Fire (Swedish hardrock band)
Fire was a Swedish hard rock band from the Uppsala region, active 1980-1989. For a number of years FIRE dominated the music scene in their native Björklinge north of Uppsala.
The band members were Robert Larsson (bass), Niklas Jonsson (drums), Örjan Englund (keyboard), and Robert Dahlin (guitar). During the early years they only wrote songs in Swedish of which the legendary Ungdomen ("Youth") and Fånge nummer 31 ("Prisoner number 31") are perhaps the best known. In the early 80s, they started to write songs in English and had a local radio hit with the catchy tune You're not a soldier. When Lolita Pop [1] visited Björklinge in 1984, FIRE was the opening act.
All band members contributed with song writing although most of their Swedish song were written by Jonsson and Dahlin, while most of their English songs were written by Dahlin with the occasional contribution by Jonsson/Englund.
History
In 1978, Niklas Jonsson played drums in a small band called The Fishers. It was a trio (hammond organ, drums, tambourine) and they only wrote one song together. After a while, in 1979, Niklas teamed up with Robert Larsson to form a new band, which was the beginnings of FIRE. Initially, they called themselves Maxwin. In 1980, Örjan Englund joined in, followed by Robert Dahlin. They changed their name to Spike, which was their name during the first two years of existence. They played one concert as Spike in 1981 at their school in Björklinge. In 1982 they changed their name to FIRE, and in 1983, they produced their first demo tape. In 1988, Robert Larsson left the band, and Örjan Englund played the bass on their last demo tape. For a short while in 1989, a second guitarist, Fredrik Jonsson, joined before the band dissolved in the end of 1989.
Demo tapes
The following is a list of demo tapes recorded by the band.
The Swedish demo - 1983
Gör det för pengarna
Högexplosivt
The first Arbrå demo - 1984
Kings of rock
Evil as satan
Blood in the street
Metal chains
The second Arbrå demo - 1985
Run from the evil
You're my angel
You and me
Pärleporten
You're not a soldier demo - 1986
You're not a solder
Leading you tonite demo - 1987
Leading you tonite
Hypnotized
Almost Perfect demo - 1989
You drive me wild
Second time
Great balls of FIRE