Hep Stars

The Hep Stars are a Swedish rock band formed in Stockholm in 1963. During 1965–1966 the band was the most successful of contemporary 1960s Swedish pop groups performing in the English language. Outside the Nordic countries the band is best known as a launching point for the keyboard player and composer Benny Andersson, who went on to enjoy worldwide success with ABBA.

The band was founded by the drummer Christer "Chrille" Pettersson (3 November 1942 – 27 August 2006) and the bass guitarist Lennart "Lelle" Hegland (9 January 1943 – 13 April 2022) with the keyboard player Hans Östlund and the lead/rhythm guitarist-singer Jan "Janne" Frisk (29 November 1943). At the height of their popularity, the line-up consisted of Hegland, Pettersson, Frisk, Sven Ove "Svenne" Hedlund on lead vocals (10 March 1945, Solna – 3 December 2022) and Benny Andersson on keyboards and lead guitarist.

Originally, the band called themselves Quartet Yep. Their repertoire included various styles of music from Latin dance to rock in order to get as many gigs as possible in varying venues. Influenced mainly by Frisk, their music started to veer towards rock'n'roll and pop. The band decided a more intriguing name was in order and on Frisk's suggestion Hep Stars was chosen. The idea came from a line in the Bill Haley song "Razzle Dazzle" – "It's the hipster's dance" – with a slight alteration in written form. They started to get support gigs also closing after the headline act. A typical gig had them playing for around four hours with one set of rock.

Hegland called Hedlund to fill the singer's slot for Frisk who had temporarily joined a tour backing band for some extra money for a new guitar amp. The band quickly noticed Hedlund's abilities as both a singer and a frontman. On Frisk's return, they shared lead vocals for a period of time with Frisk singing the more straightforward rockers and Hedlund handling the ballads.

By the summer of 1964, they were performing to audiences of 2000. The rock scene took note of them after one evening in Nalen, the most important rock club in Sweden during the 1960s. The main act failed to appear and the Hep Stars, the support act, filled in to great acclaim, especially among rockers (or raggare as they were known in Sweden). Their reputation started to spread through word-of-mouth.

At this point, Hegland managed to persuade the music businessman and Olga-record label owner Åke Gerhard to be their manager.

After the group's first single ("Kana Kapila", 1964) the original keyboard player, Hans Östlund, was asked to leave because of relations growing sour, especially with Hedlund and founder member Pettersson, who left the band fed up with squabbles. He was asked to rejoin and the band continued as a four piece for a short time in autumn 1964.

Hedlund owned a van and occasionally drove other bands to gigs. One of these bands was Elverkets Spelmanslag so Hedlund saw Benny Andersson performing, making an impression with his quick runs and fill-ins. On Hedlund's suggestion, Andersson was called for an audition. In turn, Andersson had earlier read a tabloid article about the camping car Hep Stars used when touring and which could hold both the band and the equipment. This assured him that Hep Stars had it going along with their assuring comments on the current scene.