1987

At the same time the album “ Young and wild” was released. The album generated two singles, namely “ Lorraine” and “ Young and wild”, both getting lots of airplay. The band were invited to more tv-shows and the summer tour of 1987 had their biggest audiences so far. Some nights up to 6.000 people, this time in their own name. An average of around 3.000 made it one of the most successful tours that summer. It also rained more than in a hundred years. Mats once said out of 30 something shows it rained heavily on about 27 of them.

Information for those interested: The band recorded a version of “ Young and wild” with producer Paul Inder (son of Lemmy in Motörhead) and well respected engineer Julian Standon which was never used in the end. The reason for not using it is unclear, but we´ll try to dig it up.

In between shows, the band was working on songs for the next album. In the fall of 1987, after the tour, time was spent mainly in their rehearsal studio or at the CBS studio to record demos. Lots of demos were recorded and the band was looking for a producer to help them capture a new sound. They felt that they had improved their playing so much through all the touring and had the courage to look at more well known names. The band came in contact with Richard T. Bear (keyboard player with Crosby Stills & Nash for a while, plays on the soundtrack of the blues brothers movie etc…), who first made a re-mix of “Heavy Christmas” which they liked.

Next step was to try and record something with Richard. This was in the autumn of 1987. He recruited engineer Mal Luker and the band headed to Stockholm Recording studios. “ Eye to eye” and “ I´m on fire” were recorded. All overdubs and vocals were done at Arco Studios in Munich, Germany. These versions were only rough mixed though. The band wasn´t entirely happy with the sounds they were getting and couldn´t agree with Richard at the end of the day.

The band had a rep. from EPIC in N.Y (Bob Feinegle) that was really into what they were doing at the time. He had already put a compilation together for the American market (“Electric Messengers”, which used the “Mind over muscle” cover but included songs from the first three albums) and liked the new material. Bob shopped some tapes around and met producer Max Norman (Ozzy Osbourne and many others). Max said he really liked what he heard and Bob contacted the band… As the guys in the band were fans of Max’s work, they were thrilled of course and chose him over others that had expressed interest. (Mark Dodson who engineered Judas Priest..Roy Thomas Baker..Queen etc..)

The last demo was recorded in January of 1988 and Max liked it. The deal was made and the band left for New York to record “ Eye to eye” in March 1988. Two weeks of pre-production at Montana rehearsal studios followed. Lots of hard work was put in and 2 new songs “On the other side” and “Dog eat dog” was written during that time. Then the band hit Media Sound Studios on Manhattan.

The recording was well prepared and the album came together fairly easy. Once everything was recorded, the band and producer took a couple of weeks. The album was mixed in Los Angeles in June/July 1988.

In August of 1988 the first Swedish tour edition of Mosters of Rock headed out on the road. 220 Volt, Treat and Electric Boys were on the bill and played around 30 dates. The album wasn´t out yet, but the band played a few new songs on the tour. In fact, Jocke Lundholm, who was in L.A for the mixing barely made it home for the first gig.

“Eye to eye” was released in Oct/Nov in Europe and Japan, and in January in the States. The American label also chose to use a different cover. Why is anybodies guess. No one seems to remember why. The album got great reviews and a good reception in general. Especially on American Radio where they topped or were top 5 on several important stations. There was a feeling that something big was about to happen.

Uptil now , the band had managed themselves, but they felt a manager was needed to help take them all the way. They first worked with Steve Mountain who at the time was managing The Hooters (who were huge), among others… Steps were taken to move the record deal over to the American label, since the band was signed in Sweden. CBS/Sony in Sweden wasn´t prepared to let the band go though, so the deal fell through with the Americans and they stopped promoting the album. A video for “Love is all you need” was shot and was at high rotation on MTV, but when it was time to do another one, CBS/Sony started to back off. They no longer had the support they needed from the U.S company and no one to share the costs with. This of course left the band in the worst possible position.

The band kept on working though and played the odd show and recorded lots of material. No one was about to give up just yet. Behind the scenes the band was also investigating the possibilities of getting out of the record deal. They still had 2 more albums to do for CBS/Sony, but they weren´t interested. A new manager showed interest and the bands hope rose again. Ken Adamany, at the time manager for Cheap Trick showed a strong interest and several demos were sent to him.. Mats and Jocke was in L.A on vacation and flew out to Chicago to meet Ken and discuss a possible working relation. However, the situation with the record company wasn´t yet solved, and that was the final obstacle which they couldn´t get around. The deal fell through, and Ken signed House of Lords instead. They band knew for sure now that hey had to leave CBS/Sony, who were unwilling to let the band go..They also didn´t want to do anything with them..!

There was talk about recording two shows for a live album, but it never happened. The bands lawyers finally found a paragraph in the contract which made it possible for the band to leave CBS/Sony in 1991.

The guys actually threw a party to celebrate that they were out of the deal. It´s usually the other way around.. The band kept it together and came up with new material and recorded demos. Nothing much happened apart from a few gigs every now and then. All the negative happenings during the last years had finally worn the band out. The last week in May 1992 was spent on the road and then they took the decision to call it quits.. It was made official in July and at the same time a new band was presented.

Voltergeist was 220 Volt minus singer Jocke Lundholm. The new singer was Per Englund (Motherload, Blacksmith..) The band was active for a little more than a year. They recorded some demos and played quite a few shows, but it was felt among a few of the members that it lacked the potential needed to break. After the last shows in Finland in November 1993, the band was put to rest.

In 1996 it was decided that the recordings from 1990-1992 were finally getting a release after all. The band felt that, even if they weren´t together as a band anymore, another album could be fun. “Lethal Illusion” was released in 1997 and gained some interest. Unfortunately, the record company that released the album told the Japanese record company that the band was back together..which was a total lie and they found out about it through interviews, and therefore they didn´t back it as they would normally have done. Very stupid indeed. The band did go into the studio to touch up a few things for the album, but was left with almost no time to mix, so it could have been better soundwise but still proved that the band could come up with strong material. After this album it should take 5 years before anything happened with 220 Volt again.

In 2002 the band re-formed in their old line-up, the one that recorded the first ever single and got the record deal with CBS/Sony. A few of the guys had changed their last name when they got married, but the same guys it was. First off they played at Sweden Rock Festival to get things running. The show was recorded and about half of it was released on the “Volume 1” album (20 th anniversary album), the album was released on the same day as the first single only 20 years later of course. They backed the release with a release party and a concert in their hometown of Östersund. Both the concert (sold out) and the party was a very special happening for the band, who were uncertain if they could still make it!

The band was initially going to do the anniversary project, but decided after writing songs for the “Volume1” album to continue. The spirit was still there. The anniversary show and a few other shows around their home territory of Jamtland, Sweden were recorded. A live album was missing in the catalogue, so the band released “Made in Jamtland” in February 2005. Since then, they have been hard at work, re-writing some old unreleased stuff and writing new stuff. At this time a release in the fall of 2007 seems likely.

The story of 220 Volt is now up to date and will be updated in the regular news updates for a while. So check there!

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