PETER THORUP WITH FRIENDS - WAKE UP YOUR MIND 1970

In the very long and cold winter of 1969/ 1970 the three members of the danish supergroup, "Young Flowers", decided to close down their trio. Peer Frost, Peter Ingemann and Ken Gudman were all exhausted from three years of never ending concert-tours.They also needed new inspiration and challenges. But, the band was booked for another 5 months, including 3 major tours in Denmark. So, Max Nutzhorn, congas/vocal, Peter Thorup, guitar/vocal and Bent Hesselmann, saxes/flute, were invited to join the band until 1. of june, where the bookinglist stopped. The tours were highly succesful and had an ever growing audience as the three guests added new energy and colours to the stage-show. The spring of 1970 brought a lot of transformations, not only in mother nature, but also in the world of music. The bands seemed to have grasped the idea of taking new elements into their performances. A wave based on friendship and optimism spread among the musicians and a lot of new bands were formed. Some of these new bands were mixing jazz and rock, while others added classical musicians to their group.

Another new thing was, that all these new bands wrote their own music! At this time the danish rockscene was blooming in all colours, except for black, as dead- and punkrock had to wait for another 10 years. In march "Young Flowers and Friends" played a concert in the concerthall of the danish radiohouse. However, the technicians had very little experience in recording amplified gear, and that was clearly heard! After this disappointing result, Peter Thorup contacted Ivar Rosenberg, the owner of a very estimated recording studio in a cinema in Vanløse, "Vanløse Bio". In the summertime there were very few clients to record, so Peter got a lot of days, where we could record in the daytime from 9.am until 6.pm and in the evenings from 11.30 pm, when the late filmshow was over! Ivar, a very clever, traditional technician, added a new face for our sessions, Freddy Hansson, who had just emerged from the sound department of the danish filmscool. The studio had an 8- track taperecorder, plate reverb, echomachine and a mellotrone! Thus we were equipped, and we started the sessions. The repertoire was a mix of traditional rock and blues, plus a few original songs by Ole Fick, There were almost no time for rehearsal. The lead vocalist would instruct us, we tried the song a few times, and then 1-2-3-4.
Off we went!

Bent Hesselmann, June 2008

Tracks :

01 WORRIED BLUES
02 COMING HOME BABY
03 KEEP IT UP
04 RUNNING WILD
05 I'M COMING HOME
06 GRANDMOTHER WATCH YOUR SON
07 WAKE UP YOUR MIND