With origins traced back to the T-Boones, a
R&B group formed in 1965, the band became a popular live fixture on the Swedish club circuit. Self-producing their debut
single later in the year, the T-Boones released their best-known work "At the Club", which has since become a rare collector's item of Swedish
garage rock. In 1966, the band was joined by Kenny Hakansson (
lead vocals,
lead guitar) who explained how he first encountered the group: "My group The Agents needed a new singer and when I heard rumours about the T-Boones splitting up I contacted their much talented singer and songwriter Kjell Lagerström. The T-Boones weren’t breaking up though but the contact was made and this led me to join them instead". Hakannson, along with bandmates Pelle Ekman (
drums) and Göran Malmberg (
bass guitar), recorded their second single "Don't You Ever Leave Me", a softer composition in comparison to their early work. Hakansson was forced to depart the T-Boones to register for military service, during which time the band recorded an unreleased single in his absence. Upon Hakannson's return, the band recorded their final single, "I Want You", in early-1967. Also around this time, Malmberg began an interest in experimental electronics, leading him to develop the group's
amplifiers, and a square-shaped
bass drum made entirely of metal for Ekman. Performing at Filips, Baby Grandmothers played mainly long-running, improvised instrumentals. According to Hakannson: "These 'songs' originally started off as being one slow number moving into a faster one. They were originally called 'Georges Slow' and 'Georges Fast'. The vocal parts, if there were any, was mainly me 'howling' the occasional melody”. In March 1968, the group initiated a Finnish tour, during which time they recorded their debut single in a radio station with Numminen. The record, "Somebody Keeps Calling My Name" was described by Numminen as "so original and direct. It had a unique focus that was created between them". When the group returned to Sweden, Mecki Bodemark, whose Mecki Mark Men had disbanded, joined Baby Grandmothers as the
keyboardist. In 2007, Subliminal Records released
Baby Grandmothers, an album which combines studio recorded and live material. On the subject of Swedish psychedelic rock bands, music critic Craig Hayes of
PopMatters described the album as "one of the finest heavy psych reissues of the last decade, and its catacomb-echoing rawness only adds to all the intrigue. Baby Grandmothers launch into drones, avant-garde dirges, and fevered hard rockin’ wig-outs throughout the album, and the entire LP is as heavy lidded as it is heavily overblown with jams rocketing into surreal spheres". ==Discography==