Tages

Tages stood out as Sweden’s finest band throughout the 1960s and ranked among the era’s strongest rock outfits to emerge from any non-English-speaking nation. Their earliest sides amounted to rather feeble Merseybeat imitations, yet by the middle of the decade the ensemble had forged a harder, mod-tinged approach reminiscent of the Who and the Kinks while also cutting numerous self-penned numbers that placed them in the Swedish Top Ten more than a dozen times. No other European act matched their ability to pass convincingly as a British group, as they absorbed the same influences that guided U.K. peers toward hard rock, Baroque pop, and blue-eyed soul. Already popular across Scandinavia, they mounted a serious bid for British success in 1968 by performing multiple shows in the U.K. and issuing records there, but the campaign faltered and the band dissolved by year’s end. In the closing years of the decade Tages transformed into Blond, a pop-focused outfit that secured an album release in the United States.