The story of Secret Service: Swedish stars

Ace of Base, Roxette, E-Type, Dr Alban, Army of Lovers and, of course, ABBA. Sweden is rich in talented musical groups, which literally took over the charts in Europe in the 80s. And of course, we can't ignore such a famous band as Secret Service!

Today we'll get to know the popular Swedish band, find out how they achieved success and what's going on with their members today.

History of Creation

As it happens quite often, Secret Service didn't appear overnight, new bands often emerge on the basis (I don't want to say "on the ruins") of other bands.

It all started in the 60's when a young singer Ula Håkansson joined the band The Janglers. Ula's role in the band is evident from the fact that its name was soon changed to Ola & The Janglers. Yes, he, as the lead singer, became the main figure. The band had popularity. It recorded covers of songs by the Rolling Stones and The Kinks and eventually released 20 singles. The band's biggest success was the song "Let's Dance", which reached the Billboard magazine chart.

In '67 the band members starred in two films, in one of them Ula even played the lead role. However, that was the end of the band's success. During the following years Ola & The Janglers slowly faded away, until it was finally extinguished in '76. In parallel with this project, Ola recorded solo songs and was a member of another group called Ola, Frukt och Flingor. It didn't live long either, but it is interesting for us: the line-up here is almost the same as in the future Secret Service, and includes Ula Håkansson, Ulf Wahlberg, Leif Johansson, Tonny Lindberg and Leif Paulsen. Tim Norrell may have been part of the band as well, but it's not certain. Although the band itself faded into oblivion, Ula made good friends with whom he continued to collaborate. They organised the band Ola+3, which was reborn one more time in 1979. This is how Secret Service came to be.

The success of the new band came with the first single "Oh Susie". The band becomes known not only in Sweden, and not only in Europe, but also abroad.

Inspired by the initial success, Secret Service releases their second single "Ten O'Clock Postman"

Success

The first two albums of the band, "Oh Susie" and "Ye Si Ca", only strengthened the popularity of the band all over the world. The music for all these hits was written by Tim Norell, but for some reason Tim was a rather secretive person: he didn't take photos with the band, didn't go to concerts. He obviously liked to stay in the shadows.

Over time, the style of popular music changed, and to stay on the crest of the wave, Secret Service adapted to the desires of the public. In their third album "Cutting Corners" you can hear what concessions Secret Service made: the sound of drums became softer, synthesiser became predominant, the songs became calmer, in general, the way they were listened to at that time. And it worked: the band remained popular, and the song "Flash in The Night", released at that time, became the band's calling card.

The fourth album "Aux Deux Magot" was released with a new line-up: Lindberg, Johansson and Paulsen left the band and were replaced by Anders Hanson and Mats Lindberg. This affected the sound of the band, but not for the worse, just the music became different, even more modern.

However, the fourth album was followed by a break, when the band did not release new songs. And it was not because of a decline in popularity, but just the opposite: the band members gained credibility in the music world and began to develop new projects and help young musicians. Hakansson, Norell and Hanson organised a project called The Megatrio, which wrote hits for young Scandinavian stars. In addition, Hakansson opens his own recording studio, Stockholm Records.

The band resumed its activity only in the 2000s, breaking into the world of music with the new album "Top Secret Greatest Hits". In this album the fans were spoilt not only with new arrangements of old hits, but also with completely new songs, for example, "The Sound of the Rain".

However, the reunion, for which fans may have mistaken the release of a new album, never took place. However, the band members still appear together, but only occasionally. So, in 2012 they released another album "The Lost Box". This album included all the songs that were once forgotten by the band members: written but, for some reason, never realised.

In 2015, Tim Norell wrote a musical called "Ten O'Clock Postman", the same name as the song that made Secret Service popular. The musical features all of the band's songs and takes place in Russia.

As of 2018, the band sang with a new voice. Håkansson has been replaced by John Becker. With the new line-up, the band has already recorded several singles, the latest of which is "Secret Mission".

As you can see, the band's story is evolving, but evolving in concert with the title "Secret Service (Secret Service English)": what will happen and when - it's completely unclear...