The Crimson Shadows… Swedish garage rock band!

The Crimson Shadows was formed in 1984 by Peter Maniette, his brother Johan and Jens Lindberg. Shortly thereafter, Måns Månsson joined on guitar after he and Jens had met at a party where Måns walked around in a toga and played the Yardbirds on an acoustic guitar.

Crimson Shadows was one of the garage bands in the eighties that over the years has gained more or less legendary status within the garage rock/rock’n’roll scene, despite the fact that the band only existed for about a year from late 1984 and a bit into 1986.

During that time, they recorded two singles that have now become expensive collectors’ items and meant a lot to mainly the European scene that has grown since then. In 1988, the band briefly reunited to record a mini-LP for the German label Mystery Scene.

Crimson Shadows were early in Europe adopting the moptop look of mainly American bands and looking like a mix of Music Machine and Chocolate Watchband. However, it was not directly conceived – as many thought – but the members already had the look and lived and breathed garage rock and rock’n’roll. A big difference to other similar bands, however, was that Crimson Shadows only played their own songs, while most others stuck to covers.

They mostly played at the club Kaos in Gamla Stan, which became something of a hub for the small garage scene that revolved around sixties obsession, with a lot of fuzz and farfisa. They never made it outside of Stockholm, which many bands that lasted longer did. The Swedish garage bands such as Creeps, Stomachmouths, The Nomads and others. were actually the first Swedish bands to seriously start doing club tours etc. in Europe.

When Crimson Shadows broke up, Peter and Johan Maniette started Wylde Mammoths, which, among other things, toured the US early on and were the first modern band to be released by Crypt records.

Jens Lindberg played in the Stomachmouths who toured extensively and Måns Månsson played in The Livingstones with defected members from Stomachmouths and The Backdoor Men (who became The Creeps)

Crimson Shadows has gained something of a cult status over the years and there have been a number of compilations featuring all the recordings. In 2000 came the first collection – a CD on Dutch Inbetweens records. In 2011, an LP collection was released on Groovie records in Portugal, and most recently an LP collection has been released on Swedish Busy Bee records.

Crimson Shadows has been reunited on and off in recent years with original members Jens Lindberg and Måns Månsson. They have Indy Neidell (The Organ Slayer, Moneybrother, Mad Men Band etc.) with them and the drums have been handled by Uffe Pettersson (Dee Rangers) and Martin Karlsson (The Strollers). This time the honor goes to Stellan Wahlström (Wylde Mammoths, solo artist, etc.).

There have been club and festival gigs in Sweden, Italy, Germany, Spain and Norway, so the band has finally managed to move outside their hometown!

November 1st marks exactly the date of their first ever appearance on stage, and naturally, in 2024, this was celebrated with a party that will go down in their history!

Their friends, The Nomads, also took the stage in their only performance in Stockholm this year!
Additionally, Jens’ band, The Maharajas, played a set consisting exclusively of Wylde Mammoths songs, as a tribute to the late Peter Maniette, who was a rare talent in songwriting.
November 1st this year is exactly the first time the band has been on stage, and of course this will be celebrated with a party!

On stage, the friends in The Nomads will also play their only gig in Stockholm this year! It will be brutal.
In addition, Jen’s band The Maharajas will play a set of songs only by Wylde Mammoths as a tribute to the late Peter Maniette who was a rare songwriting genius.

AN INTERVIEW WITH… Jens & Måns from legendary band… THE CRIMSON SHADOWS.

Athenscalling.gr: Hi Jens … Hi Måns… It is my great pleasure to welcome you to our company, and I’m truly looking forward to the interview which we will do via the internet!

Jens & Måns: Hi Theodor, good to hear from you!

Athenscalling.gr: Honestly, where am I meeting you now?

Jens & Måns: Well me Jens is at my home right now, preparing for some nice Easter holidays with friends and family…and Måns is at home takin’ it pretty easy before going to a local bar to dj with a buddy later tonight.

Athenscalling.gr: What inspired you to form a garage rock band in 1980s Sweden?

Jens: Well the story began when I went to England on a language travel back in summer 1979. There I got in contact with the ongoing mod-revival and learnt about bands like The Jam, The Who etc. Once back in Sweden I turned 100% mod and after my mod period was over in 1982 I discovered comps like Chocolate Soup For Diabetics and bands like The Sonics. So in 1984 I was to start a garage band.

Måns: I was also a mod in the early 80’s and was all into UK sixties bands like The Creation, Kinks and the Chocolate Soup compilations etc. But since I also loved US 50’s rock-a-billy and rock’n’roll since I was a kid I figured there must be US bands from the sixties as well. I went out looking for records and stumbled across The Sonics and The Standells early on. I had mod friends who did the same and we were a small gang into that stuff… like 13th Floor Elevators… and then the Pebbles and Psychedelic Unknowns etc compilations started coming out. I played in a mod/psych band in the early 80’s (Lord Chamberlain’s Players – nothing recorded) and soon we played garage songs after discovering all this great music. This was in 1982 – 1983. I didn’t know anyone else outside our small gang (where also The Knights of Fuzz were a part – soon to become Cornflake Zoo) who were into this stuff until we discovered The Nomads around the same time.

Athenscalling.gr: What was the scene like back then? Was there a community of like-minded bands, or did you feel more on your own in that style?
Måns: See the last question. For us it was a small scene with mods who started growing out our hair and started listening to US garage in addition to the UK stuff like early Pink Floyd and so on. A bit later it grew when we started The Crimson Shadows and got to know bands like The Stomachmouths, Backdoor Men, The Creeps etc. We had our pretty wild scene, mostly at club Kaos, where a lot of people would come for the gigs. At the same time the bands like The Nomads and so on had another scene going more based around the bigger rock club Ritz and early touring in Europe etc… so you could say there were two parallel scenes going. Of course running into each other but never really sharing stages or hanging out together back then.

Athenscalling.gr: Who were your main influences?

Jens: Back in the early 80’s it was a lot of comps such as Pebbles, Back From The Grave etc that had a lot of impact on me. Måns, Peter and the rest of the guys always had some good garage music to show me as they were more into collecting records than I was.

Måns: The Sonics! Singers like Roky Erickson and Sky Saxon. The Electric Prunes. The compilations Jens mention. And for me also classic rock’n’roll and rock-a-billy. And The Stooges!

Athenscalling.gr: What made you decide to play again or return to the stage? I mean about 1st November. Because I’m wondering if this will continue and whether the band will have more shows?

Måns: We did our first reunion gig a pretty long time ago. I’m sure Jens remembers which year and date. I suck at that. Was it 20 years ago? Or 15? (Jens: we did our first reunion back in February 2008 and we played in Rimini, Italy) We were asked by a guy in Italy to do it and he paid really well so we said yes. That’s really the reason. After that we have done sporadic reunion gigs over the years here in Sweden and in Norway, Germany and Spain. Always a lot of fun and mayhem. 1st November 2024 was exactly to the day 40 years after we did our very first gig so Jens got the idea to do a big anniversary party. We shared the stage with The Nomads – for the first time ever – and also Jens band The Maharajas. I am btw also a member of The Nomads these days, playing Farfisa and percussion.
We will definitely do more shows. We got a few shows coming up later this year. In September we will be at the Berlin Beat Explosion festival and later in November we’re doing a small tour in Germany. If anyone wants us – preferably for a festival or so – we will come. If we get paid haha. We would of course love to play in Greece.

Athenscalling.gr: Do you feel there’s a new audience for this sound?

Jens: Absolutely, there are festivals all over Europe all around the year that mainly has garage rock as their leading theme. But it seems that there are not as many young people there, I’m really happy about the Greek band Sences as they seem to be very young! And back in the 90’s I was heavily influenced by The Frantic V (Saloniki) and The Cardinals (Athens). Of course it’s still an underground movement as it always has been ( and will!).

Måns: I sure hope so! Rock’n’roll played by real people for real people will hopefully keep on being relevant.

Athenscalling.gr: How do you feel about the renewed interest in garage rock among younger generations?
Måns: I honestly don’t know too much about it. But every time we play and I see younger people raving in the audience it warms my heart. The younger generations should get out and create their own culture and bands etc even more! F**k influencers.

Athenscalling.gr: Are there any plans for new material, or do you prefer to stick with your original repertoire?

Jens: The Crimson Shadows, as you know, existed only for 18 months back in the 1980’s – from October 1984 to March 1986. When we made our first comeback shows in February 2008 in Rimini we only played our old songs, as this is what the audience want to hear. We will only play the old songs of Crimson Shadows, not writing any new stuff!

Måns: What Jens said…

Athenscalling.gr: Let’s take a trip back in time — can you recall the first album you ever bought and how old you were at the time?

Jens: Well I was probably 10 years old when I bought The Sweet 7” vinyl Ballroom Blitz…

Måns: I think it was something like the first album by Elvis, or an old EP with Charlie Feathers.

Athenscalling.gr: In the end, what does the garage sound mean to you personally?

Jens: It’s the best kind of rockenroll I know! I listen to it every day. Garagerock is better than music!

Måns: I just transports me right to where I wanna be! I love the sound, the spontaneous vibe and everything about it. The mix of punk and psychedelia that is so unique. It’s a part of my DNA. Fuzz melts my brain!

Athenscalling.gr: Before we part ways, please send your message to planet Earth…

Jens: Be kind and remember you can’t get drunk on wine!

Måns: I’m sorry planet Earth… but I’m pretty sure you’ll be ok once we’re all gone!