The band
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HOW IT ALL STARTED
D-A-D began playing together in the early 1980s in Copenhagen, Denmark, under their original band name Disneyland After Dark.
D-A-D released their first EP in 1985 and has now been together for more than twenty years, with only one change in the lineup, as Laust Sonne replaced former drummer Peter Lundholm Jensen in 1999. The band released their 11th album –DIC.NII.LAN.DAFT.ARD.ARK – November 11, 2011.
When the group made their international breakthrough in 1989, they had to change the band name to D.A.D. to avoid an impending lawsuit from the Walt Disney Company. In 1995, the “spelling” changed to D:A:D, to make it more obvious that it was an abbreviation. Finally in 2000, the band story became one of advanced punctuation as the spelling was changed to the more internet-friendly D-A-D.
To learn more about the band, read from the beginning of the D-A-D biography or skip to the chapter of your choice. And stay tuned as chapters will be added…
You can also find out more about D-A-D’s releases by checking out the Discography or you can get a taste of their music right now by listening to the player while online.
THE BEGINNING, 1982
In the early 1980s, three young men – Stig Pedersen, Jesper Binzer, and Peter Lundholm Jensen – met in the Copenhagen punk music milieu and formed the first Disneyland After Dark.
Stig had recently been kicked out of the punk band ADS where he had been a bass-player for a couple of years. Now he wanted to form his own band to show ADS they had made a mistake.
Stig first met Jesper through mutual friends in 1982. Jesper sang and played the guitar, and the two of them decided to form a band and began searching for a drummer. They found what they were looking for in Peter. When the group began rehearsing together, Stig’s girlfriend at the time, Lene Glumer, was also a part of the group as its first lead singer.
The band took the name Disneyland After Dark and gave their first concert on December 3, 1982, at the youth club Sundby Algaard. The guys thought that Lene Glumer did not fit in, and consequently they threw her out of the band the next day.
Now a trio, the guys were tired of the pessimistic and pompous attitude that prevailed amongst punk musicians and their audience. Stig, Jesper, and Peter wanted to bring the joy back in music and live performances. While rehearsing they accidentally stumbled across a style of music that provided ample opportunity for having fun. When Stig played a three-note riff with a different rhythm to it, Jesper said it sounded like country music. The others joined in, and the band made the style known in other parts of the world as cowpunk their own. The lyrics that followed evolved around made-up stories where abundant clichés were added an ironic twist.
Through 1983 the band, who were all at the same time students in high school, rehearsed and gave concerts, wrote songs, and developed their cowpunk image further with their eyes set on the goal: To become rock stars.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY - MARCH 3, 1984
When the band did live shows early on, they always brought new things to every show; a gimmick, a new song, something had to be new. As the band progressed, they also realized that their music lacked some real country sound.
To suit both purposes, they got the idea to bring in Jesper’s younger brother Jacob, known to everybody as Cobber, for a concert. Cobber also played the guitar and was a much more skilled guitarist than Jesper, and a better musician than all of them. He could do all sorts of sounds that sounded like the real country thing. He was just what they needed.
The group wanted Cobber to play with them at a concert at Musikcaféen in Copenhagen on March 3, 1984. Cobber spent about a day learning the songs for the show. Thus prepared, the four of them did the show in which Cobber sat on a stool the whole time to give off the impression that he was a hired studio musician.
However, at first it was by no means a matter of course that Cobber should be a permanent member of the group. His participation was considered to be “temporary” and “for the time being”. But little by little, Cobber became a regular and a full-blooded band member.
Slowly, the band began referring to this first concert with Stig, Jesper, Peter, and Cobber in the lineup as the band’s “birthday”. Disneyland After Dark was born, and it would be many years before there was any change in the group’s lineup.
FIRST RECORD DEAL, 1984
The band had their mind set on making a record and began recording demotapes on a tape recorder in their practice room. A friend of theirs who owned a record store then distributed the tapes to her network of contacts in the music business.
One person who had heard of Disneyland After Dark was John Rosing, owner of the booking and management bureau Rock On. Rosing knew Stig from his ADS days and he sought out the band in early 1984. Rosing became their booker and got them several jobs. Later on, he took on full management, a job he handled until about a year before his untimely death from cancer in 1998.
Meanwhile, the band kept giving concerts, including one at Paramount Club in Roskilde. Present at that show were representatives from the Roskilde Festival, and that landed the band their first gig at the biggest Danish music festival. They opened the festival in 1984, which by the way was the first year that the festival opened Thursday and became a four-day event. However, being booked into this early time slot did not bother the band. “We’re happy about it,” Jesper said in an interview at the time, “People haven’t gotten drunk yet and they have fresh ears.”
Later the same year, Stig’s friend Torleif came along for one of their concerts. Torleif had already been taking pictures of the band, but now he wanted to hear how the band sounded. When the band and entourage arrived at the club, it turned out there was no lights system. Torleif then agreed to make the best of a few colored light bulbs by unplugging and replugging the lights by turns during the show. From then on, Torleif became a regular “fifth member”, doing ligths and other odd jobs of the creative and visual kind.
In the spring of 1984, the owners of the small independent record label Irmgardz contacted the band. The band and the Irmgardz people hung out, and first there was talk of putting out a single. Then after the job at the Roskilde Festival, Irmgardz wanted to make an LP. Unfortunately, nothing came of all the talk, but on the other hand the band had known of Irmgardz’s reputation for being unreliable and had not signed anything.
Luckily, the Irmgardz people were not the only ones interested. Frank Marstokk from the small record label Mega Records had received one of the Disneyland After Dark demotapes, and he was excited about the band’s mix of country and punk. Marstokk wanted to talk to the band and went to meet them in “Løkkebo”, the apartment that Stig, Jesper, and Peter shared. He wanted the band to sign with Mega and give them the chance to record their music.
After talks between the band, John Rosing and Mega, it was decided that their first release would be a maxisingle. In that way, the record label would not have risked too much money if the band were to flop. The group might be a successful live act in Greater Copenhagen, but the record label was not so sure recording Disneyland After Dark was a safe bet. A record deal was drawn up, but was not signed until after the recording sessions in the spring of 1985. So now the guys had to really prove themselves.
Proving themselves on record came by way of a tough learning experience in the studio since the band was totally inexperienced in that regard. A state financed program to support upcoming musicians granted the money to buy studio time, a total amount of 15,000 DKK (approximately EUR 2,000). Mega Records paid for the rest of the expenses involved with making the record.
Recording and mixing took place April 15 through April 19, 1985, in Studio 39 in Copenhagen. Just five days was not a lot of time, so producer Frank Marstokk had to keep focused and keep the guys on track. The production was kept simple and the band played live in the studio while Marstokk coached them towards as good a result as possible.
Meanwhile, Torleif had spotted the perfect location for the photo shoot for the cover of the band’s first release: a gravel pit near Roskilde that could serve as a Wild West setting. The picture, taken by Robin Skjoldborg, features the band posing in full cowboy outfits, armed, and on the lookout.
Standin’ On the Never Never was released May 28, 1985, and the 12″ EP included three songs. The record received very mixed reviews, ranging from one enthusiastic critic calling it “the best Danish record I have heard this year” to one very unimpressed critic who stated: “People whose judgement I have no reason to doubt support this band … I have listened to them while drinking Jack Daniel’s. It did not work. Maybe I should have had some more and chewed beef jerky to go with it.”
However, the group was undaunted. Inspired by the record-dream come true, they kept playing live jobs and rehearsing every night, which soon improved their skills. Mega Records had also been pleased with the result of Standin’ On the Never Never, and before too long studio time was booked for the fall of 1985. It was time to make an LP.
Going into the studio again in the fall of 1986, the band had older material with them that had not been used for Standin’ On the Never Never as well as newly written songs. Once again, recording took place in Studio 39, and both producer Frank Marstokk and technician Jørgen Bo were in place again.
Whereas the production of their first release had been kept simple, this time around the band knew how to take full advantage of the studio facilities. And since they were now making an LP there was room for all sorts of crazy whims and ideas to be included. This made for a much more elaborate production including e.g. horns, a barking dog, and gun fights.
For the album cover the band had lots of pictures taken, but ultimately chose a strange looking photo with four different types of hair, belonging to the four band members’ respectively. The innersleeve was a story in itself with handwritten lyrics overstrewn with drawings, all done by Stig to illustrate the stories told by the songs. This came to be band standard.
The group’s first LP was titled Call of the Wild and was released on February 4, 1986. Just like their first release, it received mixed reviews. But eventhough none were extremely negative this time, none were overly excited either.
Live, however, it was a very different matter indeed. The band attracted crowds big enough to regularly fill clubs in Greater Copenhagen. Following the release of Standin’ On the Never Never, the band had not gone on a real tour, but now they did.
The touring in 1986 included several jobs in Sweden, Norway, and for the first time Finland. As if this was not enough at a time when few Danish bands had ambitions beyond the border, Mega Records also set up a tour of Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, which combined concerts with promotional work and interviews.
Through hard work and determination the band was creating a name for themselves, becoming an ever more popular live act. Nevertheless, the band still needed to strike while the iron was hot to make the most of the publicity Call of the Wild and their concerts had created. Plans were already in the making for the follow-up. But this time new signals were coming from the band…
By the fall of 1986, Disneyland After Dark was getting to record their second album. However, the carefully worked-out cowboy image had already been taken to its fullest and was beginning to be a little less enjoyable. Change in the form of new sounds was looming on the horizon.
The change in the band’s music also related to an incident in August 1986 when the band had, tongue-in-cheek, agreed to participate in a big country festival in Denmark. They were met by country enthusiastists and people who wanted autographs on the American confederate flag. The band refused as these people had obviously completely missed the band’s thick trademark irony.
There was no way the band wanted to be seen as saviors of country music or associated with all the things about American culture that they were making jokes about. Besides, the band had also run out of cowboy themed ideas and so the music and lyrics they were coming up with changed accordingly.
When the time came for recording the new material, Frank Marstokk had left Mega Records, and the band had to look for a new producer. They chose Mark Dearnley, who was English and had worked as a technician on AC/DC’s Highway To Hell. Dearnley accepted the job offer without having heard the band play.
Recording began in November 1986. Dearnley was now in charge of getting order out of the band’s sometimes-chaotic surplus of ideas. Amongst other things, Dearnley:
Vetoed the sitar solo on I Won’t Cut My Hair that Cobber wanted.
Cut the original 16 verses in the song 10 Knots down to two. (However, an ad-lib was added at the end.)
Intervened when Stig invited a journalist, who came to do an interview, to sing a chorus hooligan style.
The recording sessions where three tracks were recorded at a time in Copenhagen’s Custom Sound studio alternated with mixing in the Puk Studios in Randers. This very tight and disciplined production schedule made it possible to record the entire album in only 30 days.
The album was named D.A.D. Draws a Circle and was released on June 16, 1987. The album title had a dual meaning: it meant simply ‘make a record’ but also signalled that the band came full circle while covering a lot of ground with all the different style elements included: gospel, punk rock, country, and hard rock – to name a few.
The album received fairly positive reviews, and the record-buying audience agreed: the album sold 30,000 copies in Denmark – twice as many as Call of the Wild. However, the band was disappointed because the promotion that Mega Records put into the album did not live up to their expectations. In the summer of 1987, the band went on tour and they also played extensively in December 1987. By this time, they were already writing new material again – and beginning to consider their options for the future.
With the release of D.A.D. Draws A Circle in 1987, Disneyland After Dark had fulfilled their obligations to their record company, Mega Records. It was time for a new record deal but the band had grown more and more convinced that it was also time for a new record company.
The band had made a demo tape with three new songs that had a distinctly harder and raw sound than their older material. Band manager Rosing set up talks with the record company Medley about making a deal, but the people at Medley were not quite convinced in spite of the new sound.
In the summer of 1988, Rosing arranged a small US-tour for the band with four concerts. The tour was the band’s first visit to America, and although their concerts did not yield a lot of attention, the trip gave the band lots of new impressions and inspiration.
After their US experience, the group made a new demo tape. With the help of producer Nikolaj Foss and technician Lars Overgaard from Medley they recorded new versions of the same three songs, but this time the sound convinced head of Medley, Poul Bruun.
The recording sessions could finally begin and they did in the fall of 1988 with an English producer. The goal was clear from the outset: this album was meant for a larger, international audience. Unfortunately, the choice of producer turned out to be a mistake, and it was not until Foss and Overgaard took over as producer and technician that the process took off.
The new album titled No Fuel Left For The Pilgrims was released in Scandinavia on the band’s fifth birthday, March 3, 1989. The reviews were not as great as the album’s later status as one of the band’s best albums would have one think.
If Draws A Circle was the album that took the group from the desert to the big city, then No Fuel underlined that development. The lyrics were now closer to the guys’ own reality than the lives of cowboys and the humor no longer took center stage all the time. In the end, all that was left of the band’s country imagery and sound was Cobber’s twangy guitar. Some critics thought the band had lost their charm.
However, the group’s audience was still charmed and the record sold well. On top of this, while the band toured Denmark extensively in the spring, the first single, Sleeping My Day Away, became a major hit and got heavy airplay. The band began attracting serious attention from record companies abroad, and – at last – an international record deal now seemed to be within reach.
THE BIG BREAK, 1989
With the help of their hit single Sleeping My Day Away and their high energy live performances, Disneyland After Dark stood on the threshold of a major breakthrough in the spring of 1989. The international attention meant that talent scouts and other delegates from international record companies began flying in to see the band during their spring tour.
In May, Medley executive Michael Ritto and manager John Rosing flew to America to negotiate with the handful of companies, who made serious offers. Before too long it became apparent that the big international record company Warner Brothers wanted to sign the band to an international deal – and that they did not mind paying generously for it: one million dollars for two albums with an option for more. Although the money made it the deal of a lifetime, money was, however, not everything and Warner was chosen just as much because they seemed genuinely interested in the band’s music. Ritto and Rosing returned home with a deal memo, outlining the agreements that would make up the contract.
When the band played the Roskilde Festival in June, a group of Warner delegates and international music journalists were amazed as they all got to witness first hand the band’s grip on a live audience of 50,000 who all sang along.
Following a US promotion tour, the signing with Warner officially took place on September 14, 1989, at Warner headquarters in Burbank, California.
In connection with the international contract, though, it had become clear that Warner’s neighbor, the Walt Disney Company, could cause serious trouble. It, of course, had to do with the band name, which was unpopular with Disney. Disney threatened to sue and since they had a habit of making good of their threats with anyone who used their name without permission, no record company dared sign a group called Disneyland After Dark. There was nothing to do for the band but change their name to D.A.D. The name dispute with Disney, therefore, never ended with an actual lawsuit.
Changing their name also meant that the cover of the No Fuel Left For The Pilgrims album had to be changed before an international release. Graphic designer Søren A. consequently flew to L.A. where he moved the band members around in the photo, which included giving Cobber Stig’s arm, making room for the new logo (see the cover before and after).
Meanwhile, the band kept touring the world with concerts in Europe in October before returning to America in November, playing 30 US shows in just 35 days heavily promoted by Warner. As 1989 turned into 1990, the group kept touring. The new year took them to new parts of the world when they went on a presentation tour of Japan and Australia in January.
A few months later, the group was back to do a tour of Japan, Singapore, and Australia in April. It was during this tour that the live recordings for the EP Osaka After Dark were made. Osaka After Dark later became a hard to get collectible for fans.
In May, D.A.D. was back in Europe, touring Germany and playing at Scandinavian festivals. When they finished the tour at the Roskilde Festival in June with Cobber flying out over the crowd suspended in a wire, D.A.D. had been riding high on an unbelievable wave of success for little over a year. It was time to begin thinking about a follow-up.
With the help of their hit single Sleeping My Day Away and their high energy live performances, Disneyland After Dark stood on the threshold of a major breakthrough in the spring of 1989. The international attention meant that talent scouts and other delegates from international record companies began flying in to see the band during their spring tour.
In May, Medley executive Michael Ritto and manager John Rosing flew to America to negotiate with the handful of companies, who made serious offers. Before too long it became apparent that the big international record company Warner Brothers wanted to sign the band to an international deal – and that they did not mind paying generously for it: one million dollars for two albums with an option for more. Although the money made it the deal of a lifetime, money was, however, not everything and Warner was chosen just as much because they seemed genuinely interested in the band’s music. Ritto and Rosing returned home with a deal memo, outlining the agreements that would make up the contract.
When the band played the Roskilde Festival in June, a group of Warner delegates and international music journalists were amazed as they all got to witness first hand the band’s grip on a live audience of 50,000 who all sang along.
Following a US promotion tour, the signing with Warner officially took place on September 14, 1989, at Warner headquarters in Burbank, California.
In connection with the international contract, though, it had become clear that Warner’s neighbor, the Walt Disney Company, could cause serious trouble. It, of course, had to do with the band name, which was unpopular with Disney. Disney threatened to sue and since they had a habit of making good of their threats with anyone who used their name without permission, no record company dared sign a group called Disneyland After Dark. There was nothing to do for the band but change their name to D.A.D. The name dispute with Disney, therefore, never ended with an actual lawsuit.
Changing their name also meant that the cover of the No Fuel Left For The Pilgrims album had to be changed before an international release. Graphic designer Søren A. consequently flew to L.A. where he moved the band members around in the photo, which included giving Cobber Stig’s arm, making room for the new logo (see the cover before and after).
Meanwhile, the band kept touring the world with concerts in Europe in October before returning to America in November, playing 30 US shows in just 35 days heavily promoted by Warner. As 1989 turned into 1990, the group kept touring. The new year took them to new parts of the world when they went on a presentation tour of Japan and Australia in January.
A few months later, the group was back to do a tour of Japan, Singapore, and Australia in April. It was during this tour that the live recordings for the EP Osaka After Dark were made. Osaka After Dark later became a hard to get collectible for fans.
In May, D.A.D. was back in Europe, touring Germany and playing at Scandinavian festivals. When they finished the tour at the Roskilde Festival in June with Cobber flying out over the crowd suspended in a wire, D.A.D. had been riding high on an unbelievable wave of success for little over a year. It was time to begin thinking about a follow-up.
THE LONG SILENCE 1992-1995
Since there would be no U.S. tour this time around, the last concert of the Riskin’ It Live tour was on July 22, 1992. And then came – nothing. No press, no new releases, no touring, not even one little live show. For the first time in their entire career, the band vanished completely from the public eye and the spotlight of media attention for an extensive period of time.
What the band needed after touring with Riskin’ was breathing space and not least time to think about which direction they wanted to head next. But when they began working again, they ran into trouble. If they thought writing music for Riskin’ It All had come hard at first, it was nothing compared to the grueling experience they went through now.
They knew they wanted to evolve their style and sound so that the next album would not just sound like the one before that. But how? The group rehearsed every single day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and struggled as ideas were discarded again and again. Especially Cobber and Jesper tried hard to keep focus on their idea of where the project was headed, and slowly, very slowly, it began to take shape.
When D.A.D. brought in their first demos in 1994, the people at their record company EMI-Medley were disappointed because they could not hear the potential hits suited for radio airplay. “Don’t you want to sell any records?” was a question the group was continuously met with. But D.A.D. knew what they wanted and stubbornly hung on to their ideas. Including another one that did not thrill their record company: they wanted Paul Northfield, an English producer, to produce the album – and they wanted to go to Canada to record the album with him…
As summer wore into fall in 1994, the band packed their bags and headed off for Canada. The band had chosen Paul Northfield to produce the album, and their record company EMI-Medley had reluctantly agreed to their recording abroad. The band went to Canada twice that fall where they were put up in the studio guesthouse, near Morin Heights, and went to work with Northfield. All in all, it went quite well and the band and their producer were in agreement about the kind of sound they were pursuing. So much in agreement in fact that when it came time to mix the album, Northfield flew to Denmark to assist in the Medley Studios in Copenhagen.
When the album titled Helpyourselfish was finally relased on March 1, 1995, it was an event much awaited by fans and critics alike. However, most people were in for quite a surprise when the band – now “spelled” D:A:D to better underline the abbreviation – broke the silence at long last.
Music wise the style of the album was by far harder and more aggressive in its sound and tight production than anything the band had previously released. As for the lyrics, any leftover irony and fooling around with a humoristic distance in funny story telling was gone. Around every album release since the early years the press had cried “D:A:D has grown up”, but as the lyrics on Helpyourselfish indicated it seemed to be more fitting now.
The cover artwork reflected the new style. In contrast white on black, it showed a fish stripped down to the skeleton with its backbone consisting of small cowskulls. Eventhough the album cut everything to the bone, it was still D:A:D at core – and one of their best and most outstanding albums ever.
The release was met with great response in the Danish press where D:A:D and their new album were given lots of exposure. And for once even the critics were enthusiastic. With headlines such as “D:A:D gets serious” and “Metallic masterpiece” the reviews were overall very good. Unfortunately, the album did not get much airplay on the radio, but this was expected all along due to the harder style of music that had more edge than what most radio stations favor.
So now it was time to get out and play live for the first time in years. Luckily, it turned out that when the dates for the upcoming tour were announced, tickets were sold out to a lot of the shows very fast – some even before the album was released. From the end of March to mid-August 1995, the band was almost constantly on the road on a tour that took them through most of Europe with extensive touring in Germany, Sweden, and Denmark.
As usual, the band brought along some impressive stage decorations, including the title Helpyourselfish spelled out in big letters (approximately 2 meters) across the stage and Stig dressed as a toreador with a brand new olive-shaped bass. D:A:D also brought along a giant fish resembling the one on the cover, only this one was 7 meters long and complete with lights. D:A:D crew members years later still referred to the tour as “the fishing trip” (Danish: fisketuren).
“So, has someone been waiting for someone?” Jesper asked the audiences teasingly that year as fans were ecstatic and the media showered D:A:D with superlatives. Though the process had been long and hard, the band had made Helpyourselfish a success in clubs and arenas, doing what they do best: playing live gigs. The success was underlined when D:A:D finished off the year with their November release of a collection of “Milestone material 1985-95” on an album and video with the compelling title Good Clean Family Entertainment You Can Trust.
1996 was a somewhat quiet year for the band. After touring with Helpyourselfish through most of 1995, D:A:D was back home. In fact, the band only did one live show that year: Roskilde Festival. To make it special the band had invited 200 fans to join them on stage for the full length of the show. Something else that made that concert special was the fact that D:A:D tried out a couple of brand new songs.
The new songs were part of the new material that the group had already begun writing. After the tiresome process of creating Helpyourselfish, they were relieved to find that the new material was coming to them much more easily.
The new album was recorded in the Granny Studios in Copenhagen during the spring and summer of 1997. The good old producer Nikolaj Foss was back again, Thomas Breklin came on as technician, and everything went smoothely. The recording process was very different from that of Helpyourselfish, looser and with less planning ahead and a lot more room for improvisation in the studio, which was a welcome change. To add international feel and professionalism, the album was later mixed in the famous Abbey Road Studios in London.
The album was named Simpatico and released November 6, 1997. The green and white front cover showed a mysterious picture of a Japanese man playing golf in his dreams with his umbrella. The shot was taken by Torleif in the Tokyo underground where the man was waiting for a train. The cowskull Molly was almost left out of the graphic design this time. The band was somewhat tired of their old logo that had almost turned into a brand in itself. Molly nevertheless made it onto the cover, however in a new version and only on the backside.
Musicwise the style of the album was quite different from the previous album, as the band had once again turned up the melody and turned down the hard metallic sound of Helpyourselfish. The relaxed atmosphere of the recording process was reflected in the sound chosen for the album. As almost always, the reviews were mixed, but Simpatico became a sales success in Denmark, selling 50 % more copies than Helpyourselfish.
The Mad Days 1998 Tour that followed the album release began in late January 1998 and continued throughout the spring and summer, including amongst other gigs the Grøn Koncert tour in July. The stage was set up against a backdrop of silvery glittering tinsel and featured an over-dimensioned drumskin on Peter’s drum set and an inflatable 3-meters tall Simpati-cola bottle.
Towards the end of the tour D:A:D became the D:A:D Indians in a game of icehockey against the Finnish band Leningrad Cowboys. The game was a benefit for the children’s cancer ward at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen. The game took place at Rødovre Skøjte Arena on August 8, with professional icehockey players enlisted on both sides. Unfortunately, the D:A:D Indians lost the game with 7 points to the Finnish Cowboys’ 14 points, but a very positive outcome was the 175.000 kroner (app. 24.000 euro) that the event raised.
After the fun of icehockey, D:A:D finished off the Mad Days Tour with a concert at 5-øren on Amager on August 9. As a final encore, the band did another first in their career: they flew to Greenland and did a show in Nuuk on August 15.
The Mad Days Tour had included recording tracks for a live album. For a band notoriously known as an outstanding live band it seemed somewhat strange that D:A:D had never released a live album – with the exception of Osaka After Dark for the Japanese market only. Finally they seemed to have recordings good enough to remedy that.
The band selected tracks for the album in August and September, and with the help of Paul Northfield, who produced Helpyourselfish from 1995, the mix was made in October. The result was 17 live tracks on a two-CD album, which was named Psychopatico, packaged in a colorful cover of live photos, and released November 18, 1998. The album also included a brand new track called Jacketless in December and live videos to the tracks Bad Craziness and Cloudy Hours.
Meanwhile, what only few people knew at the time was that an important decision was only waiting to be made public…
PETER LEAVES THE BAND, 1999
On January 14, 1999, www.d-a-d.com carried a shocking news-flash to D:A:D fans under the simple headline: “Peter stops”. After 17 years in the band, drummer Peter Lundholm Jensen had decided to quit his career in rock ‘n’ roll.
The press release sent out by management Rock On the same day was very brief and mostly served as a reassurance to fans that the rest of the guys – Jesper, Stig, and Cobber – would continue playing together as D:A:D.
In fact, Peter had made up his mind more than a year in advance, just around the time of the release of Simpatico, and had told the group about his decision. As they toured with Simpatico and released Psychopatico, D:A:D knew this would be Peter’s last round with the band. While they kept their secret, they all had plenty of time to get used to the thought.
Nevertheless, this was the first ever change in the band line-up since what they considered their birthday on March 3, 1984. For Peter, quitting the music business meant an opportunity to pursue an education and career in engineering. For the remaining three, however, this meant that they were now faced with the challenge of finding a worthy replacement…
LAUST JOINS THE BAND, 1999
In 1999, the word was out, of course, that D:A:D was searching for a new drummer and soon someone in the music business suggested that D:A:D check out a guy named Sonne – Kristoffer Sonne. Kristoffer Sonne, however, declined but instead suggested his younger brother Laust.
Cobber who was in charge of checking out new prospects called Laust. Laust agreed to jam with Cobber, but Laust was not exactly thrilled about the idea of becoming a member of D:A:D. He was not a fan of D:A:D, and more importantly he had just returned to Denmark after 4 years in London and L.A. where his latest experiences with being part of a band had been bad ones. Disillusioned by the whole experience, Laust was not about to join another band and he openly told the group so.
But D:A:D really hit it off with Laust and his somewhat reluctant attitude and his insisting on keeping his own projects on the side made Cobber, Jesper, and Stig turn on the charm. Laust was a keeper in their eyes and they wanted him in.
Over the spring and summer that year, pictures from the studio showed a new mystery drummer with his facial features blurred. In August 1999, however, the band was finally ready to bring Laust out live at Skanderborg Festival. The set list featured some brand new tracks with a promising sound and the crowd welcomed Laust onboard.
In 1999, D:A:D had started out without a drummer but they ended the old millennium in style. On New Years Eve, D:A:D played at Rådhuspladsen (City Hall Square) in Copenhagen, celebrating the event with 50,000 people. Stig, of course, wore a fabulous show girl costume, complete with feathers, sequins, and high heels, and the show included all the band’s biggest hits and live classics – and ended just minutes before the stroke of midnight.
D-A-D entered the new millennium with the new spelling of the band name (previously D:A:D), which is still being used.
With the new drummer on board, the band headed to Malmo and Copenhagen to record a new album at Tambourine Studios Malmoe & Grapehouse Studios CPH. The opening track gave name to the album – Everything Glows. The song itself became a big hit and took its rightful place among D-A-D’s greatest hits ever since. There is also a music video for Everything Glows.
As for the reviews from critics, the album Everything Glows did not get very praiseful feedback, as it was rather restrained. However, the listeners were of the opposite opinion and were quite satisfied with the album, as it appears from multiple album reviewing resources.
Album cover gives western vibes again after a while – we see Jesper, Jacob, Stig and Laust standing against the background of the railway and western-american styled bar. Even more, inside the booklet there is a band picture with Stig wearing a Roach (traditional Native American headdress).
Later on that year D-A-D released a compilation album The Early Years that included the band’s first albums along with some bonuses in the form of remixes, demos, lives and radio edits.
(Text provided by Marharyta.)
By the end of the winter 2002, D-A-D contributed to the spring earlier coming by melting the ice and listeners’ hearts with the new release – Soft Dogs. The album title turned out to be pretty self-explanatory, as the content was much softer than any previous records. With this album D-A-D proved the skill of writing ballads and middle tempo songs at their best. The chosen route worked out just right – both critics and fans accepted the album very warmly. The album reached Number 1 in Danish charts, received the highest rating from Denmark’s music magazine Gaffa and sold 65k+ copies in Denmark.
The song Soft Dogs also made it to the compilation album 50 Stærke Danske Love Songs (2013) presenting best love songs by Danish artists.
The album cover pictures four dogs with hairstyles reminiscent of band members and looks very comfy.
(Text provided by Marharyta.)
WIG WAM TOUR, 2002
The Wig Wam Tour that should have been a fairytale, turned into a nightmare. The planning was extremely ambitious… The band spent enormous amounts of money for the sound and lighting, and the main attraction – a tent. The world’s biggest tent that was meant for about 20,000 people to come under it to see the show in each city. But already in the first weekend it was clear that, sadly, all the money of every party involved, was lost irreversibly. With the simple reason of not selling enough tickets, difficult knock-on effects followed. Bankruption, lawyers, blamings, concert cancellations. The aspiration of artists faced the reality of an industry. As for the band members personally, some years after the event were still economically hard. But not only the material side was hurt. After such success with the past albums, it was obviously very hard to fall. “Badly wounded pride” – as Jesper called it in the documentary film D.A.D.: True Believer (2008). This very painful experience case-harden the spirits of musicians, and proved that everything can come and go. “You are mortal after all. […] I no longer feel almighty. Every little job is a work victory” – Jesper for D.A.D.: True Believer (2008).
(Text provided by Marharyta)
After challenges like a risky soft album and the hard luck tour, D-A-D came up with a new release only some years later. With Scare Yourself, the band was back on a dusty rock’n’roll track again. You will not find any ballads on the album. Band’s audience was more than ready to hear new music after such a long pause – as a result, in the Denmark charts Scare Yourself got the number 1 position from the start and continued to be present in charts for 21 weeks. It was also quite successful in Sweden and Finland. Few months later, as a result of selling 40,000 copies, Scare Yourself received Platinum status.
(Text provided by Marharyta.)
