Platina Records

During the early 1960s, Evert Jakobsson worked for Svenska Kullagerfabriken (SKF) as a computer technician.^[1] During his free time, he dreamed of becoming a teen idol, and as a result turned to music.^[1] He wrote two songs, "About Rita" and "You Sent Me A Rose", but unable to secure a recording contract, Jakobsson decided to register Platina Records as a company and almost immediately started pressing a batch of the single under the pseudonym Glenn Jackson and the Glentones.^[1][2][3] This was the first release on the record label but it failed to garner any major attention, both commercially and critically.^[1] This led to Jakobsson dropping his ambition to instead focus on running the label.^[1]

Jakobsson almost immediately focused on the blossoming Gothenburg music scene that had many popular bands that were unsigned.^[1][4] Tages was a band that had been the victim of extreme popularity, but hadn't been approached by any record labels.^[5] He decided to contact their manager Lars Fryklund for a meeting shortly after their victory in the Västkusens Beatles contest.^[6] Fryklund and drummer Freddie Skantze were optimistic to get signed which led to a two-and-a-half-year contract, much to the shock of Jakobsson who thought that they wouldn't sign with him.^[1] Jakobsson also produced their debut single, "Sleep Little Girl" as no other producers were present during the session.^[7] This single was both the group's and the label's breakthrough, reaching number one on Tio i Topp and three on Kvällstoppen.^[8][9]

The follow-up to "Sleep Little Girl", "I Should Be Glad" was also self-released by Platina.^[10] However, at the time the label wasn't assigned to any studio due to monetary restraints, which led to Jakobsson booking various studios for his label, including Metronome Records studio in Stockholm.^[10] Partly due to this, Jakobsson arranged for a deal with EMI Records, who would distribute the label's records from that point on.^[11] This deal also gave Jakobsson access to EMI's studio on Sandhamnsgatan in Stockholm which he promtply took advantage of.^[11] Jakobsson could now afford to manufacture more records which led to more and more commercial success, affording him two gold albums, Tages and Tages 2, both in 1966.^{[12][13][14][15]} Also in 1966, several singles released on the label also sold over 100.000 copies, most notably Tages "In My Dreams", which was a number one hit on both Tio i Topp and Kvällstoppen.^[8][9]

Tages would leave the label in January 1967, after their contract expired.^[16] The reason behind this was that Tages were offered a contract by another EMI sub-label, Parlophone Records, who could afford them more studio time and a bigger budget.^[16] Other rock bands were also signed around 1965–66, including the Pacifics,^[17] the Steelmen,^[18] Highway Gang^[19] and the Shakers.^[20] Most of these were unknown and commercially unsuccessful acts, with only the Shakers having a charting hit.^[8][9] After Tages, the biggest group Platina signed during the 1960s was Thor-Erics, a dansband who were signed in 1965.^[21] They had multiple entries on Svensktoppen, starting in 1966 with "Sju ensamma kvällar" which reached number five on that chart in August 1966.^[22] Flamingokvintetten were another dansband signed in 1966.^[23] They saw commercial success on Svensktoppen starting in 1967.^[24] Both bands released their debut albums in 1967, with both being produced by Jakobsson.^[21][23]

By the late 1960s, the Swedish rock scene was almost completely gone, being instead replaced by progg groups or dansbands.^[25][26][27] Jakobsson decided to focus primarily on the dansband scene instead, finding it more commercially viable. Thor-Erics were still commercially successful on Svensktoppen throughout 1968–70 with songs such as "Vit som en orkidé" which reached number two on both Kvällstoppen and Svensktoppen in August 1970.^[9][28] Flamingokvintetten, who had two songs on Svensktoppen in 1968,^[29] one of which reached both Tio i Topp and Kvällstoppen,^[8][9] decided to leave the label in 1970 after forming their own record label Flam Records.^[30] Up until this point they had released four studio albums, all of which were produced by Jakobsson.^[23] Due to this, Platina released several unauthorized compilation albums of Flamingokvintetten's material throughout the 1970s, starting with 1971's Flamingos Bästa and ending with 1979's 20 Hits Med Flamingo.^[2]

By 1971 the label had signed several more dansband, including Tonix,^[31] Bert Bennys^[32] and Matz Bladhs.^[33] These all released records on the label to various degrees of commercial success.^[2] However, also in 1971, Thorleifs was signed to Platina due to the connection of manager Roddy Olofsson who was acquainted with Agnetha Fältskog.^[34] These were arguably the most commercially successful of all Platina artists, debuting on Svensktoppen with "I Mexicos land" which reached number nine.^[35] With the money earned by these releases, Jakobsson purchased a studio for the label, which he simply called Platina Studio which from 1972 onwards would be used for most of the label's releases.^[2] Thorleifs released their debut album Kommer hem till dig in 1973,^[36] which although failed to chart was a strong seller on the Swedish market.^[37] By this time the label was much more financially stable which meant that the partnership with EMI could be ended.^[2]

The label's arguably best selling albums were both by Thorleifs at the height of the dansband movement in Sweden.^[27] The first one was En dag i juni which was released in 1974.^[38][39] It was the first album by them to sell gold,^[40] selling an approximated 300,000 copies in Sweden^[39] and reached number two on Kvällstoppen that year.^[9] The second successful release was Gråt inga tårar, which was released the following year. This album also sold gold,^[40] and reached number one on VG-lista during that summer.^[41] However, due to contractual disagreements, Thorleifs left the label after recording Alltid tillsammans at Platina Studio, which was released under their own label Tor Records.^[34][42] Although the label also had success with Curt Haagers starting in 1975,^[2] the dansband craze had started waning towards the end of the decade, which contributed to Platina's decision to release the final dansband studio album in 1979, that being Canders Charlie.^[2]

By 1980, the label had ceased operation and reformed into a small pay to play label instead when operations once again started in 1984.^[2] The targeted format was 7-inch singles by smaller groups.^[2] In fact, during the label's last nine years in existence only three albums were released, these being Thorleifs 20 Godingar, Gunnar Karlsson's Våra Sköna Dansband 1 (Compilation) along with Tages Tages 1964–1968!^[2] The first release using this business model was Akut's "Vill ha dig" in 1984.^[43] Most of the artists releasing records on the label during this time had one thing in common was that most of them were local, obscure band who primarily played either punk rock, new wave or synth-pop.^[2] However, as many of these bands were obscure no commercial success could be garnered, and as such Platina became financially struck and Jakobsson finally decided to shut it down in 1989.^[2] The final release on the label was "Heroes" by 3 Miles From Here in that year.^[2][44]

References

Sources

• Brandels, Göran; Wrigholm, Lennart (2012). Boken om Tages: från Avenyn till Abbey Road. Premium Publishing. ISBN 978-91-89136-88-5.

• Lists of record labels