After four days of hard work in Umeå we are back in Stockholm.
With the great help of our friend, Ingela Hjulfors-Berg, we have a six minute long pilot film.

The initial difficulties were solved after a good bit of reorganizing of the material. We managed to edit it in a better way and we were quite proud of ourselves by lunch time on Saturday. But then we ran into more problems as we were going to burn the film to a dvd-disc. We were cursing all kinds of devils, but nothing helped. Unfortunately we didn’t have the time to solve the problem, but Ingela is doing her best to duplicate the the film to a dvd, and hopefully we’ll see the result in a week or so.

After almost nine hours on the bus Mikael and I could wash the traveldust off our faces. Right now we are preparing the english translation of our pilot film, and I’m making the cover to the dvd.

We are waiting eagerly for the tourdates to be released so we can plan our filming. We need complimentary footage of our fans, standing in line for tickets. We also hope to raise money so we can go to Asbury Park, NJ, to shoot.

Now we are looking forward to listen to Bruce Springsteen’s new record that will be released April 25th.

We are in Umeå now, we’ve been here for two days, working on our trailer for the film.
Thanks to our good friend Ingela we’ve been able to come up here for the editing.

Yesterday we spent a good part of the day logging material into the computer. We had some trouble getting the different tape recorders and other stuff to work together, but after finding the right cables we made it all work.

Today we’ve been editing about six minutes, but it needs a bit of reorganization to work perfectly. Hopefully we’ll manage to get it all right on the two days we have left. But despite som technical problems we have a lot of fun during the long hours and on the whole it’s all progressing beautifully.

The weather is lovely. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, the snow is melting and it would be wonderful to go out skiing. We took a break, tested the local speciality rolled up pizza, which we ate at the stairs of the city square. It’s important not to miss the sightseeing…

Now it’s time to get back to the post-it stickers for some hard work, there are still loose ends that needs to be tied up!

Since the convention in Rågsved, there has been quite a few fans who has showed interest in supporting our film financially. Therefore we’ve established an account, where people can deposit money to help us finish the documentary.

It’s a so called postgirokonto and the number of the account is PG 152 54 65-9. So far it’s only possible for swedish citizens to put money in this account, but should any foreigners be interested in doing so too, we sugggest that you contact us. You can find our e-mail addresses in the very first post at this site.

Our plans right now are to go to Umeå to edit a ten minute trailer for the documentary. We are leaving for Umeå on March 22nd and we’re staying there until the 27th. Hopefully we’ll get everything finished so we can promote our project and get in serious discussions with the Swedish national television (SVT) about buying our film.

Yesterday we went to Rågsved, one of the southern suburbs in Stockholm, to attend the very first swedish Springsteen convention.

At noon sharp, we were among the first to enter. The venue soon was filled with fans eager to watch Brucevideos, listen to lectures and enjoying the atmosphere.

Mattias, one of the persons who arranged the convention, talked about Brucebasics, things the not so experienced listener needed to know about the developement of Springsteen’s career.

Mikael and I shared the latest news on our filmproject and showed some excerpts from our fan interviews, and journalist Måns Ivarsson told us about his experience when he hung out with Bruce in 1992, on the rehearsal for the HT/LT world tour.

We also did a little filming, interviewing Mattias and Michel who arranged the convention.

Later that evening the Hungry Heart Band performed, they played for almost 3,5 hours and left everyone very happy. Many members of the springsteen.se community got special requests played by Ludde and his talented band and they didn’t stop playing until 2 am.

The convention was visited by some 40-50 people and hopefully this wasn’t the last one!

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Hi!

There’s been some time since the last report, but now things are starting to come together again.

Bruce Springsteen is releasing a new album in April, but already this weekend swedish fans are gathering for the first convention ever to take place in our country.

The convention is going to take place at Rågsveds Folkets hus tomorrow, February 19th, and there will be cover bands, lectures and a chance to watch Springsteenshows on dvd.

Mikael and I are going to be there to film and we’re also going to talk about the making of our documentary. It will be a lot of fun, meeting all the friends, so stay tuned for more reports from the convention!

During the fall we have been looking fo an editor that can help us cut the trailer we are giong to make. We had some problems when the man we had choosen to work with had to take on other assignments, so we’ve spent a lot of time trying to find someone to replace him. Things are looking brighter on that front, so we hope we can finish the trailer in January-February.

Another nice Christmas present was the announcement that the first ever Swedish Springsteen convention is going to take place in RÃ¥gsveds Folkets hus, Stockholm on February 19th 2005.

Read more about the upcoming convention here.
We hope be there to film the event, talk to the fans and enjoy ourselves. But now we take a well deserved Christmas break!

The recent days have been hectic, and much has happened. First, Clarence Clemons came to Sweden on tour with his own band, The Temple of Soul. We saw his show at Nalen, Stockholm on August 2. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to get an interview with him for our film, but we hope that there will be other chances. It was a great show and the Big Man gave us a great rockin’ that night.

Today there’s also been official that Bruce Springsteen is going on tour with the E Street band. He is going to perform alongside R.E.M, John Fogarty and Bright Eyes on five US shows in October. The aim for the Vote for Change-tour is to change the administration i Washington at the elections in November. Read more about the tour at Backstreets, and MoveOn Pac.

We are not yet certain if we’re going to America to follow the tour and film, it depends on if we can get financing for the trip. But our work continue, we’re preparing to start editing and there’s a lot of work going on with collecting material and pictures for our documentary.

The sun is shining, and summer is not far away, but instead of enjoying the weather, we’ve been sitting inside watching hours after hours of interview material.

In order to organize the material we’re going through it, carefully writing down what people say. It’s really hard work, it makes your eyes square and your mind too, but it needs to be done. And now there’s only a few tapes left, so we’re beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

There’s also another nice surprise, Clarence Clemons is coming to town. The Big Man is bringing his band, The Temple of Soul on a swedish tour in July-August. There will be three performances and we plan to see the show in Stockholm. Hopefully we will also get a chance to interview Mr Clemons. Read more at clarenceclemons.com.

Apart from that we’re also making preparations for the 10-minute teaser we’re going to make. We’ll start editing sometime in August or early September.

Yesterday we met journalist Mats Bråstedt at Expressen. He saw his first Springsteen concert in November 1975 and he has seen every show Bruce has played in Sweden except the one at Hovet in 1981.

Mats thinks Bruce has matured as a songwriter, from his early years when the songs were almost overflowing with words. “Today he seems to weigh every word carefully before using it, he is more minimalistic.”

One thing Mats really admire, is the fact that Bruce still, after over 30 years of playing, can find the joy on stage. “It would be easy to say that the best show I’ve seen was the one at Konserthuset in 1975. But something happened at Ullevi in 2003 that was really special. Bruce was so playful, you could really see how he and the band enjoyed themselves. They don’t need to do this for the money, they do it because they love to share the music with an audience”, Mats told us.

He also shared one of his personal memories with us. When he was in Los Angeles in the late nineties he happened to be staying at the same hotel as Springsteen. One day he came across Bruce in the garage, where he was teaching Patti Scialfa to ride a motorbike. “They were both a bit tipsy and very giggly and Patti had some difficulty managing the bike, so it was lucky they were in a fenced off area”, Mats said.

As many other journalists we have talked to Mats didn’t like what Bruce did in the nineties. He thinks that firing the E Street Band was a mistake. The new band couldn’t support Bruce at all. It got a little better with the solo accoustic tour in 1996. But Mats wasn’t entirely thrilled then either. “I actually found myself dozing off a few times during that show”, he admitted. When Bruce received the Polar Prize Award in 1997 and came to the ceremony with princess Lilian, Mats could almost not take it. “Why did he have to do that? Of course it was a long time since Bruce was a rebel and didn’t like to talk to journalists, but to see him sitting and singing snaps songs with princess Lilian was too much. I don’t want to share one of my greatest musical heroes with the royalties.”

When we asked Mats why he thinks Bruce is so popular in Sweden he said people should not analyze too much or exaggerate Springsteen’s greatness. “It’s not a matter of life or death. I think Bruce is just a guy from New Jersey who loves to play rockmusic and we love to see him do it. It’s all about entertainment. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.”

We give our thanks to Mats for a nice interview. We have now finished most our filming and we will start the process of watching the material and choose what parts we will use. But we will be back filming in September, when a Springsteen convent is scheduled to take place in Stockholm if all goes as planned. It’s a group of fans from the community springsteen.se that will arrange the convent.

But we will keep you posted about the advance of our project, so don’t forget to look in on us!

Today we went to the fashionable hotel Clarion to interview journalist Håkan Lahger. We had a very interesting conversation about the period 1975-1985, when Bruce was at his peak, according to Håkan.

“A lot has been said about Springsteen’s performance at Konserthuset in 1975, and all is true. It feels almost embarrassing to use a word such as ‘spectacular’ but it really was. In a time when most rock ‘n’ roll bands were either too drunk, too stoned, played too loud, used too many effects, Bruce was totally different. He came on stage, happy as a kid who had gotten all the Christmas presents he wanted and he never wanted to stop playing, he could go on forever”, Håkan said.

During the eighties the E Steet Band machine reached it’s highest moments, according to Håkan. The musicians knew eachother so well, they were playing extremely tight and they had learn to master the great outdoor arenas.

But around 1985 Håkan started to lose interest. “I noticed that I started to wait for certain moments or for him to do certain things on stage, and that made it all predictable. But one thing that also put me off was that the journalists had started to cover everything Bruce did when he came here. And that part of journalism that is concerned about what an artist eat, where they go on a day off, is so far away from what really matters, namely their music. That bored me so I slowly drifted away from it all.”

One of the things that Håkan thinks makes Bruce such an interesting artist is his ability to write about urban life. “Springsteen carrys on the tradition of Woody Guthrie. Guthrie was a singer songwriter who told stories about life on the countryside. In his early albums Bruce told the stories of a young man from New Jersey, who was discovering the big city and all it’s adventures and setbacks. It wasn’t the perfect world of popular songs, he portrayed a darker picture, where unhappiness and failure wasn’t uncommon. But even if Springsteen’s songs are very dark, there’s always a glimpse of hope in them”, he said.

We thank Håkan for a great interview and prepare for our last one this session, with journalist Mats Bråstedt on Saturday.