UP STARTS Gasolin': Bigger than Led Zep and the Beatles in Denmark. Gasolin'-High Octane Rock From Denmark by Kathi Stein Queen, the mighty overdub kings. "Even though they are a supergroup at home, they still drive old cars, live in communal houses-Kim insists on bicycling to the studio." Denmark, apparently, has not grown jaded with its variety of flower-power and class consciousness. Driving a Bentley is not synonymous with hip in Copen- hagen. They grew up in Christianshavn, the oldest section of the city, where aban- doned warehouses are converted into flats crowding the wharves and water- ways. Frantz Beckerlee, the guitarist who looks like a cleancut Ginger Baker, remembers when he was blowing avant jazz sax and holding down a day job. Wili, the bassplayer, worked since he was 14 when he became a musician, moving in and out of local bands. When Frantz, Wili and Kim, the leather- jacket poet, started jamming they realized they had invented an internal combustion machine, generating the fuel for its own high-speed rocking. The pace was incredible. From the beginning it was all Gasolin' material. They played six hours a night, after work. Kim already had 200 songs and Wili had been writing for awhile. They quit their day jobs, convinced Epic _of post-Hendrix guitar work and power- A&R man Paul Bruun to sign them ful Viking charges of drum bass and and several stages later released the keyboards. crucial single, "Johnny Hit the Lead singer Kim Larsen materialized Jackpot." And Gasolin' did. in leather-looking and moving like a Soren Berlev, a powerhouse drum- chunky Lou Reed-and burst into mer with blonde clouds of hair, joined. streams of song: "Rabalderstraede," Wili: "We took him to our training "Sjagge," "Refrainet et Frit." Danish. camp-a farm in the country-so that It was then that the language hit. It he could play and play. I don't think was English played backward! Larsen he was ready for us. We're a family paced the stage talking to the audience and we fight a bit and he must have Flying into Copenhagen on a Sunday in that strange-to-foreign-ears tongue thought we were going to kill each late In winter you wonder what sort (the inflection was pure raunch) and other. He couldn't believe the next day of rock & roll has evolved in this land the crowd responded like a wave nobody remembered." of Hans Christian Andersen and cheese moving to the front. Gently pushed They took some tapes to England danish. There is a Minuteman Strategic back by the tolerant stage crew, they and were assigned to a young engi. Air Missile bunker on the outskirts of returned cheering and waving. Gasolin' neer, Roy Thomas Baker. "I wanted this sixteenth century town, though, was a beloved band, obviously, and to bring out the uniqueness of the and an army of hippies camped on a even we who understood the words less band," Roy remembers. He let Kim's commune somewhere else nearby. than the way you understand Jagger voice rattle and roll unchanneled- Maybe these two twentieth century sometimes when he's buried way down like an old diesel jumping the tracks. elements are enough to generate in the mix, felt them getting across. "Everything on these albums is an rock music anywhere. Gasolin', according to the proud extension of all the personalities in- Landlng at the deserted airport at Skandanavian Epic people, has sold volved working together," Roy added. 3:30 in the afternoon we were rushed more albums in Denmark than the Gasolin's LP's were the first rock & to the concert of a band called Beatles ever did. One out of every 18 roll ever recorded with Danish lyrics. Gasolln', Denmark's honest-to-goodness records a Dane buys is a Gasolin' There is still something of a time- supergroup. 3:30 in the afternoon-a product or by-product. That's 100,000 warp surrounding Gasolin'. It must be rock & roll matinee-it seemed out of LPs in a land of five million. There's the Northern Lights and Nordic spirits. time somehow. We resynched our bio- no fuel shortage for this band. Trans- After the Copenhagen gig Gasolin', clocks to midday, to dark halls, Kleig lated to the U.S., Gasolin's first state- the old ladies, mothers and friends lights, sound and, hopefully, fury. side album on Epic will consist of hit feasted on strange Danish foods and The Tlvoll Gardens venue was crawl- songs from their fourth and fifth Danish then ushered the Americans to Gaso- ing with blondes-tiny angelic boys LPs, plus new American lyrics. lin's hang out. In a cave-dark basement and girls; large adults with blonde Certain minimal language differ- bar old men smoked elaborately carved beards and long manes; blue eyes, ences aside (Gasolin' speaks English pipes, tilted back their caps, told thousands of them, energetically buy- with a decidedly American accent), stories and sang funny tunes. The rock- ing candy from the mother of the U.S. could embrace the band for the ers, with their long hair and dunga- guitarist who runs the concession. Not same reasons the Danes do. "Gasolin' rees, glittering jackets and platforms, much booze or mood elevators. Yet is the champion of the working class," blended naturally into the local ambi- once inside it was timeless rock & roll. explained their producer, Roy Thomas ence of the generations. Gasolin', the Gasolin' was propelling it with layers Baker, who also mans the controls for supergroup, were at home.