However, Per and his friend Peter "Pedda" Nilsson got a "job" playing old folk songs for the elderly in a retirement home in Vallås (2 km east of Halmstad). It was Pedda who first introduced Per to Mats "MP" Persson, a fellow student at Kattegattskolan in Halmstad. Mats and Pedda were in a band called Audiovisuellt Angrepp ("Audio-Visual Attack"), together with one, Martin Sternhufvud (future Strul/MaMas Barn front man). Per and MP discovered quickly that they worked especially well together. Per had hung around with Audiovisuellt Angrepp while they practiced, but when it was brought up (by MP and Pedda) that Per should become part of the band, Martin disagreed, as he was scared that Per would end up taking over "his" group. So, Per and MP then formed their own duo, called Grape Rock. That was in February 1977...over 25 years ago.

When the duo grew tired of only being able to record their ideas and material, and wanted to start performing live, they began the search for a few more musicians to transform themselves into a full-fledged band. Micke Andersson, then 16 and a good friend of MP's, was asked to play the drums, while another of MP's friends, a left-handed bass player called Janne Carlsson, also joined the group. The name "Gyllene Tider", which came from an old Swedish instrumental track, was decided on for the group. Once the foursome had bought some instruments, everything was set!

The first song "Gyllene" ever played together was John Cale's "Helen of Troy", but in Swedish: "Flicka av Guld". Their first ever performance was in Getinge (a burg close to Halmstad) at the Bio Reflex. Not more than 80 people were in the audience, but then again, it was only the beginning! Per's first guitar solo in public was not too long after that, at Figarosalen in Halmstad.

Now that they had performed several times, they wanted to take the next logical step: to make a record of their songs. If they wanted a record company to take notice of them, Gyllene needed some sort of "promo release" to prove that they were indeed a talented and hungry young band wanting to succeed. So, in the summer of 1978, Gyllene Tider recorded their famous "Gyllene Tider EP" in the CMP Studio, just north of Halmstad in a suburb called Kärleken ("Love"; what a cool name for a town!). The track listing: "Billy", "Pornografi", "M" (which stood for "Mamma"), "Rembrandt", and "När alla vännerna gått hem". They sent it everywhere, from radio stations to newspapers to record companies, hoping someone would give them a chance. All they needed was someone to believe in them...

Gyllene Tider gave two "Christmas" concerts" on the 21st of December in Getinge, and the 27th of December back at Figarosalen in Halmstad. It was then that Anders Herrlin came into the picture, making a "guest appearance" on stage with the band. He was around Gyllene's rehearsal studio quite often as well, seeing as Micke was one of his close friends.

Then, problems arose between Per and Janne; they were two totally different people and had different views on where the band should be headed. Per wanted him out of the band, but had no idea how to do it. Finally, he thought of a way: he quit Gyllene and started a NEW band with the name "Hjärtekrossaren" (The Heartbreakers; Tom Petty had always been a favorite of his). The others - all except Janne, of course - then came to join the new band, and Hjärtekrossaren was soon re-named Gyllene Tider. A sneaky little trick, indeed, but having Per and Janne in the same group would certainly not have worked out in the end anyhow!

In February 1979, GT's relationship with EMI Svenska AB began. Kjell Andersson from the record company called up Per (then only 20 years old!) and made it known that he had received the "Gyllene Tider" EP and was very impressed with the song, "Billy". They discussed future plans for a while, and Gyllene Tider's prayers were suddenly answered...a contract was in the works!

The next logical step for Gyllene was to gather their ideas and then begin to record their first official album. Lasse Lindbom, an accomplished and successful musician also on the EMI label, was brought on as their producer. He thought the songs he had already heard were very catchy and a little out of the ordinary, so he truly believed the youngsters has great potential for success. Right from the beginning, the group of six got along wonderfully, as Lasse understood perfectly the direction in which the boys wanted to go with respect to their music.

The first single, "Himmel No. 7" ("Seventh Heaven"), was released in early 1980, and went gold (25,000 units sold) by July. However, it was the B-side, "Flickorna på TV2" ("The Girls on TV 2") which attracted the most attention; radio stations liked the track so much that they began to play that instead of the A-side! It reached number one with little difficultly, and on another Swedish chart voted on by fans, it went to #2. Unfortunately, Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" managed to keep it out of the #1 spot. This high showing on the chart was partly Gyllene's doing, as the group (along with some dedicated friends and family members) spent an entire evening at MP's place, voting for themselves on postcards, and sent them all out with the morning mail. When GT made an appearance on the chart show to do an interview, it was obvious that the host had already figured out where all the postcards (several hundred!) had come from; they all had the same postmark and pictures on them. When asked about it, Per quickly informed the host that Gyllene had this very large, supportive fan club in Halmstad...

Next came "Ska vi älska, ska vi älska till Buddy Holly" ("Let's Make Love to Buddy Holly"), and it made just as impressive of a showing on the charts. The records and singles were selling as fast as half-price Levi's jeans, and both the fans and record company began pushing for a new album. A few non-believers speculated that GT would not survive the dreaded "Sophomore-Jinx" ("Their first album was amazing, but their second one was crap!").

Kjell Andersson actually became a bit worried about that himself after being presented with new songs with such titles as "Min tjej läser Playgirl" ("My Girlfriend Reads Playgirl"), "Gå hem innan du lägger dej" ("Go Home Before You Go to Bed") and "Henry, dansa inte disco!" ("Henry, Don't Dance Disco!"). Mr. G's lyrics had always been fun and somewhat different from all other artists currently releasing material, but according to Kjelle, these ones were going a little too far! He urged Per to write a little less nonsense, and so PG promptly came up with "När vi två blir en" ("When We Two Become One"). It was released as a lead-off single a few months before the new album "Moderna Tider" ("Modern Times") hit the shops. The single topped the Swedish charts for 16 (!) weeks, even reached #1 in Norway and ended up selling a total of 100,000 copies. Gyllene-hysteria, as it was referred to, had begun and now it was time for the real fun to start...

"Moderna Tider" was pre-ordered in over 140,000 copies, and when it was released in March '81 it just exploded on the market. The album's sales trickled after selling around 350,000 copies (at that time). This was Gyllene Tider's biggest seller so far. They went on another tour that summer and sold out concert after concert breaking records where ever they went. Unfortunately a tour organized underestimated Gyllene's success, and three people were trampled to death in Kristianopel. The following three shows were cancelled.

As the summer single, they released "Kom så ska vi) Leva livet" ("(Come On) Let's Live"), with new track "Leka med elden" ("To Play with Fire") as the b-side. At the same time they started recording some 12 songs in English under the name Modern Times , two of them being "Beating Heart" and "To Play with Fire." These two tracks became the promotion single "Beating Heart" that was shipped to different EMI offices around the world, but nothing happened. Besides, the name Modern Times was already in use... So anyway, the tour was documented by, now world famous, Lasse Hallström and ended up as the movie Parkliv. During the end of the tour Gyllene played a new song, "Ljudet av ett annat hjärta" ("The Sound of Another Heart"), and this was also their new fall single.

When 1982 came around, it was time to record a new album, all summer and winter Gyllene Tider had let people know that this album was to be recorded in The Beatles' famous Abbey Road Studio in London, England. When the recordings commenced, the band was still in Stockholm. As far as I know, this is where they continued recording the Modern Times album (that were never released), but most of all, they recorded their third album - Puls. With a more mature and open sound (achieved by moving the mikes away 30 feet from the instruments) they released a summer single named "Sommartider" ("Summer Times"), following the tradition of "Tider" in the title. The single was a hit, although not as big a hit as Per Gessle remembers, not then, and opened up their summer tour that actually started in Ljusdal! I was of course there... In August the album "Puls" was out and sold yet again lots of records, but didn't reach "Moderna Tider's" insane numbers. Single #2 was "Flickan i en Cole Porter-sång" ("That Girl in a Cole Porter-Song") , a title borrowed from a line in "Save the Tiger" starring Jack Lemmon. It reached top one in both Sweden and Denmark. Per has later said that it was the last "real" Gyllene Tider-lyric.

More to come...