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Artist
Hljómar
12+ albums
Garage RockPsychedelic Rock60sAllicelandic
about
In 1963, young drummer Eddi Kristins from Keflavík went to England and saw The Beatles play in Bournemouth every night for a week. He came back to Iceland and told his friend, guitar player Gunnar Þórðarson, all about this amazing band. They decided to form a band of their own and got their friend Elli Björns to play rhythm guitar, Einar Jul to sing. Gunnar wanted his friend Rúnar Júlíusson to play bass. Rúnar didn´t know how to play the instrument but Gunni was determined to teach him. They started rehearsing every day, Rúnar had the new Beatles album and they rehearsed six Beatles songs and 74 other rock songs. They decided to call themselves Hljómar (The Sounds). They rehearsed for three months and got their big break when a band from Reykjavík cancelled a gig in the club Krossinn in Keflavík, with a few days notice. Rúnar turned his side to the audience all night. Most assumed it was due to shyness, but in fact he was watching Gunni who was giving him pointers on how to play the bass. They were extremely well received because of a few coinciding factors: No other band had rehearsed and played the new Beatles songs and they wore real uniforms. Rúnar had bought himself a leather vest with a red back and chrome buttons and he got his mother to sew identical vests for the other band members. Underneath the vests they wore striped Melka shirts Eddi had bought in London and black leather bow ties. Ultra cool. Their fame travelled with lightning speed across the country and th
