's very hot and there are bales of hay all over the stage. As the band rips into Texas Rose several people enter the stage-area. Someone starts ripping the bales of hay apart and the room is quickly filled with hay, sweat, beer and tequila. The sound is great, the band is in top form, the audience is drunk and happy. It's a trance and a beautiful moment. O.K. Corral are gods this evening. There is a huge chaotic after party at the home of Hagblom. Nobody sleeps until noon the next day. |
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On the 4th of June 1988 O.K. Corral makes another brilliant gig for a massive audience. This time it's the Club Åppåtåppa at Sparta in Lund. The club is in it's absolute peak and this night the size of the audience break all previous records. The band is great and so is the sound. This is to be the last really good gig by O.K. Corral. Hagblom moves to New York to study and Rothsteing is having a son. There are a few gigs at party's and some clubs but nothing really exiting. However on the 14 of december 1989 The band goes into the studio for yet another recording. |
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| This time it is a much larger studio and with Martin Hennel as producer. This is the recording commonly referred to as "The Joe Gun Sessions" and contains the songs Joe Gun, Run For Your Life and Dead On Arrival. The result is excellent. The lead guitar of Hans Nordin plays a key role in this recording and finally the sound is "just" O.K. Corral and not borrowed from anyone else. Martin Hennel does a great job and even adds a bit of synthesizer here and there. Sadly this material was never released. If an album had been made at this point it could have done well. The sound is very much along the lines of what was popular at the time and still has a very unique and personal touch. On the 20th of January 1990 O.K. Corral makes a music video for the song Run For Your Life. The production is carried out by photographer Gunnar Menander and comes out surprisingly good for such a low budget project. The video was broadcasted by MTV at least once. |
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 Gunnar Menander and Joakim Olsson during the making of the video for Run For Your Life. |
 Hagblom and Nordin during the making of the video for Run For Your Life. On the far right Niklas Strand, stylist. |
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On the 10th of December 1992 O.K. Corral does it's final performance at the 30th birthday of long time fan Katarina Sjöland. The party is at the restaurant Stortorget and the gig is very good. There is some talk about going on but the band never even has another rehearsal. There is actually no talk about splitting up, it just happens by itself. The struggle and the great times of the OK. Corral is over. |
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On the 16th of August 2004 the work on this web site was started. It is the 20th anniversary of the band and I think It's about time to tell the story. Thomas Grenner |
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