! click here to read his statement in icelandic !

Stuðmenn..then and now

The Stuðmenn concept was developed by a few 15 and 16 year old college kids
in 1969 at the height of the flower-power era. The entire musical and visual
idea was to vigorously go against the current mainstream at that time, thus
completely ignoring ´love, peace and misunderstanding´ but taking the mickey
out of our parents´ somewhat lame musical taste instead. These questinable
musical tastes may partly have been derived from the growing flux of 60´s
´sunshine´ holidaymakers from Iceland to Spain. The result became a strange
fusion of musical styles and influences, 50´s rock and swing fused with
flamenco,latin and jazzy groves, all thrown into a carefree musical melting
pot where psycadelia and acid rock gave the music that bit of musical
credibility, enough for the critics to heap praise upon this new generation
of  saviours, of an otherwise cornball-ridden local music scene.
What perhaps made the music stand out were the tounge in cheek, yet
straight-to-the-point lyrics, many of whom have since become permanent
fixtures and sayings in the Icelandic language.

The first single was released in 1974 and went straight to number one. This
was a shameless take on a freshfaced yankee-doodle-dandie proposing instant
marriage: ´Honey, will you marry me?'

The group´s first LP was released a year later, in 1975, the very upbeat and
flippant  ´Sumar á Sýrlandi´, describing the evolution of Icelandic youth
culture via a dreamlike booze-through - weed- to a steep acid trip,- ending
with a sudden wake-up call at square one. This album suggested a landmark in
the musical history of Iceland, both musically, critically and commercially.
The follow-up, also somewhat of a concept-album, aptly named Tivoli, was set
in a long gone amusement park at the outskrits of the capital Reykjavik.
This album has a nostalgic element referring to the carefree days of early
youth, but also suggests a sharp political acumen, placing colourful
representants of the local society inside the different sites of the
amusement park, having to deal with the shrewd members of the American Armed
Forces i.e. the much disputed Keflavik Nato base, which provided Iceland
with its main political dividing lines for the latter half of the 20th
century. This album included various hits for the group and is by many seen
as one of their very best.

The strong musical-revue elements of Tivoli inspired the idea of a feature
film which finally materialised in 1982. The group had initially  written a
script which was presented to all the main film directors at the time.
Nobody was willing to take the project on until veteran film-maker Agust
Guðmundsson decided this was a great opportunity to do something
different.This turned out to become the biggest ever box-office hit of
Icelandic moviemaking history , and  attracted over half the population to
the cinemas across the country. It´s been a top ranking video rental for
years, and has been shown repeatedly on the various television stations in
Iceland, Scandinavia and Germany and is still touring the film festivals of
the world. Its recent release in the form of a DVD, featuring English,
German and Russian subtitles, has further expanded the market for this
unique piece of work.

Although initially based on the Tivoly album, the end result, named Með allt
á hreinu (ON TOP), focused more on the emerging dilemma of the time, the
battle of the sexes, and it features a four piece group of female backing
singers who are going on the road with Stuðmenn. One of the females is the
girl-friend of aging rock star Stinni, Stuðmenn´s lead singer, a real male
chauvinist pig, like the rest of the struggling members of this bunch of
´has- beens´ as Stuðmenn portray themselves in the film.
The feel-good factor of the film and the symphathetic self- irony of
Stuðmenn confirmed them as national favourites and ON TOP a bona fide cult
film classic. The soundtrack needless to say, became the groups biggest
seller to that date. Only would the greoup sell more albums in a given year,
when it release two albums in the year 1998.

The products that followed were n ambitious and extremely colourful book
named Draumur okkar beggja which included a matadorölike card game and a
live record called Tórt verður til trallsins.

Then came Grái fiðringurinn, partly produced in America, featuring two big
singles, Jazzgeggjarar and Blindfullur.

Then there was time for another feature film, Hvítir mávar (Cool Jazz and
Coconuts). With this came a modern sounding soundtrack album bearing the
same name. The film itself, not a musical this time, did not match its
predecessor however,in terms of attendance, but was artistically far more
ambitious and inventive.

The next album was Í góðu geimi, then Á gæasaveiðum, both providing the
group with fresh hit singles.

Then followed  an adventurous concert tour to China which included a
documentary film and an album under the more global banner of Strax.

Strax went on to release two more records, Face the facts and Eftir
pólskiptin. The group toured Greenland, Britain, the US and Scandinavia.

Stuðmenn released their next album in 1988 named Listin að lifa and in 1990
they released Hve glöð er vor æska, both adding  to an extensive string of
hits.

During all this time the various members of the group worked on  other
projects, such as Thursaflokkur,Spilverk and Rifsberja which included most
of the original Stuðmenn. Lead singers Egill and Ragga produced solo albums
as well as starring in sveral feature films. Keyboardist Jakob released
various solo records in the US and guitarist Valgeir left the group in 1987
to pursue a solo career.

In 1998 the group teamed up with the male choir Fóstbræður for a string of
concerts, resulting in a massive best-selling album, Íslenskir karlmenn.

Later that same year the group invited Mezzoforte founder and key-member
Eyþór Gunnarsson to join the group as a multi instrumentalist, programmer,
arranger, co-writer and co-producer. This gave the group a renewed boost of
creative energy and potential which has kept it in the forefront of best
selling musical artists in Iceland to this day. The group has released
several successful singles and videos over the last few years. In 2001 the
group released a best selling double-album, Tvöfalda bítið, featuring old
and new material including the monster hit  Með allt á hreinu.


In November of 2002 the group released a live album, Á stóra sviðinu,
recorded at the Icelandic National Theatre featuring the hit single Manstu
ekki eftir mér which has turned out to be one of  the group´s biggest hits
to date. It was originally written by Ragga and Thor for the feature film
Stella í framboðI, released at Christmas 2002.

Responding to a sudden and unexpected interest from Germany and other
territories , Stuðmenn have toured Germany and Scandinavia four times in the
year 2002, with further international touring engagements already booked for
the year 2003. In regards to the classic Shakespearian dilemma ´To be or not
to be...´, Stuðmenn have firmly settled on the former option.